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This week's hero is...
Emmett Kelly
Emmett Kelly was born on December 9, 1898. At a young age, he made the decision to join the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey circus. For seven years, Kelly worked as a trapeze artist. In 1931 however, Kelly decided that he wanted to join the clown act. It was not long before he created his own personal character called, "Weary Willie". This character quickly became his most notable performance and is considered to be revolutionary in the circus clown act. However, on one hot day in July of 1944, Kelly would be confronted with one of the worst disasters in American history.
On July 6, 1944, the Barnum and Bailey Circus began to prepare for a performance in Hartford, Connecticut. The circus performers set up a huge canvas tent which was known as the, "Big Top". It wasn't long before thousands of spectators began to arrive and fill the stands. By the time that the first act began, there were more than 7,000 people who were seated around the three circus rings and two stages. The first performance (the lion act) began at 2 PM. The next performance was the Flying Wallendas (stunt performers) high wire act.
Since nearly everyone's attention was on the stage, nobody knows when or how it happened, but less than 30 minutes after the show began, people began to smell smoke. The circus band conductor then spotted flames on the southwest sidewall of the Big Top. He quickly ended the performance and informed the audience to begin evacuating. However, the fire began to spread at an alarmingly rapid rate. This was due to the Big Top's paraffin wax that was used to waterproof the tent. Within minutes of being spotted, the fire was already beginning to engulf the whole tent. At first, the crowd began an orderly evacuation to the tent's exits. Unfortunately, the Big Top's power shorted out and pieces of burning fabric began dropping on people. This caused the evacuation to turn into mass hysteria that engulfed the crowd of people trying to escape.
Emmett Kelly himself was located outside the Big Top getting ready for the clown act when he heard screams. He quickly grabbed a bucket of water (an iconic image depicts this) and ran to the burning Big Top to help assist fighting the fire in any way possible. Upon seeing how huge the inferno was, Kelly decided to assist people in escaping by ripping holes in the canvas which enabled dozens of people to escape. He personally carried at least six children to safety. Unfortunately, some of the escaping spectators had become separated from their families and many then attempted to reenter the burning tent. Upon seeing this, Kelly quickly yelled for them to keep moving and organized volunteers to keep people from reentering. Just minutes later, the fire caused the Big Top to collapse.
Although most the 7,000 spectators had successfully escaped, at least 200 became trapped under the burning Big Top. Kelly, police, firemen, and other good samaritans quickly ran to the collapsed tent to try and cut the people out before the fire reached them. Unfortunately, most of those that were trapped died before they could be reached. By the time the fire had been extinguished, 167 people had been killed (mostly women and children) and more than 600 were injured.
Although he was heralded as a hero in the aftermath of the fire, Emmett Kelly never sought any recognition for what he did on July 6, 1944. Like many others, he was forever haunted by the deaths of so many people and often blamed himself for failing to save more. He continued to perform as a circus clown for another decade before he retired. He passed away on March 28, 1979, at the age of 80. In 1994, Kelly was posthumously inducted into the International Circus Hall of Fame.
The circus fire of 1944 will always remain one of the saddest days in American history. However, the heroism of people like Emmett Kelly helped to prevent many more lives from being lost. He is definitely someone who should be held in high regard.
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/07/06/tears-of-a-clown/
https://www.courant.com/opinion/op-ed/hc-op-condon-hartford-circus-fire-0703-20140702-column.html
O'Nan, Stuart (2008). The Circus Fire: A True Story of an American Tragedy. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
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