Unpack the Trunks : The Greatest Show Parades Into Town

Consider the road-weary motorist creeping south in Monday’s midday traffic on the Santa Ana Freeway, inhaling exhaust fumes while sweltering in the heat of the concrete.

For relief he looks skyward and sees what looks unmistakably like a herd of elephants chasing a motorcycle officer across an overpass.

Sunstroke? No, the Greatest Show on Earth has hit town again.

Those elephants were not chasing the cop; they were being given a motorcycle escort by Anaheim Police Sgt. Karl Fonseca, a veteran elephant herder of 15 similar parades.

Now appearing daily through July 27 at the Anaheim Convention Center--all the way from Long Beach, Calif.--is the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

As any local kid or one-time kid knows, when the circus train comes to Anaheim it drops off its elephants, zebras and camels a few miles short of the Anaheim Convention Center, their final destination.

Old-Fashioned Circus Parade

That means an old-fashioned circus parade must wind through town, to the delight of virtually everyone--except maybe motorists.

As the menagerie was unloaded about 2 p.m. on Santa Ana Street, the boulevard was already alive with curb-squatters, fence-straddlers and lawn-chair loungers. It was a festival for the eyes, to say nothing of the other senses.

“Elephants stink!” said Heidi Hottinga, 8, from her seat on the curb beside her 5-year-old sister, Heather. “They are ugly and silly.”

But as countless kids have learned, the fascination of elephants and the other circus critters is enough to overcome their less pleasant traits. Heidi and Heather weren’t about to budge.

“I just like to see what they do,” Heidi said.

Besides the elephants, there were a herd of horses and a pack or whatever of camels and some aloof zebras--who repeatedly pointed their wrong ends toward the gawkers.

Victor Bejar, 6, stoically took this all in stride as he sat astride his bicycle. After all, Victor has seen the circus before. Once before.

His favorite animal?

“The camels, the horses, the elephants, the zebras,” Victor said.

You can always tell the zebra, he said: “They look like horses, but they have different stripes.”

More than one circus fan strained fruitlessly for a look at the tigers and baboons, but those animals and the rest of the circus family had already arrived at the Anaheim Convention Center by parade time. The circus’s four lions, seven Bengal tigers, three St. Bernards, nine baboons, mountain lion, leopard, black panther, baby rhino and 14 alligators were transported earlier in the day by truck.

“It’s kind of a little dangerous to walk a mountain lion down the street,” said the circus’s regional marketing director, Andy Long.

All this was old hat to Pat Paton, 69, of Anaheim, who saw his first circus 57 years ago. “It was great!” Paton recalled. “For kids it’s really good.”

That explained why Paton was holding on his shoulder his wide-eyed great-grandson, Nile Fairfield, 2 years old and a circus neophyte.

“You want to ride the elephant?” Paton asked.

Nile answered by widening his eyes even more and clutching his great-grandfather’s shoulder even tighter.

As the parade got under way, traveling westbound on Santa Ana Street, a spectator alerted the crowd: “Here come the horses!”

The crowd erupted in applause, then the elephants led the march across the overpass and made a perfect left turn onto Manchester Avenue toward their home for the next nine days.

The circus will offer shows daily. Ticket prices are $11 and $8.50, with $2 discounts for children at some performances.