Miniature circus returns to town
The greatest — miniature — show on Earth returned home to Butler County on Friday to be restored by residents who have a lifelong connection with the mini-circus show.
Bob Brandon, 74, of Center Township, remembers peeking into Jimmy Bashline's store on New Castle Road 68 years ago where Bashline showed him a hand-carved elephant. That piece was used as one of hundreds of miniature figurines populating a minuscule version of a classic circus show Brandon would have been familiar with as a child.
A dozen people on Friday helped move Bashline's Jay Bee Miniature Circus into Brandon's garage, where it will be housed with a 1919 Model T and a 1939 Bantam roadster.
Bashline died May 14, 2008. Since then, his circus models have deteriorated as they were moved around and stored for nine years before settling at Wampum Area Historical Society in Wampum, Lawrence County.
Brandon said he plans to restore Bashline's circus over the upcoming months, but he said it probably won't be ready for public viewing until well after the summer, if at all this year.
At its peak, the 14-by-10-foot circus display had tightrope walkers tiptoeing gingerly across thin wires, sword swallowers devouring sharp steel, elephants squirting water at unsuspecting observers, and lions courteously responding to their trainers, all amidst colorful hand-carved circus figures that are smaller than a match.
[naviga:iframe width="100%" height="400" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eSHeWzoPpYY" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen][/naviga:iframe]
Bashline was a well-known cartoon artist who also painted, sketched, carved and sculpted during his life. He worked on the circus in a garage on New Castle Street where he ran his sign-making business.
By the 1960s, his circus was attracting children like Brandon from all over the county.
Bashline later exhibited the circus at other venues, including the Butler Farm Show, Freeport Art Show, Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg and the Saxonburg Arts Festival.
In 2008, the circus became the property of the Butler County Historical Society.
The society displayed it in its Heritage Center on West New Castle Street until the center closed in May 2011. The display was put in the carriage house storage facility behind the society's headquarters in the Sen. Walter Lowrie House at 123 W. Diamond St.
“For well over a decade, it's been exposed to sunlight and dust, disintegrating by inches. It's a shadow of what it once was,” said Jennifer Ford, executive director of the society, in a Butler Eagle article in February.
In 2020, Ford and the society decided to give up the circus to the Wampum Area Historical Society in Wampum, Lawrence County, where organizers planned on restoring it.With the help of Bashline's daughter, Aryl Bashline of Butler; Jack Cohen, director of the Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau; and others, the circus was returned to Butler County. Brandon paid the Wampum Area Historical Society $600 to cover the original cost of transferring Bashline's work to Lawrence County. And the tourism bureau covered the cost of the movers bringing it home.“If we waited a few more months, it probably would have been lost,” Brandon said, explaining the Lawrence County organization would have eventually found a home for it away from Butler. “Boy, do we have a lot of work to do here.”Now, Brandon said, he will bring the show back to life. First, he has to start with fixing the wooden platform the circus sits on. Then, he will focus on the electrical wiring along with various mechanical issues that need to be checked.He also wants to find a way to turn the display into a traveling circus by making it easier to transport.Brandon said that he will be able to do most of this work since he has experience in restoring antique cars and electrical work. Others will restore the figurines and displays.“It's just very fragile,” he said.Inspecting the contents of Bashline's work, Brandon noted that an antique toy train normally runs on a track circling the circus show.Brandon said that people began to get more involved in bringing the circus back to the county after the February Eagle article on the circus was published. He credited Cohen with making the final push.Aside from restoring the circus, Brandon said he and the others will try to put a committee together that would be responsible for taking care of Bashline's legacy.“People here wanted their Butler treasure back,” Cohen said. “All those men were out there today because they care about their community. Every one of these people are very proud people — more so than anywhere else I've worked, and I've worked all over.”Now, Cohen and the others will look for a permanent home to display the work once Brandon finishes his restoration efforts.“It will be a really great presentation once it's restored,” Cohen. “It's a wonderful thing to have back in Butler.”
