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The imaginative, often bizarre decorations that enliven fairgrounds, amusement parks and carnivals have a never-ending appeal to the popular imagination. Stunning carved and painted carousel horses, sinister mechanical targets, terrifying rides and alluring freak show banners are among the many wildly ornamented devices that use sex, horror and humour to entice fairground visitors to sample their wares. Fairground Art is the first book ever to thoroughly reveal the fascinating history of this unique art form. Also chronicled are the little-known histories of the myriad craftsmen and artists who created these dynamic works. [editor summary]

This is a monumental history of that universally trancing, international phenomenon-the circus. It is the most complete chronicle of circuses and circus lore ever written in the english language. No reader can fail to be impressed by the scope of its coverage and the vividness of its descriptions. No lover of circus wonders can remain unmoved while reading of the people and performances that illuminated circus life.

The author reveals the origins of circus acts among Greek and Roman acrobats and medieval minstrels, tracing their development through eighteenth-century
fairs where they were combined with displays of horse riding in a circular ring to form a new style of presentation. He then follows the evolution of circuses during the nineteenth century, showing how novel acts and exhibitions of animal training were introduced to produce the circus we know today.

Mr. Speaight demonstrates the special way in which the circus grew in the United States, where three-ring circuses were transported over vast distances by railroad; and he describes the Golden Age of the circus in Europe, when circus riders ranked with ballet stars in popular esteem. Finally, he provides an up-to-the-minute account of circuses in the world today.

The author's account is based on many years of research in unpublished manuscripts and museum collections, and he reverses some long.held errors of previous writers on the subject. His book contains exhaustive notes and an appendix, listing circus buildings in London, New york and paris, which brings together information never before printed, giving the book great value as a permanent work of reference. [editor summary]

The fairground has reflected many facets of social history, and this book gives an absorbing account of its development from the pagan festivals of ancien Greece to the great medieval trading fairs, and how the various forms of popular entertainment provided at these fairs enventually became the principal attraction.

The autor analyse the three basic elelments of the fair : the Joy Ride, including all the different types of Carousel, Merry-go-round, Whirligig, and Scenic railway : the Joints - that is, the side-shows and stalls : and the transportation used for travelling between fairs. There are chapters on the planning of fairground sites, and on the construction and decoration that are the essence of fairground architecture and remarkable for their spontaneity and diversity of style.