Take Me Out To The Fairground, Take Me Down To The Fair

Sideshows The Fun Of The Fair

The Sideshow and the Carnie are often thought of as American in origin, mainly because of all the films we have all seen depicting the fairs and circuses, however as this very interesting Audio Slideshow explains, its actually a British innovation.

Unfortunately the pictures are all copyrighted, so I won't post any, but they are worth a look...... they were like this when I was a kid in the early 60's. However I have found a few pictures to enliven the page .... Many of the Silent era comedians came from Circus, Music Hall (Vaudeville), Sidehow backgrounds in the UK ....... as Mr Chaplin (the Fred Karno troupe) often showed in many of his films.

Man In Lion Cage

 

During the 1940's and 1950's the fairgrounds were and circuses were big business in the US and travelled in some style.

Circus Train

 And even now, the carney plies his trade.....

Wrestling Bear Tent

However not with quite the flair of his earlier predecessors .....

Elephant Getting In Car