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In mid-July 1955 seventeen year old Richard Steele took a bus from Boston to Austin, Minnesota to join the Gil Gray Circus as a roustabout. His older brother Tony, part of the Flying Malkos trapeze act, got him the job, Shortly after arriving he struck up a romance with Patty Dunn, also seventeen, the daughter of Bill Dunn, the show' assistant manager.

After Minnesota, the Gray Circus appeared in Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Arkansas, and Oklahoma before pulling into winter quarters at the Enid, Oklahoma fairgrounds on October 20, The Dunn family, including Patty decided to head home to Sebring, Florida for the winter. When Steele expressed his shock at the situation to Patty, she coldly told him: "I love you baby, but the season's over." He was devastated.

The next day Ted DeWayne pulled into quarters with the big announcement that the Gil Gray Circus was going to play the newly-opened Disneyland amusement park, Among other things, this news meant the Dunn family, including Patty would he staying with the show.

The above is prologue to the following excerpt from Steeles memoir I Love You Baby, But the Season's Over in which he recounts his time with the Gil Gray Circus when it appeared at Disneyland as the Mickey Mouse Club Circus. It starts with DeWayne's arrival at the Gray winter quarters on October 21, 1955.

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