The tents were struck long ago. The elephants are all in a retirement home in Florida, and soon, the clowns will line up to apply for unemployment benefits. The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, once “The Greatest Show on Earth,” will give one of its last performances in Manchester in April and, soon after, close for good.
The 21st century marks the end of the circus era. New York’s Big Apple Circus is being sold in bankruptcy proceedings. The CEO of Feld Entertainment, which owns the Ringling circus, said high expenses, animal rights lawsuits and the short attention spans of the internet age doomed the long-running show. Some small shows will remain, and shows with no animal acts like Cirque du Soleil will survive and thrive, but big shows are dying. What’s a boy to do when he can no longer run away and join the circus?
Phineas T. Barnum, he of “there’s a sucker born every minute” fame, started his circus in 1871 and partnered with James Bailey 10 years later. Their company was acquired by Ringling Brothers – there were seven of them – in 1907. For more than a century, the circus brought Americans together in the same way three television networks did a half-century ago. Everyone, whether they lived in a big city or a podunk backwater, saw the circus. Circus posters can still be found in town sheds and old barns around New Hampshire and old-timers remember the circus sideshows where “freaks” were displayed. One shuddered as she recalled how, as a little girl, she clung to her father as they walked through the sideshow, she in horror and terror.
Circuses, a European import which first appeared in the nation’s early years, helped shape the culture. Circuses gave most Americans their first view of an elephants, camels, lions, tigers and bears. Millions of children played with circus toys. The renowned sculptor Alexander Calder created a mesmerizing miniature circus and played with it until nearly the end of his life. Ernest Hemingway, writing in a 1953 Ringling Brothers brochure, said “Everything else is supposed to be bad for you. But the circus is good for you.” Thanks, perhaps, to its popularity as a “paint by number” subject, the sad face of Ringling clown Emmett Kelly adorned many an American home.
The demise of the old-time circus is a cause for sadness, but also for relief. Without the animal acts that set them apart from other shows, attendance dwindled and animal acts became hard to stomach for those who believe that animals should be free. Much as we want to believe that bears like riding bicycles and know that elephants can form strong bonds with a human, we side with those who believe that moral concerns about their well-being trumps the educational value of seeing such animals up close.
So long, Big Top, it’s been good to know you, but it’s time to go.