STEP RIGHT UP FOR A BOOK YOU WON’T BELIEVE!
DEVIL’S CARNIVAL
The Gaff, the Ballyhoo, The Midway, the Freak Show, Pickled Punks, Lingering Ghosts & The Secret History of American Circuses and Sideshows!
THE DEVIL’S CARNIVAL
BY TROY TAYLOR (2024)
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Take a trip back in time with the owner of the American Oddities Museum, Troy Taylor, as he reveals the secret histories of America’s circuses, sideshows, midways, and freak shows! Discover the rise and fall of a kind of entertainment imported from Europe but one that became purely American on this side of the Atlantic. You’ll find out about the big tops, carnivals, sideshows, ballyhoos, baby shows, grind shows, illusions, mitt camps, walk-throughs, and everything in-between – a nearly forgotten part of our history that’s been erased by the changing tastes of the American public.
This book will take you behind the canvas tent flaps of yesterday to the heyday of the carnival sideshow, when human oddities appeared as “freaks.” You’ll discover how many of these enterprising performers made a very good living, while others were cheated and abused. But all of them, no matter how strange or unusual they appeared, were also regular people who laughed, loved, and lived a life that few of us can even imagine – lives that sometimes ended in pain, sorrow, and even murder.
This is a book unlike anything Troy Taylor has written before -- a rich, colorful history of a secret and sometimes mysterious part of American life, filled with heroes, villains, disasters, fires, trainwrecks, murder, and even ghosts.
So, step right up and let this book serve as your ticket to a time and place that has been almost forgotten and take a stroll down the midway of the past where yesterday seems to be “Alive, Alive, Alive!”
MORE ABOUT THE BOOK!
Years ago, only three days highlighted the lives of most Americans — the Fourth of July, Christmas, and the day the circus came to town. Everything stopped when the circus arrived. Businesses closed, banks locked their doors, and school was dismissed. And even after movies came along and America became involved in wars, the day was still a special event. With what seemed like everyone in town jammed side by side under the big top — the air thick with the smell of animals and wood shavings — it was impossible not to be excited about the circus coming to town.
Along with the circus were the state fair, the county fair, the carnival, the sideshows, the midway, the back end, and the Ten-in-One… all the essential parts of growing up in America in years gone by. Some of us are old enough to remember those days, but most aren’t. Toward the end of the era, the talkers would promote their shows on the bally using phrases like “see it before it’s gone forever,” and those words turned out to be true.
If you have dim memories of the days of the circuses and the sideshows — or are fascinated with a side of American history that is often forgotten — then this is the book for you!
* THE HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN CIRCUS
* P.T. BARNUM — “THE GREATEST SHOWMAN”
* JAMES BAILEY — THE MAN WHOSE NAME FOLLOWED BARNUM
* THE EARLY DAYS OF THE “GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH”
* THE BROTHERS FROM BARABOO: THE STORY OF THE RINGLING BROTHERS
* THE 1918 HAGENBECK-WALLACE TRAIN CRASH
* WHEN EMPIRES MET: RINGLING BROTHERS AND BARNUM & BAILEY CIRCUS
* THE HARTFORD CIRCUS FIRE OF 1944
* THE FALL OF THE GREAT AMERICAN CIRCUS
* THE AMERICAN SIDESHOW
* THE MIDWAY: FROM THE 1893 WORLD’S FAIR TO THE CARNIVAL LOT
* ALIVE! ALIVE! ALIVE! — THE FREAK SHOW IN AMERICAN HISTORY
* THE “CREATED” FREAKS AND THE REAL THINGS
* GIANTS, LITTLE PEOPLE, THE STRANGE AND THE UNUSUAL
* “FREAKS” — TOD BROWNING AND THE CAST OF THE FILM
* THE BACK END, THE GRIND SHOWS, GRAB JOINTS, AND ILLUSION SHOWS
Don’t miss one of Troy’s favorite books and discover the inspiration for the American Oddities Museum!