Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus
| Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Combined Shows, Inc. | |
|---|---|
Poster depicting the Ringling brothers, founders of the circus, c. 1899. The Ringling brothers are depicted in the upper left corner.
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| Origin | |
| Circus name | Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus |
| Country | United States |
| Founder(s) | The Ringling Brothers |
| Year founded | April 10, 1871 |
| Information | |
| Operator(s) | Feld Entertainment |
| Fate | To be closed May 21, 2017 |
| Traveling show? | Yes |
| Winter quarters | Ellenton, Florida |
| Website | ringling |
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is a United States traveling circus company billed as The Greatest Show on Earth. The circus, known as Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows, was started in 1919 when the Barnum & Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth, a circus created by P. T. Barnum and James Anthony Bailey, was merged with the Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows. The Ringling brothers had purchased Barnum & Bailey Ltd. following Bailey's death in 1906, but ran the circuses separately until they were merged in 1919.
On July 16, 1956, at the Heidelberg Race Track in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the circus ended its season early, with President John Ringling North announcing that it would no longer exhibit under their own portable "big top" tents and starting in 1957 would exhibit in permanent venues, such as sports stadiums and arenas that had the seating already in place. In 1967, Irvin Feld and his brother Israel, along with Houston Judge Roy Hofheinz bought the circus from the Ringling family. In 1971, the Felds and Hofheinz sold the circus to Mattel, buying it back from the toy company in 1982. Since the death of Irvin Feld in 1984, the circus has been a part of Feld Entertainment, an international entertainment firm headed by Kenneth Feld, with its headquarters in Ellenton, Florida.
The show traditionally begins with the ringmaster singing the national anthem.
With weakening attendance and high operating costs, Feld Entertainment announced that the circus would close in May 2017 after 146 years.
In 1875, Dan Castello and William Cameron Coup persuaded P. T. Barnum to lend his name and financial backing to the circus they had already created in Delavan, Wisconsin. It was called "P.T. Barnum's Great Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan, and Hippodrome." The moniker "Greatest Show on Earth" was added later.
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