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Side Show by the Seashore: A Survival Tale

Back in the days when circus caravans wound their way across the country with clown acts, trapeze artists and lion tamers, crowds flocking to the Big Top could also be drawn in by sideshow performers... teasers, of a sort, who worked the periphery, enticing audiences with promises of death-defying feats.

Today, the sideshows and barkers of the carney tradition have largely been lost. But on Coney Island, Side Show by the Seashore remains... a relic full of nostalgic charms.

Jesse Baker produced this story.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Liane Hansen
Liane Hansen has been the host of NPR's award-winning Weekend Edition Sunday for 20 years. She brings to her position an extensive background in broadcast journalism, including work as a radio producer, reporter, and on-air host at both the local and national level. The program has covered such breaking news stories as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the capture of Saddam Hussein, the deaths of Princess Diana and John F. Kennedy, Jr., and the Columbia shuttle tragedy. In 2004, Liane was granted an exclusive interview with former weapons inspector David Kay prior to his report on the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The show also won the James Beard award for best radio program on food for a report on SPAM.