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Sarasota News Leader December 6, 2013 Page 68 CIRCUS CIRCUS! TO BE THEME OF NEXT CONVERSATION AT THE CROCKER Deborah Walk, Tibbals Curator of the Circus Museum and Curator of Historical Resources at the Ringling Museum, will take to the stage at the Crocker Memorial Church on Tuesday, Dec. 10, for a conversation with three famous circus performers who will share insider stories about life under the big top, the Historical Society of Sarasota County (HSOSC) has announced. Joining Walk will be Jackie LeClaire, Karen Bell and Mary Jane Miller "for an evening of thrills, chills and circus recollections that will leave you breathless," a news release says. The Crocker Memorial Church is located Deborah Walk/Contributed photo at 1260 12th St. (Pioneer Park) in Sarasota. HSOSC members will be admitted free; guests In 1942, Mary Jane Miller's friends coaxed her to answer an ad in the Herald-Tribune are asked to pay $10. that announced Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Conversations at The Crocker is an annual Bailey Circus was looking for girls for the series of interactive programs focusing on season, the release says. "Against her mothvarious aspects of Sarasota's past. er's wishes, Mary Jane went to the Winter Quarters and tried out. Tuffy Genders, aerial director of the show, was reluctant to audition her because of her young age and lack of experience. But he asked Mary Jane to climb a flexible metal ladder 40 feet high. He watched her quickly scramble to the top, hang on by one hand and wave to him. She was hired, went on the road and the rest is history." Miller spent 13 seasons with Ringling and appeared in the 1952 Cecil B. DeMille movie The Greatest Show On Earth. Karen Bell/Contributed photo LeClaire "has delighted and amazed audiences for almost seven decades," the release continues. His first salaried position was as a clown in partnership with his father on tour