| Obert Miller began his show business career in a local silent movie house, performing with his dog and pony while the projectionist changed reels. When his wife died, he took his young sons on the road with him. Son Dory, who was called D. R., was 16 when he met his lifetime partner at a barn dance. Her name was Isla, and she was 14, and it took them two years to save the three dollars needed to marry. When the preacher returned two of those dollars as a wedding gift, their one dollar investment paid off in a 60-year circus adventure.
During the Depression, they earned 25 cents a week and slept under an umbrella tent. When Obert and his sons and their wives started a circus, D. R. and Isla shared a trailer with Hattie the elephant.
In 1943, when D. R. and other men in America went to war, Isla and the ladies of the circus drove the trucks and ran the show.
In 1964, they loaded a steamboat like Noah's Ark with menagerie and performers and sailed for Canada and the Caribbean. Off the coast of Newfoundland, the vessel caught fire and sank.
People and animals were saved, but all else was lost. No money. No insurance.
D. R. and Isla ran a Pie Car for a year until they could begin again. Eventually, they had the largest traveling tent show in America. The Carson & Barnes Five Ring Circus, on 80 trucks and trailers, with cookhouse, concessions, musicians, menagerie and performers from 15 different countries, plays 250 towns across America every season.
As the 20th century came to an end, a horse and rider led camels, llamas and Percheron horses, 2 by 2, in a grand circus parade. Susy the elephant carried flowers. Uniformed musicians in the circus bandwagon played familiar circus melodies. A horse-drawn carriage carried a cherry-red and gold casket and the circus world said farewell to circus legend D. R. Miller in a funeral the legendary showman had planned for himself.
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