Sunday, February 28, 1999
Sideshows drive Greatest Show on Earth
BY CRESTA WILLIAMS
The Cincinnati Enquirer
It's scintillating. It's sensational. It's body-bending, fire-breathing showmanship.
Those could be the words of Ringmaster Jim Ragona as he introduces an awesome assemblage of atypical anomalies, also known as the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's sideshow. The circus opens Wednesday at the Firstar Center (formerly the Crown.)
During the “Golden Age” of the circus back in the 1920s, '30s and '40s, the sideshow was what lured the people in for the main event.
Sideshows are still a big part of the circus, but now are incorporated into the regular performances of the Greatest Show on Earth.
Take a look at this year's attractions:
• Michu, the Smallest Man on Earth: Standing at just 33 inches, he's seven inches shorter than P.T. Barnum's Tom Thumb.
• Khan, the World's Tallest Man: He's 8 feet tall, weighs more than 380 pounds and wears a size 20 shoe. This giant from Pakistan has all of his clothes tailor-made and travels with the circus in an oversized custom-built vehicle.
• Alexander Pavlov and Tatiana Pavlova: This husband and wife team from Russia performs a variety of acrobatics.
• Vesuvius, the Human Volcano: He eats and breathes fire.
• Nikolai, the Iron Jaw: This strongman can bend solid steel bars with his teeth and pull a four-ton elephant by a rope clenched in his mouth.
• Marina, the Lady in the Cube: She can squeeze her 5-foot, 4-inch body into a cube only 14 inches high (about the size of a hat box).
• Mysticlese, Master of the Mind: Through concentration, he conquers pain while walking over broken glass in his bare feet or sleeping on a bed of nails.
• Luna, Angel of the Air: With her body inverted high in the air, Luna walks upside down.
• Tong, Prince of Pythons: Tong charms snakes coiled around his body. The snakes average 18 feet in length and weigh more than 150 pounds.
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