Copyright time
In their exaggerated costumes and topsy-turvy representations of human behavior, clowns playfully violated social and cultural norms without consequence, making them some of the era’s most beloved rebels—and stars of the show. But not for kids. As with older clowning traditions, the early American circus clowns were adults performing taboo acts to shock and delight other adults. They didn’t supply entertainment for children but instead delivered a smutty good time for mature audiences, much to the dismay of critics. Nineteenth century reformers and religious authorities condemned the circus as an ungodly, drunken spectacle ripe with gender transgressions and obscenities. One Christian periodical warned in 1831 that the circus encouraged in its crowds “idleness, intemperate drinking, profanity, a taste for low company [and] boisterous vulgarity.” Even P.T. Barnum himself, a showman known for his humbugs and shell games — and eventually for one of America’s largest circus spectaculars — explained that the criticisms were fair. He admitted that the arrival of the circus was “dreaded by all law abiding people, who knew that with it would inevitably cause disorder, drunkenness and riot.”
