Eleanor Rayner was born in 1938. She was the daughter of William Rayner and Louise Rayner (nee Danter). William Rayner (often referred to as Billy Rayner) was the ringmaster of flea circus, which he took to fairs across the country, notably the Goose Fair. In an interview with the Nottingham Evening Post in 1957, he talked about the scarcity of human fleas: 'People are much cleaner and flea conscious these days'. The article mentions how he was trained by a German professor before the Second World War. He died in 1992.

William Rayner was the grandson of James Rayner, a play actor, who was born in 1849. James Rayner was married to fellow actor Elizabeth Rayner (nee Perkins), born in 1856. An obituary for James Rayner (also known as Jimmy Rayner) appeared in The World's Fair on his death in 1926. William Rayner's sister, Nellie Rayner married into another showman family on her wedding to Walter Chadwick.