Ringling Bros. folds its tent
Declining tickets sales and high costs spell end of iconic show
When Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus announced late Saturday that it would end all of its performances this May after a 146year run, there seemed to be a collective gasp online, along with a smattering of nostalgia for “The Greatest Show on Earth.”
The show has been nearly synonymous with “the circus” in the United States since the 1800s, when showman Phineas Taylor Barnum partnered with ringmaster James A. Bailey to produce an exhibition of animals and human oddities. Meanwhile, five brothers from the Ringling family in Wisconsin had set up their own variety act.
After they merged, the circus spent decades touring the U.S. by train, transporting its iconic spectacle — along with hundreds of animals, performers and tents — from city to city.
However, the circus had been facing mounting obstacles that even its most acrobatic members could not overcome: declining ticket sales, high operating costs and an increasingly negative public sentiment about forcing captive wild animals to perform.
“There isn’t any one thing,” Kenneth Feld, chairman and CEO of Feld Entertainment, said. “This has been a very difficult decision for me and for the family.”
His father, Irvin Feld, bought the circus in 1967, and it has been operated by the family-owned Feld Entertainment since. Today, the company has about 500 employees, who were informed Saturday night about the closure.
Kenneth Feld told the Associated Press that it was becoming difficult to make a traveling circus viable and relevant in a world of modern entertainment.
Ringling Bros. had also been the target of protests by animal rights groups and was involved in protracted legal battles with many of them.
In 2015, Ringling Bros. announced it would stop using elephants in its shows. The lumbering mammals delivered their final performances last May and then were retired to a reserve in central Florida.
The move exacerbated the show’s demise; the elephants’ departure ultimately expedited what was a “difficult business decision.”
“Ringling Bros. ticket sales have been declining, but following the transition of the elephants off the road, we saw an even more dramatic drop,” Kenneth Feld said.
Among animal activist groups, news of its closure was met with a cheer.
The Humane Society of the United States described itself as “long a bitter adversary of Feld Entertainment and Ringling Bros.” in its response to the news. In 2014, Feld Entertainment won $25.2 million in settlements from groups including the Humane Society, ending a 14-year fight over allegations that circus employees mistreated elephants, the AP reported.