I have a long history with circuses in my life. While these days, circuses are abandoning the use of wild animals in their acts, there was a time where lions, elephants, chimpanzees, and other creatures were the highlight of the show. Elephants were (and still are) particular favorites of mine.
The first time I saw a live circus was when I was about eight. My parents took my sister and me down to New York City to see the Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus at Madison Square Garden. I remember being overawed at everything I saw that day and it probably took a week to come down from that particular high.
Even before that, though, circuses had been a fascination in my life. I remember one incident I had read about in the NY Daily News on a Sunday not too long after Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys hit the airwaves (I know because I always associate the two things). Apparently, a lion tamer was attacked and mauled by one of his lions. The man's father, also a lion tamer, ran into the cage to wrestle the beast away from his son. This all happened when I was about seven.
It was a gruesome tale, even made more so by the pictures that accompanied the article. Even though they were in black and white, it was enough to give me nightmares that night. Interestingly, to this day, I cannot find any archived articles reporting the event.
Later on, the Clyde Beatty, Cole Brothers Circus began an annual tour with one stop in our little town. They staged their performance area on a former garbage dump site less than twenty minutes on foot from our house. The first time it happened (when I was maybe nine), my friends and I went tromping down there to check it out while they were still setting up.
As it turned out, one of the supervisors, a grimy sort of guy with a bowler hat and smoking a big cigar, saw us and asked us if we wanted to do a little work for free tickets. We readily agreed and soon we were hauling gear and doing whatever else he directed us to do.
When finished, he did indeed give us free passes for everything, including the sideshows. I remember enjoying the hell out of the day because I worked and got directly rewarded by it.
We continued to do this for a few more summers after that initial one. The last one we went to, and perhaps the last one at that location, had an incident that I also cannot find readily available online archives of. During the big show, while we were outside the main tent flaps, 4-5 chimpanzees escaped and ran right past us. All but two weren't caught in the initial romp.
As it turns out, a couple of the audience members had been bitten by the crazed simians, something that really made the town fathers unhappy. A massive manhunt (chimp-hunt?) began. Dense wood lined the dumpsite, making it a perfect place for the beasts to find refuge.
They found one of the two fugitives a day or so later, but the final one didn't get captured until a week after the circus left town. My cousin happened to see it in her backyard foraging for food and told her mother, who called the cops to come and pick it up.
Because that (and another) incident happened that summer of note, I've written a short story and two screenplays based on those events. One of the screenplays is basically a retelling of the short story in script form. The second looks back on the incident years later, narrating an imagined disappearance of one of the boys who worked for the circus as we had done.
Yesterday, I had yet another circus-based story come to me. This time, it has nothing to do with chimps escaping. And yet, I think it's going to be compelling when I finish it. I can't wait to see how it turns out.
Yours in the monkey cage,
Michael
