Fleas and Circuses is now Flea Circus Research Library Blog

The Fleas and Circuses blog has been renamed to the Flea Circus Research Library Blog, but is otherwise unchanged with articles on Fleas, Flea Circuses, small things, art, films and a whole lot more.
On a related note, the Flea Circus calendar is looking a bit empty, I know I've missed a couple of events over the last month but if there's anything up comming then please let me know.

Insights into flea searches

Looking at Fleas vs Flea Circus in Google insights we can see that the Fleas are very cyclical with the summer months having more searches but the Flea Circus searches does not have this trend. The geographical differences are also quite distinct with the UK and Australia topping the table for people searching for Flea Circuses and the USA being the biggest searchers for fleas.

Publish Post

Captian Henry float's Flea Circus

A Spanish flea expert Magic Puk has found a tin of fleas on a site about Cabinets of Curiosity that you can buy at a very reasonable price (currently £2.50).



It is not know if fleas can ride a penny farthing bicycle but it's a great image to have on the tin. Those holes look a little large so best not shake the tin as flea eggs might fall out!

There are several Mafeking Roads around London, from Newham (E16) to Haringey to Enfield and one in Australia. According to the dictionary Mafficking means "To rejoice or celebrate with boisterous public demonstrations" as was done following the siege of Mafeling in the Boer war.

Fleas not seen

Tom reports in his blog that he saw the Prof Jephcott flea circus in Regent's Park. He says that he could not see the fleas, presumably they were very small.

Fleas in cartoons 1948

Thanks to an anonymous contributor at Wikipedia

"Another vintage Warner Bros. cartoon, 'Curtain Razor,' has Porky Pig as a theatrical agent auditioning acts, including a shaggy dog, who turns out to be the transport of a flea circus, which proceeds to set itself up, perform, and return to the dog, on command."

The Looney Toons film is from 1949 and the dog shuffles into the office and blows a whistle to command the fleas. The act does look to be more of a funfair than a circus but they do have a big top which presumably contains all of the acts. Apparently the film was retitled for TV changing from "Curtain Razor" (a reference to the Razorback pig) to "Show Stopper" and was remade with Daffy for "Show Biz Bugs" in 1957

The BFI have some good information about this film in their film at TV Database.

BFI film and TV entry for Curtain Razor

According to Scanton & Wilkes Barre the film preceded many of the Warner Bros. films released theatrically in 1949 and was incorporated into the 1983 feature film Daffy Duck's Movie: Fantastic Island.

You can also watch this on youtube (at the time of writing)

The Rattling Bog

Whilst searching for articles on fleas, I came across this old Scottish song, The Rattling Bog.

Things start getting interesting around verse 9

Now on this feather there was a flea.
A rare flea. A rattling flea.
Flea on a feather.
Feather on a bird.
Bird on an egg.
Egg in a nest.
Nest on a twig.
Twig on a branch.
Branch on a limb.
Limb on a tree.
Tree in the bog
And the bog down in the valley-o.

Interactive Fleas

I can't believe I've not spotted this one before.



Dan Hero has created an amusing range of animations, sketches and an impressive interactive flea circus complete with magnifier.

BBC Flea

Mark Easton, the BBC home editor has been admiring Bob George's Flea Atlas and comments on the distribution of fleas in his map of the week.