I bet you have never heard of the "Walking Man" circus van... patented in 1910, and built in 1920 for a beer company

One of very few completed, this is said to have been originally ordered by a brewery in Milwaukee in the early 1920s. 

As the builder was an agent for the Overland Automobile Company, an Overland chassis was used as its basis. 

It was decorated in the style of a circus wagon—North Tonawanda being a hub of circus and amusement equipment manufacturing at the time—and fitted with controls that allowed the giant man up front to turn his head from side to side as he “walked.” Adjustable walking height accommodated a variety of terrains, while a microphone in the cabin and a rooftop megaphone allowed him to “talk” to onlookers. 

Apparently, the brewery was unable to use the wagon (perhaps because they could not register it for road use), and the owner adapted it to his own purposes, painting it to promote J.A. Dischinger & Son, his garage and machine shop. 

The wagon was later moved onto a 1932 Plymouth chassis

https://rmsothebys.com/auctions/hf25/lots/r0143-1922-walking-man-pioneer-circus-wagon/

not many of you will remember, but back in 2014 - 2017 I posted some very cool 1930s amusement park stunt rides, but only now have I found a video clip of it... The Loop The Loop

the "golden days" of loop the loop and leap the gap acts was the period from 1900 to about 1912.

https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2014/02/from-glory-days-of-circus-acts-loop-loop.html

https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2017/12/november-1912-in-parisian-theatre-they.html

Ringling Brothers circus clown Lou Jacobs, Chicago, 1949

https://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/cushman/results/detail.do?query=subject%3A%22Automobiles%22&page=10&pagesize=20&display=thumbcap&action=search&pnum=P04505

Barnum and Bailey knew what a draw a car was in 1896... about the same as a jet pack equipped guy would be today

https://libwww.freelibrary.org/digital/item/49450

Looks like he's a walking advertisement for the circus exhibition of the flying cars with a mid air flip

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10213877907890784&set=a.4705775571281&type=3&permPage=1

from the glory days of circus acts, the Loop the Loop

Photos from a 1907 Scientific American magazine and found at http://aacalibrary.tumblr.com/

a long and throrough explanation of the act by Fred D. Pfening, Jr. Bandwagon, Vol. 13, No. 3 (May-Jun), 1969, pp. 20-24 can be summed up with;
the "golden days" of loop the loop and leap the gap acts was the period from 1900 to about 1912. All of the large circuses of that time used an act of this type as the closing number sensation one or more seasons. Sometimes it was on a bicycle and even on roller skates, but mostly by one or more autos. More frequently than not the passenger in the auto acts at the turn of the century were women, usually being billed as from France.
There was generally a pervasive idea inside and outside Madison Square Garden that his first performance would be his last. In fact there were two ambulances from the city hospitals present, one containing six surgeons who were anxious to have the first opportunity of examining the prospective corpse, and one filled high with air cushions on which Diavolo was to be carried in state, with so much life as remained in him, to Bellevue. 

But it was the John Robinson's Ten Enormous Shows Combined that introduced to American circus goers the "loop the loop auto", in 1904. The "Great Mephisto" (Horace Mohn) circled the loop in an auto. Mr. Mohn appears to actually be he first person to do this stunt with an American circus, verified after a full search of newspaper ads, heralds, couriers and programs. However the Great Floto show came in second that same season when they presented "Kiro, monster African baboon looping the loop in an auto". Both of these acts used riggings with a barrell loop, and the cars did not somersault in the air.

Mlle. Octavia Le Tour, according to the New York Evening Post of March 23, 1906, risked her life strapped in an automobile, dashed down a dizzy incline and was hurled after turning a complete somersault in space, upon a padded aid railed gang way twenty feet away from the end of the incline. A four page newspaper size reprint of the various reviews of the 1906 New York date played up "The Limit" as the big act of the show. However the fate of Mile. La Tour and her auto following the New York date is unknown as she is not listed in the road program nor in the 1906 route book.

For the 1908 season Barnum & Bailey imported yet another auto thrill act, with yet another embellishment. This one presented the "Sisters La Rague" with two cars, using a 90 foot runway. 

       image from http://www.karenandjay.com/trips/bige08/bige08_29.jpg
Billed as an aerial auto race, one car painted red dashed down the runway striking an obstruction that tossed it into space for a mid-air somersault, while the other car painted blue followed closely, passing smoothly over the dropped obstruction and jumping under the red car, in a somersaulting position, to a landing ramp, just ahead of the red car that had left the top of the ramp first. These two French gals were back for the 1909 tour, which was the last year that the Greatest Show on Earth used an auto or bicycle thrill act.

info article from http://www.circushistory.org/Bandwagon/bw-1969May.htm

Auto-Bolide at Folies-Bergère (Revue Universelle (1904))) found on https://www.facebook.com/groups/yachtclubdesavionsdelaroute/permalink/10152441350744556/?notif_t=group_comment_reply

Nov 1930 Popular Science magazine

https://forums.aaca.org/topic/341211-period-images-to-relieve-some-of-the-stress/page/320/