At the time of his first Magnum commissions, Bruce Davidson spent several weeks with the Clyde Beatty Circus troupe, named for its main protagonist, a tamer of big cats. Davidson's main focus was not on the shows but rather on the strenuous daily life of individual artists. He developed a particularly strong bond with the clown Jimmy Armstrong, a person of short stature. The strength of character and the loneliness Davidson saw in the Little Man's personality impressed him greatly.
