All For Show

Lee Edward Atterbury was born September 1, 1924, into the Atturbury Circus family. He was the fifth of seven children born to Robert L. and Rose Atterbury. By the time Lee was old enough for school, his older siblings were accomplished aerialists and his mother was a slack wire walker. The Atterbury Circus was a road circus, traveling the highways of rural America from Iowa and the Dakotas to Texas throughout the years of the Great Depression. After the United States entered World War II, Lee served in the Army Air Force as a radioman and gunner, first in Africa and Italy, and then in the South Pacific. When the war ended, Lee returned home to find that the economics of war and the Great Depression had ended the small road circuses. Lee and his siblings began again by building carnival shows and games and went back on the road. "You'll never get anywhere in life without taking some risks," says Lee. Lee married Helen Wise of Conway Springs, Kansas, in 1949, and together they set out on the carnival circuit. Over the next seventy years, the Lee Atterbury family built a wonderful legacy of honesty and integrity with their games throughout the Midwest United States. They are loved by "carnies" and "marks" alike. People who played their games as children now return with their children and grandchildren to visit the Atterburys on the Midway. This memoir is a tribute to a true gentleman of America's greatest generation. Lee, I am so glad that I got to hear and record your stories. With grateful affection,