Ringling Bros Circus Information

The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus was formed when the Ringling Brothers Circus merged with the Barnum & Bailey Circus. The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus has been performing since 1871 as the largest and most successful circus in America.

P.T. Barnum bought Scudder's American Museum in New York City in 1842. He would then expand it and reopen it as "Barnum's American Museum." In 1871, Dan Castello and William C. Coup got Barnum to lend his name to the circus they had created in Delavan, Wisconsin; it was then known as "P.T. Barnum's Great Traveling Museum, Managerie, Caravan, and Hippodrome." "Greatest Show On Earth" was later added as a subtitle.

James Anthony Bailey was teaming up with James E. Cooper to create the Cooper and Bailey Circus in the 1860s. Soon enough, Barnum's circus and Bailey's circus were competitors. Rather than continue to compete with each other, Barnum and Bailey decided to combine their shows in 1881 for even greater success.

Barnum died 10 years later, and Bailey bought the circus from Barnum's widow. Bailey then took the circus on a tour of the United States and into Europe. Bailey would die in 1906 and the circus was then sold to the Ringling Brothers a year later. The Ringling Brothers already had circus experience of their own as they had traveled from town to town with animal-drawn caravans. Eventually, their show was so big they had to travel by train.

The Barnum and Bailey Circus and the Ringling Brothers circus ran separately until the two were brought together in 1919. The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus would debut in New York City at Madison Square Garden. The circus was a huge success in the '20s but suffered through the Great Depression in the '30s. Eventually, the circus would give a final performance in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1956. By then, Americans were too captivated by television and movies.

However, Irvin Feld and his brother Israel would buy the circus in 1968. The first step he made to turning things around was to establish the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College; the following year, the show was split into the "Red Tour" and the "Blue Tour." The circus was then sold to the Mattel Company in 1971 but the Feld family still managed to have production control.

Feld Entertainment, Inc. was created in 1996 as the parent company of the circus that also was in charge of Disney on Ice.

The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus still has the "Red Tour" and the "Blue Tour" but they have also added the "Gold Tour." The Red and Blue tours feature a full three-ring circus as they alternate cities each year. The Gold Tour is a scaled-down production for smaller towns. In 2006 the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus featured an entirely new format for the first change in 50 years. There are no more tigers, no more families swinging through the air, and no more tightrope walkers; rather than three rings, all the acts are performed in one big oval. Right now only the Bleu Tour follows the new format; the Red and Gold Tours are expected to undergo an overhaul in the next year.

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