Seeing Is Believing is a history of midway attractions and the showmen who have presented them on American midways from the 1870s to World War II. Find out who manufactured the
Polly-Moo-Zuke, the Two-Headed Giant, and the Devil Fish. Hear showmen’s stories of hoochie coochie dancing bears, monkeys racing miniature racecars, and the strange people who made a living
eating snakes. See war criminals, wax outlaws, and papier mâché torture victims. Learn about illusion on the midway and how "free" Iron Lung and Wildlife shows were anything but; who
suspected you had to pay to leave? Hear the barker say: Come in! Trained fleas, people exhibited in ice, and girls that change into gorillas are all inside! Under canvas, the hottest black
nightclub acts perform for you in black revue shows. Many attractions are alive. Hundreds more are dead, stuffed, or mummified. Never has so much been on show for so little a price!
Attractions you may never see again ? Take a twisted journey with the last of America’s real showmen, from an age when performers earned every nickel of your 25 cents.
-
The Acrobat: Arthur Barnes and the Victorian Circus
$900 -
Clown: Readings in Theatre Practice
$4,950 -
From Barnum & Bailey to Feld: The Creative Evolution of the Greatest Show on Earth
$2,025 -
The Ordinary Acrobat: A Journey into the Wondrous World of Circus, Past and Present
$593 -
The Ordinary Acrobat: A Journey into the Wondrous World of the Circus, Past and Present
$943 -
Freaks of Sideshow and Film
$1,225 -
Becoming Tom Thumb: Charles Stratton, P. T. Barnum, and the Dawn of American Celebrity
$1,013 -
Last Chain on Billie: How One Extraordinary Elephant Escaped the Big Top
$595 -
The Hartford Circus Fire: Tragedy Under the Big Top
$595 -
Juggling for Beginners: 25+ Tricks to Astound Your Friends
$453 -
The Circus: 1870-1950s
$553 -
Never Quote the Weather to a Sea Lion: And Other Uncommon Tales from the Founder of the Big Apple Circus
$698 -
Queen of the Air: A True Story of Love and Tragedy at the Circus
$910 -
Staging the Great Circus Parade
$805 -
The Fundamentals of Flying Trapeze
$1,350 -
The Rise of the American Circus, 1716-1899
$2,025 -
The Education of a Circus Clown: Mentors, Audiences, Mistakes
$4,455 -
Clowns: In Conversation with Modern Masters
$6,300 -
Circus As Multimodal Discourse: Performance, Meaning, and Ritual
$6,750 -
The Bloomington-Normal Circus Legacy: The Golden Age of Aerialists
$700