Documents 

This is the intimate story of the biggest tenting circus in the British Isles, run by one of the last of the old-time showmen and his ten children. An expansive individual who is known to millions through the medium of the television screen, Billy Smart's very appearance, with his Palm Beach suits and Stetson hats, serves as an advertisement for his show; and the show itself achieves a unique and happy balance between tradition and the speed and colour of a West End revue.

A former fairground magnate, Billy Smart started his circus in a small way in 1946, travelling it in conjunction with his fair until it grew strong enough to stand on its own two feet. For the last three years it has been the biggest show in the country, run on the lines of the great German circuses and employing the best Continental trainers and artistes. It comprises a herd of fifteen elephants and nearly a hundred horses, as well as polar bears, lions, dromedaries, chimpanzees, sea lions, zebras, llamas and Highland cattle. It also has a staff of two hundred employees.[editor summary]