The American Circus Corporation consisted of the Sells-Floto Circus, the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus, the John Robinson Circus, the Sparks Circus, and the Al G. Barnes Circus. It was owned by Jerry Mugivan, Bert Bowers and Ed Ballard. They sold the company in 1929 to John Nicholas Ringling for $1.7 million ($30.2 million today). With that acquisition, Ringling owned virtually every traveling circus in America. [1]
The Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus was a circus that traveled across America in the early part of the 20th century. At its peak, it was the second-largest circus in America next to Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. It was based in Peru, Indiana.
Al G. Barnes Circus was an American circus run by Alpheus George Barnes Stonehouse. [2]
The Sells Floto Circus was a combination of the Floto Dog and Pony Show and the Sells Brothers Circus that toured with sideshow acts in the United States during the early 1900s.
The John Robinson Circus was founded by John Robinson and Joseph Foster.[ citation needed ]
Sparks Circus as established by John H. Wiseman (1863-1903). He used the name of Sparks on all of his entertainment shows and legally changed his name to John H. Sparks. He died on January 29, 1903. [3]
Emmett Leo Kelly was an American circus performer, who created the clown character "Weary Willie", based on the hobos of the Great Depression in the 1930s.
The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, also known as the Ringling Bros. Circus, Ringling Bros., the Barnum & Bailey Circus, Barnum & Bailey, or simply Ringling, is an American traveling circus company billed as The Greatest Show on Earth. It and its predecessor have run shows from 1871, with a hiatus from 2017 to 2023. They operate as Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. The circus started in 1919 when the Barnum & Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth, a circus created by P. T. Barnum and James Anthony Bailey, was merged with the Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows. The Ringling brothers purchased Barnum & Bailey Ltd. in 1907 following Bailey's death in 1906, but ran the circuses separately until they were merged in 1919.
Frederick Alton Jewell, was a prolific musical composer who wrote over 100 marches and screamers, including:
Lion taming is the taming and training of lions, either for protection or for use in entertainment, such as the circus. The term often applies to the taming and display of lions and other big cats such as tigers, leopards, jaguars, black panthers, cheetahs, and cougars. People often use lion taming as a metaphor for any dangerous activity. Lion taming occurs in zoos around the world to enable the keepers to carry out medical procedures and feedings.
The Hagenbeck–Wallace Circus was a circus that traveled across America in the early part of the 20th century. At its peak, it was the second-largest circus in America next to Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. It was based in Peru, Indiana.
John Nicholas Ringling was an American entrepreneur who is the best known of the seven Ringling brothers, five of whom merged the Barnum & Bailey Circus with their own Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows to create a virtual monopoly of traveling circuses and helped shape the modern circus. In addition to owning and managing many of the largest circuses in the United States, he was also a rancher, a real estate developer and art collector. He was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 1987.
Clyde Beatty was a famed animal trainer, zoo owner, and circus mogul. He joined Howe's Great London Circus in 1921 as a cage boy and spent the next four decades rising to fame as one of the most famous circus performers and animal trainers in the world. Through his career, the circus impresario owned several circuses, including his own Clyde Beatty Circus from 1945 to 1956.
Otto Griebling was a German-born circus clown who performed for many years with the Cole Brothers and Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circuses. He was one of four clowns given the title Master Clown by Irvin Feld.
Ringling may refer to:
The Sells Floto Circus was a combination of the Floto Dog & Pony Show and the Sells Brothers Circus that toured with sideshow acts in the United States and Canada during the early 1900s.
Charles Edward Duble was an American band musician and composer. He played for 23 years in circus bands.
The International Circus Hall of Fame is a museum and hall of fame which honors important figures in circus history. It is located in Peru, Indiana, on the former grounds of the Wallace Circus and American Circus Corporation Winter Quarters, also known as the Peru Circus Farm and Valley Farms. The property includes rare surviving circus buildings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was designated a National Historic Landmark for its historical importance.
Al G. Barnes Circus was an American circus run by Alpheus George Barnes Stonehouse that operated from 1898 to 1938.
Alpheus George Barnes Stonehouse Sr. was the owner of the Al G. Barnes Circus.
Ulysses "Slow Kid" Thompson was a comedian, singer, tap and acrobatic dancer whose nickname was inspired by his ability to perform a comical, and incredibly slow, dance routine. His career included work in circus, medicine, minstrel, vaudeville, and Broadway.
Samuel W. Gumpertz was an American showman who played a part in the building of Coney Island's Dreamland.
John H. Robinson created the John Robinson Circus, whose winter quarters were in Terrace Park, Ohio.
Hugo Schmitt, born July 19, 1904, in Bann, Landkreis Kaiserslautern, in Southwestern Rheinland-Pfalz in Germany, dead August 9, 1977, in Sarasota, Florida, United States, was a German-American circus artist, animal trainer and one of the worlds most famous elephant trainers with a record of 55 elephants performing in the ring. Starting his career at Carl Hagenbeck Circus-Stellingen in Germany, Schmitt was elephant superintendent at the world's largest circus, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in the USA from 1947 to 1971.
Perry George Lowery was an American composer, conductor, cornet player, and a circus sideshow manager of African American entertainment and musical ensembles.
Benjamin E. Wallace was an American circus owner and Civil War veteran who founded the Hagenbeck–Wallace Circus, the second-largest circus in America.
In 1929, reacting to the fact that his competitor, the American Circus Corporation, had signed a contract to perform in New York's Madison Square Garden, Ringling purchased American Circus for $1.7-million . In one fell swoop, Ringling had absorbed five major shows: Sells-Floto, Al G. Barnes, Sparks, Hagenbeck-Wallace, and John Robinson.
Alpheus George Barnes Stonehouse (Al G. Barnes), 68, circusman, founder and longtime owner of Barnes's Circus; after a lingering illness; in Indio, California. He started his show in 1895 with a pony, a phonograph, a stereopticon. A colorful participant at every performance, he would lead the opening parade seated on the head of a mammoth elephant. Two years ago he sold his interests to Circusman John Ringling for $1,000,000.