International Independent Showmen's Museum

The Showmen’s Museum in Gibsonton, Florida is awesome. It isn’t quite as good as the real thing, but with the lights blinking and the music playing it has that special carnival atmosphere. It even has a working Ferris wheel indoors. In the days before television, movies, and video games, traveling fairs and circuses were prime entertainment. People would wait all year or longer for them. Like trains and bookstores, they hold a special place in our cultural history that will likely persist in some form forever. They kept employed many in society that would likely have had a rough time otherwise, such as midgets, giants, and those with extra limbs. They worked, lived, and travelled together. They really understood what made true entertainment in the old days. Before there were internet cat videos, people put monkeys in tiny cars and rolled them down tracks. Now that’s real entertainment!

There are all types of show business. The museum has two floors of exhibits covering well over a century of show history, including forms frowned on today. It features exhibits on “freak” shows, blackface minstrels, puppets, animal shows, tricks with cars, and something called the metrodrome. Cars and motorcycles used to race around the inside of these spherical structures, building up speed to climb higher up the sides. There is also an exhibit on food, explaining the history of crackerjacks, corn dogs, cotton candy, and sugar waffles. Upstairs are the hand-painted miniatures of artist Ray Genter. There are already sixteen 3X4 tables full of tiny circus scenes and roller coasters and rumor has it that he’s still making more.

The museum is full of history. They have a machine used to pull up the giant tent spikes when it sadly came time to leave a town for the next. It’s basically a large lever on wheels. The chains at the end were attached to the spikes and the lever pulled down. The museum also has a set of cameras from the original photo booths of the nineteenth century. There is an exhibit on a man who joined the circus in order to travel the country and spread the gospel. There is a reference library onsite and a history blog online. They cover all kinds of subjects, from food to the history of the carousel to the trucks used to transport the equipment across the country.

People once involved in the industry in one way or another visit from all over the country. The place brings back many memories for them. This is the real good the place does, not just as a location to spend a fun afternoon, but a place that keeps alive the stories of those who worked hard to keep the show going, the dreams of every child visiting a fair for the first time, and the rich and interwoven history of an entire industry.

6938 Riverview Drive, Riverview, Florida
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Written by Daniel Noe