Musical Fisher Price Circus Wagon

Here's another vintage Fisher Price circus piece: the musical Circus Wagon, made in the early 1940s. The wooden pull toy measures about 13 inches long. As it's pulled, the band leader's arms move up and down, as if he's playing the pipe organ, and a melodious song plinks and plonks. The lithographed paper features wonderful anthropomorphic pipes and an elephant who looks suspiciously like an unlicensed "Dumbo" film clone.

Chein Ferris Wheel

Made in the 1930s by the Chein company, this tin litho ferris wheel is 16 inches tall. The little cars have images of children riding in them, and the center spoke bears the ride's name, "Hercules," along with a fabulous smiling face. This toy just makes me happy whenever I look at it.

 Here it is in its natural habitat, my display of circusy toys.

Circus Elephant Push-Toy

One of my favorite circus-themed toys is this vintage plush elephant on wheels, probably made in England in the 1950s. It's sized for a child to push as he or she walks behind it. My little Merrythought bear loves to go along for the ride.

Antique Ten-Pins

I don't know why, but I love old wooden ten-pins. They're just beautiful objects, with their patina revealing their age and use. I cluster them around the house in little groupings, and they just make me smile as they remind me of carnivals and games. These vary in age, with the oldest from the 1900s and the latest from the 1940s, and the tallest is about 6 inches high.

Antique Electric Eye Circus Bear

I like old circus and carnival items for their color, their vibrancy, their novelty and historic appeal. But a sad presence in circuses of days gone by (still seen in some places today, I'm afraid) is the dancing bear. For centuries, traveling showmen have trained captive bears to dance at the end of a chain connected to a ring through the bear's nose. This of course, was cruel in the extreme, and nothing can excuse such a practice. From a historical standpoint, however, rare antique teddies designed as circus bears are quite desirable.

 This one dates to around 1906-1908, and is an American-made electric eye bear. His eyes are actually tiny lightbulbs. Inside his torso is a battery pack, which caused his eyes to flash when the switch hidden inside his ear was squeezed. Like most electric eye bears, he is quite large (23 inches tall) and has unjointed legs. 

These electric eye bears were a huge fad back in their day, sort of the 1900s equivalent of the 1980s Cabbage Patch Kid craze. Even so, they are hard to find today, especially with their fragile glass eyes intact. This one still has his nose ring and collar (which causes many visitors to quizzically ask if he's a punk rocker bear) but has lost his leash.

After his hard life in showbiz, he now lives comfortably in retirement at my house, where he regales the other bears with tales of life on the road.