While live animal circuses are a rarity today due to ethical reasons, the circus was a major attraction in Trail back in the day.
On Tuesday, June 10, 1980, the Hubert Castle Shrine Circus visited the city, bringing their show to the Cominco Arena. An estimated 3,600 children and their families attended two performances offered by the traveling troupe.
The show featured elephants, lions, and tigers as well as many skilled performers.
Hubert Castle (born Hal Silvers in 1912 in Oklahoma) was a famous tightwire walker for the Ringling Brothers Circus. He was an extremely popular personality, so much so that Castle was featured with his young son walking the tightrope on the July 28, 1941 cover of Life Magazine.
Castle was booked to appear in the 1952 Cecil B. DeMille film, “The Greatest Show on Earth,” however he pulled out over pay disputes.
After his retirement from performing, Castle partnered with the Shrine Club and developed his own show.
”The Shrine Club was, and is, notably charitable to illnesses affecting children,” Trail archivist Sarah Benson-Lord notes. “Trail had an extremely active Shrine Club and they often featured in Silver City Days parades in their small cars and fez hats.”
Hubert Castle passed away in 1989. He was posthumously inducted into the “Ring of Fame” in 1994.
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