A MARRIAGE OF GIANTS

The Barnum & Bailey Circus was founded in the 1870s, just ahead of the Ringlings’ 1884 founding. But Barnum & Bailey drifted off to Europe for a decade.

“Their first performance back in the country was in 1903 and, lo and behold, here was this huge Ringling Bros. show, which was much smaller when the show left to go to Europe,” says Deborah Walk, assistant director of legacy and circus at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. “When they came back, here was this massive force.”

When John A. Bailey died, the Ringlings made the financially bold decision, in the middle of a global economic downturn, to purchase the circus for US$410,000. For another US$100,000 they bought the title to go with it: The Greatest Show on Earth.

Renowned circus ringmaster Fred Bradna called the Ringling brothers “the five-headed hydra,” a powerful human machine, each doing very distinct tasks that allowed them to run the circuses separately. When three of the brothers died between 1911 and 1919, Charles and John Ringling combined the shows for efficiency.