THE BALLOON MAN

Close Never-Before-Seen Photos From the Golden Age of Circus,
1870-1950

By Maria Popova Since ancient times, spectacles and public performances have
transfixed, entertained, and socialized audiences. Between the
mid-1800s and mid-1900s, the American circus swelled into the
largest show-biz industry in the world and Circus Day became the
year's biggest event, captivating imaginations with its marvelous
minstrel shows, audacious acrobats, and crazy clowns. What made
the circus extraordinary isn't merely that it was the birth of American
pop culture, the Super Bowl, Macy's Parade, and the Olympics all
rolled up into one; it's that it created a place for outsiders to become
the superheroes of their day, for women to showcase their physical
strength in ways that would be socially unacceptable elsewhere, and
for audiences to experience cultures from around the world long
before the age of global citizenship.
The Circus Book: 1870-1950 is a magnificent volume from Taschen
(♥) exploring the circus as a living organism and a way of life, from
its history and sociology to its glamour and discipline, through 650
stunning images, culled from a collection of 30,000 spanning 40
different sources, including many of the earliest photographs ever
taken of the circus, as well as rare images by Stanley Kubrick and
Charles and Ray Eames. More than 80 percent of the images have
never been published, and most have never even been seen before.