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William L. Slout, entertainment historian par excellence, here provides five fascinating essays on the development of the American traveling circus in the post-Civil War era: ""En Route to the Great Eastern Circus"" (on the creation of this great show); ""The Great Eastern Circus of 1872"" (more details about one of P. T. Barnum's rivals); ""The Not-So-Great Trans-Atlantic Circus and Menagerie"" (how a show failed suddenly in a yellow fever epidemic); ""What Goes Up...Comes Down"" (how balloning became part of the circus environment); and ""The Chicken or the Egg?"" (on the first development of the double-ring act pioneered by Barnum and others). These vivid essays, highlighted by numerous contemporaneous excerpts from local newspapers, help bring a long-forgotten era alive again.

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9781434435477

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