Download or read book Battle for the Big Top written by Les Standiford and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2021-06-15 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Les Standiford takes us under the big top and behind the curtain in this richly researched and thoroughly engaging narrative that captures all of the entrepreneurial intrigue and spirit of the American circus.” —Gilbert King, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Devil in the Grove Millions have sat under the “big top,” watching as trapeze artists glide and clowns entertain, but few know the captivating stories behind the men whose creativity, ingenuity, and determination created one of our country’s most beloved pastimes. In Battle for the Big Top, New York Times–bestselling author Les Standiford brings to life a remarkable era when three circus kings—James Bailey, P. T. Barnum, and John Ringling—all vied for control of the vastly profitable and influential American Circus. Ultimately, the rivalry of these three men resulted in the creation of an institution that would surpass all intentions and, for 147 years, hold a nation spellbound. Filled with details of their ever-evolving showmanship, business acumen, and personal magnetism, this Ragtime-like narrative will delight and enchant circus-lovers and anyone fascinated by the American experience.

Download or read book Big top Circus written by Neil Johnson and published by Dial Books. This book was released on 1995 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The elephants help to raise the big tent, and the show begins, with its ringmaster, tigers, clowns, acrobats, horses, and all of the circus family.

Download or read book The Big Top Circus Mystery written by Karen Kaufman Orloff and published by Peter Pauper Press. This book was released on 2013-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introducing our new Nightlight Detective books for junior detectives everywhere! Young readers use the punch-out paper "flashlight" to illuminate clues hidden in the art on plastic see-through pages. Clever stories and appealing art make Sergeant Sally's adventures irresistible! Frankie the Clown's giant shoes are missing, but the show must go on. Junior detectives help Sergeant Sally solve the mystery at the Big Top! Slip the Nightlight Detective paper flashlight under each plastic page to light up the clues as the story unfolds. Ready? Let's crack the case! Ages 4 to 9. Includes 8 acetate pages of see-through art.

Download or read book Big Top Burning written by Laura A. Woollett and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2015-06-01 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: International Literacy Association Award Winner for Intermediate Nonfiction 2016 Eureka Children's Book Honor 2016 On July 6, 1944, thousands of fans made their way to Barbour Street in Hartford, Connecticut, to see the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performance. Not long after the show's start, a fire broke out and spread rapidly as panicked circus-goers pushed and scrambled to escape. Within 10 minutes the entire big top had burned to the ground, and 167 people never went home. Big Top Burning recounts the true story of one of the worst fire disasters in US history. It follows the tragic stories of the Cook family—including children Donald, Eleanor, and Edward, who were in the audience that day—and 15-year-old Robert Segee, a circus employee with an incendiary past. Drawing on primary sources and interviews with survivors, author Laura Woollett guides readers through several decades of investigations and asks, Wasthe unidentified body of a little girl nicknamed"Little Miss 1565" Eleanor Cook?Was the fire itself an act of arson—anddid Robert Segee set it? Young readers are invited to evaluate the evidence and draw their own conclusions. Combining a gripping disaster story, an ongoing detective and forensics saga, and vivid details about life in World War II–era America, Big Top Burning is sure to intrigue any history or real-life mystery fan.

Download or read book The Circus Age written by Janet M. Davis and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2003-10-15 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A century ago, daily life ground to a halt when the circus rolled into town. Across America, banks closed, schools canceled classes, farmers left their fields, and factories shut down so that everyone could go to the show. In this entertaining and provocative book, Janet Davis links the flowering of the early-twentieth-century American railroad circus to such broader historical developments as the rise of big business, the breakdown of separate spheres for men and women, and the genesis of the United States' overseas empire. In the process, she casts the circus as a powerful force in consolidating the nation's identity as a modern industrial society and world power. Davis explores the multiple "shows" that took place under the big top, from scripted performances to exhibitions of laborers assembling and tearing down tents to impromptu spectacles of audiences brawling, acrobats falling, and animals rampaging. Turning Victorian notions of gender, race, and nationhood topsy-turvy, the circus brought its vision of a rapidly changing world to spectators--rural as well as urban--across the nation. Even today, Davis contends, the influence of the circus continues to resonate in popular representations of gender, race, and the wider world.

Download or read book The Big Tent written by Gregory J. Renoff and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2012-11-01 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For many people, the circus, with its clowns, exotic beasts, and other colorful iconography, is lighthearted entertainment. Yet for Greg Renoff and other scholars, the circus and its social context also provide a richly suggestive repository of changing attitudes about race, class, religion, and consumerism. In the South during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, traveling circuses fostered social spaces where people of all classes and colors could grapple with the region’s upheavals. The Big Tent relates the circus experience from the perspectives of its diverse audiences, telling what locals might have seen and done while the show was in town. Renoff digs deeper, too. He points out, for instance, that the performances of these itinerant outfits in Jim Crow-era Georgia allowed boisterous, unrestrained interaction between blacks and whites on show lots and on city streets on Circus Day. Renoff also looks at encounters between southerners and the largely northern population of circus owners, promoters, and performers, who were frequently accused of inciting public disorder and purveying lowbrow prurience, in part due to residual anger over the Civil War. By recasting itself as a showcase of athleticism, equestrian skill, and God’s wondrous animal creations, the circus appeased community leaders, many of whose businesses prospered during circus visits. Ranging across a changing social, cultural, and economic landscape, The Big Tent tells a new history of what happened when the circus came to town, from the time it traveled by wagon and river barge through its heyday during the railroad era and into its initial decline in the age of the automobile and mass consumerism.

Download or read book Pee wee and the Circus written by James Preller and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pee-wee wants to join the circus, but he can't seem to do anything right.

Download or read book Fall of the Big Top written by David Lewis Hammarstrom and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2022-11-23 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Once an eagerly awaited spectacle, the traveling circus--that miracle of red wagons, trumpeting elephants and spangled trapeze artists that slipped into town at dawn and disappeared by midnight--has all but vanished from the American landscape. This work explores circus history from 1793 to the present and addresses the forces of modern culture (such as the popularity of Cirque du Soleil, and pressure from the animal rights movement) that are pushing big top shows toward what the author calls "circus ballet." Numerous photographs and in-depth interviews conducted with show owners, performers and directors enrich the narrative. Overall, the book reveals a sobering contrast between circuses of yesterday and today, even as it honors the outstanding performers who created, and have sustained, the enduring appeal of the circus.

Download or read book The Hartford Circus Fire written by Michael Skidgell and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2019-04-08 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through firsthand accounts, interviews with survivors and a gripping collection of vintage photographs, author Michael Skidgell attempts to make sense of one of Hartford's worst tragedies. Almost 7,000 fans eagerly packed into the Ringling Brothers big top on July 6, 1944. With a single careless act, an afternoon at the "Greatest Show on Earth" quickly became one of terror and tragedy as the paraffin-coated circus tent caught fire. Panicked crowds rushed for the few exits, but in minutes, the tent collapsed on those still struggling to escape below. A total of 168 lives were lost, many of them children, with many more injured and forever scarred by the events. Hartford and the surrounding communities reeled in the aftermath as investigators searched for the source of the fire and the responsible parties.

Download or read book Big Top written by Rob Harrell and published by Andrews McMeel Publishing. This book was released on 2012-12-11 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Harrell's work combines pop culture, innocence, friendship, and some of the seamier side of the circus background that only adults can appreciate." Come one! Come all . . . to the exciting world of Big Top! Rob Harrell's three-ring comic strip has already packed the house with fans eager for his hilarious take on the circus and those who bring it to life. The circus and its colorful cast—led by 10-year-old Pete and his happily reformed performing bear, Wink—are a perfect metaphor for life. It's not always what happens on the surface, Big Top reminds us, but what takes place backstage that delivers the lessons and the humor. Pete and Wink keep plenty of odd company, including Kingston, coolest king of the jungle; Stucco, a mute clown who still manages to make his point; Manfred, the bookish monkey; Dusty, the wisecracking tell-it-like-it-is trained poodle; Andrea, the new acrobat girl who's caught Pete's eye; and Hairy Mary the Bearded Lady, a mother figure to them all. Take this crew on the road and you get an endless array of situations and relationships, care and impatience, honesty and intolerance. It's like one big Big Top family . . . one that welcomes all readers for the mere price of a ticket.

Download or read book Big Top Bobby written by Rick Von Ludwick and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2011-09 with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an endearing story about a little boy named Bobby Turner, who always enjoyed seeing the circus when it came to town every year. This year, little Bobby Turner has the chance of a lifetime; he is invited to join the circus and perform with his favorite clown, Bo-Bo and his silly monkey Chi-Chi.

Download or read book The Night Circus written by Erin Morgenstern and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2011-09-13 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Two starcrossed magicians engage in a deadly game of cunning in the spellbinding novel that captured the world's imagination. • "Part love story, part fable ... defies both genres and expectations." —The Boston Globe The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway: a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them both, this is a game in which only one can be left standing. Despite the high stakes, Celia and Marco soon tumble headfirst into love, setting off a domino effect of dangerous consequences, and leaving the lives of everyone, from the performers to the patrons, hanging in the balance.

Download or read book Big Top Otto written by Bill Slavin and published by Kids Can Press Ltd. This book was released on 2013-08 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Otto and Crackers continue to search for Georgie. A lead takes them on a road trip of small town USA.

Download or read book The Circus Fire written by Stewart O'Nan and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2008-12-10 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The acclaimed author of Emily, Alone and Henry, Himself brings all his narrative gifts to bear on this gripping account of tragedy and heroism—the great Hartford circus fire of 1944. It was a midsummer afternoon, halfway through a Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus performance, when the big top caught fire. The tent had been waterproofed with a mixture of paraffin and gasoline; in seconds it was burning out of control. More than 8,000 people were trapped inside, and the ensuing disaster would eventually take 167 lives. Steward O'Nan brings all his narrative gifts to bear on this gripping account of the great Hartford circus fire of 1944. Drawing on interviews with hundreds of survivors, O'Nan skillfully re-creates the horrific events and illuminates the psychological oddities of human behavior under stress: the mad scramble for the exits; the perilous effort to maneuver animals out of danger; the hero who tossed dozens of children to safety before being trampled to death. Brilliantly constructed and exceptionally moving, The Circus Fire is history at its most compelling.

Download or read book The Greatest Circus Stories Ever Told written by Stephen Vincent Brennan and published by Globe Pequot. This book was released on 2005 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of stories from the earliest circus to the most modern. Author Stephen Vincent Brennan has worked as a circus clown, book editor, teacher, cabaret artist, actor, director, sheepherder and playwright. He is the editor of Classic Adventure Stories, Classic Exploration Stories, The Greatest Cowboy Stories Ever Told, and Classic American Hero Stories. He is now an actor and director with the Theater Wing of the Kaufman Center in New York City.

Download or read book Pitching the Big Top written by Gene Moran and published by . This book was released on 2019-10-15 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Big Top Pee wee written by Paul Reubens and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: