In memoriam: Showfolks of America, 1945

In memoriam: Showfolks of America, 1945, a photo by killah.poopface on Flickr.

On my Colma sojourn this week I also visited this memorial for circus folks in Olivet Memorial Park cemetery. It was suggested to me by a fun iphone app I have that tells you about interesting things nearby, called Roadside USA. Anyway, it is interesting for sure but super sad – I mean, dead clowns is pretty much as sad as it gets.  Clowns and everyone else who work so hard to make people happy and laugh!  Of course it is nice for circus folk to be buried close to each other. But Roadside America says it exists because of a horrible train accident in 1918 that killed some 86 circus people:

“Circus dead are buried across America, and clusters of these deceased entertainers can be found in sections of a number of cemeteries. But Colma’s is special — one man who directed us to it called it ‘Clown Alley.’

The Circus section of Olivet Memorial Park was dedicated in 1918 after a horrific train accident in Hammond, Indiana. The focal point is a large stone monument with a brightly painted scene under a circus tent: a cityscape in the background, a giant clown head, carousel and other rides in the foreground.”

It didn’t make sense to me that people would be buried so far away from the accident in Indiana, and some internet searching seems to indicate that a lot of people killed in that accident are in fact buried at Showmen’s Rest, a section of Woodlawn Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois.

But wow – there are other cemeteries nationwide with sections dedicated to circus folk. So wonderful! After spending their whole lives living and working together, it seems right that they not be scattered in death.

I had no idea. Never would have thought about it. For that, I blame, in part, San Francisco’s ban on cemeteries – makes it easier not to think about death and related realities. Although at this time of year, it is pretty omnipresent. And perhaps that is how I found myself to the necropolis that is Colma this week.