By Virginia Winder

Step right up, roll right up, and head to The Greatest Show On Earth!

That was the irresistible call that drew Taranaki people to Inglewood in their tens of thousands on the last Saturday of September from 1952 to 1972.

Huge parades, athletics stars, circus acts, escapologists, food stalls, quick-fire raffles, musicians, and woodchoppers were some of the attractions that helped the event back-up its bold branding.

Mountain Watching: A huge turnout for the 1955 Greatest Show Earth at Inglewood's Jubilee Park, with a clear Mount Taranaki in the background.

Inglewood's Alistair Nelson says the name was taken from the Cecil B. DeMille-directed movie, released that same year. The film, starring Charlton Heston, James Stewart and Dorothy Lamour, was about the dramatic lives of trapeze artists, a clown, an elephant trainer and was set against a circus spectacle.

The location for the Inglewood version was the Jubilee Park athletics track, and like the big-screen story, there were trapeze artists, international stars and high drama.

Mr Nelson, who was on the original Greatest Show On Earth committee, says the event began as a simple gala day to raise money for a much-needed new sportsground on empty space next to Jubilee Park.

Runaway success

"After the war (WWII) everything was running down and we had years of nothing. The way we raised money was by having queen carnivals."

But the queen event was forced to abdicate in favour of a new-look king carnival.

This was given its auspicious name, along with and two regal heads – King Jim (Okeroa) and King Bob (Lamplough) – who arrived at The Greatest Show On Earth in Claude Ludeman's horse-drawn gig.

The show was a hit. "It was so successful we decided to hold it the following year," says Mr Nelson, who was the show's committee president for 14 years.

The kings only appeared that first year, while the show took on a life of its own.

"So, as a consequence, it grew and so we held them every year and they got bigger and bigger and bigger," Mr Nelson says.

Bumper show

In 1963, the show coincided with the 60th jubilee of the Inglewood Borough.

"We estimated 35,000 in Inglewood that day and 27,000 at the show."
Mr Nelson shakes his head. "It was absolutely hopeless, you have no idea. You can imagine the toilet problems and the food problems – the shops in town ended up selling frozen food! We had over 100 floats; probably the biggest parade ever held in Taranaki."

My Fair Ladies: The Inglewood Country Girls' float on 26 September 1963.

The main act for the jubilee show was a family of Belgian trapeze artists called The Diavolos. "They erected a great big high wire, 40 to 50 feet (9 to 12 metres) in the air and rode a motorbike along it. They had no safety equipment in those days."

Former Inglewood mayor Bob Brown wrote about the thrill seekers. "The prowess of these amazing performers on the high wire, riding a motorcycle and doing acrobatics 120 feet (36.5 metres) above Jubilee Park and then to cap it all with the Slide of Death had the crowd absolutely spellbound."

Put on ice

In his book 100 Years History of Inglewood, Mr Brown also talked about an ice-skating rink built especially for the show. "Unfortunately, the hot sun did nothing towards keeping the ice intact, but even under these conditions and the miniature rink, the skaters' skill was apparent to all."

Mr Nelson's wife, Peggy, says the skaters came up from the South Island for the show. "They were beautiful – they were all dressed up for the part. Nobody had seen iceskating before because in those days so many people had never even been out of Taranaki."

The skaters put on a wonderful show in the tiny rink. "I don't know how they didn't slide off the side – it was as big as a cake tin."

Another year, a troupe of un-named trapeze artists did slide from their equipment.

"They spent all their time in the pub and were as drunk as skunks," Mr Nelson chuckles. "They came down to the park to practise in the afternoon and they kept falling off and dropping each other into the net. It was absolutely hopeless."

More successful attractions included tag wrestling, Highland dancing, popstars Shane and Ray Columbus, marching teams, brass bands, a funhouse and even performing police dogs.

Olympic stars

But it was sport that held it all together.

"Athletics was the backbone of the show and we still have a strong athletics club here," Mr Nelson says.

"They managed to get hold of Murray Halberg, Peter Snell, Yvette Williams – we had them all."

Arthur Atkinson was the show's track and field co-ordinator. His job was to bring in the stars, like Snell.

"He started with me old Peter," he says of the gold-winning Olympic runner. 

Which wasn't always joy. "He was difficult. Didn't like to engage in conversation with anybody. We found him hard work.

"I have run into him since and he's a different man, but when he was the top of the tree he was a quite introverted fella," Mr Atkinson says.

Tongue gets tangled

Radio announcer Brian Clark remembers with a touch of embarrassment the year Snell competed in a 3000-metre race at Jubilee Park.

It was 1962, and the gold-winning Olympian had broken the world mile record at Cook's Gardens in Wanganui in January that year.

Mr Clark worked for Taranaki radio station 2XP, which had just got its first radio car. "We were very proud of this radio car," he says. "We could do outside broadcasts."

The young announcer and a technician set the car up in the centre of the new athletics track at Inglewood, managing to get a live feed through to New Plymouth.

Mr Clark climbed on top of the stationwagon's roof rack to get a prime view of the race.

"I got so wound up in the race - literally," he says, almost shuddering at the absurd vision of himself.

The microphone was attached to a long lead and as Mr Clark turned around and around to watch the runners, he slowly became entangled until the cord was as tight as a python's grip. "I can see myself now."

In the end, the technician yelled a warning that the lead was close to coming unplugged. So Mr Clark had to perform a quick reverse twirl, then back again to keep track of the runners. This was a move he'd perfected by the end of the race, which was won by Snell.

"I could see some of the people thinking 'what is that chap up to?' I must have looked ridiculous."

Escape artist extraordinaire

Some may have wondered if he was attempting to emulate the feats of escapologist Jon Zealando.

Mr Nelson says the New Zealand "Houdini" did amazing things, like walking on hot coals and escaping from a straightjacket while he was suspended from a crane.

But the most remarkable performance happened on the back of a truck. Zealando was tied up in chains and handcuffed and placed in a water-filled 44-gallon drum with lid held down by three padlocks. Then a tarpaulin was thrown over the drum, while a huge crowd waited fearfully for the artist to escape.

Seconds, then minutes ticked by, but still there was no movement on the makeshift stage.

"After about two minutes (it felt like two hours), he threw the tarpaulin back and came out. The lid was still on the 44-gallon drum. We asked him how he did it," Mr Nelson says.

"He told us afterwards that before he got down into the water, the chains were off and the he undid the lid. He was out within 10 seconds and he just huddled down under the tarpaulin and waited."

Zealando explained his drum escape technique to Mr Nelson and a mate. "Well, we looked at that bloody thing for an hour and we couldn't work it out."

Toe axe-ident

There was more high drama at the woodchopping, where New Zealand's top axemen hacked their way to glory. "We had a guy chop off his toe once. We hunted around and found his toe and sent it off in the ambulance with him, but they couldn't put it back on."

Before the show, a gang of Inglewood workers probably did as much chopping as the axemen. "We used to buy chickens for two-pence each, kill them, pluck them and freeze them. They were for our quick-fire raffles," he says.

The chicken mission was just a fragment of the work done for the show. "After one finished, we started planning for the next one."

The committee alone had about 30 members, and there were hundreds of voluntary workers who made the day possible.

"We raised thousands and thousands of pounds," Mr Nelson says. "All the money used to go into one pool and most went back into council-owned properties like Jubilee Park and Carnival Park."

Sports clubs and grounds, plus every community project imaginable benefited from the massive fundraising effort.

Final showdown

The last show was run by a paid organiser, and all those running stalls and sporting attractions kept the profits for their own groups. The parade wasn't as spectacular as earlier years and people had begun to lose interest.

Mr Nelson believes inflation and television killed the Inglewood extravaganza.

He says the rides were too costly and people preferred watching sports events on TV.

But he hasn't given up the hope that The Greatest Show On Earth will rise again.

"I think it could be run again, but if it was done again it would have to be run around athletics."

Picture This: An advertisement for The Greatest Show On Earth is captured on a cinema lantern slide from the Puke Ariki image collection.