| In Italy, a royal blacksmith who loved the circus had a son named Pilade, who fell in love with an acrobat. In 1840, the trio founded Il Circo Cristiani, and in time the 24 children of Pilade had become a circus so big that they had a permanent circus in Modena and traveling troupes of Cristianis performing throughout Europe.
When Pilade's son Ernesto married Emmaline, a member of a rival circus, their union produced a new troupe of tumbling, leaping equestrians: Oscar, Deviso, Lucio, Mogador, Belmonte, Pietro, Cosetta, Chieta, Ortan and Corcaita, each born in a different country as the family toured the continents.
Fleeing Italy's Fascist regime, they went to Paris in 1924 where they performed with Cirque Modrano for a decade before coming to America. Papa Ernesto set a record of 83 consecutive flip-flops around the ring and Lucio did a full-twist backward somersault from the back of one horse, over a second and onto the back of a third.
In America, they were given their own railway car with the Cristiani name painted on the side. When Ernesto's brother and his family arrived, there were so many Cristianis that no one circus could afford them all, so they split into two troupes, one on the East Coast and the other in the West.
They became American citizens and settled on 30 acres of Florida land. Each time another Cristiani married, a new home was built in their colony. Every spring they turned the locks in their doors and took their acts on the road. By 1952, their circus had 12 elephants, the Zacchini cannon and a parade of Cristianis.
In 1954, a caravan of 50 trucks carried them along the Alcan Highway to become the first circus ever to perform in Alaska.
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