[elephant trumpeting]

- David SaLoutos: I feel part of a large tradition that stretches back centuries, actually, but particularly in this community to 1884, when the Ringling Brothers began their circus right here in Baraboo. The circus was the most marvelous thing to happen. It came overnight, preceded about two weeks before by huge posters proclaiming all these wondrous things that were gonna be in their own town that day and that day only. And then it all rolled in, and all of the animals and the beautiful, glittering wagons and the pretty girls in the spangly costumes and all of that unrolled, and everybody just had to go. In fact, whole towns would just close up for a circus day, it was so important. It was a tented city of 1,200 people,
and everybody'd come in from all the surrounding towns. It was quite a big deal.
I was kinda lucky; I grew up here in Baraboo, so I went to the circus from the very beginning the museum opened in 1959.

[dreamy music]