• Bone, Howard. Side Show (memoirs of a side show performer/talker)
  
  
• Jay, Ricky. Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women (recent 2nd edition)
  
  
• The Magic Mirror: An Antique Optical Toy (a fun example of an ancient optical illusion)
  
  
• Wilmeth. Don B. Cambridge Guide To American Theatre
  (a useful one-volume, paperback edition of what is now a standard reference on all aspects of American theatre with generous coverage of popular forms, entertainers, etc.), including basic overviews of major forms covered in the course.

A useful source on vaudeville is Douglas Gilbert, American Vaudeville: Its Life and times , but this has been out of print for several years -- you might find copies in used bookstores. The better overviews of the American circus are also out of print, but a copy of Hoh/Rough, Step Right Up! (one of the better ones) is on reserve, and we will cover the form through material circulated in class and via video documentaries. Buffalo Bill and the Wild West (U. of Pittsburg Press) is a useful source on the West West exhibition, but is also out of print; this is an excellent collection and you are urged to look at the reserve copy. The most recent study on Wild West shows is Paul Reddin's Wild West Shows (University of Illinois, 1999). However, it is only available in an expensive hardcover edition. I have ordered instead the excellent new study by Kasson on Cody (Buffalo Bill).

Books that are on reserve in the Becker Library are indicated with a green square: