Baraboo News Republic article

Here comes the Parade! Milwaukee gets a repeat treat
By Christie Taylor / News Republic

Calliope music, marching bands, and the clip-clop of hundreds of horses pulling dozens of antique wagons will fill the streets of Milwaukee Sunday afternoon, as "the greatest show on Earth" returns from a six-year hiatus.
Until 2003, the Great Circus Parade had been a frequent visitor to Milwaukee since 1963, echoing an old tradition of displaying attractions in the streets to advertise a circus’ arrival in a new city.
Baraboo’s own Circus World Museum is organizing the spectacle, thanks to renewed funding from Great Circus Parade Inc., the Milwaukee foundation which raises the funds for the parade.
Steve Freese, the museum’s executive director, said staff at the museum have spent more than a year preparing 52 antique circus wagons for the event.
"Many of them were built in the 1890s," he said. "Anything that’s organic like that needs special care."
He said the staff had also been readying more than 1,500 costumes for marching bands, teamsters, and other parade participants.
About two dozen marching bands and bandwagon bands will appear in the parade, including one from Baraboo High School, Freese said.
Meanwhile, he said, the museum was not suffering from fewer visitors as it usually did around parade time. Instead, he said, Circus World Museum had seen a "significant" increase of 24 percent over previous years, even when discounting the blow dealt in the wake of last year’s flooding.
"This is the first year that attendance is up while we have a Milwaukee parade," Freese said.
Meanwhile, wagon superintendant Harold "Heavy" Burdick said excitement was already building at Milwaukee’s lakefront, where viewing of the wagons had been open to the public since Wednesday.
"The grounds are just packed," he said. "There’s got to be 500 people out there just watching a guy hitch some horses to a wagon."
Burdick said he expected more than half a million spectators to line the streets on parade day, and dozens of television stations nationwide will also carry a live broadcast from Milwaukee Public Television.
Burdick said the visual thrill of the circus was one that was especially important in tougher economic times.
"It’s beautiful to see all these horses hooked up to these wagons," he said. "It makes people think good things in this world, where right now it’s kind of tough. It’s amazing."
Parade director Dave Saloutos said the Great Circus Parade had been ranked the third-largest in the nation by several publications. More than 2,000 people were participating, and, he said, if the entire parade were lined up end-to-end, it would exceed five miles in length.
Aside from nearly 450 horses of all kinds to pull wagons and carry participants, the parade would also feature elephants, a giraffe, baboons, a tapir, kangaroos, a lion, and — "of course"— tigers.
Saloutos said his favorite item on the parade lineup was the historic Ringling Brothers bell wagon, which was assembled in 1892 by Baraboo’s Moeller brothers.
"It’s the first brand new wagon the Ringlings ... had created especially for them," he said.
And because the carvings and metal casting were both done in Milwaukee, Freese said, the wagon "really completes the important connection between Milwaukee and Baraboo."
"I don’t know how many people have stopped me and said thank you, thank you, thank you for bringing this back," said Saloutos, who said he has been working seven days a week since April to bring together various elements of the parade.
"I enjoy doing this because it’s a piece of our heritage, as people in Wisconsin and as Americans, and especially being a resident of Baraboo," he said.
"The circus is our heritage and it’s something we should all be proud of."