Ooooh, I'm so excited!!

Today, Maury Mead, an old circus fan from Wisconsin who has been photographing and taping my husband's work all summer, sent me a DVD of an old Beta tape he had of a tent raising for the Franzen Circus. It is grainy, and pretty wiggly, and kind of out of focus, but it is still the coolest thing I've collected to date in my research on circus! It was filmed in 1985, Franzen was using elephants to raise the tent. Coolest thing I've ever seen. They were putting up this tent with about 8 men, pretty amazing when you think about it.

My husband returns from Wisconsin this week; he's spent the entire summer performing at Circus World Museum. I'm glad to have him back, because he's worked circus and of course I have more questions than I can manage to write down.

And on Thursday, September 28, Kelly Miller Circus will be setting up in a town about an hour away. They, too, still put up their tent with elephant power. We are going to be heading out very early that day with our cameras loaded with fresh batteries and empty storage cards, and will watch their tent raising. I can't wait!! I hope the weather is good and the lot solid.

This DVD has just whet my appetite for more!