Page:Popular Mechanics 1928 11.pdf/22

 

NE of the most valuable automobiles in the world is an old car likely to fall apart any instant; it back-fires unexpectedly, often chases anyone who gets in front of it, and, without warning, rears on its hind wheels and may spill its occupants backward. The average driver would refuse it as a gift, but its owner and designer, Myron "Buck" Baker, chief of the automobile clowns in Ringling Bros., Barnum and Bailey's circus, wouldn't part with it for a small fortune. It has made him famous, has moved millions of persons to laughter and has brought thousands of dollars into the coffers of the show.

The chief reason is that this old car and the stunts it does, furnish the chief ingredients for laughter, a priceless phenomenon for which the circus, and other institutions devoted to entertaining the public, spend millions yearly. Say "circus" to anyone and the first word that pops into his mind is likely to be "clown." The two are synonymous in the minds of almost everyone, and that explains why the shows carry hundreds of these entertainers and why the performers themselves are constantly looking for new stunts, rehearsing and improving old ones and seeking new ideas. The clown department of a circus is similar in some respects to a separate show in itself. It

