By Heather Hoagland, SCHS Director, with Charles Pederson
Have you ever dreamed of running off and joining the circus? Leo Albrecht did.
An expert in acrobatics, slack wire walking, juggling, balancing, circus wagon carving, artistry, and animal training, Leo spent over half his life traveling the United States as a circus owner and performer. He performed in large cities and small towns, for roaring crowds and wide-eyed children, sometimes returning home after long absences only to visit family.
An Early Start, and a Family Affair
Born in 1890 in Belle Plaine, young Leo fell in love with the circus at age 8 after seeing a Gollmar Bros. Circus come through his hometown. He spent the rest of his long life devoted to show business. As one Iowa newspaper put it, he was “a trouper’s trouper [who] had sawdust in his veins.” Leo staged his first circus in 1901, at the age of 10.
Along with his brothers Chris and Walter, a cousin, Lawrence, and a very understanding goat, Leo held an Albrecht Circus in a vacant lot in Belle Plaine. The old schoolhouse is visible in the background. (Belle Plaine Herald, August 29, 1974)
Leo balances a wagon wheel on his chin while his son Leo Jr. gives a command to one of the family’s performing dogs. The wagon wheel weighed as much as 100 pounds. (Source and date unknown)
By around 1915, Leo’s name was appearing as a slack wire performer and acrobat. Slack wire involves a narrow wire being loosely anchored at each end (to posts, trees, ceiling, or whatever is strong enough to hold the performer). The performer moves through the air, back and forth along the flexible wire. To ease the pain and stress on one’s feet from walking on the wire, soft shoes are usually worn.
Leo started his own circus and was touring by the late 1920s. In April 1928, Leo married Angela Quast of Winsted, MN. Angela joined her new husband on the road. The couple began to have children, and as Leo’s family grew, everyone got in on the act—literally.
Angela filled in as costume designer, purchasing agent, and treasurer. She even worked the dogs, ponies, and diving goat, dubbed Madam Lillian.
The couple’s three sons, Leo Jr. (Sonny), David, and Gary, all became performers and manual laborers called roustabouts. In fact, according to his obituary, Sonny once “built an entire stage using only a hammer, a drill, and a handsaw.”
Finally two daughters-in-law—Arlene (David’s wife), an acrobat, rolling globe, and juggler, and Gloria (Sonny’s wife), an accomplished singer and aerialist —joined the family and the circus. Gloria had a double circus pedigree: Her grandfather, Jay Gould, like Leo, had also been the proprietor of a traveling circus. He made famous the John Wilkes Booth mummy and gave Laurence Welk his first job in show business. Jay was also the only showman who presented circus parades.
A Dog and Pony Show
Leo’s specialty was animal training. The Albright Circus (as the troupe became known in the 1940s) was a literal dog and pony show. Over the course of his career, Leo trained 30 ponies and more than 300 dogs.
A 1953 article in the Daily Republic of Mitchell, South Dakota, recounts the story of Cupid, a 4-year-old wire-haired terrier that jumped from a 60-foot ladder:
Cupid is so eager to perform her act that after the tower-ladder apparatus is set up Albright has to place a board at the entrance of the ladder to prevent her from climbing and making her leap ahead of schedule. Thursday night at the circus, as 2,000 people watched, she eagerly climbed the ladder, tail wagging, and made her leap as if she enjoyed every second of it.
Albright’s method of training his dogs (he owns 15 [spitzes], two wire-haired terriers and three albino huskies) is unique. The secret of his success, he believes, is patience and kindness.
One of Leo’s spitz dogs balances upside down on Leo’s hand. (Mitchell Daily Republic, July 10, 1953)
The Lean Times and the Fat
You might think the circus life is glamorous. Far from it. The circus and its members were often gone for months at a time. The Belle Plaine Herald described one visit home for the Albrecht family. They returned home for Christmas in 1939: “With the exception of occasional brief drop-ins, it is six years since Leo has been back for any appreciable time. . . . He is taking a vacation this winter for the first time in many years.”
The circus acquired at least one colorful wagon, pulled by ponies that also performed in the show. This gilded royal coach was built by Leo Albrecht over a 5-year period encompassing over 2000 hours of work. It is patterned after the carriage used in the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of England in 1953. The coach was used in the Shrine circus in 1960 and was also featured in Popular Mechanic Magazine that same year. (Scott County Historical Society Collections, date unknown)
Traveling wasn’t necessarily the worst part of circus life. When Leo took his show on the road in 1929, he couldn’t have chosen a worse time. That year saw the start of the Great Depression. Keeping the caravan of wagons, tents, trucks, costumes, and other gear in good order was a struggle. “In those times the adage was ‘A little lean, a little fat,’ but Leo can tell you it was mostly lean,” said an Iowa newspaper writer.
And no matter their circus destination, the local people were often unable to pay the entrance fee. Sometimes they made in-kind payment with bartered food or other goods. One news account asserted that the circus even folded during the Depression and was later reconstituted as “Albright’s Attractions,” with family members playing key roles in performing and managing the concern.
Despite the hardships, the family was self-sufficient. They turned their hand to all manner of work to make ends meet. They even painted local buildings and did wallpapering when no circus engagements were to be found. Leo also did mural painting at need. And yet, the circus often thrived through the decades. Their show received glowing reviews:
Praise for “Jimmie, the $10,000 pony and Diamond, who knows all the colors of the rainbow” (Sioux County [IA] Index, June 1938).
“Excellent show. . . . I can heartily recommend the Albrecht Circus” (Q. A. Smart, School Superintendent, Bowdle South Dakota, October 21, 1938).
In Carroll, Iowa, the “indoor circus proved a big attraction” (Daily Herald, February 1938).
“Plenty of dog and pony acts” (Postville [IA] Herald, August 1947).
“Dogs, ponies, monkeys, clowns, acrobats, jugglers, magic wire, many more star acts. Morally clean in every respect” (La Porte City, IA, Progress-Review, May 1963).
Not every review was quite as enthusiastic: “The dog and pony show [is] okay. . . . At least he is no whiskey head” (A. A. Spurlock, Justice of the Peace, Gould, Arkansas, 1935).
No matter the reviews—good or bad—the Albrecht circus continued to make its rounds.
David Albrecht spray-paints over their circus trailer, while Leo looks on. (Belle Plaine Herald, August 8, 1963)
Leaving the Circus Behind
After five decades in the circus business, Leo and Angela finally settled down for good in Belle Plaine in 1968. Later that year, Leo told the Minneapolis Star—in an article titled “Owner, 73, Closes Family Circus; Succumbs to TV, Not Age”—that the shutdown was due to poor attendance and the advance of technology. “Today people can see the world’s greatest circus acts on television for nothing. . . . This has hurt the little circus that plays small towns.”
In an interview for his hometown paper, the Belle Plaine Herald, however, Leo reflected on his career.
“If I had it to do over again, I would probably do the same thing. . . . I really love the circus business. We had a number of rough years but they help you appreciate the good years.”
Leo remained an active member of the community until he died in 1989 at the age of 98. He is buried at Saints Peter and Paul Cemetery in Belle Plaine.
Leo Albrecht retired to Belle Plaine in 1968 and spent the last part of his life as an active member of the community, including being elected Outstanding Senior Man in 1978 (Belle Plaine Herald, August 10, 1978).
(Image from the SCHS Library, source and date unknown)
Like this Article? Read more about Leo Albrecht and his circus at these sources:
Albrecht, Dale. (2019). Tales of a small town circus legend. Self-published. Also available to view at the SCHS research library, open M-F 9-4pm.
Circus Historical Society. (n.d.). Circuses—Brief bits. [Quotes from newspapers, reviews]. (scroll down to Albrecht Bros. Circus)
Circus Historical Society. (n.d.). Stevens Bros. circus—1946 [Photos].