1952 Ringling Program (From Eric Beheim)

1952%20Ringling%20Program, a photo by bucklesw1 on Flickr. 60 years ago this week, my aunt took my brother and me to a matinee performance of the 1952 Edition of the Ringling-Barnum Circus during its appearance in Cleveland July 25-27. That year, the show was set up on the East 9th Street lot overlooking Lake Erie. (The same lot where the 1942 menagerie fire had occurred.) The menagerie was located at one end of the big top and I can remember walking passed the elephant picket line and the giraffe pen to get to the seating area. We sat in the blues on the end where the bandstand was located. (Given my extreme youth – I was only 6 at the time -- I didn’t pay too much attention to the music that was played that day.) Before the performance started, I can remember looking up and seeing a few holes in the canvas top, so apparently on the day of the setup, no one had been concerned about making repairs to circumvent the “searching fingers of the wind!” During the pre-show clown walk around, I can remember seeing Emmett Kelly juggling some balls. (I knew who he was because I had seen the TV episode where Henry Fonda had played Kelly, doubled by Kelly himself when performing in makeup.) After the performance, we went through the sideshow. As we were making our way off the lot, my aunt bought my brother and me souvenir popguns made of wood and tin. (If you sold ones like them today, you would be jailed for child endangerment because of the flimsy construction, sharp edges and small parts!) Like many circus souvenirs, the popguns only lasted a few days. This was the only time I saw the Ringling show under canvas. In honor of the 60th anniversary of that day, here are scans of the 16-page mailer that Art Concello used in 1952 to help advertise the show. (It includes photos dating back to the 1920s!)