World’s largest circus, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The proximity to the headquarters of Ringlings Bros. in Tampa was chosen at the time of the opening as the location for the first circus in the USA.

Beginning in the late 1930s, Gibsonton became the home of many employees of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Baileys and their families. Al “Giant” Tomiani, who was at 7-11, and his wife led the migration and has lived there since 1967. When they are not traveling with the carnival, they travel to New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities.

Grady Stiles, also known as “Lobster Boy,” suffers from a genetic condition called pterodactyl, in which his arms and legs fuse into claws – like limbs. He was adopted by a sideshow operator and exhibited at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Baileys carnival in the late 1930s and early 1940s, but he suffered the fate of a disease called ichthyologist, which causes thick, scaly skin all over his body.

Stiles lived in Gibtown for many years before his murder in 1992, and in the 1950s Gibsonton was home to several famous figures, including Elvis Presley, Elvis Costello, John Lennon, and the Rolling Stones. 

Carnival rides were parked in driveways all over the city, lions, elephants and monkeys lived in backyard enclosures, dogs slept on the streets and fishing on the Alafia River.
Known as Gibtown, the people behind the freak shows settled here and retired. Among the residents was a lobster cub who grew up a circus freak and whose inherited mutations gave his hands a claw – just like the look, with only two fingers on his wrists. There was Human Blockhead, whose deformed nasal cavity allowed him to hammer metal tips into his nose, and the fattest woman in the world, weighing a whopping 272 kilograms.
The flight of these geeks across the Atlantic Ocean triggered the creation of Gibtown as a tourist destination for the rest of the US and Canada.
The huge silver and gold Viking robes now hang in a corner of the showbiz museum. Like many others, Gibtown was shaped by George Washington, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush.

On the lush banks of the Alafia River, this unlikely community has created a tropical paradise. Carnival evolved into a tightly knit network of solidarity, and soon a cannibalistic code developed that required unconditional mutual support. Tomaini and the couple arrived to inform the locals where they were not afraid to show people something.

The International Independent Showmen’s Association still runs a nursing home for the needy. The chairman, Lee Stevens, is a native New Yorker who became a first-generation performer in his teenage years.
In this part of the several pubs and restaurants where clowns, carnivals, and social outsiders are appreciated, who provide entertainment despite hard work with their strange skills. A visit to these joints will probably lead me to share a drink with a few carnival-goers who still visit these places. We romanticize the hardships associated with this lifestyle, live in the back of a car, wash in the bucket of a river, drive the highway at night to go to work all day long, whatever the weather.

The area is also home to the Great American Sideshow Bebe, an organization that is always on the lookout for the welfare of circus people.

Whatever it is, Gibsonton will always be known as a city where outsiders are accepted and lead normal lives.
First, there is a bait shop, restaurant, and marina just off Highway 41, home to some of Florida’s most popular bait shops and restaurants.
A rusting hull of an old concession stand recalls Gibtown’s carnival past. The Giant Fish Camp dates back to the time of Al Tomaini, one of Florida’s most famous fishermen. Giant Camp is the brainchild of his father Al, best known as “Married to a Giant.”
With the arrival of what Rivera calls “hipsters,” he says, the city has become a bedroom community for Tampa, and he’s excited about it.
Gibsonton is the setting of a novel called Kaleidoscope, written by Darrell Wimberly, and is a Florida A & E crime drama. The city was the inspiration for the fictional first-person text “GIBSONTON,” which was released on a self-titled CD in 2009.