Circus is a part of show business. In the Shadow of the Big Top by Maureen Brunsdale chronicles the lives of two extraordinary show people who had a major impact on the business aspects of the circus in the 20th Century.... After reading this scholarly and well-documented book... you will not only know what made these two people circus legends, but you will have also learned a great deal about the history of the American circus.

Circus Talk

In this high-flying account, Brunsdale tells the story of Art Concello (1911–2001), a trapeze artist who became a key behind-the-scenes player for the Ringling Bros. circus. Brunsdale starts with Concello’s early days as a “rascally” truant in Bloomington, Ill., where at age 11 he came under the tutelage of a trainer who helped him get his start in a traveling trapeze troupe. In 1927, he met Antoinette Comeau, an orphan who had been on track to become a nun until she ran away to join her sister performing in the same troupe. As Concello taught Comeau how to become an acrobat, the two fell in love and formed a trapeze act, the Flying Concellos, eventually joining Ringling Bros. Brunsdale chronicles how Concello, eager to make more money, moved into circus management and became a first-rate wheeler-dealer who oversaw Ringling’s transition from big tents to indoor arenas and advised director Cecil B. DeMille on the 1952 Oscar winner The Greatest Show on Earth. The story crackles with spectacle and danger (Brunsdale recounts Antoinette’s sister’s horrifying fall after she slipped during a trick)…. This intimate look at circus life during its heyday should speak to big top fanatics.

Publishers Weekly

Brunsdale brings to life the controversial Arthur Concello in her in-depth new book. Brunsdale takes a clear-eyed look at the team of Antoinette and Arthur, the Flying Concellos and how Arthur sometimes bullied his way into becoming a circus legend.

Leslie Zemeckis, best-selling author, actress, and award-winning documentarian

A stupendously fascinating biography of Art Concello – a complex individual who had a Jumbo-sized impact on the 20th century American circus. Maureen Brunsdale brings to life this enigmatic man as he stayed “in the shadows” yet modernized John Ringling North’s giant extravaganza, charting it through turbulent as well as triumphant times. The interwoven account of Concello’s first wife and triple-somersaulting flyer, Antoinette, is equally compelling. Bravo!

Greg Parkinson, Editor of Bandwagon, former Executive Director of Circus World Museum

Maureen Brunsdale takes you under the sidewall and into the spangled world of the circus, where the spotlight shines on performers and shrewd operators, and the craftiest of them all provides a breathtaking center ring performance.

Chris Berry, Circus Historian and Author

As Art Concello himself would have said, "Great f--ing read!"

John Ringling North II, circus owner and son of Henry Ringling North