Circus World

All the Time in the World opens with a glance at the circus as it comes to life in the early morning pre-dawn, the cooking crew whipping up eggs, bacon and coffee to feed an entourage of hundreds. While doing research for the piece I came across such a charming article about a blind man attending the circus, which ran in the New York Times in 1904.

He’d been watching the circus at Madison Square Garden since he was a little boy. His eyesight failing, he invited a newspaper seller and his three children to go to the circus with him, so the kids could describe what they were seeing. They took the best box seats and the children marveled at the bearded lady, the hippopotamus, the ladies on horseback, and the people swinging in the air “leaping one to the other like birds flying” the paper reported. Best of all, however, was the talking pig who yelled “Mamma.”

Circus train, from the archives at the New York Public Library.

Circus rider, from the archives at the New York Public Library

Circus performers, from the archives at the New York Public Library.

Five riders, from the archives at the New York Public Library.

One of my favorites, from the archives at the New York Public Library.