"Greatest Show on Earth" - World's Biggest Circus Calls it Quits

After 146 years it's final curtain call for one of the world's best known circuses, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus calls it quits after last shows in Providence (Rhode Island) on May 7th and Uniondale (New York) two weeks later. Owner Kenneth Feld made the announcement to employees on Saturday night (1/14) and posted a message on the circus' website. Several factors led Feld Entertainment, the owner of the traditional company, to make the decision

There were several factors who lead to the demise of circus: "There isn't any one thing," said Kenneth Feld, chairman and CEO of Feld Entertainment to the Associated Press. "This has been a very difficult decision for me and for the entire family." In his message on the website, he mentioned high operating cost, dwindling spectator numbers, who additionally dropped further after the RBBB decided to phase out their elephants, after being attacked by animal activists for over a decade. The different groups who accused the circus of mistreatment of animals had to finally pay the circus a settlement of over $ 25 million, but the damage was done.

This is really sad news - it's another chapter closing. Even though I never had a chance to see a RBBB show as I grew up in Europe, but for us kids it was always the highlight of the summer, when the circus came into town. After a visit, sometimes even with our school, we talk for days about the clowns, the daredevil acrobats or growling tigers behind the fence.


One of the even sadder things emerging from the different press articles about the curtain call, is that people would call in to see how long the show would last. The circus actually had to drop showtime to just a little bit over two hours and I guess because of missing attention span, it's longest performance number was just 12 minutes long, because today's kids had problems being calmly seated to watch the spectacle.

For a great overview of the history, on how P.T. Barnum became Barnum And Bailey, how Ringling Bros. formed and became dominant on the East Coast, while Barnum & Bailey were on tour in Europe and how they finally merged, visit the very informative Circus and Sideshows website, which has great information.

Sources: AP, www.ringling.com, http://www.circusesandsideshows.com/