Circus Secrets | Visit to Gibtown

Visit to Gibsonton, better known as Gibtown, is a small town just south of Tampa, and which has been the winter home for carnies for over 70 years, each with their public persona but also with secrets that played out behind the curtains of the big top. | Host - Marlene Pardo Pellicer

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Giant's Camp, Postcard, Gibtown, FL

​On Highway 41, ten miles south of Tampa is Gibsonton, Florida. Decades ago, during the Depression,  carnival folk settled in the area, and it became their winter home. It started when they would park their trailers near the Alafia River which runs through the town. 

These were the days of sideshows that featured human oddities like the Bearded Lady, Percilla the Monkey Girl, her husband Alligator Man, the Lobster Family and Dotty the Fat Lady among other.

The residents worked towards changing the zoning laws which allowed them to keep elephants and circus trailers on their front lawns. They were all bound by their nomadic lifestyle, and unusual appearance.

In 1949, Al Tomaini an eight and a half-foot tall giant, with a 22-inch shoe size retired from the road and settled in Gibsonton. The Giant and his two-foot tall wife, Jeanie, billed as "The Half-Girl," started a trailer park and fishing camp that has become legendary among Tampa Bay fishermen as the "Giant’s Camp." For many years, Al Tomaini served as Gibtown’s Police and Fire Chief. The Giant continued operating his fish camp until his death in 1962.

During the height of its popularity as carnival town it had the only post office in the United States with a low counter for midgets.

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Al Tomaini and his wife Jeannie

The Hilton Siamese twins operated a local fruit stand, and Melvin Burkhart known as the "Human Blockhead performed for locals at the Showman's Lounge.

One Spring arrived, and the snows melted in the northern states, more than half of the town population would leave to work the fairs and festivals across the country.

​Nicknamed "Gibtown" or "Showtown USA" it's also the home of the International Independent Showmen's Association, and Gibtown's International Independent Showmen's Museum, which houses a wide assortment of antique equipment, historic printed materials and detailed exhibits that tell the carnival story. It is near the winter home for the Ringling Brothers Circus in Central Florida.

On the surface Gibsonton  appears to be yet another non-descript, backwater town—a town frozen in time since the Interstate system replaced the original U.S. highways. But Gibsonton has a secret, a hidden identity to be discovered if one ventures down the side streets of town.

Watch or listen to Circus Secrets and hear the strange stories of the Gibtown folk.

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Bigfoot sighted at Gibtown c.1977

Gibsonton is not only known for its strange residents. In 1977, a trail of 17-inch footprints, set about five feet apart were found by local citizens. Broken branches and a squashed palmetto bush near Linda Street and Gibsonton Drive provided additional proof that something weird was lurking around. The trail was a a quarter mile from a swamp bordering the Alafia River.

Gerrie Rahme who was sitting behind her house at 11 p.m. noticed her rabbits started to jump around and act scared. Then she heard something in the bushes. Whatever it was made a funny scream that sounded like a young girl, this was followed by a hissing and a sort of growl.

Her pit bulldogs. known for being fearless went to investigate, and they soon returned with their tails tucked between their legs, outrunning her to get back in the house.

She said their reaction is what really scared her. Four hours later she and her husband were woken up by the barking of the dogs all over the neighborhood.

Their dogs balked at leaving the house. Mr. Rahme, who was native to the bay area said he had never seen tracks like those on his property, or known his dogs to act this way.

A few weeks later someone reported sighting a "gorilla" to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Department. The witness lived in a trailer on Fern Hill Drive, located between Symmes Road and Gibsonton Drive. This was a mile from where the Rahmes found the prints.

The landlord said he had found an empty King Kong costume box later that day, however it's not known if he said this to convince his renter, who was also a relative not move way, since they were scared so badly. Could a cheap costume scare a person into believing it was a real apelike figure?

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