Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus to Close after 146 Years!

Ringling Bros Circus

 

Dear Commons Community,

The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus announced yesterday that  it will close down after 146 years, due to declining tickets sales and high operating costs.  As reported by Reuters:

“After much evaluation and deliberation, my family and I have made the difficult business decision that Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey will hold its final performances in May,” Kenneth Feld, chairman and CEO of Feld Entertainment, the Florida-based producer of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, said on the circus’ web site.

In May of last year, the circus retired its elephant act, years after a suit by activists. It admitted no wrongdoing, but agreed to a six-figure fine several years before ending the elephant performances.

In his statement on Saturday, Feld noted that declining sales had fallen off even more dramatically following what he called “the transition of the elephants off the road.”

Animal rights group PETA said it “heralds the end of what has been the saddest show on earth for wild animals, and asks all other animal circuses to follow suit, as this is a sign of changing times.”

PETA President Ingrid Newkirk also said in its statement that 36 years of PETA protests had “awoken the world to the plight of animals in captivity.”

The circus went by the slogan “The greatest show on earth,” a catchphrase that was so ubiquitous it was employed for the title of the 1952 Cecil B. DeMille best picture Oscar-winning film starring Charlton Heston and Betty Hutton.

The circus will end its long run with performances in Providence, R.I., on May 7, 2017, and in Uniondale, N.Y., on May 21.”

As a child growing up in the 1950s in The Bronx, my father and then my oldest brother took me to the Ringling Bros. circus every year.  Back then the performances were at the Madison Square Garden on 8th Avenue and 50th Street.  It was quite a treat to get there early to see the animals up close in the menagerie and then see the show later.  It was an all-day outing for us.  The times indeed are a changing.

Tony  

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