By Avery Hunt
Who doesn’t love a circus? But, sadly, a real full-throttle three-ring extravaganza, under a big top tent, teeming with elephants, tigers, bears, acrobats, clowns, a ring master and even a freak show is becoming a relic of the past.
For Phippsburg’s Bill Perkins, however, the circus has been an abiding passion that has never faded.
Bill Perkins in front of his miniature circus
In 1944, when Bill was 10, his parents took him to his very first circus, but it was a really big one: Ringling Bros., Barnum & Bailey, held at the Boston Garden. He was hooked. The majestic animals. The smells, The hurley-burly atmosphere. The clowns. The high-wire acts. The sawdust.
That year, the war in Europe was still raging, and as a nod to our allies, the circus had a huge “changing of the guard” tribute. The best thing was 40 elephants with huge plumed hats like the Brits wore, marching to rousing patriotic British music. Bill still remembers that spectacle to this day, 82 years later. “The greatest love of my life, after my wife of course, was born that day.”
At home, he started to “play circus “in his backyard in Everett, Massachusetts. He would set up an old umbrella and stick it in the dirt as the big-top tent, and he would move a couple of toy horses around as if they were wild animals.
A childhood passion grows
As he grew older, his passion took on a real component; he would seek out every possible local circus to watch, usually from outside the tent since he often didn’t have enough money for a ticket. He would watch the long silver circus trains, sometimes up to 100 of them, roll into town; take in the hustling set-ups of the circus paraphernalia; and generally breathe in the heady atmosphere. Everything about a circus fascinated him.
Mae Bird Reilly checks out Perkin’s miniature circus.
Fast forward to the mid-1950s. Bill started his career as a copy boy for the Boston Post, a major newspaper in those days with circulation all over New England. His boss was the city editor, and one of Bill’s mundane tasks was to gather up all the other local papers from a large newsstand and rip out their obituary pages, which the Post would re-run with some minor editing.
One day, Bill found an advertisement for a series of one-day circuses in various New England cities. Intrigued, he cajoled his boss into letting him go to one of the shows, and off he went to Manchester, NH by train, with enough money in his pocket to buy a ticket. A happy circus junkie was born!
Then came his adult years — with a wife, four kids and a new job as a football coach for a small Catholic high school in Needham, Mass. Coaching suited him just fine for many years. “I kind of lost interest in the circus back then.”
But never entirely. For one, his daughter Colleen, who studied canine science in college and always had a love of animals, met a fellow named Kris Allen, who had a Bengal tiger act. She began helping him with the animals – and essentially joined the circus. The two travelled on the road with their animal act for 14 years and Colleen and her dare-devil partner ultimately married. (Clearly, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree!)
Bill has maintained his circus connections, as a multi-term former president of Maine Tent #30 of the Circus Fans of America, and an active member of the Circus Historical Society. Over the years, he developed many strong friendships with old circus hands, including some famous performers.
Bringing the circus to Phippsburg
Bill’s love of the circus lives on in Phippsburg. He’s been summering here since childhood. His father, Everett Perkins, was well-known locally as the Grandpa Moses of Maine. The family home on Cox’s Head has a killer view over Atkins Bay to Fort Popham. Bill and his late wife Kathy moved here permanently in June 2020, the day after they both retired from their school system jobs in Massachusetts.
As a hobby, Bill began building a detailed miniature circus in his back yard about 20 years ago – complete with a three-ring big top and all the paraphernalia, which he sets up outside each summer. In winter, his “circus” doesn’t go to Florida; instead, he stores all the pieces in a shed built by his family. The “show” goes up in May (like a real circus!) and breaks down in October.
Perkins brings the circus to Cox’s Head from spring through the fall each year.
For more than 20 years, there has been a steady parade of local kids and summer local folks coming to see the “Perkin’s Circus.” Not so much lately. “For the last two years, it’s been down to a trickle. Kids have no real memories of the thrill and joy of a circus, and, sadly, circus fans are slowly disappearing.”
Ice fear cancels circus
A few small family-run circuses still operate around the country. They are small peanuts compared to the Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey of the old days. However, two of those have come to Phippsburg in the past, both thanks to Bill Perkins.
One was the Roberts Bros. Circus, which performed all over New England and actually brought the first elephant to Phippsburg in 1984 and then again a few years later. Her name was Lisa and she was a spectacular hit.
The other was the Zerbini Family Circus, which has performed in Phippsburg twice, most recently in 2024. Zerbini is the real deal, with a yellow-and-blue striped tent, a ring, clowns, acrobats and a group of performing horses, among other delights. There are no wild animals or a ringmaster with a whip. But there are still plenty of thrills, especially for kids. Bill says they’ve been in business for eight generations, dating back to their roots in Europe.
They were planning to come again this July, sponsored by the Popham Chapel. But in May, Bill got a call. The booking agent told him that they would have to cancel the show “because their Mexican workers who set up the show were not showing up because they feared they might be targets for deportation by ICE.”
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