On July 6, 1944, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus began their Hartford, Connecticut, matinee show with an audience of 7,000 ticketholders, mostly women and children. A few minutes into the show, however, the massive Big Top, which had been waterproofed with a paraffin-and-gasoline cocktail, caught on fire. On this episode, we’re discussing circus superstitions, city inspections, and a whole lot of fire safety.

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Sources for this episode include:

“Circus Fire 1944”

“The Hartford Circus Fire: Tragedy Under the Big Top” by Michael Skidgell, 2019

“Hartford Circus Holocaust” by W.Y. Kimball for National Fire Prevention Association’s The Quarterly, 1944