Ringling to close circus

‘Greatest Show’ coming to end after 146 years

ELLENTON, Fla. — After 146 years, the curtain is coming down on “The Greatest Show on Earth.”

The owner of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus said that the show will close forever in May. The famous American spectacle was felled by a variety of factors, company executives say. Declining attendance combined with high operating costs, along with changing public tastes and prolonged battles with animal rights groups all contributed to its demise.

“There isn’t any one thing,” said Kenneth Feld, chairman and CEO of Feld Entertainment. “This has been a very difficult decision for me and for the entire family.”

The company broke the news to circus employees Saturday night after shows in Orlando and Miami.

Ringling Bros. has two touring circuses this season and will perform 30 shows between now and May. Major stops include Atlanta, Washington, Philadelphia, Boston and Brooklyn. The final shows will be in Providence, Rhode Island, on May 7 and in Uniondale, New York, at the Nassau County Coliseum on May 21.

HISTORY IN LAS VEGAS

Las Vegas is not among cities listed on the circus’s website for 2017 visits.

The circus visited Las

Vegas annually for many years, coming for four-day runs from 2010 through 2016, performing mostly at the Thomas & Mack Center.

This past September, the circus stopped in Las Vegas to audition potential ringmasters. Circus officials gathered at the Fern Adair Conservatory, drawing ringmaster candidates from the valley, California, Oregon and Utah. The circus often made an extra effort to please audiences beyond its shows. In 2012, for example, as the troupe performed its “Dragons” act, named for the Chinese Year of the Dragon, a free preshow event let visitors learn juggling and balancing skills, get performers’ autographs and meet the clowns.

Nevertheless, the circus sometimes drew a hostile welcome. Anti-animal cruelty activists marched in front of the Thomas & Mack in 2016 and in front of The Orleans on 2010.

LEGENDARY ENTERTAINMENT

The circus, with its exotic animals, flashy costumes and death-defying acrobats, has been a staple of entertainment in the United States since the mid-1800s. Phineas Taylor Barnum made a traveling spectacle of animals and human oddities popular, while the five Ringling brothers performed juggling acts and skits from their home base in Wisconsin. Eventually, they merged and the modern circus was born. The sprawling troupes traveled around America by train, wowing audiences with the sheer scale of entertainment and exotic animals.

By midcentury, the circus was routine, wholesome family entertainment. But as the 20th century went on, kids became less and less enthralled. Movies, television, video games and the internet captured young minds. The circus didn’t have savvy product merchandising tieins or Saturday morning cartoons to shore up its image.

“The competitor in many ways is time,” said Feld, adding that transporting the show by rail and other circus quirks — such as providing a traveling school for performers’ children— are throwbacks to another era. “It’s a different model that we can’t see how it works in today’s world to justify and maintain an affordable ticket price. So you’ve got all these things working against it.”

The Feld family bought the Ringling circus in 1967.

ANIMAL CONTROVERSY

Feld and his daughter Juliette Feld, who is the company’s chief operating officer, acknowledged another reality that led to the closing, and it was the one thing that initially drew millions to the show: the animals. Ringling has been targeted by activists who say forcing animals to perform is cruel and unnecessary.

In May of 2016, after a long and costly legal battle, the company removed the elephants from the shows and sent the animals to live on a conservation farm in central Florida. The animals had been the symbol of the circus since Barnum brought an Asian elephant named Jumbo to America in 1882. In 2014, Feld Entertainment won $25.2 million in settlements from groups including the Humane Society of the United States, ending a 14-year fight over allegations that circus employees mistreated elephants.

By the time the elephants were removed, public opinion had shifted. Los Angeles prohibited the use of bull-hooks by elephant trainers and handlers, as did Oakland, California. The city of Asheville, North Carolina, nixed wild or exotic animals from performing in the municipally owned, 7,600-seat U.S. Cellular Center.