O f all my lifetime experiences,
here is a memory that goes back
to my high school days, deep in
the mountains of Virginia. My
home was so far back in the country in
the 1950s, that it’s hard to imagine being
a teenager there. But like most teenagers,
we spent the majority of our time going
to parties and listening to rock ‘n’ roll. I
just started my first job on a local radio
station and was playing trombone in my
high school band. But one day during the
middle of band practice, a man wearing a
scarf, black leather jacket and knee boots
walked in and told our band director that
he was with the Cristiani Bros. Circus that
was setting up just outside town.
The Cristiani Bros. Circus was the second
largest three-ring circus in the country, and
had just separated from Ringling Brothers.
They needed a drummer for the circus
band because their regular drummer had
been hospitalized with a heart attack. My
band director asked for a volunteer in the
percussion section of our band, but nobody
volunteered. That was my cue. A once-ina
lifetime adventure was about to begin.
I had been messing around playing on
drums when I didn’t have anything else to
do, and I could play a little, and thought,
“Why not?” I raised my hand and said,
“I’ll do it!”
I soon sat down in the middle of a big
drum set with about 15 real musicians,
all pros but me. I got one rehearsal.
Fortunately, they played marches that I
knew, although they played some three
times faster than I thought was possible.
The circus started with a popular march
in front of a very big crowd. The clowns
came in first, doing funny bits with each
other, going from ring to ring, then all the
animals, including elephants, giraffes, lions
and tigers in cages. The acrobats came in
last, as the band played one march after the
other. And that teenage drummer “Johnny
Wilson” was playing like he knew what he
was doing there in that circus band. The
trickiest part was performing those long
drum rolls for the acrobats, while they
128 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE | MARCH/APRIL 2021
performed on high wires above safety nets.
After four performances, there I was,
standing in line and getting paid with
a bunch of odd circus characters, a very
tall man, a couple of dwarves, a fat man,
gypsies, a woman with a beard and an
otherwise strange collection of circus
performers. It was a forever memory.
College, Army service and 50 years
of broadcast history would follow, along
with trips to many states and countries
covering the news, and years of concerts
with wonderful orchestras, performing
with my favorite singer Mary K Wilson, my
wife and the mother of our three talented
sons. It was an unbelievable experience
playing in that circus band, something
for which I really wasn’t prepared, but
somehow was able to pull off. The man
with the scarf, leather jacket and boots
even asked me if I could go on with that
circus band to other cities and play drums
for them again. I was tempted, but high
school was calling. 9
EDITOR’S NOTE: John Wilson, who retired
from Fox TV in 2014, worked more than 50
years in radio and television news broadcasting.
COMMENTARY
THE CIRCUS LEFT TOWN
WITHOUT ME
By John Wilson
John Wilson