Big Apple Circus Commercials Haunt My Dreams

I loved the circus as a kid. Every time Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey came around I would BEG my mother to take me. Sometimes begging paid off (let that be a lesson kids) and in I believe 1985, I glimpsed one of the last great Circus scams, the Living Unicorn (goat).

It is a highlight of my childhood. Now I am not sure why, but no matter how much begging I would do, I could never get my family to go across the river to the Big Apple Circus. Maybe after the luxury of a three-ring circus, they knew they could never go back to one.

Now that I am an adult I realize that Big Apple could never match the spectacle of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. My mother knowing my love of grandeur was probably aware of what a waste of money it would have been. But still to this day, I am haunted by their commercials. This one was par for the course in 1980s suburban New Jersey. I am pretty sure it was broadcast on WPIX.