Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus

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Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus was an American circus company that called itself The Greatest Show on Earth (Eng. "The greatest show in the world"). It was active under new owners in a modified form until May 2017.

Historic Ringling Brothers circus wagon

history

Barnum & Bailey Limited stock

The company was founded in 1919 when the Barnum & Bailey Circus, founded by James Anthony Bailey and PT Barnum , merged with the Ringling Brothers Circus . The Ringling Brothers bought Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1907, but operated it independently until 1919. The brothers in detail: Al Albrecht C. Ringling 1852–1916; Otto (William Henry Ringling, 1858-1911); Alf T. (Alfred Theodore Ringling, 1863-1919); Charles (Carl Edward Ringling, 1864-1926); John ( John Nicholas Ringling , 1866-1936); Gus (Augustus Albert Ringling, 1854-1907); Henry (Henry William George Ringling, 1868-1918). In 1957, John Ringling North arranged for permanent venues such as sports arenas to be used as guest venues instead of the previously used tents. In 1967 Irvin Feld bought the circus, but sold it to Mattel in 1971 . In 1982 Irvin Feld and his son Kenneth Feld bought it back.

In 1999, Feld Entertainment was founded, a production company that, in addition to the circus, also runs other shows such as “Disney on Ice” and various productions on Broadway and in Las Vegas. In 2010 the 200th birthday of PT Barnum was celebrated and a generation change took place at the same time. For the first time since then, Nicole Feld, who had been responsible for program design with her father for several years, and her younger sister Alana, two women were responsible for production. Kenneth Feld largely withdrew from the production of the circus and concentrated more on his duties as head of Feld Entertainment .

In May 2016, under pressure from animal rights activists, the circus stopped the elephant shows. A year later, in May 2017, after 146 years, the circus ceased operations completely. The reason given by the company was the high operating costs and falling visitor numbers after the end of the elephant shows. The circus last performed on May 21, 2017 at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale , New York.

construction

The company operated two different traveling shows in the USA, so-called units , which are labeled with colors (red and blue) and their programs are called editions . The two big shows offered entertainment in up to three arenas. Since the two large units changed the programs every year from 1969, the blue show always took place in even years, the red always in odd years. The gold unit was not counted and mostly changed every year. In 2016 the blue unit played the 144th edition and the red unit played the 145th edition.

Until 2015 there was also a small “gold unit” with a circus ring that represented a scaled-down version of the circus. With the discontinuation of the gold unit, there was also a change in the changeover mode of the editions. For the first time, the blue unit played two and a half instead of two years, which meant that the program did not change until mid-2016. Instead of presenting a new program at the turn of the year, a new program should be shown in one of the two units after the annual summer break.

The circus train

With two special trains of about 60 cars each and a total length of one mile (1.6 km), the circus owned the largest private trains in the United States. While the two largest units were transported by train, which also offered some employees permanent accommodation, the gold unit did not use rail transport and instead used trucks.

The Ringmaster

The ring master is the moderator of a circus program. He accompanies the audience through the program with announcements and singing. At Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, the ringmaster was given an additional role because he was “the face of the circus,” a character associated with the show and often used for advertising.

In the blue unit, Johnathan Lee Iverson had been the ringmaster since 2010, while Andre McClain led the program in the red unit from 2013. Iverson had been ringmaster of the red unit from 1999 to 2004, while McClain had hosted the pre-show for many years, both in the blue and previously in the red unit. The small gold unit has been presented by David Shipman since 2013. Andre McClain and David Shipman swapped units for the new shows in 2015.

Ringmaster of the 3-arena shows

year Edition Unit Ringmaster
1871-1878 1-8 PT Barnum Dan Castello
1879-1881 9-11 PT Barnum James Cook
1882-1889 12-13 Barnum & London RH Dockrill
1884-1889 14.-19. Barnum & London RH Dockrill
Ringling Bros. Al Ringling
1890-1891 20-21 Barnum & Bailey William Ducrow
Ringling Bros. Al Ringling
1892-1894 22.-24. Barnum & Bailey RH Dockrill
Ringling Bros. Al Ringling
1895 25th Barnum & Bailey John O'Brien
Ringling Bros. Al Ringling
1896-1902 26.-32. Barnum & Bailey William Ducrow
Ringling Bros. Al Ringling
1903-1904 33-34 Barnum & Bailey Frank Melville
Ringling Bros. Al Ringling
1905 35. Barnum & Bailey RH Dockrill
Ringling Bros. Al Ringling
1906 36. Barnum & Bailey William Ducrow
Ringling Bros. Al Ringling
1907 37. Barnum & Bailey William Ducrow
Ringling Bros. Al Ringling
1908 38. Barnum & Bailey Edward Shipp
Ringling Bros. Al Ringling
1909 39. Barnum & Bailey Edward Shipp
Ringling Bros. Al Ringling
1910 40. Barnum & Bailey Edward Shipp
Ringling Bros. William Gorman
1911 41. Barnum & Bailey William Gorman
Ringling Bros. Al Ringling
1912 42. Barnum & Bailey William Gorman
Ringling Bros. Al Ringling
1913-1915 43–45 Barnum & Bailey Fred Bradna
Ringling Bros. Al Ringling
1916-1918 46-48 Barnum & Bailey Fred Bradna
Ringling Bros. John Agee
1919-1946 49-76. Fred Bradna
1947-1948 77th-78th Arthur Springer
1949 79. Harry Thomas
1950 80. David Murphy
1951-1955 81–85. Count Nicholas
1956 86. Preston Lambert
1957 87. Harold Ronk
1958 88 Don Forbes
1959 89. George Michel
1960-1968 90–98 Harold Ronk
1969-1972 98th – 102. blue Harold Ronk
red Bob Welz
1973 102. blue Tim Holst
103. red Bob Welz
1974 104. blue Harold Ronk
103. red Tim Holst
1975 104. blue Harold Ronk
105. red Tim Holst
1976 106. blue Harold Ronk
105. red Tim Holst
1977 106. blue Bill Witter
107. red Kit Haskett
1978 108. blue Harold Ronk
107. red Kit Haskett
1979 108. blue Harold Ronk
109. red Kit Haskett
1980 110. blue Harold Ronk
109. red Kit Haskett
1981 110. blue Lawrence Kelly
111. red Kit Haskett
1982 112. blue Dinny McGuire
111. red Kit Haskett
1983-1985 112-115 blue Jim Ragona
red Dinny McGuire
1986 116. blue Jim Ragona
115. red Kristopher Antekeier
1987-1994 117-124. blue Jim Ragona
red Eric Michael Gillett
1995-1997 124-127. blue Dinny McGuire
red Eric Michael Gillett
1998 128. blue Jim Ragona

Roberto Miquel (Spanish shows)

127. red Robert Tully

Roberto Miquel

1999 128. blue Jim Ragona / David Alan Marshall

Roberto Miquel

129. red Johnathan Lee Iverson

Roberto Miquel

2000 130. blue Michael James McGowan

Roberto Miquel

129. red Johnathan Lee Iverson

Roberto Miquel

2001 130. blue Kevin Venardos

Roberto Miquel

131. red Johnathan Lee Iverson

Roberto Miquel

2002 132. blue Kevin Venardos

Roberto Miquel

131. red Johnathan Lee Iverson

Roberto Miquel

2003 132. blue Kevin Venardos

Roberto Miquel

133. red Johnathan Lee Iverson

Roberto Miquel

2004 134. blue Kevin Venardos
133. red Johnathan Lee Iverson

Roberto Miquel

2005 134. blue Kevin Venardos
135th Red Tyron McFarlan
2006 136. blue Chuck Wagner
135. red Tyron McFarlan
2007 136. blue Chuck Wagner
137. red Tyron McFarlan
2008 138. blue Chuck Wagner
137. red Tyron McFarlan
2009 138. Blue Chuck Wagner
139. red Alex Ramon
2010 140 blue Johnathan Lee Iverson
139. red Alex Ramon
2011 140 Blue Johnathan Lee Iverson
141. red Brian Crawford Scott
2012 142. blue Johnathan Lee Iverson
141. red Brian Crawford Scott

Jorge Escribano Pelaez (for shows in Mexico)

2013 142. blue Johnathan Lee Iverson
143. red Andre McClain
2014 144. blue Johnathan Lee Iverson
143. red Andre McClain
2015 144. blue Johnathan Lee Iverson
145. red David Shipman
2016 146. blue Johnathan Lee Iverson
145. red David Shipman
2017 146. blue Johnathan Lee Iverson
145. red Kristen Michelle Wilson

Ringmaster of the Gold Unit

year Ringmaster
2004 Ted McRae
2005 Ted McRae & Lilian Escobar
2006 Lilian Escobar
2007 Lilian Escobar
2008 N / A
2009 N / A
2010 David DaVinci
2011 David DaVinci
2012 Paula Nascimento, Clarissa Oliveria and Maiara Cristyne as "The Ringlettes" (They are the first ringmaster team and the first women to hold the position of ringmaster.)
2013 David Shipman
2014 David Shipman
2015 Andre McClain

See also

Web links

Commons : Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Famous US circus will do without elephants in the future. In: Süddeutsche.de . May 1, 2016, accessed June 20, 2017.
  2. One last time "Greatest Show on Earth". In: Spiegel Online. May 22, 2017. Retrieved May 22, 2017 .
  3. ^ After 146 Years, Ringling Brothers Circus Takes Its Final Bow . In: The New York Times . May 21, 2017. Retrieved June 20, 2017.