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Showfolk: An Oral History of a Fairground Dynasty
by Frank Bruce |
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ISBN Number:
9781905267453
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 288
Publication Date: 2010
Publisher: NMS Enterprises Ltd |
The story
of Frank Codona and his family - a fairground dynasty that has
lasted for over two hundred years in Scotland, told mostly in their
own words. A newspaper article in 1954 was headed 'Codona; the royal
family of the fairground' but because of inter-marriage their story
parallels and is intertwined with that of other circus and
fairground families.
Travelling showfolk have been entertaining Scots for centuries and a
visit to ‘the shows’ was a highlight of the year until recent
memory. The Codonas are one of the longest and most established show
families, having arrived from the continent in the late eighteenth
century. Using original research Showfolk draws on interviews
from three generations to give a vivid and richly anecdotal account
of this ever-changing world enhanced by many previously
unseen illustrations.
The interviews have been kept intact as much as possible, to keep
the flow of overlapping individual life stories but are organised
chronologically from the 1890s, when it enters living memory, up to
the present. The hundred years from 1790 are described in a lively
introduction including many first-hand accounts and following the
family fortunes in the United Kingdom, the United States where
members reached the top of the circus profession and as far afield
as Hawaii. |
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