Big Top Burning: The True Story of an Arsonist, a Missing Girl, and the Greatest Show on Earth by Laura A. Woollett (review)

It’s July of 1944, the United States is embroiled in a world war, and it’s steaming hot in Hartford, Connecticut, but the Ringling Brothers circus is on the way to lift spirits. However, the circus arrives late—always a bad omen according to Big Top superstition—and with the cancellation forcing crowds into the remaining performances, the July 6 matinee is jammed. The animal act is exiting and the Flying Wallendas climbing to their platforms when a flame is spotted, and within a few minutes the grand tent burns to the ground, leaving 167 people dead. In the wake of the tragedy follows two mysteries: What caused the blaze? What happened to little Eleanor Cook, who was separated from her family? Woollett is adept at handling both the pathos of the tragedy and the legal and forensic issues surrounding the double investigations. The first chapters introduce a number of circus-goers and workers, leaving readers to wait in suspense to see who survives and who doesn’t. Then she subtly shifts gears as fire investigators and courts decree the fire an accident, only to have the case reopened under the confession of an employee twenty years later. The Cook family story also shifts from personal tragedy to the challenges of making positive identifications among intact bodies and those burned beyond recognition. Plenty of black and white photographs from the event not only suggest the horror of the ten-minute inferno but also help readers interpret the site and its limited possibilities for rapid escape. Readers looking for a thorough examination of the tragedy that inspired Janeczko’s fictional Worlds Afire (BCCB 3/04) will find it here. Source notes, topical bibliography, interview and photo credits, and an index are included.