the golden age of the circus...

Billy Smart Jr, one of Britain's circus legends who once tamed a frisky herd of performing elephants when they stampeded in the ring in response to a too-loud Gypsy number, died yesterday, aged 71.

Smart, familiar in the gossip columns of the 50s and 60s as an eligible bachelor, belonged to the golden age of circus when the family firm could tour with a four-mast, 6,000-seat big top and attract 22 million viewers to one of its television shows.