***Many awards including the GENIE, GOLDEN SHEAF and AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL.

Narrated by actor Jack Palance, this video tells an almost fairy-tale story of how a farmboy from Olha, Manitoba became a star in 1923 with Barnum and Bailey, the most famous circus in the world. It also presents, through period photographs and vintage film clips, insights into the past of this region during the years of settlement by Ukrainian immigrants.

When he toured with the world famous troupe, this remarkable man could bend iron bars in his teeth, support five men on his stomach, and hold two automobiles to a stand-still with his massive arms. He became friends with and learned from the great illusionist Harry Houdini. He was scheduled to go on a world tour with the Circus but when he received a telegram from his father telling him to return home for the harvest, Mike had no recourse but to comply, as any dutiful son of the soil must. The people of the circus could not believe that he would give up the chance of a world tour for a town "not even on the map". When his father died, Mike, as the eldest son, had to swear an oath to stay with the land. There he remained until his death. He half-heartedly cared for the farm he never wanted, taking his greatest satisfaction in restoring the old Budas-shelters made of wood, mud, and straw where the original Ukrainian immigrants to the Olha area lived ... and often died.