Spangles, Elephants, Violets & Me: The Circus Inside Out

Victoria's life is covered in fragments from age six to nineteen, at which point her circus career (and almost her life) ends in Los Angeles when she is hurled from a performing elephant before a capacity crowd teeming with Hollywood movie stars. Victoria was mostly educated in a series of Catholic boarding schools. She recounts starting first grade at a rigid Kentucky-based academy, haunted by the mortal outcries of a crazed nun. Thereafter, the author sets the stage and charts a journey that takes her audience on a remarkable whistle-stop tour. The audience enters the big top, not by way of the marquee, but rather through the back yard of the circus lot. While Victoria recalls the dreams and blunders of her family, she manages to interweave the bumpy path of her own personal struggles. The miracle that follows is just as magical as the spirit of the circus itself. Victoria Cristiani Rossi's well-written memoir takes readers into what it was like growing up in the world's most honored circus family. Her most interesting story provides a rare inside look at this multitalented group of artists. Compelling I could not put it down! -Fred D. Pfening Jr., Editor of Bandwagon: The Journal of the Circus Historical Society