America’s most popular form of entertainment from the end of the Civil War until World War II was the circus. 

Time Magazine published a lengthy feature in 2021 describing the rise and decline of the big circuses, and described it thus:

“The day the circus came to town ranked with Thanksgiving, Christmas and the Fourth of July. Banks and businesses closed, schools were dismissed, and an entire populace assembled on early morning main streets to watch the elephants and clowns … parade from the train station.”

Certainly true, but here at home, our port town lacked the essential infrastructure that made visits by the major circuses possible — a railroad.

That didn’t mean Isle of Wight residents liked circuses any less than other folks or that they didn’t have access to clowns, elephants and high-wire acts. It just meant they had to travel to get to the true big tops, which, of necessity, pitched their tents near railroads.

Isle of Wight residents assuaged their appetite for spectacle during the early 20th century by participating in an event known as the “Four-County Fair.” The fair, staged each fall at the Suffolk fairgrounds, was jointly organized by Nansemond (Suffolk), Isle of Wight, Southampton and Gates County, N.C.

Each of the four counties was responsible for organizing activities during a day of the fair, but the fair’s highlight each fall was a circus.

An example was the Greater Sheesley Shows, which was booked for the September 1928 Four-County Fair. Sheesley prided itself, as many circuses did, on its size. The show used 30 railroad cars to haul people and equipment from town to town.

Sheesley offered multiple entertainment elements. It had carnival rides, including a Ferris wheel, a carousel and a “whizzing whip.”

In addition, there were Big Top performances by daredevil riders, a lion tamer and a “Canadian riding bear.”

If that wasn’t enough, The Smithfield Times kept track of visits to Norfolk by Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey’s “Greatest Show on Earth” most years.

Smithfield was not to be left out of hosting circuses, however. The earliest reference I have found to a circus in the town was October 1929, when an unnamed circus performed “in the field opposite the school.” 

It’s tempting to guess that the field belonged to Lester Thomas of Pierceville, who opened “Lester Thomas Show Grounds” in Joe White’s Bottom the following year.

However, in May 1930, the paper carried an announcement that high school students were establishing a tennis court “just across the way from the high school on the old circus lot.” Hard to imagine that in Mr. Thomas’ cow pasture, but it’s certainly possible because that area had been subdivided into housing lots, many of which were never developed.

A troupe called the Barnes Players also came to town that May and set up their “waterproof tent theatre” across from the Grove Hotel.

With highway travel becoming easier, small circuses and other traveling entertainment troupes began coming to Smithfield.

In the fall of 1930, Thomas announced the first significant show on his property. 

The Al F. Wheeler New Model Show Inc. set up for a one-day performance and proclaimed itself to be “the only circus of its magnitude in the world that still retains the parade feature of circus day.” Note the caveat “of its magnitude.” You can probably read that to mean “small.”

Small circuses continued to be frequent visitors to Smithfield well into the 1950s. After Thomas died in 1946, his daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. M.A. Delk, continued to operate the show lot and contributed the space to nonprofits, including the local PTA, which held a circus as part of its annual harvest festival fundraiser. Later, the Smithfield Volunteer Fire Department used the site.

Grace Street ran only from Institute to Cary Street until the late 1950s when the town extended both ends of it. The northeast terminus was extended to Mason Street and the southwest end was extended to Main Street. To make that connection, much of the Thomas Show Lot had to be taken into the street system. The lot was dramatically filled and the street built as it is today. 

By then, small circuses were becoming less numerous, but the Smithfield Jaycees continued sponsoring visits by the Beers and Barnes Circus, which had been to Smithfield numerous times before. In 1957, they arranged to have the Beers circus perform on a lot “opposite Bill Bailey Pontiac Corporation,” on what’s now known as South Church Street.

In 1962, Beers and Barnes returned and performed on the lot next to the Colonial Store (presently home to The Smithfield Center.)

For the next 35 years, there was no circus in Smithfield, but then, in 1987, the Fraternal Order of Police sponsored a visit by the Robert Brothers Circus.

And then, in 1987, 1990 and 2000, the Smithfield High School PTA brought back the circus experience with what was billed as the largest tent circus in the world — Carson & Barnes. The Carson & Barnes organizers set up for one-day performances, raising a gigantic tent that housed five rings. Elephants were still in use at that time and performed traditional service hauling the lines to raise the tent.

The Carson & Barnes performance in July 2000 spelled the end of sawdust circuses in and near Smithfield.

 

John Edwards is publisher emeritus of The Smithfield Times. His email address is j.branchedwards@gmail.com.