There used to be a flea circus in Times Square until the 1950s. I saw it once when I was a child. It was truly a strange place, quite shadowy except for the lighted boxes where the fleas were. There was also a display of these tiny carriages and flea accessories. IIRC, it shared space with some kind of private museum of torture devices or some such thing, or maybe it was just near that museum. Times Square was pretty strange in the 1950s.
I think the place was probably gone by the end of that decade; I don’t recall ever having gone there again.
"What I’m about to tell you may make you itch.
My father’s uncle was famous for having fleas. No, he wasn’t infested with fleas, but he was invested in fleas. As Professor LeRoy Heckler, my dad’s Uncle Roy made quite a nice living from his flea circus which performed several shows a day in Times Square from about 1925 until 1957. Uncle Roy inherited the flea circus from his father, Professor William Heckler, a long-time carnival guy and former strong man. My uncle’s fleas were quite acrobatic. They walked a tightrope, played football, had chariot races and even pulled a carousel.
In his book, Wild Tigers and Tame Fleas, author Bill Ballentine devotes a chapter to Uncle Roy and his talented fleas. Fleas are world-class athletes. Uncle Roy says in the book that “flea legs, of only 1/20 of an inch long, can propel the insect into a high jump of almost eight inches, a broad jump of thirteen inches, more than one hundred times its body length…If a human’s legs were this strong, a person…could leap groundwise 700 feet or straight up 450 feet, soaring over the torch of the Statue of Liberty with 145 feet to spare” (Ballentine 242). No wonder fleas were such sought-after circus performers.
Uncle Roy had an interesting life. He traveled throughout North and South America and the Caribbean islands. He made appearances on the show “What’s My Line” and other radio and tv shows of his era. Uncle Roy retired in the late 1950s to Bradenton, Florida, home to many other circus and carnival retirees. He passed away a decade after that.
Uncle Roy’s career is part of my family history, our family lore, something which we always talk about at family get-togethers. My father and his family told the stories to my sisters and I, and we in turn have passed the stories on to our own children. With every generation the circle grows wider. And, many times when I’ve shared the story of my uncle and his flea circus with people outside the family, I’ve come across someone who knew of him and saw his flea circus years ago. The circle grows wider still.
Yes, every family has significant stories which bind the members together. One of ours is fleas. So tiny, yet so significant."
I would have loved to see his flea circus. ;D