Carnivals

88 minutes, 1972

Special television documentary on North American carnivals with a kaleidoscopic view of the people who inhabit the unique world of the carnival. Following a travelling show across the United States and Canada, amusement park operators, freak-show performers, dare-devil motorcyclists, vaudevillians, and strippers, provide personal insights into their rough and transient life-styles. The owners of Amusements of America, the Vivona Brothers - Johnny, Dominion, Morris, Babe, and Phil, show how they run their family business and introduce some of their employees. Note worthy sequences include: recruiting men from "skid row" to work for the carnival; a religious parade as a kind of side show to the carnival, with devotees pinning money to statues of saints; and Tricia Nixon-Cox, the daughter of President Richard Nixon of the US, visiting a carnival..

Source: Library and Archives Canada - Canadian Feature Film Database (LAC)

Contributed Notes