On July 6, 1944, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus was in town in Hartford, CT. The big top was huge- one-third longer than a football field, actually. Thousands of people flocked to the area for the show, filling the bleachers and the grandstands that encircled the entire tent. Prepared for “The Greatest Show On Earth,” adults and children alike watched as the Flying Wallendas pedaled bicycles on high wires above the crowd. Unfortunately, no one noticed the flames that began to consume one area of the tent in time, and within minutes, the entire big top was burned to the ground.
Big Top Burning: The True Story of an Arsonist, a Missing Girl, and The Greatest Show On Earth by Laura A. Woollett is a middle grade nonfiction book that tells the story– both what’s known, and what remains a mystery– of this legendary circus fire, a terrible tragedy that claimed 167 lives. With witness testimony, police reports, newspaper accounts, photographs, and years of research to fill in the gaps, this book presents a vivid picture of the lead up to the fire, including the multiple factors that contributed to the fire going undetected at first and so quickly consuming the whole circus tent, as well as the difficulties that followed for so many families dealing with the aftermath of lost or injured loved ones.
One family in particular is highlighted throughout the book, a mother and three children who attended the circus that day. A great mystery still revolves around the daughter, Eleanor Cook, for uncertainty remains about the identification of her body, with different theories prevailing at different times in the years following the fire. Another looming question exists about the origin of the fire. Differing reports about the location of its origin have contributed to the classification of the fire, at first called accidental, and then reviewed for arson. For many years, the arson theory was pursued, even with a suspect in mind, but answers to such a question can be quite elusive.
Having grown up in Connecticut, I was surprised that I wasn’t familiar with this historical event. After reading the book, I asked my dad if he knew about the fire, even though it happened in the decade before his birth. Evidently, we had relatives there that day, though thankfully, they were not in the tent at the time of the fire, so they were not harmed, though it can be imagined that the experience still left a lasting impression. My father also said that growing up, he knew someone who had been burned in this fire but had survived. This story is legendary in the area, and Hartford did not host another circus until the Ringling Bros. performed there in 1975, over 30 years after the fire.
Nonfiction can sometimes be a harder sell to children than fictional stories that sweep them away, but Big Top Burning is riveting in its presentation of a real-life drama and will surely captivate older elementary school and middle school children.