Tina Of The Tanbark

Tina of the TanbarkWizards of bareback riding, tumbling, juggling, the high trapeze and perch, the Cristianis are the Royal Family of Circusdom," wrote John and Alice Durant in their Pictorial History of the American Circus. Tina was part of it from the age of five, putting the elephants through their paces, balancing on aerial ladders—till the day she took a close look at one of her aunts and saw how she'd been prematurely aged by her years of nerve-racking activity. So Tina left the big t...