1949 Grotto Circus-1 (From Beheim)

1949 Grotto Circus-1, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. In February 1949, my parents took me to see my very first circus: a matinee performance of the Al Sirat Grotto Circus in Cleveland’s Public Auditorium. At the time, I was just a few weeks shy of my 3rd birthday and, because of my extreme youth, didn’t retain too many specific memories of who and what I saw that day. To rectify this somewhat, I spent considerable time and effort tying to locate a copy of 1949 Grotto Circus souvenir program. Finally (and just recently) one surfaced on eBay. (If you wait long enough, EVERYTHING will surface on eBay!) I now know that my first circus had an exceptionally strong line-up of talent. (It also served to “imprint” me with the notion that circuses were presented inside large buildings, with the animals kept in the basement. It would be several more years before I discovered that circuses traditionally appeared under a Big Top.) Here is the program of acts I saw that day. (Seeing some of these names will probably jog a few memories and perhaps generate some interesting postings.) Eric