Memorable Events

Washington DC – The Greatest Show on Earth

One of my most memorable events took place in Washington DC, at the Coliseum in 1968.

We spent about a month in Washington when I was an Eisenhower Fellow.

We had been booked into a tatty old apartment,  called the Francis Scott Key, It was situated on the edge of the Washington University Campus.  

It was an ideal location,  only two blocks from the White House in the heart of the city. I was able to walk to the US Department of Agriculture where I had most of my appointments the Smithsonian museums and the National Art Gallery were so handy and they contained some of the world’s great treasures.

The USDA, at that time, had a staff of 13,000 and eight miles of corridors. It took time to walk between appointments. The people working there were so helpful – I enjoyed their company.

One day Joyce came home with a gleam in her eye, clutching a couple of tickets. “You’ve been working hard  – so I queued  up and brought a couple of circus tickets.” At the time I was not thrilled,  as I had other things on my mind.

The Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey’s three-ring circus,  billed as “The Greatest Show on Earth”.  Perhaps it was,  I had never seen anything like it before, or since.

We had seats facing the inner ring. They were the expensive ones facing the best of the performers. They cost $4.50 a seat –  big money in those days.

The first thing that struck me was the commercialism of the place. We were constantly being harassed by vendors, hawkers, and hucksters selling an amazing array of foods, drinks, toys, and balloons and they continued their sale pitch throughout the show.

At times more than 100 people performed in one act. There were 28 plumed horses prancing around with women on their backs. Sixteen elephants waltzed around carrying women in their trunks. Nine tigers performed in a cage and one huge tiger rode around jumping on and off a horse’s back while the horse galloped around.

 In an aerial snow scene, 40 women dressed in white furs hung from ropes or trapezes to perform an aerial ballet using masses of bubbles to give the illusion of snow. Amazing!

At the time I felt fortunate to have seen this performance. I had a feeling it couldn’t last,  and I was right. It was shut down by animal rights activists in 2017. It plans to reopen again in 2023 but this time with no animals. We were two of the lucky ones to have seen “The greatest show on earth.”