From the mid 1950s through the 1960s, weekends saw the Schillhahn family taking to the road from their home in west-central Ohio, searching for circuses traveling across Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. Richard V. Schillhahn had developed an interest in the circus business while a youngerster durning the Depression, an interest that continued into adulthood. It was an interest that was passed on to his son, Richard J. Both were fascinated with the mechanics and logistics of setting up and tearing down a circus, and with the background infrasturcture involved that the average circus-goer from town just never saw. And as historians, they took notes, snapped pictures, and saved literature for posterity.

One of the show's elephants pulls up the center pole of the Side Show and Zoo tent. In circus slang all elephants regardless of their sex are called bulls. In the foreground is the shows bull herd. A circus of this size would carry around 12 bulls. There are three bull trucks that carry 4 bulls each.

They also did their parts to preserve the memory of what they had seen. The elder Richard built a model of a railroad-transported operation, much like he had seen setting up at the old Showgrounds is his native Springfield, Ohio. The show, Vaughn Bros. Circus was constructed in 1/4" per foot scale, and a second circus, Dix Bros. Circus , followed in the larger 1/2" per foot scale. The younger Richard shared in his fathers fascination, and started his own model circus as a teen (and continues working on it to this day). It, too, was Dix Bros., but with a difference: it is based on the more modern truck-transported show and was developed on a 1:25 scale truck kit. Today, this Dix Bros Circus is a representation of the large circuses that traveled the roadways of the United States in the last part of the 20th century.

We are looking down the back side of the circus. This area is called the backyard. Shown are the show's floats, clown alley, one of the generator trucks, mechanics truck and the two big cat act trucks. The big top is a scale 150 feet wide and 300 feet long.

The front side of the big top contains the cookhouse were the circus working men are feed. Also shown is the horse act truck.

Shown is the early stages of setup of the circus midway. On one side of the midway are the Hippo show and both of the sideshow banner line trucks. The office truck is in the middle of the midway while on the other side are the pony ride, Snake show and the concession truck with a smaller straight truck which is used for storage.

Outside of ring 3 is the cannon act. A person will be shot out of the cannon and through the big top into a net.

The feature act in ring one is a wire walking act. In the background are two of the 6 folding seat trucks.Each trailer has folding panels for easier transporting of the show.In the foreground are two hand made floats pulled by ponies while a clown sells circus programs.

In the center ring, facing the big cats. The animal arena is hand made and disassembles into sections. The chute in which the animals enter the arena are called runs. These runs run from the animal cages out side the big top to the arena. In the background is the big show's band. In the foreground is one of the hand made floats pulled by a pony while a vendor sells hot dogs.

Both Richard V. and Richard J. Schillhahn are members of the Circus Model Builders. Please visit the CMB web site at www.circusmodelbuilders.com.
Richard J. Schillhahn can be contacted at trschillhahn@aol.com