Stephanie Sinclair, Running Away with the Circus
More than 300 people from all over the world travel with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus blue unit. Some travel in cars and trailers, but 270 live on the trains, most from the multigenerational circus families that collectively represent thousands of years of circus history. All say that only circus people can understand a life where 44 weeks a year are spent travelling from coast to coast on a train that is 61 cars and ‘a full mile’ long. It is a life of close quarters and rigorous training that many began in childhood. Their job is to convince the world that the circus still matters.