In the spring of 1924 a group of young businessmen organized the Little Theatre. It was a successful organization until sound motion pictures were invented. The theatre’s plays were first given in the old opera house and later in the Majestic theater (State theater). When sound movies were invented the Majestic’s stage was turned into a sounding board and stage performances were no longer given. In the spring and fall of 1929 the Little Theatre performed in school auditoriums but they were not financially successful.

 In 1929 the board of directors met to discuss the problem and came up with the idea of a burlesque circus in the exhibit building at Fair Park. The building had a dirt floor and display shelves that could be used for seating.

 The Gainesville Community Circus was started by the Gainesville Little Theatre in May 1930 as a fund-raiser to help pay off a $300 deficit. A. Morton Smith, editor of the Gainesville Register, organized the first two performances in a single dirt ring in Fair Park auditorium. The first show called the “Mammoth Indoor Circus” featured fancy ropers, wrestlers, tumbling, and human statues. The shows brought in $420. In April 1931 the circus was performing in the main exhibit building at the Cooke County fairgrounds when citizens from Denton asked if the circus would travel to Denton for the Denton County Fair. That first traveling engagement started a tradition of Gainesville Community Circus road shows.

 Occasionally professional circus entertainers passing through or wintering in Gainesville would join local citizens with circus experience in training performers but the circus itself was presented entirely by amateurs who had to meet three requirements, 1. They had to reside in Gainesville, 2. They could have no professional circus experience, and 3. They had to have the desire and determination to learn some type of circus act. They also received no compensation (except the applause of the audiences and praise of fellow townspeople), and had to provide their own costumes, transportation, and most of the rigging.

 The Fair Park building where the first performance was held was the site of rehearsals, which lasted from the first of the year until the season opened in April. During this same time, Animal acts were rehearsing in the Cooke County fair grounds poultry building and new equipment was being built in the shows downtown winter quarters.

 The circus had three rings with bareback riders, trapeze artists, acrobats, tight wire performers, jugglers, and clowns. Dogs, horses, lions, chimpanzees, an elephant, and Shetland ponies made up the trained animal acts. The horse Sun D never missed a performance during his 25 years with the circus. Over the years, the circus's equipment, which began with trapeze riggings, clown props, and wardrobe trunks, grew to include eight tents, including a big top that covered 22,000 square feet and seats for 2,500 people, six ornamental tableau wagons, costumes for 150 people, a calliope, and hundreds of other pieces of equipment, weighing 30 tons and valued at $12,000.00.

 Its claim as the only enterprise of its kind in the world has never been challenged, for where else on earth will you find a community of 10,000 people where doctors, lawyers, public officials, housewives, school teachers, stenographers, students, delivery boys, and clerks set aside their daily duties to don tights and tarlatan skirts, clown makeup, to risk their lives under the big top year after year just for the sheer joy of participating in such an activity?

 The circus was administered by an executive board made up of 12 members who were business and professional men of Gainesville, each of whom also headed one of the many departments, including finance, tickets, advertising, program, music, wardrobe, livestock, dining room, and equipment.

 On show day the performers would go about their daily business until evening, when they would meet at the Chamber of Commerce office, load into cars and drive to the show grounds up to 100 miles away. If the distance to the show grounds was too far to drive arrangements were made to transport the show by rail. The equipment and crew would leave out the day before and have everything set up and ready when the performers arrived. The train schedules were set up to allow the performers to travel at night, so as to miss as little work as possible. Once they arrived at the show grounds they would grab a bite to eat, put on their costumes or uniforms and then the show would begin. Two hours later when the show was over costumes were carefully put away and the performers would begin the trip back home.

 The season consisted of 8 to 10 shows from late April till mid September. In 1936 the circus performed for 11,000 people in a single performance at Kyle Field in College Station and in 1938 gave 2 performances in Will Rogers Memorial Coliseum in Ft. Worth before Audiences totaling 27,000 people (The greatest number of people ever assembled under one roof in that city at that time.)

 In 1939 the service clubs, the Fair Board, and the Chamber of Commerce came up with a way to draw even more people into town. They decided to have a Circus Roundup, which featured a queen’s contest, coronation and ball, homecoming reception, and a large circus parade that also featured every civic organization that wanted to enter a float, as well as bands from near-by areas. Every year thousands lined the streets to watch the parade.

 Camp Howze was built near Gainesville beginning in 1941. The 1941 Circus Roundup parade contained lots of war equipment that was being gathered at the Camp. On September 17, 1941 the circus closed its season vowing to return after the war. 183 people who had performed with the circus joined the armed services. Three former performers were killed during the war. Other performers continued to practice at home and some performances were given to the soldiers at Camp Howze. On September 2, 1946 the circus resumed regular performances.

 Statistics from the 1953 official program showed that from 1930 to 1952 the circus cast gave 359 performances in fifty-seven different cities and canceled only one performance, after a tornado destroyed the big top in 1939 in Ardmore, Oklahoma. At least 1,500 Gainesville citizens took part in performances in front of 500,000 spectators in 25 years.

 In 1947 a building was built on the fair grounds to hold all the equipment but in 1954, shortly after its twenty-fifth anniversary performance, the building containing the circus's tent and equipment was destroyed by fire. The loss was estimated at $65,000 but the bigger loss was the hobbies of many people that went up in smoke. The citizen’s of Gainesville gradually rebuilt and occasionally performed in isolated acts until the entire show made a formal comeback in Odessa in 1958. But that year also saw the organization's demise. According to former circus president and chief clown Frank E. Schmitz, "Television and air conditioning killed" the circus, which had "just got too big."

 Over the years the circus was featured on 12 newsreels and TV programs as well as in Readers Digest, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, and dozens of magazines that no longer exist. In 1957 it was featured on Dave Galloway’s “Wide Wide World” show.

 Honorary Ringmasters over the years included Senator Tom Connally, Elliot Roosevelt, General John A. Hulen, General Jonthan Wainwright, Frank Buck, Roy Hufheinz, and war ace Colonel Royal N. Baker.