The ring of truth
’ve always been fascinated with the circus.
It began with a few small circuses I saw growing up in Fort Pierce.
At about 14, I got to see the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey
Circus, when family friends had an extra ticket to see “The Greatest
Show on Earth” performing in the Palm Beach Auditorium.
After college, as a reporter for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, I claimed as one of
my beats the Ringling circus, which had spent its winters in Sarasota from 1927
to 1960, when it moved 20 miles south to Venice, where I was cutting my teeth
in daily journalism. One of my favorite days in the year was when the circus
would return by train to settle down to its winter quarters, a big canopied structure
near the Venice Airport. To get the animals home from the train, the police
would close U.S. 41 businesses so that trainers could walk elephants, horses and
various other quadrupeds over a camelback bridge and down the highway
about a mile to the quarters. The spectacle drew circus lovers for miles.
Later, I moved to the Sarasota office of the newspaper and, when on obituary
duty, spent a lot of time writing stories about various circus greats who died
and called Sarasota their home, even though they spent only a few weeks there
a year during their performing days. One of my best-remembered feature stories
was about a cemetery where most of the circus greats were buried. Many
had elaborate tombstones and epitaphs, and stories abounded about interesting
customs such as riders being buried with their saddles.
The connection to the circus went beyond job duties and subtly pervaded
much of our lives. When our children were little, Gretchen and I would take
them to various circuses that rehearsed nearby — at the time, about 20 called
Sarasota County home. Even the local high school had a circus that it produced
every year. The Catholic church where we were married and had our children
baptized had a large circus congregation — two circus wheels hung near the
sanctuary — and even had a circus chaplain assigned to tend to the spiritual
needs of the performers.
Through my acquaintance with circus performers over the years, I learned their favorite bars
and the nickname (not so complimentary) of some of the stars and could even unravel some of
the complex blood relationships of some of the most famous families. Most of all, my experiences
left me with incredible admiration for the spirit and perseverance of the people of the circus.
Nobody tells of that spirit better than E.B. White in his “Ring of Time” essay in The New Yorker
after visiting the Ringling quarters during the Sarasota days: “The circus comes as close to being
the world in a microcosm as anything I know; in a way it puts all the rest of show business in the
shade. Its magic is universal and complex. Out of its wild disorder comes order; from its rank
smell rises the good aroma of courage and daring; out of its preliminary shabbiness comes the
final splendor. And buried in the familiar boast of its advance agents lies the modesty of most of
its people.”
Our cover subject in this issue, Lucia Zora, billed as “The Bravest Woman in the World”
because of her elephant-riding and lion-and-tiger training feats, certainly reflected that spirit.
Zora was a visitor to Fort Pierce in her early years and lived her last years here in the family
home on South Indian River Drive. Growing up on Indian River Drive, I often heard stories about
her and the “circus house” in which she lived. Her autobiography, “Sawdust and Solitude,” was
written before her final landing and told little about her Florida connection. Like many, I never
knew much about her time in Fort Pierce or where she was buried. This issue is an attempt to
shed more light on the great Zora. Sadly, it reveals that she almost certainly lies in an unmarked
grave in Fort Pierce. It’s an unworthy end for the world’s bravest woman and a genuine circus
hero the Treasure Coast can claim as its own.
Reach Publisher and Editor Gregory Enns at
772.940.9005 or enns@indianrivermag.com.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
A TREASURE TO READ
6
Publisher & Editor
Gregory Enns
772.940.9005
enns@indianrivermag.com
Associate Publisher
Allen Osteen
Contributing Writers
Janie Gould,
Gloria Taylor Weinberg,
Camille S. Yates,
Susan Burgess, Willi Miller,
Greg Gardner, Jerry Shaw,
Catherine Enns Grigas,
Sandra Thurlow,
Pat Trowbridge
Photography
Ed Drondoski,
Greg Gardner,
Bob Dobens
Design
Michelle L. Burney
Editing
Jay Goley, Julie Blomquist,
Judith Collins
Web Editor
Michael Burney
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