''Circus Time'' was a variety program presented in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

television network A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or multichannel video programming distributo ...

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

on Thursday evenings from October 4, 1956 to June 27, 1957. ''Circus Time'' was not an actual

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclist ...

broadcast but rather a circus-themed program, in which both traditional circus acts and more traditional mainstream forms of entertainment were presented. The host, or "ringmaster" in the show's parlance, was

ventriloquist Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is a performance act of stagecraft in which a person (a ventriloquist) creates the illusion that their voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered prop known as a "dummy". The act of ventriloquism is v ...

Paul Winchell Paul Winchell (''né'' Wilchinsky; December 21, 1922 – June 24, 2005) was an American actor, comedian, humanitarian, inventor and ventriloquist whose career flourished in the 1950s and 1960s. From 1950 to 1954, he hosted ''The Paul Winchell S ...

, who was "assisted" by his dummies Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff. Mainstream musical guests appearing on the program at times included The Diamonds,

Mickey and Sylvia Mickey & Sylvia was an American R&B duo composed of Mickey Baker and Sylvia Vanderpool, who later became Sylvia Robinson. They are best known for their number-one R&B single "Love Is Strange" in 1957. Baker and Vanterpool began recording toget ...

and the Dell Vikings.

References

* Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, '' The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows'' 1956 American television series debuts 1957 American television series endings 1950s American variety television series American Broadcasting Company original programming Circuses Circus television shows {{US-nonfiction-tv-prog-stub