Originally published at: Watch this 8mm movie of a circus in Alaska in 1966 | Boing Boing
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I always wanted to run away with the Circus, instead I was raised in one.
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You really haven’t lived until you’ve seen Shriners racing ostriches.
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really? who’s faster? Shriner or the Ostrich?
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I see a lot of clowns. Are we sure this isn’t a Trump rally?
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There isn’t quite enough video of the mountains in the background to confirm, but due the all the flat land around the site, mountains in the background, and apparent size of the event, I’d venture to guess the video was taken at the State Fair in Palmer.
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Either way… clowns can be frightening.
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I can almost smell the cabbage.
Did the circus really travel all the way up to Alaska? or maybe it’s a local event? Either way it’s incredible how much more haphazard things seem… and not a crowd in site!
I love this! I literally just walked back in the door after selling a Bell and Howell Filmosound dual 8mm to a couple of lovely old hippies. Not to worry, I have several other 8mm projectors along with plenty of footage of our family at Disneland circa 1971, on the golf course in Monterey with the Rat pack (up close!) and many other jewels from a childhood in California in the early seventies. I also have rare hand colored 8mm films from 1918, stop motion, Barbarella etc. Wonderful stuff.
This film was a gem!
My guess is it’s the Anchorage Shrine circus. Views are mostly facing east, though at 24 seconds, the camera, from the top of the ferris wheel, pans to the south. That’s the Chugach front range in the background of the ostrich race scene, as seen from somewhere in Anchorage. Wolverine Peak, O’Malley, The Wedge, Powerline Pass, and Flattop are easily identifiable. The structure in the background of the stagecoach scene might be Anchorage High School. It was two stories before the '64 earthquake.
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