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The Hartford Circus Fire
🕑 Added 2021-06-01 10:15:59 +0000 UTCAlthough the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus were able to carry on after the disaster in this week's episode, they recently put on their final ever performance.
It was a very different show from the one people would have attended in 1944. The props and set were relatively high-tech, and there were no performing animals involved (the last elephants had been sent to a sanctuary just a few years before).
The decision to end the 146-year run of the circus was down to falling audience numbers; the circus just couldn't compete with new forms of entertainment. I've never been to the circus, but even so I found this account of the final show quite moving - I wonder if there'll ever be anything like it again.
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Fascinating Horror
It's an odd choice for an emergency song, I think - such an upbeat piece of music. Maybe that's the intention, of course: a positive song to calm the crowd, but in retrospect it just feels eerie.
I've been obsessed with this incident awhile (I was searching for information on "The Day the Clown Cried," Jerry Lewis' never-released film, and got redirected to this incident because it's often called "the day the clowns cried"), so it was nice to see your video on it. :) I'll never be able to hear "The Stars and Stripes Forever" in the same way, however...
