Episode 53: Animal Crackers and the Clown Riot of 1855
What do animal crackers have to do with P.T. Barnum, circus elephants, and a group of clowns who started a riot in Toronto?
In this bonus episode of True Crime Culinary, we’re exploring how the modern circus grew from horseback performances into enormous traveling spectacles, why circuses and exotic animals became intertwined, and how that history ended up on a little box of animal crackers.
Plus, we head to Toronto in 1855, where a fight between circus clowns and firefighters escalated into one of the strangest riots in the city’s history.
References:
• V&A — The Story of Circus
•…
The skinny
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