Tag Archives: three-ring

By Russell Working

The great circuses of yesteryear were eye-popping explosions of wonder, equestrians and trapeze artists and dancing bears and seal musicians and human cannonballs and ski-jumping jalopies and reenactments of medieval Crusades.

From the perspective of audiences, it was too much to take in. No wonder the term “circus”—and later “three-ring circus”—came to be a synonym for “a disturbance or uproar; a lively or noisy display” and “a scene of confusion or disorder,” per The Oxford English Dictionary.

For showmen, however, this use rankles. They know the logistics necessary to stage, pack up, transport, house, and feed a show involving thousands of humans and animals every day.