A cultural icon will succumb in May when the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus ends its 146-year tradition of animal acts, clowns, trapeze artists and all the other trappings of the one-time “Greatest Show on Earth” that rolled across the country, thrilling generations of Americans.
Kenneth Feld, chairman and CEO of Feld Entertainment, which produces the Ringling circus, announced Jan. 14 that its last shows will be held in May. “Ringling Bros. ticket sales have been declining, but following the transition of the elephants off the road, we saw an even more dramatic drop. This, coupled with high operating costs, made the circus an unsustainable business for the company,” Feld said.
“It’s been through world wars, and it’s been through every kind of economic cycle and it’s been through a lot of change. In the past decade there’s been more change in the world than in the 50 to 75 years prior to that. And I think it isn’t relevant to people in the same way,” Feld said, adding that “we are extremely grateful to the millions of families who have made Ringling Bros. part of their lives for generations.”
Starting in the 1800s and through the early part of the 20th century, circuses headed by the Ringling brothers, P.T. Barnum and Clyde Beatty were among the most popular brands of entertainment in the country, traveling by rail, bringing exotic wild animals to small towns across America where three-ring spectacles were set up beneath the big top.
“In the 1880s, especially, here you had this huge colossal canvas city that tracked across the country. It brought the wonders of the world to your door. You didn’t have to go to Africa or Asia to see the animals,” Deborah Walk, the assistant director of legacy and circus at John Ringling’s mansion and circus collection in Sarasota, Florida, told the Associated Press.
Until recent years, the circus remained a spectacle that dazzled wide-eyed children. The largest of its animals — the elephants — were a magnet for crowds. When the Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus visited Northampton in 1984, its four shows at the Three County Fairgrounds were preceded by elephant races on Main Street.
But the elephants also drew the attention of animal rights activists who targeted circuses with claims that they mistreated them and other animals by forcing them to perform in their shows.
Despite winning a $25.2 million settlement in 2014 from animal rights groups, ending a 14-year legal fight, Feld Entertainment removed elephants from its circus shows last year. Ticket sales fell as a result, the final blow to a circus which already could not keep up with the shifting culture which saw young people captivated by video games and the internet.
People who want one last taste of the Ringling Bros. extravaganza don’t have to travel far. There will be five shows April 14 to 16 at the DCU Center in Worcester. Among Ringling’s final shows will be eight at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island, May 4 through 7.
Ringling is the latest circus to shut down in the 21st century. The Cole Bros. Circus — which in its heyday was Ringling’s chief rival — stopped touring last year.
And the Big Apple Circus, which was established in 1977 and became a nonprofit, filed for bankruptcy last year. Its assets, including two big-top tents, will be sold at an auction in New York City on Feb. 7.
The show will go on, though, with the spotlight now shining squarely on circuses whose human performers are the sole entertainers. Among the best known of those is Cirque du Soleil, based in Montreal.
And there is Circus Smirkus, which was founded in 1987 in a 150-year-old farmhouse in Greensboro, Vermont. It trains young people in the skills and culture of the traveling circus, and its troupe tours New England for two months each summer with its 750-seat, European-style, one-ring big top. It performed five shows last July at the Three County Fairgrounds in Northampton.
Changing cultural norms helped reshape the face of traveling circuses. But that shouldn’t take away the thrill of stepping under the big top.