Terry Tim Allread is the sixth of seven children raised in the Backyard Circus. As a child, going to every circus that came within 200 miles of home, his parents, Arvel and Grace, introduced him to such circus luminaries as Clyde Beatty, Big John Strong, and Victor Robbins. He would wake up Saturday mornings to the melodious tones of Dad playing “Entry of the Gladiators" on his baritone horn.