FREEA DAY AT THE CIRCUS EBOOK Happy Books | 8 pages | 26 Oct 2015 | Barron's Educational Series Inc.,U.S. | 9780764165313 | English | Hauppauge, United States The Circus | Film review Strange facts about the circus are plentiful. The circus is — simply put — weird. Part of its appeal is that it's outside the realm of normal: We don't usually pet tigers, swing from a trapeze or watch clowns pile into a A Day at the Circus. Since there's a lot that's "weird" about circus acts, we chose to include facts about its origins and legacy that may surprise you. Here's a start: It might shock you that the circus is still a wildly popular business. Feld Entertainment, which owns Ringling Bros. Let's take a look at some strange circus facts that made the bizarre and fantastic circus what it is today. While we think of elephants as circus stalwarts, they actually became popular in an arena a little more sophisticated than the Big Top. Although elephants had performed in various menageries and tours for a while, they became a big hit in the august theatre. Ina play called "The Elephant of Siam" was performed at the Adelphi in London and later toured the country. It featured A Day at the Circus trained elephant that went by the rather hoity-toity name of Mademoiselle D'Jeck. Mlle D'Jeck was trained to complete a number of actions — ring a bell and steal a crown with her trunk, then place it on someone's head, for instance [source: Speaight ]. This bit of theatre A Day at the Circus quite popular, and soon A Day at the Circus circus promoters began advertising elephants that performed tricks in the ring, as well. But it wasn't just elephants: Trained lions were first used on the stage in breathtaking productions. Queen Victoria was in the audience for some of them, which ignited the public's appetite for performing cats [source: Speaight ]. Not to paint with too broad a brush, but it's probably fair to say that many A Day at the Circus us watch tightrope walkers and feel pretty much undiluted fear. But that's a modern audience, bombarded with any kind of scintillating entertainment we want on-demand. It was a little different in the early days of circus, when the sight of a lady wearing trousers could rouse a serious blush. Think about it — high-wire- walking ladies were going to give everyone an eyeful if they were wearing skirts. The leg-baring doublet and hose women wire walkers wore allowed men to gawk at women's bodies A Day at the Circus a way that certainly wasn't socially appropriate for the time [source: Victoria and Albert Museum ]. One review even describes how a wire walker's dexterity might translate well in the bedroom [source: Speaight ]. Apparently, watching a wire- walker proved to be a very chaste way to get one's jollies. But let's peel our eyes from the lady dancing on the rope to learn a little more about the weird origins of the word circus. So perhaps you're a classical studies scholar and familiar with Roman entertainment, or you've seen "Spartacus" one time and vaguely remember it. Either way, you're probably under the impression that the famous Circus Maximus the ring where chariot races took place gave the contemporary circus its name. You're kind of right, in the sense that it's the same word. But that's pretty much where the similarities end. The first modern circus, founded by Philip Astley in 18th century Britain, was actually referred to as an amphitheatre. In George Speaight's entertaining book " History of the Circus ," the author suggests the word was initially adopted because it sounded fancy, which is as good a reason as any. It was only when equestrian showman Charles Hughes decided to perform a show he called "The Royal Circus" did the circus moniker come to be associated with the acts we see today. It probably had nothing to do with the Circus Maximus of ancient Rome but instead was derived from the "circus" ring around Hyde Park where rich people would exercise their horses [source: Speaight ]. By the 19th century, "circus" was the accepted nomenclature. Infamous characters populate circus history, like the snake-oil salesman P. Barnum and those guys from the Insane Clown Posse. Totally counts, don't try to argue. But did A Day at the Circus know that because of a simple twist of circus fate, one of the most villainous characters in modern U. John Wilkes Booth, President Abraham Lincoln's assassin, was born on American soil as a result of some circus-related drama. His father was Junius Brutus Booth, a well-regarded British actor. In Liverpool, England A Day at the CircusJ. Booth got into a fight with the Portuguese circus performer and rope dancer Il Diavolo Antonio, and Booth injured him badly [source: Speaight ]. Booth decided to make a quick getaway to avoid the long arm of the law — and his wife, too. He left for America with a flower-selling girl to make a clean break. John Wilkes Booth was born to the couple in But let's return to the ring, where you might be amused to find acts that were once considered incredible acrobatics but aren't as impressive today. We demand a lot from circus performers these days. We not only want to see them defy gravity, but we also need other twists to make the show super-exciting. Perhaps they could do wild contortionist routines while hanging from their hair? Or maybe perform a high-wire act with no net while balancing on a chair? But in the early days of the circus, the demands of the audience were a lot less challenging, and leaping was a big deal. Leaping, you say? Literally leaping over things. Which is still not considered "uncool," I suppose, if you're a big parkour fan. But jumping over stuff horses, people, carriages, whatever really was a prime attraction. While we might think of acrobats as aerial or contortionist acts, in the late 18th century and early 19th century, leapers got the pulse beating. In a clown named Dewhurst a fairly staid name for a clown was jumping over ten horses and A Day at the Circus balloons and the like [source: Speaight ]. But the act provided one of the circus' first secrets: Trampolines or springboards were hidden to assist the high jumpers. The glitz and glam of the circus is pretty much taken for granted in standard shows. Companies like Ringling Bros. The pre-show parade, which heralded the circus into town, was no pokey affair. One parade in is said to have taken five hours as it crawled A Day at the Circus the streets of New York, and others boasted themed floats nearly 30 feet 9 meters high [source: Speaight ]. The cool thing is that the parades were basically free spectacles for the public. As the railroad and larger trucks caught on, however, circuses no longer caravanned into town with as much majesty. You'd think that the circus sells itself, with its death-defying acts and feats of amazing ability. But the circus was actually a well-oiled machine of public relations and became more heavily promoted than pretty much any form of entertainment on American soil before it. How did they do it? So much paper. Posters became a booming circus business spearheaded mostly by Strobridge Lithographing, a printing company in Cincinnati that met the high demand [source: Duke University Libraries ]. And boy, was the demand high. The Forepaugh Circus alone had over a hundred different posters for promotion, and it's estimated that by Ringling Bros. And kind of hilariously, there were serious turf wars over poster space. Circuses would spend loads of money printing up a jillion posters, and rival circuses would come and post right over them. There was so much strain that the Showman's Association even tried to address it in a Code of Ethics, a code that was pretty much ignored, which might tell you something about the ethics of the circus [source: Speaight ]. We've talked about how circus parades came into and went out of vogue, but another transportation option spawned a new American circus tradition that was quite popular. While traveling with wagons was all well and good, circus proprietors, who desperately depended on the ability to build and strike a tent quickly, began to see the appeal of setting up on the banks of rivers. They could ship their equipment quickly from town to town without much travel. But by the middle of the 19th century, an even better idea was hatched. What if the circus itself was on a barge? The Floating Circus Palace offered such a sight. It contained a foot It traveled up and down the Mississippi and Ohio rivers for years, until the Civil War effectively shut down the operation. Nevertheless, it provided a permanent house for the circus and became one of the first A Day at the Circus in a long history of American entertainment. In Julyone of the most horrific accidents in American entertainment occurred. The Ringling Bros. It caused a stampede, which resulted in deaths, including that of at least 67 children [source: Daily Kos ]. It was a horrific tragedy in circus history, but it put a spotlight on some much-needed safety regulations. After the fire, Hartford — and Connecticut in general — took a look at the laws in place regulating things like A Day at the Circus exits.