I read a wonderful very short story by Allen Woodman involving a man who was the former proprietor of a flea Circus. I never saw a flea circus, they seem to havebeen a low cost entertainment option of the Great Depression. I started wondering about parallels between flea circuses and larger, more traditional circuses with all their romance and glamor. Not so much the sanitized shows that still tour, but something earlier from fifty or more years ago.
Is there a flea circus museum or a hall of fame? Perhaps galleries devoted to the artwork? Maybe, but I did not research any of it. Then I thought, “where would a flea circus winter?” Maybe Florida or Southern California as others did. Images of sleepy tigers under palm trees and trapeze artists riding elephants to the beach came to mind. But truth was probably the ringmasters arm pit as he slept his way south in a boxcar. The sets and costumes packed away in his cardboard suitcase. He would get winter work in the fields or groves, rehearsing the acts at night knowing he was just as circus as the rest.
I can not imagine there was much money in any of this, but people got by and found satisfaction in living less restricted lives than the norm. There won’t be a major motion picture about flea circuses or a new theme park in their honor. Even though I can picture the merchandising so well.
Maybe Disney’s nanotechnology will bring a more hygienically acceptable revival and then you can take the kids.

by – Doug Mathewson