Circus Aficionado

Filmmaker documents circus culture across America

Nathan Diebenow

The circus from an audience’s point of view is one of marvels –amazing feats of human strength, ability, and harmony–some death-defying while others just clowning around. To a new Bosque County resident who has documented the ebb and flow of modern circuses in America, the people who juggle, jump, and jest to make ends meet are simply fascinating.

For going on 24 years now, Lane Talbert has re-focused his professional skills in journalism and filmmaking on circus culture. No circus –small, medium, or large— from coast to coast has escaped his video camera and sound recorder. He has interviewed owners, performers, and their families, logging thousands of hours of footage and traveling thousands of miles on his own dime.

Along the way, he found that away from the rings, the nets, and the tents, the life of a performer on the road with today’s circuses remains rather, well, humdrum.

“As one acrobat told me, ‘Circus people are normal people; we travel. How come people who live in towns don’t travel like us?’” Talburt said.

During the winter months –like now– folks who perform in circuses are on holiday, resting in their hometowns after an arduous touring season. After time rejuvenating, most performers get itchy feet ready to return to their respective canvas arenas and continue their nomadic lifestyle, Talburt said.

“One clown recently confessed that he found securing employment during the pandemic to be difficult. ‘After all,’ he told me, ‘who wants to hire a person with a resume that shows he’s spend the last 23 years as a circus clown?’ he said. Existing while on the go does, however, make for interesting innovations, especially for troupes with families, Talburt has discovered.

“One mother of three, whose circus family were European immigrants, said she toilet-trained each of her children at age one, using the same methods of her grandmother. She explained that in the absence of disposable diapers and laundromats, she was forced to wash soiled diapers by hand, in between her ring appearances,” he said.

As for children’s education, circus families adapt through home-schooling resources either by a parent or a teacher for hire. Kids in circuses also receive extra education on the “ways of the street” as well as in-person field trips most traditional students might miss like the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, the battlefields in Gettysburg, or the Statue of Liberty in New York City, he said.

“It’s not uncommon to interview a performer or worker who has learned to change a 50-dollar bill at age five,” Talburt said. Talburt said that like most folks, he attended his first circus as a child with his father. It was a dog-and-pony show in a local armory soon after World War II. Later, as a 10-year-old, he witnessed the larger Clyde Beatty Circus, a 15-car railroad circus, which featured the famous act where the big cat trainer barely escaped with his life!

Instead of joining the circus, Talburt decided on a life in journalism. By age 11, he worked a newspaper route in McAlester, Oklahoma. During his sophomore year in high school, he landed his first paid newspaper reporting job at the weekly McAlester Democrat. He earned 10 cents per column inch for high school sports coverage.

Talburt continued to work his way up the ranks of the local newspaper, laying out sports pages each workday morning while attending classes. In his sophomore year at the University of Oklahoma, he rose to Norman bureau chief for the Daily Oklahoman and the Oklahoma City Times, covering campus life, including the Board of Regents.

His career start in television was at the NBC-TV affiliate of Oklahoma Publishing Company as the first dedicated news film editor and script writer for the two half-hour daily newscasts. “I had never touched a piece of 16 mm film in my young life, nor had I the vaguest notion how to write scripts and edit sound bites from various interviews. I learned the techniques on the go from sympathetic news anchors and photographers, and by the end of my first—and only year as it turned out, I figured that I had edited and scripted at least a thousand news film segments,” he said.

Talburt ventured back into print news reporting for the Abilene Reporter-News in Texas while working on his degree at Hardin-Simmons and raising his new family.

By 1964, his career direction took him to the public relations department of Southwestern Bell Telephone in Dallas. After a brief stint as a PR director for a private college, he worked at the Bell companies as their PR manager for 30 years in St. Louis, Topeka, Washington, D.C., and New York.

Talburt discovered the power of documentary filmmaking while interviewing consumer advocate reporters for Washington TV stations in 1974. By showing telephone company executives and managers what customers thought about their telephone service, corporate polices changed so companies established better working relationships with consumer advocate organizations. In 1992, he decided to take an early retirement and opened his own public relations business. In 1999, at age 60, Talburt renewed his interest in circuses when innocently filming the fivering Carson & Barnes Circus in Iowa.

“From the first, it’s been my hobby –an expensive one at times— to learn the answers to questions that I’d subconsciously harbored about what makes circuses—especially their diverse personalities—tick,” he said.

Talburt gained access to circus performers in their own backyards by learning their lifestyle routines. Over time, the performers, managers, and owners warmed up to him as he traveled to meet them from his homebases in Missouri, Connecticut, and Texas. “Because of my memberships in the Circus Fans of America and Circus Historical Society, I was able to interview speakers with circus backgrounds at national conventions and local circus aficionados’ meetings,” he said.

His interest has in turn brought the circus life to his doorstep.

One night at his home, he hosted a side-show owner and his fire-eating dwarf. On another occasion, an original member of the first black performing troupe on “The Greatest Show on Earth” crashed at his pad.

Talburt is quick to point out that he has never been pickpocketed, short-changed, or lost any of his video recording equipment to any circus or carnival in the past 24 hours. However, he has gone through five video cameras and countless video tapes and memory cards for his documentary efforts.

Since April 2018, Talburt has resided in an apartment above Clifton’s Art Alley. He credits his move from Connecticut to Texas to his younger son who resides north of Meridian. At first Talburt didn’t like the sound of a living in town for “senior citizens,” but once he visited the community, seeing the art scene, the healthcare offerings, and the close proximity to family, things clicked.

While Talburt is still focused on documenting circus life, his camera lens also points at life in Bosque County. His first YouTube video about Clifton chronicles the Clifton Main Street program’s annual Trick or Trick event. The “Celebrate Special Halloween in Clifton, Texas,” video features Clifton Main Street director Angela Smith and dozens of local families dressed in Halloween costumes gathering candy in historic downtown Clifton.

“In coming months, I plan to film and edit interviews and accompanying scenes on subjects as Clifton’s Norwegian background and activities in the arts community, as well as events in other Bosque County communities. I’m seeking ideas for further exploration,” he said.

To view Talburt’s documentary work, visit his YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/@LaneInConn