ALTOONA SHRINE CIRCUS OPENS (HANNEFORD)

The Flying Wallendas perform a highwire act for a crowd of 2,000 during the kickoff performance of the Jaffa Shrine Circus Monday morning at the Jaffa Shrine Center. The circus will perform at least two shows a day through Sunday. (Mirror photos by Gary M. Baranec)
Hallie Frisco, 3, of Hugo, Okla., performs Monday at the Jaffa Shrine Circus


As stage handlers lowered three cages containing two white tigers each into the center ring, vendors called out "Popcorn!" and "Pepsi!" and audience members settled into their seats for the kickoff of the 71st annual Jaffa Shrine Circus Monday morning at the Jaffa Shrine Center.
Jaffa Shrine Center potentate William G. Troxell said 2,000 people turned out for the first of 15 shows, and he was expecting 3,400 for the 7 p.m. show time.
Emcee Bill Martin, who is also the Shrine vice president, said the circus brings with it 25 performers, 25 performing animals and nine stage hands.
Between acts that include tigers, trapeze artists, dogs, elephants and jugglers - and that's just part of the show's first half - stage hands transform the ring for each performance during the more than two-hour show.
"Everybody works together," he said. "We are all one family."
The Royal Hanneford Circus closed up the big top in Pittsburgh at 7 p.m. Sunday and prepared throughout the night for Monday's opening day performance in Altoona.
The Altoona venue allows for a one-ring circus, so setting up is a matter of downsizing from a three-ring circus, Martin said. Another set of equipment arrived before the performers last week for an initial setup, he said.
The Royal Hanneford Circus has performed at the Jaffa Shrine Center for 10 years, Martin said.
Troxell said popular acts include the tigers and the The Flying Wallendas - a family of tightrope performers who go back eight generations.
Tino Wallenda said the family goes back in performance history almost 200 years. His granddaughter, Ysabella, is the eighth generation to perform.
Wallenda said the last time the family performed in Altoona was in 2004 and said it is a favorite of the audience and the venue.
"Really I think the kids love all the animal acts," Shriner Leon Collins said.