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My dream was to be a star performer. Now my dream is to get up and walk. umbrella-shaped rigging from which their hair was hanging gave way. |
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There have been many personal disasters among circus performers, and a fair number of catastrophic events harming multiple circus people or audiences. Two in particular affected me most. |
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The Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus Train Disaster In 1918 a train full of sleeping performers and workmen was idling on a track while the passengers slept. Flares had been set up to forestall oncoming trains, but the engineer of an empty troop train was dozing and plowed into the circus train. The wooden cars fell apart and exploded: 186 circus people died. |
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They are buried near where I live in a cemetery plot called Showman's Rest. Many other circus folk have been given graves in the cemetery. I visited this summer and took photos. |
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The Hartford Fire of 1944 The tent was rain-proofed using flammable materials, and some of the exits were blocked by cages for upcoming acts. Someone intentionally set the big top on fire. There were 168 known deaths, but the fire was so hot that it wasn't possible to determine if there were more people cremated in the ashes. The Great Wallendas were performing, but managed to get out when the band played Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever, the so-called “Disaster March,” a universal circus signal warning that something has gone terribly wrong. |
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