Circus is a part of showbusiness. In the Shadow of the Big Top: The Life of Ringling’s Unlikely Circus Savior by Maureen Brunsdale chronicles the lives of two extraordinary showpeople who had a major impact on the business aspects of the circus in the 20th Century.

d a major impact on the business aspects of the circus in the 20th Century. Arthur Concello and his wife Antoinette were a circus industry power couple. Both were center-ring trapeze artists on the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Both accomplished the legendary triple somersault. And both went on to senior leadership positions in the circus industry: Arthur as general manager of The Greatest Show on Earth, and Antoinette as director of the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus aerial ballet. Starting with their childhoods, author Maureen Brunsdale recounts the professional and personal lives of the Concellos from 1911 until Arthur’s death in 2001. After reading this scholarly and well-documented book (there are almost forty pages of endnotes and bibliography), you will not only know what made these two people circus legends, but you will have also learned a great deal about the history of the American circus. With the precision of a forensic...