Billy Nahm and the Paul A. Miller Circus Revisited

Remember when I wrote about the day that the Paul Miller Circus put on a show in Bill Nahm's front yard in Lorain in September 1963?

My original post explained how young Billy had won a contest with the prize being a personal visit from the circus. The circus troupe included elephants, clowns, unicyclists and tumblers – making for a memorable day for Bill and his family, friends, and neighbors.

Billy and two of the clowns from the Paul Miller Circus

Billy and one of the elephants

Well, I recently found the Journal article providing the background about the contest and how Billy won. It's a cute story.

The Paul Miller Circus was already performing in Downtown Lorain for a special merchant "Fiesta Days" promotion.  But as it had done in other cities, the circus held a contest and invited local children to write letters explaining "Why I Would Like To Have A Circus In My Backyard."

There were many great entries, but according to the article, Billy's letter touched the judge's hearts.

Billy wrote, "Dear Mr. Miller. I would like to have a circus in my yard because this summer I tried to have a circus and had a lot of trouble.

"My turtle got run over, the snake got away and my dog would not do any tricks. The only thing I could do was the sumersalt [sic]. The kids did not like this show. They ate all the popcorn and went home.

"I would like to have a nice circus for them and all my other friends too. Thank you. – Billy Nahm."

Here is the whole article, as it appeared in the Journal on September 18, 1963 – 55 years ago.

(Thanks to Bill Nahm for allowing me to extend his fifteen minutes of fame a little longer!)

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There's not a lot of information online about the Paul A. Miller Circus, but there are a few photos of its clowns.

Here's one of a clown named "Bumpsy Anthony" circa 1959, courtesy of Pat Cashin's Clown Alley blog. Here are a few posts from the same blog about Bumpsy.

It sure looks like Bumpsy in the photo of Billy Nahm and the two clowns.

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UPDATE (Sept. 25, 2018)
The ‘Comments’ section for this post includes a few from Bill Nahm himself and his friends that make reference to his long career as a high school and college football official.

Well, nine years after the circus set up shop on Bill’s front lawn, Bill was as a senior at Clearview High School and a member of the Clipper football defense unit in the fall of 1972.

That’s Bill in the front row at the far left. The photo appeared in the Chronicle-Telegram on November 15, 1972.