Early Years and Elephants
Van Buren's original interest in show business started when he was a young child. He got the shock of his life when he walked into the local butcher’s shop one day in the 1930s; meat was scarce and it seemed that the butcher had decided that desperate times called for desperate measures and the butcher was selling elephant meat. Clearly displayed on the shop wall on Middlewich Road in the historic market town of Sandbach in Cheshire was a large picture of an elephant. The poster was not offering pachyderm delights but was actually advertising a circus. The circus was coming to town.
It turned out to be Chapman’s Circus and that visit to the butchers changed young Van Buren’s life. He went to see the circus and was so enthralled by the magic of it all that he was immediately bitten by the show business bug.
From that day on, whenever there was a circus in the area young Van Buren would be in the audience. One open air circus was Bob Gandey's circus, which Van Buren began regularly visiting, as well as Gandey’s Circus in its winter quarters in nearby Brereton. During these visits he gained a great deal of knowledge about circus life and show business in general, listening to the old performers and showmen’s anecdotes which strengthened his resolve to be a part of this magical area of entertainment.
Read more about this topic: Fred Van Buren
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