When the Circus Came to Reading, PA Big Tops • Circus Trains • Elephants • Crowds
Before the first act ever entered the ring, the spectacle had already begun — with circus trains before dawn, armies of workers, towering tents and animals that drew children to the grounds hours before showtime.
For Reading, the circus was more than a performance.
For generations of Reading and Berks County residents, the circus was far more than a two-hour performance beneath a canvas tent.
Circus day could begin before sunrise. Long trains or convoys of trucks arrived carrying performers, animals, wagons, tractors, tents, poles, seats, lighting equipment and everything necessary to create a temporary city. Children gathered along railroad tracks and at the circus grounds to watch the unloading. Elephants helped move equipment. Hundreds of workers raised enormous tents. Within only a few hours, an ordinary field had been transformed into the Big Top.
Newspaper accounts and surviving photographs give us especially vivid glimpses of this tradition in 1951, 1955 and 1958. These were not necessarily the only circus appearances during the decade. They are several particularly well-documented examples that allow us to see what circus day looked like around Reading in the 1950s.
The Circus Train Arrives in Reading
May 29, 1951 — Kutztown Road and Hiester’s Lane
Before sunrise, the first train rolled in.
On May 29, 1951, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey brought its enormous traveling show to Reading. The circus grounds were located near Kutztown Road and Hiester’s Lane, in a large open area north of the city. A later description places the grounds behind the homes in the 2100 block of Kutztown Road, bordered by the Reading Railroad tracks on the west and extending toward Ninth Street on the east.
For many residents, the excitement began hours before the first performance. The circus train arrived in three sections.
By sunrise, hundreds of people were already gathering around the grounds. Children wandered among the activity trying to catch glimpses of lions, tigers, elephants and other animals before the tents went up.
The arrival itself was part of the show. A surviving recollection describes the circus using the Reading Railroad Fairgrounds, or 11th Street, branch, with animals and equipment moving more than half a mile from the railroad to the circus grounds.
Watching the Big Top rise
One of the most remarkable parts of circus day happened before anyone bought a ticket. The Reading Eagle photographed three young Reading boys perched on a reclining tent pole as they watched workers erect the enormous canvas structure.
“Children Watch ‘Big Top’ Go Up on Circus Ground.”
Behind the boys was still largely an open field. Within hours, it would be a circus city.
Blue-and-yellow bunting went up. Heavy canvas was stretched across enormous poles. Stakes were driven into the ground. Tractors and trucks moved trailers and equipment into place. The newspaper reported that nearly 1,000 roustabouts and circus workers were involved in preparing the grounds.
The Big Top was only one piece of the operation. Workers also assembled animal tents, performer areas, seating, lighting, high-wire equipment, banners and other attractions. The newspaper described the transformation as a village of circus people appearing almost overnight.
Among the first places established was the “chow tent,” where performers and circus employees ate their meals. Wardrobe trunks were unloaded. Magicians' equipment appeared. High-wire apparatus was assembled. Seats were carried into the tents. What had been an empty field that morning had become a functioning entertainment complex by afternoon.
Lions, tigers and elephants
The animals were a major attraction even before the performance began. Children crowded close to the animal areas while keepers fed the circus cats.
The newspaper described a butcher cutting meat as lions and tigers waited in their cages. One cage contained a mother tiger and two cubs. Nearby, elephants waited to be put to work around the grounds.
In those days, circus elephants were not simply performers. They were also part of the work crew, helping move equipment and position heavy components during setup. The descriptions provide a fascinating record of another era, although attitudes toward the treatment and exhibition of circus animals have changed dramatically since the 1950s.
The Greatest Show on Earth
Once the tents were raised, attention turned to the performances. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey advertised an enormous program featuring aerialists, horseback riders, high-wire performers, trapeze artists, trained animals, magicians and specialty acts.
Among the performers mentioned by the newspaper were the Alzanas on the high wire, the Zoppes performing bareback riding and famed aerialist Antoinette Concello. There were trained sea lions, jockey dogs and elaborate animal displays.
And, of course, there were clowns. Ringling reportedly brought around 100 clowns to Reading. Among them was Emmett Kelly, whose sad-faced “Weary Willie” character became one of the most recognizable circus figures of the era. Other featured clowns included Otto Griebling, Felix Adler and Lou Jacobs.
For a child in Reading, these were performers whose names appeared in newspaper advertisements and circus posters — and suddenly they were performing only a few blocks away.
Two performances — then gone
The afternoon show began at 2:15 p.m. The evening performance followed at 8:15 p.m.
Then the enormous operation reversed itself. Seats came down. Canvas was rolled. Equipment was packed. Animals were loaded. Wagons and trailers returned to the railroad.
That same night, the circus was scheduled to leave Reading for Lancaster, where another series of performances awaited. The temporary city that had appeared before sunrise was disappearing again before many local residents went to bed.
Roll the circus through Reading again.
An Entire Circus City on the Edge of Reading
A rare color glimpse of the Big Top and the railroad operation.
Surviving color photographs provide another remarkable glimpse of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey in the Reading area in 1955.
The photographs show railroad flatcars loaded with circus equipment, trucks and wagons, along with crowds gathering beside the tracks as the show was unloaded. One image shows a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey railcar sitting on the tracks, while another captures tractors beginning the process of moving the equipment from the railroad.
The circus grounds were again described as being behind the homes in the 2100 block of Kutztown Road, between the Reading Railroad tracks and Ninth Street.
The scale of the operation was enormous. A surviving account states that more than 600 men could be involved in setting up the circus and that erecting the Big Top required handling miles of cable and raising massive support poles.
These color photographs are especially valuable because they show something newspaper descriptions cannot fully convey: just how much machinery, rolling stock, manpower and coordination were needed to move a major circus from city to city.
They let us see the temporary circus city not as a distant black-and-white memory, but as Reading residents actually encountered it — canvas, railcars, vehicles, crowds and all.
Elephants, a Giant Giraffe and Another Big Top
June 7, 1958 — Shillington Shopping Center grounds
Another especially well-documented circus visit came on June 7, 1958, when the Christiani Bros. Circus began a two-day engagement on the grounds of the Shillington Shopping Center.
The Reading Eagle described a nearly perfect summer morning as the Big Top went up beneath blue skies. Once again, the real show began long before the scheduled performance.
The first of approximately 50 trucks and trailers had begun arriving from Easton shortly before daybreak. An advance crew had already erected four enormous center poles for the main tent.
The Big Top measured approximately 260 by 140 feet and was capable of seating about 5,000 spectators.
Parents and children wandered through the grounds while workers prepared the circus. Some were there simply to watch. Others were hoping for an early glimpse of the animals. They did not have to wait long.
An 18-foot giraffe named Kenya
Among the animals was an enormous giraffe named Kenya. The Reading Eagle photographed Kenya stretching his head and neck from the rear of his trailer while a crowd gathered below.
“So This Is Reading?” Giraffe Seems to Ask
Kenya stood approximately 18 feet high. According to the caption, the giraffe was so tall that when the trailer doors were closed, he had to kneel. Once the doors were opened that morning, Kenya could finally stretch his head outside and stand at his full height.
For children standing nearby, the sight of an 18-foot giraffe emerging from a trailer must have been unforgettable.
And Kenya was hardly the only unusual visitor. The Christiani Bros. menagerie included a 4,000-pound hippopotamus, a white two-horned rhinoceros, lions, tigers and 18 elephants.
Children feed the elephants
The newspaper described local youngsters gathering handfuls of freshly cut hay from the circus grounds and feeding it to elephants reaching their trunks through openings in their trailers.
Other children gathered near the lion cages. One attraction was “Philly,” one of three lion cubs reportedly born the previous week in Philadelphia.
The scene captured something that was once a familiar part of circus day: the public could arrive early and wander around the grounds as the circus was being built. The setup itself became entertainment.
Elephants help build the circus
The elephants did more than attract spectators. They helped erect the Big Top.
Four elephants, including Babe and Shirley, were hitched to chains and used to pull heavy aluminum poles into position. The Eagle described the elephants moving six rows of poles — three on either side — while the enormous canvas roof was raised.
The heavy work took approximately 40 minutes. By about 9:15 a.m., the Big Top was ready for workers to begin moving spectator seating into place.
Only a few hours earlier, the site had been an open field. Now it was becoming a circus.
More than 2,000 children attend
Shortly after 1 p.m., more than 2,000 underprivileged children from Reading and Berks County began entering the grounds for the 2 p.m. performance. The event was sponsored by the Reading Sertoma Club.
The circus program included trapeze performers, equestrians, clowns and other specialty acts. Among the advertised performers was Lou “The Great” Zacchini, who was fired approximately 220 feet through the air from a giant cannon.
The program also included performers billed in the newspaper as Chief Soar Brown and a group of Sioux Indians from Oklahoma, who appeared in regalia and performed dances.
The evening performance was scheduled for 8 p.m.. Another performance was planned for 2 p.m. Sunday.
Approximately 2,000 Boy Scouts from the Daniel Boone Council were expected to attend the Sunday program, with the Scouts scheduled to hold a parade and other activities before the regular circus performance.
There was even discussion of adding another performance if ticket demand justified it. But, as always, the circus could not remain for long. After its Shillington engagement, the troupe faced a journey of approximately 270 miles to Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, for its next show.
A circus city, frame by frame.
The Christiani Bros. photographs preserve more than the performance. They capture the working life of the grounds — animals, wagons, food and service areas, tents, horses and the crowds who came simply to watch the circus operate.
Three documented glimpses of a much larger tradition.
The surviving accounts from 1951, 1955 and 1958 do not represent every circus that visited Reading and Berks County during the decade.
Instead, they give us three unusually vivid windows into a much larger tradition.
Circuses came and went. Different companies appeared. Locations changed. Transportation changed from the great railroad operations associated with Ringling Bros. to increasingly truck-based traveling shows.
But for local children, much of the experience remained the same.
They came early. They watched the trains and trucks arrive. They wandered among the trailers. They saw elephants, lions, tigers, giraffes and other animals before the show. They watched workers transform empty fields into temporary cities.
And only then did they take their seats beneath the Big Top.
Today, the railroad cars are gone, the Big Tops have vanished from those fields, and the sight of elephants hauling tent poles through Reading belongs to another era.
But through these photographs and newspaper accounts, we can still imagine what it must have been like to wake up one morning in Reading and discover that sometime before dawn, the circus had come to town.
Much activity for us kids and a grand show. Never happen again.
A surviving recollection of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey in Reading
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