Circus Day

For six days a week, Leesville (S.C.) was just a sleepy southern farm town on U.S. Highway No. 1. But on the seventh day (Monday), its 1,217 citizens were in a Mardi Gras mood, catering to hundreds of money-heavy strangers who had come 29 miles from Columbia or 200 miles from Atlanta to attend "operation circus." Few in Leesville knew what "circus" was all about, except that a lot of new & used cars were bought & sold, but it brought money to Leesville to make the town happy.

But last week's "circus" was different. The visitors came early, as usual, driving new or good used cars to the magnolia-shaded lot near the depot. Before long, there were some 500 cars around.

Two prospective buyers asked for a demonstration of a 1946 Ford club coupe. A salesman drove them around a while before parking at the side of the road. The buyers asked the price. Said the salesman, blandly: $2,150. While the salesman filled out a Massachusetts bill of sale, the two buyers cheerfully peeled off enough bills to pay for the car.

Then they made the pinch. Soon other OPA agents swarmed over the lot, arrested five other salesmen, jotted down the license numbers of other black-market autos, knocked the big top off the "circus."

Pleased as punch over the raid, OPA guesstimated that the Leesville "circus" had handled $100 million in black-market cars. It was OPA's biggest catch of the year.

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