Circus in The Heartland - Transcript
[music – circus colliope]
[Margie Miller]
My great-grandfather, Tom Ewalt, was born on a farm west of the small town of Geneva, Nebraska. He grew up helping his father drill farm wells and put up windmill towers. In 1922 Tom married Helen and they built a home together in the town of Geneva. The newlyweds had no idea of the interesting route their lives together would take.
[Kay Miller]
Tom was a very special person. He was a friend to everyone and he had this very special ability to build. To build anything. He built a little car for my brother’s Christmas present that summer. He took it out to the fairs like at Clay Center and Fairmont and Geneva and gave rides for ten cents a ride.
[Margie Miller]
The small car would be the start of what became Ewalt Amusement Company. Tom soon ordered additional cars and built a platform for a kiddie-car ride. He built a ferriswheel out of the pipe from his well drilling business. And purchased merry-go-rounds and another ferriswheel.
Trained animals also became part of the company that had started traveling to fairs in Nebraska and Iowa under the careful management of Tom and Helen.
[Bob Ewalt]
My dad was very ambitious and he was a very hard worker. He knew what he was doing and had to know something to get into something like that all by himself. And my mother was kind of the brains of the money part of it.
[Margie Miller]
It was then that son Bob and daughter Kay became more involved in the family business. After a few more years the next steps seemed clear for Tom and his family. Expand Ewalt Amusement Company into a full-fledged circus.
[Kay Miller]
One day they were just traveling, going down the highway, and my mother saw this sign and it said Bell Telephone Company. And she said how about Bell Brothers’ Circus?
[Margie Miller]
Tom already owned many trained animals and several trucks and began hiring workers and actors to create his show.
[Kay Miller]
This one gal and I did what was called a ladder act at that time...the swinging ladder. She also rode one horse and my brother rode another and these horses did tricks together. Then this other couple, they had a rolling globe act and juggled and they taught me to walk the rolling globe.
[Margie Miller]
At the start of the season on the first night of the new town, there was something in the air. Something that fulfilled my great-grandfather’s dream. Something that his son Bob and daughter Kay could embrace as well.
[Bob Ewalt]
The first day you got a few jitters. And there’d be some mistakes by the animals and you had a little problem with them. But eventually that worked out itself and the animals looked good.
[Margie Miller]
While the Bell Brothers’ Circus grew to be a large production, it remained a family run circus.
[Kay Miller]
There was one man who was really in charge of the canvas and my brother at the time, who was 15-16, he worked with this man and then my uncle was in charge of electricity. He was an electrician and did repairs. And my grandfather Al went along with us for awhile.
[Margie Miller]
In 1946 Tom bought a brand-new three ring tent. But the new tent would not be the most memorable addition to the Bell Brothers’ Circus.
[Kay Miller]
Part of the circus business and part of my father’s life was secrets. And one of the biggest secrets we had was that he purchased Ena, our elephant, and no one knew about it until she came to town.
[Margie Miller]
Ena proved to be an important addition to the circus in more ways than one.
[Bob Ewalt]
Ena was a large elephant. I think she weighed approximately six thousand pounds when we got her. She was the one that pulled up the big poles and the big tents. And she could pull stakes. She helped do the heavy work. If trucks got stuck we’d put Ena in front of the truck and... pull it out, you know.
[Margie Miller]
But Ena’s main role was performing which is what she did best.
[Kay Miller]
And of course my father was the one who did the act with Ena. The biggest part of her act was that he laid down on the ground and she laid down on top of him. And he trusted her... but you know, with these big feet coming towards you would you... how would you feel? So you had to have a lot of trust.
I rode on top of her head for Grand Entry so she and I were the last to go in the tent.
[Margie Miller]
A circus was an odd addition to an otherwise quiet neighborhood street near downtown Geneva. As the family business grew the Ewalts and their animals became quite the distraction for the neighboring post office workers.
[Ben Fussell]
It was different because sometimes our fellows enjoyed the work to the north... and the mail didn’t get worked for awhile. But it was different and we enjoyed it.
I remember seeing like when he was training the horses. And he had them well trained to make certain rounds on his command and... it was a good act.
[Margie Miller]
While it was a special time in my grandmother’s life, she and brother had a lot of responsibility. Both Kay and Bob would miss six weeks of school in the spring and fall.
[Kay Miller]
We were always up at five, ready to move at six, hopefully be at the town by seven and start to raise the tents, you know for that day. And then you take everything down after the evening show. Then it would probably be eleven o’clock or twelve to go to bed.
[Margie Miller]
Despite the success of the Bell Brothers’ Circus, its run ended in 1946. By then the polio epidemic had broken out and people were afraid to be in large crowds. Tom and Helen were getting tired so they brought the circus home and sold it piece by piece.
Even when it was gone the circus and amusement company remained a source of pride for the Ewalts.
[Kay Miller]
We were always very proud that it was always clean. The rides were always painted and the trucks were always painted. And...and just had a very proud feeling about what they were doing.
[Margie Miller]
For Kay, just the sight of a circus conjures up a range of emotions. It’s something she never outgrew.
[Kay Miller]
I guess the good memories of the circus is the traveling and seeing countryside and just the excitement of each day in the circus. I still go to circuses and...there is the smell of the circus ring that you just don’t ever forget.
[Margie Miller]
Today, few may remember when monkeys and elephants could be found in downtown Geneva and acrobats filled the air. But those who were there won’t soon forget the excitement of the Bell Brothers’ Circus. And the memories created by one man, my great-grandfather Tom Ewalt who acted on his dreams.
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