Last night my wife, our seven year old daughter and I went to the Cole Bros. Circus, which is in a neighboring town for two days.

I'd last seen Clyde Beatty Cole Bros. in the early '70s when Dave Hoover was doing the lion act and they still had a sideshow.

Last night's show was somewhat smaller with horses, poodles and three elephants. The opening act was three motorcycles in a steel sphere: exciting, but not as much as the lion act was in days gone by. Nice acrobats, trapese act, clowning. A female human cannonball was the finale. All around it was a fun show which was close to 2 hours long.

The sideshow has been replaced by elephant rides at $5 for once around a small ring, and face painting.

Cole Bros. claims to be the largest show still performing under a tent and I'm glad my daughter got to see a "real" circus under a bigtop.

If the show comes to your town, take the kids out to see some old-fashioned Americana and support the show.


Chris

No magic?

Lucky you! I wish they would come west.
We get the new Ringling in August. Well be there on the 8th to see Bello Nock. Saw his relatives at the Del mar fair last week and the act was surprisingly weak on most counts. I remember the Nerveless Nocks when they would make you cringe.
Oh well...maybe Bello will carry the torch a bit higher.