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Life is just a carnival collection to couple

It was to be just another canvas piece job. But it turned into a lifelong love giving them a unique memorabilia collection.

Tentmakers Tommy Sciortino and Lynne Beckett's obsession began nearly 30 years ago when a client asked them to create a cover for his antique merry-go-round.

It was battered, missing pieces and looked "hideous," Beckett said. But she wanted it.

The owner agreed to sell, launching the start of the couple's collection of carnival memorabilia, from carousel horses to circus banners and sideshow mirrors. It blends well with their business, Amusement Canvass Outfitters in Ybor Heights, which makes party tents and supplies for rental companies.

For years, Florida State Fair organizers have borrowed a few pieces in the couple's collection to accent the fair. This year they will use the bulk of it for the "Celebration of the Century" exhibit, on display through Feb. 16.

The exhibit in the Charles M. Davis Special Events Center highlights the past 100 years of the fair and Florida. It will feature a carousel organ that Sciortino and Beckett restored and about 20 pre 1920 carousel pieces, including horses, pigs decorated with acorns and pelicans. "We were meant to share this, I guess," Beckett said last week as she watched her husband oil the band organ before taking it to the fairgrounds.

"It's sort of fun to share these things with people."

Joyce Covington, coordinator of special events for the fair, said the couple has never hesitated to loan the fair valuable items.

"They're the most generous ... people I've ever met," Covington said. "They've donated items for more than 10 years."

The couple's love of carnival art comes honestly. Sciortino, 50, grew up in a circus family; his father worked the circuit as a girl-show caller, enticing men to the risque shows. Beckett, 52, was a special education teacher who became familiar with circus life when the couple did tent work for circus companies.

Beckett found fairground architecture beautiful. She also met blacksmiths and painters who helped them restore works they collected. One circus performer, whose act was to stand on one finger, taught her how to create lavish stencils and apply gold leaf.

The couple finds carousel pieces, like the ones at the exhibit, mostly through auctions across the country. They restore and sell some of them. Others, they just rebuild and keep.

The 1908 band organ is a keeper. It was a mess when they bought it at an auction more than 10 years ago. Paper, pipes and other odds and ends poked out of its innards.

Friends of the couple helped them study black-and-white photos to determine the organ's original maroon and baby-blue trim. The organ spends most of its time in storage, but many of the couple's items are stuffed into their Carrollwood home and office on Nebraska Avenue.

Their office is filled with carnival treasures, from circus posters to photos of elephants and sideshow acts. An antique Cretors & Co. popcorn popper filled with company stationery sits in one corner. Their tent business pays the bills. Their collecting feeds everything else.

Looking around at her treasures, Beckett said, "We just love it."