September 22, 2010

Old Photos of Billy Smart's Traveling Circus










I happened to come across these wonderful photos, apparently taken in England, in the 1940’s or 1950’s of the Billy Smart’s Traveling Circus. The color photos convey a wonderful ambiance of what circus life must have been like at that time. Billy Smart Junior's family was known for creating one of Europe’s largest touring circus. He was also known for dating a string of beautiful and famous women, including Diana Dors, Jayne Mansfield and Shirley Bassey.


via: onion magazine



3 comments:

  1. i got a photo today of ernest edward farren (my great grandfather) he was a clown in billy smarts circus in the 1940's i think. on the photo there is two other clowns would love to possibly find more photos if you have any information on how i could possibly find some would be great thanks my email is rosalinpeel@manx.net

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi these are from the National Fairground Archive www.shef.ac.uk/nfa taken by Lionel Bathe there are over 2000 on their webpages its nice to credit so others can find them

    ReplyDelete