The Travelling People
by
Duncan Dallas
£25.00  

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ISBN Number: 333 00297 0
Format:
Hardback
Number of Pages:
182
Publication Date:
1971
Publisher:
Macmillan

One of the hardest to find and most sought after fairground books, The Travelling People is also one of the most acclaimed insights into the world of the travelling showman. The cover note states:

"The raffish world of the fairground, with its raucous noise and glamorous lights looks quite different when it is seen from the other side of the cashbox. Duncan Dallas takes a cool look at this fascinating and almost closed society, which differs so much from that of the 'flatties' from whom it earns its living. Family loyalties are strong, tradition almost inexorable and the trade guild all powerful. Work is hard for half the year and idleness unavoidable for the other half. Money, depreciation and return on capital, all the hard facts of economics, are a constant preoccupation of the showman, yet they often have little formal education. It is their womenfolk who have had the schooling and take the money, manage their accounts and cope with the correspondence. Contrasted with the responsible, respectable showmen are the 'gaff lads', the sleazy, glamorous youths who take the money on the rides in the summer and, in every town, pick up girls like windfall apples.

The author describes the history of the fairground, how it is run, how the showmen make (and lose) money. He explains the sideshows and the old and new mechanical rides, and the art of drawing a crowd into a booth to see real or artificial freaks, or best of all 'horror and sex together'.

This is a unique way of life, the essence of which has been brilliantly caught in Brian Tufano's photographs."

Condition: A clean and soundly bound book. Jacket price clipped and has slightly worn edges. Click image above to see close-up of the copy you are buying.
 

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