Richard and Rosie, a black rhinoceros at the Atlanta Zoo in 1992. Photo courtesy of Tim Reynolds
FROM THE LATEST ISSUE OF BANDWAGON
“Circus day for me rivaled Christmas as the biggest event of my early life. This was no doubt due to my father who would begin extolling the thrills and excitement to be expected as soon as the first announcement appeared in the newspapers. By the time the show arrived I would be so excited and pent up that I couldn’t eat.” – Richard J. Reynolds III
Remembering Richard Reynolds
By Fred Pfening
Volume 70 • Number 2 • 2026
The Reynolds family was Irish through and through. Born in Ireland in 1833, Joseph Brown Reynolds emigrated to America in the 1850s, settling in Augusta, Georgia where he worked on the Augusta Canal. He fought for the Confederacy as a member of the Irish Volunteers of Richmond County in what his great-grandson wryly called “The War of Northern Aggression.” The following five generations of Joseph’s descendants were all born in Georgia.
Richard Reynolds Sr., Joseph’s son, was a tobacco salesman. Born in Augusta, he and his family moved to Atlanta in 1910. Richard Jr., an attorney, was born in 1902. He married Anna Belle Jackson in 1932. Richard John Reynolds III, their son, joined out on September 26, 1934. His sister Marianna followed in 1939.
Richard Jr., called Dick, loved sawdust and knew far more about traveling circuses than the typical civilian. He considered the two most entertaining performances he had witnessed were Ringling Bros. World’s Greatest Shows in 1914 and the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus in 1932. He regarded Lillian Leitzel as the greatest performer he saw. He met John Ringling and even once sat in the great man’s private box.
The complete article is available to members of the Circus Historical Society through the members-only Backyard.