Posted on May 19, 2021
This is an update of my post published on May 19, 2010:
That first show was held in Baraboo, Wisconsin, and the entirety of the circus was the five brothers' own musical and dance acts, a traveling wagon, a rented horse, and a contract with a showman / announcer named “Yankee” Robinson.
The brothers worked hard to advertise their circus and plan routes through towns that other circuses skipped over. That is probably why this particular circus was able to grow and grow until it was close in size to the most successful circus, the Barnum and Bailey Circus.
While the Ringling circus was still growing, the last two of their brothers joined with the show. By the 1900s, the Ringling Brothers began to buy other, smaller circuses, and when both P.T. Barnum and James Bailey died, Ringling even bought Barnum and Bailey!
By the 1910s, the brothers' circus had more than 1,000 employees, 335 horses, 26 elephants, 16 camels, and many other assorted animals—all of which traveled on 92 railcars!
What makes a circus a circus?
When the Ringling Brothers first started their circus, it was more of a singing-dancing show—what we would call a vaudeville act—than what we think of when we say circus. They soon acquired animals and taught them tricks, however, and later hired circus-y performers like acrobats and clowns. It is those three things—animal trick acts, clowns, and acrobats—that defined circus for a long time.
Folks often think of circuses as traveling shows - although of course popular plays and comedy and musical and magical acts - pretty much every sort of show and entertainment - travel as well to engage with a variety of live audiences. The circus version of being a traveling show routinely involved temporary “buildings” that were really gigantic tents (called "the big top"), circus wagons, and circus trains.
The word circus is Latin for “circle” or “ring”—and this refers to the circular or oval area in which the Ancient Roman entertainments were held, surrounded by rows of seats for spectators. However, the Roman entertainments tended to be bloody and the audiences bloodthirsty. Gladiators would often fight wild animals or each other to the death! Of course, modern sensibilities mean we might want to watch "death-defying feats" - but we do NOT want to watch actual death.
The word circus is Latin for “circle” or “ring”—and this refers to the circular or oval area in which the Ancient Roman entertainments were held, surrounded by rows of seats for spectators. However, the Roman entertainments tended to be bloody and the audiences bloodthirsty. Gladiators would often fight wild animals or each other to the death! Of course, modern sensibilities mean we might want to watch "death-defying feats" - but we do NOT want to watch actual death.
By the way, a lot of circuses were called "three ring circuses," and there was a lot going on at once - a lot for the audience to see, at all times!
Nowadays...
In the past few decades circuses have had a huge problem.
In the past few decades circuses have had a huge problem.
They have been accused by sooooo many people, over the course of soooo many years, of soooooo many abuses of animals! Just the bare bones of circus life - doing tricks for audiences, traveling from place to place, and always being in captivity - is less than optimal for animals. More abusive are the training techniques used by some circus folk, and terrible living and traveling conditions in some circuses, and and and...
As a result, some cities and states have banned circuses, and many states have passed restrictive laws inspired by circus treatment of animals. Ringling phased out its use of elephants but continued to use big cats (lions and tigers) and horses. So few people attended that, after more than 130 years of "the show must go on," Ringling stopped have shows altogether in 2017.
Some other circuses still exist but either show animal tricks with holographic images or have loads of derring-do by humans - but no animals at all. The popular Cirque du Soleil is an example of a circus with no animal performers, and Circus Roncalli has huge holographic performances with 360-degree visibility - achieved by 11 projectors!
Circus stuff:
Here is a video about how to walk on a tightrope.
Here is a video of circus acrobatic tricks - humans only, of course!
Craft Jr. features circus-themed coloring pages, box, animal masks, and more.
Read about a circus—perhaps Paddington Bear at the Circus.
Pore over illustrations of the circus. My kids loved The Circus Is Coming, by Hilary Knight. I've heard that Circus: Adventures in Art, by Charles Sullivan, and The Painted Circus: PT Vermin Presents a Mesmerizing Menagerie of Trickery and Illusion Guaranteed to Beguile and Bamboozle the Beholder, by Wallace Edwards, are GREAT.
Watch Walt Disney's Dumbo.
Put a line of masking tape on the floor—then walk the tightrope!
Do some clown face painting. Remember, clown expressions can be happy or sad, but they must be exaggerated—really, really happy, or completely sad!
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