One of the last traveling circuses in the United States put on two shows under the big top in Inola Sept. 17.
The Culpepper and Merriweather Circus last stopped in Inola two years ago. Based in Hugo, its troupe of human and animal performers travel the country eight months out of the year. They came to Inola after 10 straight days of shows in Missouri, Arkansas and the Oklahoma towns of Salina and Ft. Gibson.
Leo Acton, who performs in the circus as Leo the Clown, leads tours of the circus lot each show morning as the crew sets up. Acton said the show has been on the road since March and won’t settle back in Hugo until late next month. The season ends Oct. 25 in Idabel.
“On average, we take three days off during our tour, like holidays that folks are at home or in church,” Acton said. “Mother’s Day and Easter, stuff like that, we’re not going to come out to a show. But otherwise, we’re doing it every day because we have to strike while the iron is hot. We have to make hay while the sun is high.”
Acton said the circus typically stops in a new town each day but will sometimes linger longer, such as its two-day residency next month in Livingston, Texas. The circus invites the public to watch the tent go up each morning it arrives in a new town.
A crew of eight erects the big top, the mammoth blue-and-white tent under which the show plays out, Acton said. It takes them about two to three hours.
Under the big top, one can see tiny, glowing dots overhead — miniature holes from dragging the tent Acton called “starlight” — and vinyl patches from old tents sewn over larger tears.
“When we get a new tent, we’ll actually take this old tent and we’ll cut it up to have as much usable vinyl as possible for patching, repairing of the tent,” Acton said. “… A little bit of wear and tear is good, gives kind of a romantic feeling.”
The first of two shows began at 5 p.m.; people started filling the circus lot an hour earlier.
Kids and their families bought their tickets from the short end of a long, red trailer and then grabbed popcorn and sno-cones from the broad side, which bounded the midway. They enjoyed a bounce house, a tall inflatable slide, face painting and other attractions until it was time to queue up for the show.
Sebastian Farrier, 13, said he hoped there’d be tigers in the show like the last time he saw the circus. Six-year-old Kennedy Miller said she wanted to see elephants, and her 7-year-old brother Kendrick said he wanted to see them dance.
Acton said C&M doesn’t have tigers or elephants at its shows at this time. Instead, attendees got to meet the circus’ two lions, the shy and cautious young adult Wendell and his fearless and playful cub brother Nelson. The circus also owns a donkey, as well as ponies and miniature horses kids could ride before the show.
“Usually we have other animal acts in the show,” Acton said. “This year, we had a dog act for most of the tour, but we weren’t able to keep them for the whole tour. We had some family issues there to take care of. Animal well-being comes first in circus, then our family and then our show.”
Acton said some of the people who make up the circus include a father and son juggling duo, trapeze stars from across the continent and his fellow clown, Skeeter. The circus performers and crew live during the traveling season in the trailers they use to carry the production with them.
The circus alternates yearly between a circuit of the Midwest and the West Coast, visiting 200 towns across 17 states every two years. They go everywhere from the Canadian border town of Bonners Ferry, Idaho, to the Southern wetlands of Logansport, Louisiana.
The Inola Area Chamber of Commerce hosted the circus and benefited from the proceeds.
“It’s really cool playing these smaller communities because people have an ownership of the show,” Acton said. “… It’s cool over the years seeing people come back with their kids, and their kids grow up. To get pictures with the kids and for them to come back and show us the pictures is a lot of fun.”