July 13, 1961: Circus parade in Downtown Pittsburgh

The Police and Firemen’s Band played at Penn Avenue and Stanwix Street at noon on July 13, 1961. Downtown Pittsburgh was filled with people eager to be entertained by clowns and elephants on city’s streets. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette photographer Harry Coughanour covered the event. This photograph was not published in the newspaper.

One of Coughanour’s photographs that did make the cut was a photograph of a two-year-old boy named Brian Boenigk, who did not know clowns were supposed to be funny. “When the man with the white face and big nose peered at Brian, the boy reacted — but with tears instead of laughter.” The caption for that photograph, which we, unfortunately, were not able to find in our “Circus” folder, read: “Wrong Effect.”

(Photo by Harry Coughanour, Post-Gazette)

—Mila Sanina