LIFE MAGAZINE, RINGLING, MARCH 1949

Here's some more pictures from LIFE magazine.

They're dated March, 1949.

Can you identify any of these?

Leave a comment PLEASE!

I do beleive the above is Henry Ringling North

CAPE FEAR FAIR, WILMINGTON, NC

One Oswego County man's dream of building his own circus complete with elephants, camels and a train

Mike Greenlar / The Post Standard This abandoned rail car sitting on a rail siding in Parish is the last of seven cars accumulated by Arthur T. Brown, a man who dreamed about building his own circus. In addition to the train cars, he had three elephants and a camel.
Published: Sunday, November 07, 2010,
Dick Case / Post-Standard columnist
This is the story of the “rise and fall of the Arthur T. Brown Great American Circus” in the town of Parish.

It’s come down to an empty circus train car, sitting on a railroad siding, alone and rusting, near the village of Parish in Oswego County.

My colleague, photographer Mike Greenlar, found the car recently when he took a wrong turn in Parish. He was surprised, of course.

Mike later showed me the picture he took and I was intrigued, too. I made a few phone calls and with the help of Parish historian Bridget Swartz, and my friend Tracy Kinne, I found my way to two Parish residents, Mike Cecere and Arthur J. Brown, known as Jack. Jack is the son of Arthur Brown, who died in 1998.
read more at:http://blog.syracuse.com/opinion/2010/11/one_oswego_county_mans_dream_o.html

BIG APPLE CIRCUS, 1986, BUCKLES ELEPHANTS

BIG APPLE CIRCUS 1986

Cape Fear Fair & Expo hits the road
by Chris Allen on Sun, 11/07/2010
NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY)-- To some it may not be fair but the fair...is over. The fairgrounds looked like a construction site with big trucks pulling in, backing out and zooming by with equipment - tearing down everything that had been set up for the Cape Fear Fair and Expo. Out went the rides, the games and the mobile eateries.

It takes lots of hard work and hard workers to pull off this task of breaking down the fair. The employees who help do it work for Powers Great American Midway which is based in Burgaw.

They travel all over the south putting on fairs and carnivals like the North Carolina State Fair in Raleigh.

The numbers aren't final yet but its estimated that about 45,000 people turned out for this years fair.

Arizona State Fair ends on high note

Michael Chow/The Arizona Republic
Kaylee Albright, 3 from Cave Creek, rubs her nose on a stuffed pig that her dad won for her during the last day of the Arizona State Fair in Phoenix.
by William Hermann - Nov. 7, 2010 10:10 PM
The Arizona Republic
The Valley economy may be stalled, but the Arizona State Fair has been in high gear since it opened Oct. 15 and was at cruising speed Sunday as it closed.

"I love the fair. It's exciting and there are people everywhere and rides and food and shows and just a lot of energy," fairgoer Melinda Yanez, 19, said as she and some laughing girlfriends stood on the crowded midway in line for a dizzying ride called Tango. "Now if I can just keep my lunch down when we get on that thing, I'll be happy."

Yanez was part of a vast throng that jammed almost every available square foot of the fairgrounds Sunday afternoon. The sun shone and the 82-degree temperature meant many folks were wearing tank tops, T-shirts and shorts.

Fair marketing director Kristi Walsh said this year's fair attendance will almost certainly top last year's. She said 2009 saw 961,436 people at the fair. As of Sunday morning, 935,535 people had passed through the entry gates.

"We're behind our record-setting year of 2006, when the economy was still in good shape. We had 1,303,690 people that year," Walsh said. "But in 2006, we also had 21 days of fair, and this year we had 18 days, so that's an important factor."

Walsh said she believes there are several reasons why the fair has bucked grim unemployment numbers and a generally moribund economy.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/11/07/20101107arizona-state-fair-attendance.html#ixzz14ghtm7Vd

PENSACOLA FAIR PICTURES

Pensacola Interstate Fair on Friday October 29 ,2010

Guesser Jimmie Trott tries to guess Fritz Koppy's weight but has to give up a prize instead Friday evening at the Pensacola Interstate Fair.

fair 10-29 8
Ben Twingley/btwingley@pnj.com

Pensacola Interstate Fair comes to an end

Thyrie Bland • tbland@pnj.com • November 1, 2010
This burger should come with a warning.
"It looks like a double heart attack, doesn't it?" said Ben Smith, 40, of Pensacola.
Smith and others who visited the Pensacola Interstate Fair during its 11-day run here couldn't resist the temptation to taste the Donut Burger. The odd burger is a 4-ounce patty with lettuce, tomato, cheese and bacon between two Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
"That's pretty good," Smith said after chewing his first bite of the burger. "It's like the McDonald's McGriddle."

Sunday was the last day to taste fair food and get thrills from rides that twist and turn in the air.
The final fair attendance figure wasn't available Sunday, but Don Frenkel, the fair's general manager, said he thinks this year's fair attendance will rank as second or third best in the fair's history.
The best year was 2005, when more than 500,000 people attended the fair.
That year, organizers feared attendance would be poor because the fair came on the heels of Hurricane Ivan.
read more at :http://www.pnj.com/article/20101101/NEWS01/11010316/Pensacola-Interstate-Fair-comes-to-an-end

PUNKIN' CHUNKIN'---#1

PUMPKIN CHUNKIN', BRIDGEVILLE, DE

Calvary Lion's Mule Day
Thousands of people descended on southwest Georgia to celebrate the mule.
Nov 6, 2010
Reporter: Gabrielle Sarann
More than 100,000 people turned out for Calvary's 38th Annual Mule Day.

Festivities included a mule show, parade, and more than 400 vendors.

All to honor the vital role mules played in developing Georgia's agriculture industry.

Some were used for mining, others for transporting cotton and sugar.

"The mule was what power we had years ago to plow, just make crops and it's the start of agriculture," said Bob Maxwell, the Mule Day Chairman.

"It's just a great time to be out with other people and it's a beautiful day and there's so many things to do and see," said Jean Brinson, who came from Thomasville for the parade. "And we just enjoy the camaraderie with the people."

Other Mule Day activities included corn and cane grinding and syrup cooking.

The festival is always held the first Saturday of November.

NORTH FLORIDA FAIR--TALLAHASSEE, 11/05/2010

SUNDAY FUNNIES--

DELAND, VOLUSIA COUNTY FAIR SCHEDULE--

Click on image to read!

TV PREVIEW

PBS documentary 'Circus' is more juggling act than one-ring show
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Though the dream may be very much intact as a metaphor for escaping life's monotony, people don't run away and join the circus much anymore.

They run away and make documentary films.
Both are crazy-brained impulses, and both are on display in "Circus," Maro Chermayeff and Jeff Dupre's immersive and occasionally engrossing story for PBS about a season in the touring life of the small-time, not-for-profit Big Apple Circus.
This intimate, old-fashioned, one-ring circus is based in Manhattan and was started by two American jugglers in the mid-1970s. The wide-eyed members of the audience, we are frequently reminded, are never more than 50 feet away from the horse and dog acts, the tumblers and stuntfolk, the clowns and trapeze artists.
The documentary begins in early May, when the Big Apple circus players and crew members (150 in all -- some veterans, some newcomers) reconvene at a camp in Upstate New York and begin the process of building and rehearsing a new show, which will tour up and down the East Coast, including a stint in Virginia. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/02/AR2010110205941.html?wprss=rss_print/style

Fair Draws Crowds Downtown

Organizers: Fair Is Place To Be
Friday, November 5, 2010

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Downtown Jacksonville will be booming this weekend. The bright lights, music and aroma of carnival food is filling the streets of Jacksonville. Crowds of people are planning on heading to the Greater Jacksonville Fair.
Channel 4's Scott Johnson was sent to the fair on a mission Friday night, to ride on the thrill seeking rides at the fair and find out how much it would cost a family of four to do the same.
For a family of four, tickets, food and unlimited rides will cost around $150. Fair organizers said downtown is expected to be packed this year that's because the fair won't be competing with any college football games or Jaguars games this year.

watch video at:http://www.news4jax.com/news/25652452/detail.html
The fair runs through Sunday Nov. 14. Tickets cost between $5 and $8.

The circus rail trail
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey still crisscrossing America by train — and loving every mile
November 5, 2010
BY MISHA DAVENPORT Staff Reporter
As the autumn leaves begin to change colors, the circus — equally a harbinger of fall in Chicago — comes to town.
In the case of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, the circus is itself a self-contained town, transported here aboard a mile-long train, something it has done since 1872, before Ringling Bros. entered the partnership, and the troupe was known as P.T. Barnum’s Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan and Circus.
“The show’s train has 61 cars and is the transportation and accommodations for some 350 people working for the circus, as well as the elephants,” said the unit’s trainmaster Keith Anderson. “It really is a town without a ZIP code on wheels.”
Anderson is kind of a mayor, building inspector, landlord and maintenance supervisor all in one. Though he supervises a staff of 14, given the size of the train, he said that everyone on his staff pretty much does anything.
http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/2863560,110510-Circus.article