The Main Attraction

You can keep your Tigers and your bare back riders 

Your tightrope walkers and you 

Elephants to Who needs animals and human canonballs 

Send the whole caboodle to the local zoo 

The Main Attraction

Before Goggling Boone last year, I really didn't know anything about the singer an actor except for being the father of Debby Boone.  Growing up in the 80's, I remember seeing her album in my mother's collection and certainly heard the You Light Up My Life song from time to time, mostly when I was a kid, and my mother had her radio on in the kitchen while she cooked.

I'm fortunate that I still get to work from home a few days a week.  Although in-part it's due to Covid, I had the flexibility before the pandemic began.  I usually have the television on as background noise, often a news or music channel.  A month or so as I was flicking the dial, I came upon a Circus movie on TCM.  Many FH readers might remember I LOVE circus, and circus movies, and this one, I hadn't seen before.

State Fair (1962)

Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)

The Main Attraction (1962)

'A guitar playing traveler is on the run from a murder charge. He joins a circus where falling for two different women complicates his life.'

The film I turned on was 1962's The Main Attraction, and I turned it on just as a hot actor was taking off his shirt and climbing up a trapeze swing.  I didn't initially know the shirtless hottie was Pat Boone that  I was watching until heading heading to IMDB to find out more about the film.

I was impressed with Boone's circus skills, as it appeared from the scene, (which you can watch below) that Boone was doing his circus stunts himself.  It may have been a stunt man, but from the way the scene is edited, it certainly looked like it was indeed Boone swinging on that trapeze.  I'm sure it wasn't as high as appeared on-screen, but it was a little impressive none-the-less. 

Although I liked the film, I certainly didn't jump on the Pat Boone bad wagon, just the opposite in fact.  Although Boone is in his 80's, I don't consider age an excuse for ignorance.  They say with age come wisdom, and there are far too many excuses given to certain people due to age and where they grew up, to explain or worse, 'understand' their ignorance.  Age and circumstance may certainly fertilize ignorance, but  hate and bigotry only grow by choice.

I chose to proceed with the post because finally, the circus movie gave me a connection to the naked man in those Time LIFE shower pictures. I was also surprised at how much 'beefcake' was used in the promotion of some of Boone's films.  I also thought the one thing homophobes would like least, would be to have their naked and shirtless photos seen by as many people as possible.  I did read that Pat's daughter Debby did do a turn around with regards to her anti-gay views, maybe her father eventually will as well...