| City/Town: • Edmond |
| Location Class: • Amusement |
| Built: • 1900's | Abandoned: • N/A |
| Status: • Abandoned • Gutted |
| Photojournalist: • Michael Schwarz |
This abandoned circus went on for some time between the 1900’s and 1930, touring across various parts of the states. Fragments of the circus still linger around, including 4 or 5 trailers where the clowns, acrobats and animals were housed. Even the cages, large and small, are still there– discarded when the circus apparently disbanded. Although many of the trailers are burnt from the inside out by either arson or a terrible accident, you can still find fliers, popcorn bags and soda cups along with assorted pieces of memorabilia throughout the area.
What makes the ruins of Gandinis circus Edmond so spooky is not the place’s background, but it’s lack of obvious history. I’ve tried to search the Internet for information on the circus but could only find a few pages vaguely relating to what it was. Digging through the ashes in and around the trailers, I was able to find a few old fliers intact that shed some light on the place, but still not enough to make this area any less frightening.
The real scare comes at night, walking through this barren place, maybe tripping over an old cougar cage or deflated clown ball, when the full scope of what ‘haunted’ really boils down to. Afterall, there may be nothing more dreadful than a haunted circus burned to the ground. A place does not necessarily require ghosts to be haunted, but if it’s scary enough, maybe we’re the ones who create them.
-Written by Robert Cole
Pulled from an article about an abandoned circus that is now offline. (Link to Web.Archive)
Highlighted comment by CIRCUS KID with more details on the Abandoned Circus:
“Gandini’s Circus couldn’t make it thru the Great Depression. The assets were bought up by Howard W. Suesz in 1943 and a new circus was formed – CLYDE BROTHER’ CIRCUS (Clyde Bros Circus). There were no Clydes. The production company operated inside (arena) and outside (tent) shows. In the late 40’s / early 50’s the tent show was called HAGEN BROTHERS (again, no Hagens).
The Hagen show played up to the early 60’s. Howard Suesz focused almost exclusively on the Shriners Organization. By the mid 50’s the circus was playing a number of Canadian Shrine dates yearly. In 1960 the Clyde Brothers Circus had to change the name of it’s Canadian show to Rex Bros.
Circus due to competition from the Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus that also played in Ontario that year. Howard Suesz had a daughter who attended OSU. She met William Jack there. They were students of Dr. Robert Lacy, the head of the Radio and Television. After they graduated, William Jack began helping his father in law run the circus. In 1969, Dr. Lacy bought a half interest in the circus. At that time, the circus had its office on Britton Road, just east of Western.
It later moved to the big White House at 63rd and Kelley. Lacy left the circus in 73 for other business ventures. From the late 60’s thru the mid 70’s Clyde Bros. Circus operated two units, the Red and the Blue and played a number of sponsored dates through Ontario, Quebec and the USA and ventured in to Mexico from time to time. In 1976 the Blue unit was the Clyde Bros. Circus and the Carden & Johnson International Circus was referred to as the Red unit.
That year the Carden & Johnson International Circus bought the Clyde Bros. Circus and it’s contracted dates. It was after that the circus left town. Lion Trainer Jose Barrada ended up with the real estate Jose and his family operated the ALCAPULCO restaurant in Edmond for a while. Jose’s oldest son Jorge, got the property from his dad. The land has been seemingly abandoned for decades.
In the early 70’s, on the property of Gandini’s Circus, there were 6 elephants, 11 lions, 7 tigers, 3 camels, 3 bears, chimps, a herd of ponies and a herd llama, and numerous domestic pets. The lion trainer, Jose Barrada lived in the house with his wife and three sons. His two oldest sons, Jorge and Chino trained the chimps and bears. Chino was also an award winning tightrope performer.
His wife had been an aerial performer. The tiger trainer, Lou Reagan lived in a trailer on premises. He also worked the elephants, camels, llamas and ponies. Other hired hands lived on premises. Two primary barns had three rings. Two in one and the tiger arena was in another. On the road, the majority of the acts were contracted for the season.”
Abandoned Circus Oklahoma Gallery Below
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How do I contact the owner of the property? I would love to explore this place!
If you plan on visiting, dont go through the neighborhood. Some man 3 houses away literally waits on his porch to call the cops on people going to see it. Hes kind of pathetic.
I live in a neighborhood right in this area. The woods where this is Located Right Where the soccer filed
is. I can see the circus from my Roof!
Wow. Just wow. Wish they had left it alone so we can reimagine it. Great story.
circus or more recently i have heard the newer generation call it the satanic circuis … sad how even teen vandals have gone to new levles of destruction compared to back when i was a teen ….. i lived in meadow lakes and my friends lived in swan lake so it was an everyday thing to go there …… i am going to goback soon and take my boys there now that my oldest is not to small get hurt …… on a seperate note my father said that it was functional until about 1973 he also lived near and remembres hearing lions and tigers roar and elepha
[…] like an abandoned circus to stir up ghost stories. Gandini’s Circus came to Edmond, Oklahoma, around 1910, but has since become a wonderfully creepy desolate field of rusting cages and […]
[…] like an abandoned circus to stir up ghost stories. Gandini’s Circus came to Edmond, Oklahoma, around 1910, but has since become a wonderfully creepy desolate field of rusting cages and […]
my grandfather was a caretaker there in the late 60s early 70s. loved that place.
[…] Gandini’s Circus | Abandoned Oklahoma – Heading down busy Kelly Ave in downtown Edmond, passing an Arby’s and a gas station, you wouldn’t think anything of the obscure dirt road blocked off by a yellow … […]
I work for the City of Edmond and the lions, tigers, elephants and other animals were there through 1988. We had a key to the gates as we had to have access to electric lines and meters. In the early mornings you could hear the roar from the lions.
[…] traveling acrobats, clowns and animals. They apparently trained right here in Edmond. You can learn more about it by clicking here. They even have pictures taken by folks much braver than […]
Click where??
http://newsok.com/article/2468257
http://www.circusesandsideshows.com/circuses/clyd…
who do i need to contact to get permission to investigate?
Bozo the clown
Horny the clown
I explored this place with a friend last year. Most of it has been taken down, mainly trashed out small house and burned up old touring van are what remains. It is in the middle of residential area and modern homes can be seen bordering on three sides. There were some concrete pads with rings bolted to the floor to house the elephants at one time. There were a few trailers there that are pretty destroyed as they were mostly wood originally. There is some cool painting on the sides of the trailers, there are multiple coats of paint peeling off and you can see the names of different circuses and paintings of tigers etc. Some of the names are in spanish, there are also some cages built into the trailers. Researc circuses from that time and you can find pics of the same trailers 40 years ago when they still had animals in them, pretty cool. I did see one tiger cage. Be aware that it looked as though some homeless people stay there, you could see where they had built fires and cooked cans of food. There is also large NO TRESSPASSING sign at entrance on busy street.
Does anyone know if I can take a group to explore with complete respect of the property the grounds? I lived in Edmond my entire childhood and never heard of the circus. I know where it is located but just thought it was an abandoned housing area.
I have spent the last year trying to reach someone about the property. The gentleman who the property was left to after the circus left town now lives in FL, and I believe his family now maintains the property.
I like writing random things on the Internet
Prove it
If info is correct about location property has been bought and developed
Howdy, Im told this place is Haunted, my family is in the hole paranormal thing, I would like to snap some shot's so if the ower to contact me I would be thankful.
This place is haunted, I used to kick it there all the time with a group of good friends and that all changed when we had this creepy night. We were in the main house talking and out of no ware we hear a clown laugh. We looked around thinking some one was playing a trick on us. No one else was around but us we all stated to freak out a little. We stated to head to are cars when we heard the laughing again, all of us booked it as fast as we could. The laughing got louder and closer but we couldn't see any one. The next day we had shown up to look for my phone that I dropped when we were running. We looked for hours. Few of my friends were calling it but we didn't hear it ring. We found it in the school bus witch we were not in at all that night. My phone was off but there calls kept ringing. I turned my phone on and and saw pictures of a clown in the camera roll that were taken of the night before.
Be sure to notice that this is PRIVATE PROPERTY and it is illegal to trespass. Went by today to see if I could get a
look and was stopped by the big No Trespassing signs…bummer.
In 1976 I was in the 5th grade at Ida Freeman Elementary off 2nd and Kelley. One of my friends was named Jimmy Barrada and he told me that his parents were in the circus. As I remember, he said his father was a lion tamer and his mother was a tight rope walker. I moved after that year and never saw Jimmy again. I assumed the circus had moved out of Edmond.
It was nice to see this article and take a moment to remember a friend from my youth.
Do you know how to contact the owner? I want to see if I can take my boyfriend out there for his birthday he loves this stuff
[…] Kelly Avenue, you’ll eventually run across a plot of land that houses an abandoned circus called Gandini’s Circus? Apparently, it’s also haunted, but I haven’t had the time to run out there and check for […]
[…] Kelly Avenue, you’ll eventually run across a plot of land that houses an abandoned circus called Gandini’s Circus? Apparently, it’s also haunted, but I haven’t had the time to run out there and check for […]
[…] to this circus, a major turn in his hobbies developed. After exploring the Gandini’s Circus (Click to see Circus Here), he began searching for abandoned locations throughout Oklahoma. Coming across many unhelpful and […]
[…] to this circus, a major turn in his hobbies developed. After exploring the Gandini’s Circus (Click to see Circus Here), I began searching for abandoned locations throughout Oklahoma. Coming across many unhelpful and […]
So maybe he used some of the equipment which was left there to transport them to Florida?
Driving north down Kelly in the early 70's you would see some of the animals out grazing, specificallt the elephants and Camels. Pretty cool place to drive by back then.
Pretty cool place, only downside, the bats there scare the hell out of me!
Nothing creepier than the prospect of bumping into the ghost of a clown!
I have seen that there are signs on the gate now that say "NO TRESPASSING" AND "PRIVATE PROPERTY". I have lived in Edmond most of my life and never knew about this until a short time ago.
THE DEFINITIVE BRIEF ANSWER – Gandini's Circus couldn’t make it thru the Great Depression. The assets were bought up by Howard W. Suesz in 1943 and a new circus was formed – CLYDE BROTHER’ CIRCUS. There were no Clydes. The production company operated inside (arena) and outside (tent) shows. In the late 40's / early 50's the tent show was called HAGEN BROTHERS (again, no Hagens). The Hagen show played up to the early 60's. Howard Suesz focused almost exclusively on the Shriners Organization. By the mid 50's the circus was playing a number of Canadian Shrine dates yearly. In 1960 the Clyde Brothers Circus had to change the name of it’s Canadian show to Rex Bros. Circus due to competition from the Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus that also played in Ontario that year. Howard Suesz had a daughter who attended OSU. She met William Jack there. They were students of Dr. Robert Lacy, the head of the Radio and Television. After they graduated, William Jack began helping his father in law run the circus. In 1969, Dr. Lacy bought a half interest in the circus. At that time, the circus had its office on Britton Road, just east of Western. It later moved to the big White House at 63rd and Kelley. Lacy left the circus in 73 for other business ventures. From the late 60's thru the mid 70's Clyde Bros. Circus operated two units, the Red and the Blue and played a number of sponsored dates through Ontario, Quebec and the USA and ventured in to Mexico from time to time. In 1976 the Blue unit was the Clyde Bros. Circus and the Carden & Johnson International Circus was referred to as the Red unit. That year the Carden & Johnson International Circus bought the Clyde Bros. Circus and it's contracted dates. It was after that the circus left town. Lion Trainer Jose Barrada ended up with the real estate Jose and his family operated the ALCAPULCO restaurant in Edmond for a while. Jose’s oldest son Jorge, got the property from his dad. The land has been seemingly abandoned for decades.
In the early 70's, on the property, there were 6 elephants, 11 lions, 7 tigers, 3 camels, 3 bears, chimps, a herd of ponies and a herd llama, and numerous domestic pets. The lion trainer, Jose Barrada lived in the house with his wife and three sons. His two oldest sons, Jorge and Chino trained the chimps and bears. Chino was also an award winning tightrope performer. His wife had been an aerial performer. The tiger trainer, Lou Reagan lived in a trailer on premises. He also worked the elephants, camels, llamas and ponies. Other hired hands lived on premises. Two primary barns had three rings. Two in one and the tiger arena was in another.
On the road, the majority of the acts were contracted for the season.
I'm glad you are so educated on this! I just came across it while googling abandoned places in Edmond OK hoping to find out some information about a home my daughter & I saw that looks totally abandoned in town. This has been very fascinating! Do you think Jose's son may have sold some of the items which used to be there in an attempt to clear the debris from the land? It would have made a cool museum!
Very well done, sir. The only real information I could get about this place was from my girlfriends father, who grew up in Edmond through the 60s and 70s. The only information he could give me was that the Alvarado family, owners of Alvarado's restaurant in Edmond, were involved in the circus and that was the site where the circus would house/train animals during the off-season, as well as practice circus acts. One of the Alvarado sons actually died during a circus act where he was performing trapeze over a den of lions. He fell, was injured, and the lions mauled him to death. This was sometime in the mid-70s. Ever since then, the Alvarado family stopped their involvement in the circus, and eventually lost touch with everyone. I've been trying to get more information about this place for years and nobody seemed to know anything that I hadn't already figured out. So thank you sir.
After Robert Lacy and William Jack and Howard Suesz got out of the Circus business, the animals were dispersed. Jose Barreda and his family kept some of the animals and the property was deeded to Jose and his wife Anna in November of 1978. He deeded it to his son Jorge and his wife Lou Ann in October 1991. Jorge is still the owner and lives in Bradenton, FL.
He still works with animals.
It is a large tract of land. You can see it on the County assessors website and observe changes since 2003. The taxes are always paid.
My family has photo albums full of our time the Circus and lots of other memorabilia.
I'm trying to find out which circus our family was a part of. Does any of your memorabilia have names associated with it? Our family was from OK, so checking with those based in OK during the 1910-1950's or so. Their last name was Cook.
The only name I new it by was Clyde Brothers Circus. There are numerous Circus history website you can research that may give you an answer.
The son that died was Jse Barreda Jr. He was a award winning tightrope walker and and tragically he ended his own life. He went by the name Chino.
You may be right about the restaurant name. I thought it was Alcapulco's.
His father was the lion trainer. He was from Peru.
Chino and his brother worked with several animals. Chimps, Bears, etc.
Chino's mother had been a trapeze performer. I think she was from Argentina.
Hi I am giving an informative speech for my class at Rose State, is there anyway you could tell me more? I have so many questions! I tried to find a phone number or email for the last known owner of the company/land, but came up empty handed, no such luck. I would even be interested in speaking on the phone if your up for it. Thank you so much for the information. I hope to hear from you soon.
Just went there tonight. Pretty creepy to say the least. One concerned me most was the trails and trash out there. It was farely obvious that there are transients living out there. I did however do some recording and heard a unexplained voice on my cell phone. What is weird to me is that a circus packed everything up and shut down.
wow i used to hang out here with friends and smoke weed during the early 90s …it used to have many more bulidings and lots of old cages and circuis stuff had a few cars and trucks a few big rigs even had a 1966 mustang that was complete sadly as young teens we just vandalized it ….. most scary was the phone was still on the wall it didnt have a dial tone but had an open signal ( for those of you whom dont know it still had a post and a ringer ) …. as a kid from edmond it was known as the dead circus or more recently i have heard the newer generation call it the satanic circuis … sad how even teen vandals have gone to new levles of destruction compared to back when i was a teen ….. i lived in meadow lakes and my friends lived in swan lake so it was an everyday thing to go there …… i am going to goback soon and take my boys there now that my oldest is not to small get hurt …… on a seperate note my father said that it was functional until about 1973 he also lived near and remembres hearing lions and tigers roar and elephants he also says the kids of the workers would be enroled in school on a seasonal basis and only came to school during the winter months……
Jorge Barreda owns it. He lives if florida and currnetly has 4 elephants.
How can I contact him?
I went out there with a few friends for a photoshoot not too long ago. We ended up taking the actual photos in the house that are in the pictures above, but after some exploring, we found the actual circus trailers. You can see the old paint on the outside and even get inside the trailers. It was super creepy, but definitely looked more like an abandoned circus than the house above. You guys should revisit and explore some more! There are a lot of neat things out there.
hi my name is heather… me and my aunt tried to find the ruins but couldnt locate it. could you help us?
I dont know if im actually going to get a reply back but its worth a shot… Hi, my names is Anna, im an ubran explorer, ive lived in oklahoma all my life and when i came across this story it made me want to explore this site and see it for myself. The whole point of me replying to your post is to ask you a question or two. My first question is over getting into the circus, was it easy to get into or did you and your friends have to sneak around to get in? and my last question to you is, when you did get in, was it at night or during the day, i dont like going places and not knowing when the best time of day i should go, just for the reason that i might run into security or the fact that it is super heavy on security or not I know replying to this isnt going to get me a thing but its worth trying. to anyone that sees this and might have to anwsers to my questions please feel free to reply back to me. Thanks!
would love to go see this haunted circus. i'm trying to study up on the paranormal and circuses are an all time fave of mine. will check it out one day
its freaking stupid. i just went and thought id see ya know like some burnt animal cages and cool stuff noting that it was like a haunted burnt down circus and it was nothing like that… it was more like a dump site for old nasty stuff people had discarded. just letting everyone know before they head out there expecting some awesome haunted thing.
its freaking stupid. i just went and thought id see ya know like some burnt animal cages and cool stuff noting that it was like a haunted burnt down circus and it was nothing like that… it was more like a dump site for old nasty stuff people had discarded. just letting everyone know before they head out there expecting some awesome haunted thing.
Someone please let me know how to access this or get ahold of the land owner. I'd love to go treasure hunting there, thank you!
The property is now currently for sale. May/2020
I used to live in one of the surrounding neighborhoods near the "abandoned circus". I was around 6-7 years old and would go outside with the rest of the neighborhood kids between 5-6 PM and would wait to hear the lions roar. I was told that it was an old circus training ground and they would hold lions and tigers and other animals there to train them. It sounds strange, but my parents have heard it as well. I don't know if anyone has any information on this or not. I actually went out there when I was about 17 and walked around and saw a bunch of old buses and cages but didn't really look around as much as I'd like. It was quite eery. I wish I had heard about it earlier when there was more to look at. I am 24 now so this land has been vacant for quite some time. Anyone know who owns the land now?
Went 3 months ago and although there really wasn't anything left, I managed to find a circus ticket. Pretty cool.
I went yesterday and there was an abandoned house, rain shelter, 4 trailers and a huge chunk of metal that I assume is a collapsed water tower. You have to walk through the tall grass across the field, you can see foot trails where others have been exploring. Try again.
Any idea on what the address might be ?
Pictures of the found memorabilia would be very cool. None of the pictures posted here indicate "circus".
Does anyone know how to contact the owner of the land that Gandini's is located on? I'm doing a circus themed photo shoot and was wondering…….If any of you know that'd be great.. Thanks.
i am fixing to make a trip out there i will post when i get back
Where exactly is it as? I live in edmond and want to go but i cant find where it is? Thanks!:)
did you ever find it? if not let me know and i will get you the location 🙂 this is brett that was my old screen name on here
a group of 4 friends of mine went last nite about midnite. they say ITS NOT EMPTY! they kept hearing metal and rustling far away getting closer. as they slowly made their way out they turned around and saw a big dark figure of a person that started running at them very quickly, and chased them to the gate. the figure never yelled nor had a flashlight like a security gaurd or cop would have done. someone or people live their. if u have been there you will know there isnt anywhere to take residence. we plan on another trip to find out who was there. he came from the row of trailers off in the woods. if anyone can comment on this please do. maybe some 3rd gen sideshow freaks are still there? doubt it but maybe?
A few months ago, I went out there with three friends and the same exact thing happened. My friend said she heard something behind us and a tall, completely black figure ran at me from the trail leading to the big pavilion. On my first trip there I also heard a sound like rusty metal scraping together. And on my second trip, another friend of mine saw the figure walk out of the trailer with the metal bars in it and just stand and look at him.
It was homeless people. They love in those trailers out there
That link is a youtube video of a guy that did a short movie at this location. The video is not about the circus but it captures a lot of great scenes of what the circus kind of looks like today!
I was there this morning and while it was neat and creepy it was not as wonderful as i had hoped. Too many kids have torn the place apart. There was a weird bone in one of the trailers. I was thinking maybe a cow but realized…. there's no cows out there. :p
If you think this place is pretty creepy and cool now, the first time I saw it, I was 15 years old and am now 27. All of the original trapeze was there and all of the buildings were still there. The water and feed troughs were there and alot of the old flyers were left on the ground. All of the cages were there and chains for the animals were all original and left abandoned. The entire place looks so different from what it used to look like. I really regret not taking any photos of the dead circus when part of it was still alive.
So how exactly do you get there?
wow, the pictures take of the vehicles outside are pretty cool. i've passed that area several times and had no idea that was there. you guys rock 😀
You should go there. Been at least 20+ times, look for small dolls I find and leave in the carts. Also the bus theres a small doll hidden in one of the seats. 🙂
I have plenty of pictures of this place and am hoping to find out a little more about the history of this place. I will try to submit them to you soon! This is a really interesting place!
The Circus is called Cylde bros shriner circus and the hagen bros were also there!!!! Was running in 1955 to about 70 ish!!! I can tell by the pop top RC can I found there they stopped making them in like 1973.
https://digital.library.okstate.edu/oktoday/1950s/…
Page 8 has an add for the Hagen bros circus!!!
The Clyde Bros. Circus was started in 1943 by Howard W. Suesz. By the early 1950's the show was playing a number of United States Shrine dates, and by the mid-1950s began playing a number of Canadian Shrine dates. Both indoor and tent dates were played. In 1949 Suesz started a tent show called Hagen Bros. that was operating until 1961. There was no connection to Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. However in 1960 the Clyde Bros. Circus had to change its title to Rex Bros. Circus for it's Canadian dates due to competition from the Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus that also played in Ontario that year. By 1975 the Clyde Bros. Circus had two units, the Red and the Blue and played a number of sponsored dates. In 1976 the Blue unit was the Clyde Bros. Circus and the Carden & Johnson International Circus was referred to as the Red unit. That year the Carden & Johnson International Circus bought the Clyde Bros. Circus and it's contracted dates. In 1994 the Clyde Bros. & Johnson Circus was managed by Don E. Johnson, and the show was active until 1998, if not later. Ted Bowman Circus Route Collection
Actually, they quit making pop-top cans in the early 80s, not the early 70s.
I grew up in edmond, we could hear the lion and elephants at night. we used to sneak in the back way and watch animals and "smoke" dont thing its hauntd, just old place in middle of town…look around and you will find popcorn bags and fliers
Thank you for sharing that link! The story was fascinating!
As soon as the weeds die out, we hope to go back and get some photos of the flyers and tickets… We were only here for a short time, and didn't get to explore the whole area. If you have photos you want to share, you can post them in the forum!
Also, the picture from the google shot up above shows a big building in the middle, and another smaller building to the north. Neither of those are there now. The house farthest east, and the big building to the west, closest to the 5 trailers, are the only buildings still standing.
I visited this place today, after my friend told me about it. I went with a few friends and walked around, looking at all of the old abandoned stuff. It was awesome, and I'm definitely going to go back when it isn't raining to introduce more people to this awesome, hidden place, knowing that they never realized it was there when they passed on the common edmond street.
i am not gonna lie this place is pretty cool, we visited this circus yesterday but we did not find any fliers or tickets or old pictures and i am extremely interested if seeing these…. where might i find them(in the house, in the blue trailer, in the white truck or where???)
I have been to the 'haunted circus,' as I was introduced to it by my teenage daughter.
Note: in Edmond there is no Arby's on Kelly. There is an Arby's on Santa Fe and one on Broadway. Furthermore, Kelly doesn't go through downtown Edmond.
Also there are old trailers in the back in the woods, where me and my friends have found circus tickets and old notes and pictures.