SHEBOYGAN, Wis. — 81-year-old Sonja Barta is a former fourth-generation circus performer. She’s lived in Sheboygan all her life.
“My dad started me at age four. We had mats in the basement, and he taught me how to tumble.”
Her great-grandfather, a street performer and musician from Germany, brought his skills to Wisconsin. His sons caught the circus bug early on.
“They learned to walk the wire, they did Roman rings, they tumbled, they juggled. They learned to do everything by themselves,” Barta said. “But they decided they wanted their own show.”
So, the Seils-Sterling Circus was born in 1920.
Most circuses relied on the railroad to reach big cities, but the family thought small towns also deserved a show, so they used cars instead.
“Eventually, in the 1930s, it was the largest motorized circus in the United States,” Barta noted.
Watch: Mikenzie Hammel catches up with a former circus performer:
Barta’s father was the right-hand man on the lot. He brought in his eldest daughter Shirley, who was 19 years older than Barta.
Barta and her brother Pete didn’t join the business until after Seils-Sterling closed its curtain for good in 1938.
Shirley went on to perform for other local and national circuses, even opening in Madison Square Garden at one point. When Barta came of age, Shirley showed her the ropes…literally.
“To hear the music, you’re in your best costumes, and people appreciate what you’re doing,” she recalled. “The feeling of being in the air, flying, is just absolutely wonderful.”
Barta had been to every state by the time she was 12.
“I loved all the aerial work, but I loved working with the elephants,” she smiled. “I’d go to bed at night listening to them talk to each other.”
She received her education on the road, in between shows.
“Two of the clowns were teachers and they had their credentials.”
Unfortunately, she suffered a back injury after slipping on a flight of stairs at 16.
“I thought I was going to perform another 20, 30 years, but my career ended pretty quickly.”
Barta has now made it her mission to keep the history alive, helping to curate an entire exhibit dedicated to Sheboygan’s circus presence.
The public can check it out at the Sheboygan County Museum once it reopens on Feb. 1.
“It was a wonderful life,” she said. “I really enjoyed it.”
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