On June 19, 1954, sixty-nine years ago, the George Cole Circus played to big crowds in Marion, Michigan. When this much anticipated circus arrived it at the park, it pitched a big, Big Top and as we saw it, a huge, “Huge double menagerie” as the advertising promised. Said menagerie included acrobats, jugglers, clowns, horses, elephants, tigers, a rather sad looking orangutan and the “monster hippopotamus Goliath weighing in at 4 tons and on exhibition daily”. There wasn’t a kid in town who wasn’t excited to see all of these grand and exotic things. A circus was coming to town and a real elephant could be seen at the Fair Grounds! It was good to be a kid in the 1950’s.
The Cole Circus was one of the last smaller traveling circuses to visit Marion. It announced its arrival by parading a few of its best attractions up and down Main Street in a brief, but effective parade. The circus was accompanied by the usual midway games and rides of various kinds, from riding small ponies in a very small circle, to riding the Ferris wheel, a really big vertical circle. Every kid in town was mesmerized by the possibilities and couldn’t wait to attend. By standards today, tickets were rock bottom cheap at 10c each and readily bought at the gate. Most rides took one ticket. The fast, nausea, and vertigo inducing rides took more. A ride that flipped you up-side-down or took off like the washer on the spin cycle, could cost 50c if you had the nerve to ride. The tilt-a-whirl and the scrambler were popular rides with my friends and took up most of my ride tickets.
Games of chance, from floating ducks to the claw machines, ring tosses, toss a ball at milk bottles, and the immortal dime or penny toss, were hugely popular. My cousin won a green glass vase for my mom before I was born. She valued it highly and I still own it, of course. We always put high stock in the cheap prizes we won on midway games. I once kept an orange cellophane top hat from the fair until it looked like a rumpled candy bag. I thought that was the best prize ever and intended to wear it on Halloween. It did not quite make it until October.
As the years passed, chances for a traveling circus to come our way faded. The popularity of traveling amusement shows increased. They appeared at local and regional fairs and appeared along with local celebrations or summer holidays. The amusements added a circus atmosphere to local events all over Michigan. Today no municipality would think of hosting a ‘good old fashioned fair’ without a good Midway. There is something festive about all those rides and flashing lights, loud music, and games of chance. It is timeless.
Marion wrapped up its annual Fair last week to rave reviews. As always it was an event enjoyed by many. The event was complete with the much loved Midway rides and games, and plenty of good old junk food. And of course, there was the always popular demolition derby on Saturday night. There weren’t any lions or tigers but there were plenty of locally grown 4-H animals and exhibits to see and all of the cotton candy you could carry.
This week’s photo is of one of the Cole Circus fliers, handed out early in every community on their play list. My mom saved this one.
As the immortal Ova Brown often declared, “A good time was had by all!”