Vera’s Life in the Circus was a Zoo

The first time Vera McGinnis entered the Big Top at Madison Square Garden in New York City, she looked like a giant Dresden Doll. She was atop a black horse, wearing a gigantic hoopskirt that hung from her waist, its flounces reaching the ground. Her head held a giant picture hat with ostrich plumes. “The huge backstage seemed a fairyland to me,” she’d later write. “The costumes were all crisp, new and beautiful. Everyone went in ‘Speck’—the spectacular parade that opened the sh