Hi I just found this website and saw all your posts about Circus World and Board Walk and Baseball....I grew up here in Central Florida and my parents took us there in the 70s and I had my portrait done by a clown out of chalk and still have it. There where some rides but not alot as it was mostly a circus atmosphere with clowns walking around and shows and of course the elephant ride.
When Ringling Brothers sold it, is when the big rides came in like the Wiener Looping and such. That ride was bought in Germany and was brought over here and they had the Germans assemble it over here. When it was up and running my best friend and I rode it 15 times straight!
I worked there for a couple years and left just before it closed and changed into Board Walk and Baseball. I worked the shows, as in seating people for the shows and when someone called out sick I worked down in the rides in a pinch.
I remember working, oh gosh I cant remember the name of the ride, but its where people stand up in a circle and the ride goes up and tilts and twirls around and the people end up kinda just twirling facing the ground as the ride tilts. Could be called the Tilt A Whirl maybe??? Well one time I felt this mist falling on me and had to stop the ride, get someone to relieve me as I had to go to wardrobe, shower and change cause that mist was someone throwing up on me!!!! GROSS !!!!!
I was working the big top show and was standing up at the back...we shined flashlights for people who needed to leave and things like that after the show started....well one time I saw a group of people come in from the side and sit down in the VIP seats on the side of the stage...I walked over to another girl I worked with and told her that that looked like Michael Jackson and she started going crazy! LOL We then saw one of the security guys that we were friends with and he confirmed that it was indeed Michael Jackson! He loved to come ride the roller coaster!
Also one day I saw Elton John walking around....I was always showing up at the area he was leaving that day doing my duties so I never really could get a real good look at him! But when I went into the cafeteria, a guy I worked with had Elton sign a $10 bill...I told him cool but now you have $10 that you can never spend!! LOL
Since we worked the shows we had to run the Carousel too...we all had to take turns doing a two hour stint out there...we all HATED it!!!! But when Monahan, the owner then, sold it and it was time for it to go we all cried like babies!!!! I have since seen it in a carousel magazine but dont know where it has ended up at. It had originally come from Coney Island.
I kept alot of the employee newsletters and my pay stubs and have lots of pictures and brochures. One employee Christmas party one year was held at the park after closing hours and Monahan hired Bertie Higgins to play and a band oh gosh cant remember their name either but my sister and I had seen them open for Til Tuesday not long before that.
My sister also worked there and her job was to walk around with a clown and take peoples pictures with the clown and then she went and developed them and had them for sale at a cart by the exit if the people wanted to buy them.
She did alot of picture taking backstage too and one year for my daughters birthday...she loved clowns....my sister took a picture of all the clowns backstage and had them all sign it and that was her birthday present for my daughter, I still have that too!
There was a Howard Johnsons directly across the highway from Circus World and thats where we would all go and party at the Ho Jo's! The Circus performers all lived in a small mobile home area in the back of the park.
There were all kinds of wild cats running around the park, how they started I dont know but they were everywhere and most were all white! We found a kitten crawling in the front parking lot one day and I guess there was so much inbreeding that its back legs were deformed...we nursed it for a few days and took it to the vet but the vet said we needed to put it down...we didnt want to but there was no way we could care for it. Also the tiger tamers wife found a healthy kitten back behind the big top crouched in a corner, but it was no place to be since the tigers were back there!!!! She remembered we took the other kitten so she got us and of course we took it home! My sisters best friend had it for many years after that and it finally died of old age. She named it Tobias, Toby in honor of the very first clown!
I could go on and on but thats a little of the life there. If I can answer any questions anyone has I would do my best to!
Scarlet
