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Circus Parade
Unpublished Tribune photo from September 1950

After being unloaded from rail cars, circus elephants parade north on Kellogg towards the performance area just outside of town. This noon near the Allen Motor company garage a herd of elephants performed for a large crowd of on-lookers.

Lots of young Americans have seen large elephants, but nobody under twenty-five or thirty years of age ever saw such small ones in this country as are on exhibit in the wild animal menagerie of America's fastest growing circus, Dailey Brothers.  Only a few elephants have been born in captivity and none ever lived as long as a year.  The Dailey Brothers Circus infant elephants were all imported from India, and last year the veteran zoological expert, Rex Williams, brought with the most recent shipment, the tiniest elephant now on exhibition in this country.  Having completed one season with the circus this little baby is easily credited with being the biggest and yet smallest circus feature in the U.S.A.

There are 25 elephants in all with the world's only five-ring circus and these massive mastodons have a big part in the daily routine of circus life.  Their bulk is used to move the show and are particularly helpful in bad weather when rain turns many a showgrounds into a sea of mud.  The performance is also heavily dependent upon these rubber colored giants as they astonish thousands with their grace and poise, waltzing and whirling in their own novel ballet.

Most of the crowd at the grounds a mile north on Grand avenue consisted of parents and their children, who paraded the grounds looking at the animals on display.  This morning strings of automobiles lined both sides of North Grand as the spectators toured the 15 acres of grounds.  Many of the spectators were farmers.  One was heard speculating that a lot of pounds "could be put on a steer with the hay used to feed that elephant."

One new record appeared to be in the making by one Ames youngster, who was on hand at the first unloading of the circus...  The lad, at 9 a.m. claimed to have eaten four hot dogs, two sacks of peanuts and consumed five bottles of pop.  Only one thing clouding the claims of the Ames lad was that he admitted having fed some of the peanuts to the elephant, and this may preclude recognition as a world's record.

The big top... will hold 3,000 persons.  Under the tent are five rings and two stages, and many of the wild animals will be seen in cages before entering the big tent, which is 290 feet long and 90 feet wide.  One of the side show tents is 170 feet long and 70 feet wide.  There are 450 people connected with the show, many taking part in the performance and others employed running errands and erecting the tents.

No gambling devices are carried by the show.  The circus is powered by Diesel light plants and carries its own fire truck.  Among the animals on display are zebras, tigers, lions, monkeys, kangaroos, bears, ostrich, horses, donkeys, baby elephants, tapir, rhinoceros and a hippopotamus.  The tigers and lions are fed meat six days a week and on Sunday are treated to milk and eggs.

The feature aerialist of the circus is Evelina Rossi, who has been with the show six years.  She winds up her performance with what she calls the plunge of death.