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Steele's Amusements: Carnival Life on the Midway
Four generations of Steeles dragged carnival rides, machinery, and unusual employees across the Midwest throughout the 1940’s to the 1970’s. They had created the archetypical traveling carnival with a combination of guts, fear, and entrepreneurial spirit. Their carnival started with a pony ride and developed into a corporation moving scores of trucks and employees to county fairs throughout the upper Midwest. The Steele family raised kids on the midway and produced lawyers, engineers, and most of all honest and interesting people. Fun people.
Steele’s Amusements is meant to walk a reader through the carnival midway and see things from a carny perspective, reliving some of the more interesting events of life on the road.
The carnival business is seen through the lens of mid and late 20th century popular culture. Changing attitudes in society about disability were profoundly felt at Steele’s and from the ‘60’s the operation downplayed sideshow freaks and oddities, but these facets of carnival life could not be eliminated entirely. People had certain expectations of what a carnival was and what they expected to see. Steele’s kept pace with the times by reworking themes and adding attractions to suit changing tastes, while always keeping one foot in the past. This was a business necessity and also homage to their eldest, L.E. Steele. Grandpa Steele, as L.E. was known to most, was a Great Depression entrepreneur, taking his humble photography business and making the adjustments necessary to survive in the cold, industrial Midwest.
This is the carnival story of Steele's Amusements.
Steele’s Amusements is meant to walk a reader through the carnival midway and see things from a carny perspective, reliving some of the more interesting events of life on the road.
The carnival business is seen through the lens of mid and late 20th century popular culture. Changing attitudes in society about disability were profoundly felt at Steele’s and from the ‘60’s the operation downplayed sideshow freaks and oddities, but these facets of carnival life could not be eliminated entirely. People had certain expectations of what a carnival was and what they expected to see. Steele’s kept pace with the times by reworking themes and adding attractions to suit changing tastes, while always keeping one foot in the past. This was a business necessity and also homage to their eldest, L.E. Steele. Grandpa Steele, as L.E. was known to most, was a Great Depression entrepreneur, taking his humble photography business and making the adjustments necessary to survive in the cold, industrial Midwest.
This is the carnival story of Steele's Amusements.
225 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 14, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 7, 2023
Interesting read on the Steele's lives & the midway of the carnival.
They wintered in Indiana,which is no easy feat.
Highly entertaining about the way,the rides,games & food vendors operated.
The entertainment value of a bygone era,is unequaled in today's society.
They wintered in Indiana,which is no easy feat.
Highly entertaining about the way,the rides,games & food vendors operated.
The entertainment value of a bygone era,is unequaled in today's society.
August 27, 2016
This book lured me in, just as it was meant to do, in the way of the carney. Lure the customer in, get them to spend their money. I especially enjoyed this story because some of the settings where they ran the carnival are places I've been through, like Shawano, Wisconsin and Hillsboro.
Steele's Amusements tells the oft repeated tales of the carnival business. Stories that have been passed down through the four generations of the Steele family. Starting with a pony ride, grandfather L. E. Steele got into the carnival business during the depression when he had to find a way to feed his family.
The forward looking Steele family knew how to make a buck. Most often mentioned in these memoirs is Buck Steele, the grandson of L. E. Steele. We are told over and over again lest we forget, that Buck is actually Al Steele Jr., which makes Al Steele his father, of course.
Buck is also a lawyer, but the carnival business seems to have his heart. He keeps things running smooth and it's no easy task with the carnies, whom he often had to advance a daily allowance to so they could eat and get through the day. Sometimes at the end of the week their paycheck was zero. They seemed not to mind. But keeping them out of trouble was only one part of Bucks job. He had to schmooze the Outdoor Amusements Business Association to get bookings for each year, purchase prizes, placate unhappy game players and make sure all the carnies and the sign painter got to where they needed to be.
Trying to remain a fair but profitable business is what Buck tried to do for Steele's Amusements. He could pour on the charm, use his lawyer tactics or be as tough as nails depending on how he read the situation.
It's easy to imagine these stories being told and laughed over time and time again as they were recanted over the years. They try to paint a rosy picture of carnival life, but the real life seeps in through the cracks. Fascinating business!
Steele's Amusements tells the oft repeated tales of the carnival business. Stories that have been passed down through the four generations of the Steele family. Starting with a pony ride, grandfather L. E. Steele got into the carnival business during the depression when he had to find a way to feed his family.
The forward looking Steele family knew how to make a buck. Most often mentioned in these memoirs is Buck Steele, the grandson of L. E. Steele. We are told over and over again lest we forget, that Buck is actually Al Steele Jr., which makes Al Steele his father, of course.
Buck is also a lawyer, but the carnival business seems to have his heart. He keeps things running smooth and it's no easy task with the carnies, whom he often had to advance a daily allowance to so they could eat and get through the day. Sometimes at the end of the week their paycheck was zero. They seemed not to mind. But keeping them out of trouble was only one part of Bucks job. He had to schmooze the Outdoor Amusements Business Association to get bookings for each year, purchase prizes, placate unhappy game players and make sure all the carnies and the sign painter got to where they needed to be.
Trying to remain a fair but profitable business is what Buck tried to do for Steele's Amusements. He could pour on the charm, use his lawyer tactics or be as tough as nails depending on how he read the situation.
It's easy to imagine these stories being told and laughed over time and time again as they were recanted over the years. They try to paint a rosy picture of carnival life, but the real life seeps in through the cracks. Fascinating business!
May 3, 2020
Having worked for a carnival for 10 years when I was younger, I have to say this book tells it like it was. It's very true to what life was like on a traveling carnival. Well, from the 1940's to the 1970's, this is what it was like. Since then regulations have taken hold and much has changed, rides are safer, games are easier to win, food trailers are inspected weekly by local boards of health (I know this I used to have to deal with them every week. They could shut me down if I wasn't wearing a hat or if didn't have the proper sanitization set up in my joint) but there are still holdovers from the past.
The way carnies are paid a daily draw and the rest goes "on the books", this was to insure they didn't have a wad of cash and become a target for townies looking for trouble. The townies are always wanting to cause trouble. The all night tear downs and travel haven't changed. The slang and carnie lingo used is the same. The assumption that all carnies are not good people, or drug addicts, or drunks, when all they are just people trying to make a living. Sure, there is always that one guy who has a history or is a troublemaker and joined the carnival to hide from his past. But not all are trouble, and if someone is, they don't last long on a show. Carnies are a family, and they stick together and look out for each other, it's always been that way, it still is.
There are no more "freak" shows or "Hoochie Kootchie" shows. Carnivals tend toward being way more family friendly now.
Reading this book took me back to my time on the show circuit.
The way carnies are paid a daily draw and the rest goes "on the books", this was to insure they didn't have a wad of cash and become a target for townies looking for trouble. The townies are always wanting to cause trouble. The all night tear downs and travel haven't changed. The slang and carnie lingo used is the same. The assumption that all carnies are not good people, or drug addicts, or drunks, when all they are just people trying to make a living. Sure, there is always that one guy who has a history or is a troublemaker and joined the carnival to hide from his past. But not all are trouble, and if someone is, they don't last long on a show. Carnies are a family, and they stick together and look out for each other, it's always been that way, it still is.
There are no more "freak" shows or "Hoochie Kootchie" shows. Carnivals tend toward being way more family friendly now.
Reading this book took me back to my time on the show circuit.
June 17, 2025
Complete and total bullshit.
I've been in the carnival business for over 40 years, and have been in the state of Wisconsin for almost half of that time. I read this book with a very skeptical eye because most authors just don't get it. They rarely get the true story of what goes on and what we do out here.
When I read the paragraph about the stock salesman Irving "Tiny" Baskin I felt the need to find out if the Tiny the author had written about was the same Tiny that I had bought stock from in the past. The easiest way to find out was to ask his daughter Sharon who took over the business when Tiny passed away. I only knew Tiny by his nickname so I called Sharon and asked. Turns out it is the same man and the short, rather insulting paragraph is complete b.s.
Tiny never sold out of the back of his car, he delivered stock to the show with box trucks. When he did show up in his car it was a Cadillac. Buck didn't deal with the stock search, it was his brother's job.
To the author I'd like to say, get your facts straight, you owe Sharon Baskin, and her father Tiny an apology for putting on paper such garbage.
Now that Ms. Baskin has seen this almost slanderous drivel, she like me to let you know Mr. Miller that she's coming for you.
I've been in the carnival business for over 40 years, and have been in the state of Wisconsin for almost half of that time. I read this book with a very skeptical eye because most authors just don't get it. They rarely get the true story of what goes on and what we do out here.
When I read the paragraph about the stock salesman Irving "Tiny" Baskin I felt the need to find out if the Tiny the author had written about was the same Tiny that I had bought stock from in the past. The easiest way to find out was to ask his daughter Sharon who took over the business when Tiny passed away. I only knew Tiny by his nickname so I called Sharon and asked. Turns out it is the same man and the short, rather insulting paragraph is complete b.s.
Tiny never sold out of the back of his car, he delivered stock to the show with box trucks. When he did show up in his car it was a Cadillac. Buck didn't deal with the stock search, it was his brother's job.
To the author I'd like to say, get your facts straight, you owe Sharon Baskin, and her father Tiny an apology for putting on paper such garbage.
Now that Ms. Baskin has seen this almost slanderous drivel, she like me to let you know Mr. Miller that she's coming for you.
March 25, 2022
I probably over-rated this book, both because of the stories and especially since I was originally from Wisconsin. A quick, fun read, but I was disappointed to discover at the end that Steele's Amusement no longer exists.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews