Ringling Bros On The Road Again

[Terry Monohan]

Feld Entertainment has started up Ringling Bros The Greatest Show On Earth again. One problem they don't mention CIRCUS anymore.

Now It's working It's toned down arena show around California. No more 3 rings or animals, clowns and the classic circus train. Looks like a Las Vegas theatre stage type show now.

We are going to the Oakland Arena show on the weekend of Aug 30 2024. I was so surprised that hardly any tickets have been sold so far. Years ago the place would have been almost sold out a month in advance. Feld is not doing any advertising on TV or print in the SF Bay Area like they did in the past. Many people think the Ringling Bros Circus is dead and not performing anymore.

I e mailed Feld Entertainment today about the lack of ticket seat sales and no more advertising as of a month before opening. I wonder If they will contact me? Maybe they will hire me to be their front man?

The tent circus 'Circus Vargas' is playing now around Northern CA and they do advertise and selling out many seats each weekend playing in shopping center mall parking lots.

Too bad Ringling Bros has cut back on Its size and scope. Just a truck trailer travel show now. At least It is back in some form. Many small kids never got to see the Ringling Bros Circus as they have been gone for many years now. The kids are 3 years old now and ready to be entertained.

Have any of you seen the new version of 'Ringling Bros Greatest Show On Earth' around the USA Did they do any advertising in your city, how were the seat sales and lights and sound?

I guess many family's just want to sit at home and save money and watch streaming TV ..Ringling Bros can be very costly for a large family by the time you add in tickets, fees, toys, parking and junk food. If Feld does not do well It may close up again this time forever. At least they need to hire advance advertising people for each city to let the public know they are back open.

[Jim Cassedy]

So who needs a circus, now that downtown San Francisco is
awash with freaks and animals, and City Hall is full of clowns?
- - a circus would be somewhat superfluous

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Same here in Nashville Jim... The bar / nightclub area down town has gotten to be where the real circus is. In the last four months two people have been pulled from the Cumberland River. One dead from alcohol posioning, one still alive... yet they keep building more and more places to drink.

Terry, I used to service the Al Ringling Theater in Baraboo, WI from time to time. Occasionally, they still run film there. A screening of "Willow" is coming up soon, and ticket prices top out at $125. I watched the last actual Ringling Circus unload in down town Salt Lake City some years back, might have been 2016. The unloading and parade of animals over to the Delta Center is actually more fun to watch than the show itself. I saw the show as a child at the Chicago Stadium when I was about 8 years old. So does Fields still have the Circus Train, I thought that was on display in Baraboo, or do they bring in the animals on Semi's now so they can slip em in past all the animal activists which were always present?

[Mark Ogden]

My then GF and I went to the final performance of the original circus on 5/31/17 at the Nassau Coliseum. We were like kids. As the ringmaster bade the crowd good-bye for the last time, he said "let the circus live in your hearts!" I thought it was a fine way to end things.

I guess there's still a few bucks to wring out.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

My then GF and I went to the final performance of the original circus on 5/31/17 at the Nassau Coliseum. We were like kids. As the ringmaster bade the crowd good-bye for the last time, he said "let the circus live in your hearts!" I thought it was a fine way to end things.

I guess there's still a few bucks to wring out.

Mark, Looks like I for sure saw the last load out in SLC based on the date you went to the last ever performance...

[Mark Ogden]

As it turns out it was 5/21, but we bought tickets because it was understood at the time that it was the final show. This is from their Wiki page:

[Mike Blakesley]

I fail to see why they would abandon the word "Circus." After all, Cirque Du Soleil has been using the French form of that word forever, with people saying "we're going to a 'Cirque' show." Maybe they are trying to distance themselves from CdS by not using the word.

As a kid I would say "Lets' go to the circus!" I would never have said "Let's go to the Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Greatest Show on Earth" or whatever they're calling it.

[Randy Stankey]

They should, at least, have horses. Don't you think?

They still have Lipizzaner Stallions on tour. I used to see them as a kid and I know that there is still one company still touring with them. I can understand why it wouldn't be good to travel with lions and tigers and elephants but horses can be trained to travel well.

Why couldn't the company that tours the Lipizzaners join forces with Ringling? At least in major venues.

C'mon! A circus...don't care what name you use, it's still a circus...has to have SOME kind of animal act!

[John Eickhof]

I used to stop at Ringling Montana, its a tiny stop at the junction of the old Milwaukee railroad and the White Sulpher Springs-Yellowstone park Railroad aka 'Jawbone' back in mid 1980s I bought a switch stand from the Jawbone there and it was snowing so my helper and I rambled up to this rickety old saloon...to warm up...the old guy behind the bar introduced himself but I cant remember his name. I had to ask how the place got its name and he explained lit was named Leader MT in the early days but renamed after John Ringling of the circus by the WSSYPRR when the line was built from Ringling to White Sulpher Springs. (Ringling was a financier of the new railroad) in the late 1890s. Its along highway 89 south of White Sulpher Springs. I used to service the WSS theatre.

[Randy Stankey]

Oh! Here's a fun fact for y'all!

Back in the 1860's, Dan Rice (the real person from whom the "Uncle Sam" character was drawn) used to live in Girard, PA where I live, today. I live on Barker Street...as in "carnival barker" and there is a Rice Avenue where Dan Rice's former house still stands.

The Dan Rice Circus used to "winter over" in Girard and they used to keep the elephants and other animals in barns, not more than a mile from where I live. (The barns are gone, now...that was 160 years ago!) Every year, when the circus came back to winter camp, they used to parade the elephants and other animals down Main Street. The spur line from the railroad where the brought in the train cars with the animals runs just a stone's throw from my house and it's still in use, today. They occasionally use it for shuttling freight cars between trains and stuff like that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Rice

The catchphrase "Greatest Show" is also attributed to Dan Rice. As the story goes, when Dan Rice folded his circus, he sold out to Ringling and the famous phrase went with it.

The phrase, "Hey, Rube!" the code word for "danger," "accident" or other trouble came from one of Dan Rice's men when there was a real person, named Rube (Rubin), who got into a scuffle during a show.

Every year, in August, there is a Dan Rice Days street fair in Girard in Dan Rice's honor.

Gosh! I would give almost anythign if I could have been around to see the elephants parade down the streets of my hometown!

The sound of a real steam calliope always makes me cry and I can't help it! Recordings usually don't do it. Only in-person. Other instruments don't do it. Only calliopes and Wurlitzer mechanical orchestras.

[Paul Finn]

It is not a circus unless there is a steam calliope on a wagon that kids can follow around town on their bikes as it advertises the big show.

Paul Finn