In the Shadow of the Big Top

Art Concello wasn’t born into the circus. But he was in the right place at the right time, becoming one of the world’s best trapeze artists before transforming himself into a shrewd circus businessman.

In the Shadow of the Big Top: The Life of Ringling's Unlikely Circus Savior details Concello’s fateful path from flyer, to manager, to owner. Against the backdrop of the golden age of the American circus, this book goes beyond the showmanship displayed in the ring to reveal how the circus could both thrill a crowd and make incredible money—and exposes the human toll extracted for doing so. Maureen Brunsdale not only tells Art’s incredible life story, but also that of his wife, an orphan-turned-acrobat who was determined to never be left behind in a career every bit as terrifying and electrifying as her husband’s.

The first-ever biography of Concello, In the Shadow of the Big Top draws back the curtain on the inner workings of the circus and casts a light on the man who shaped not only Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, but the circus industry as a whole.

Maureen Brunsdale is a circus historian and board member of the Circus Historical Society. She is the Special Collections Librarian at Milner Library, Illinois State University. Brunsdale is the coauthor of The Bloomington-Normal Circus Legacy. Learn more at MaureenBrunsdale.com.

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