Ringlingville USA
Page 1
Published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press
Text © 2005, 2012 by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin
E-book edition 2012
Publication of this book was made possible in part by a grant from the John C. Geilfuss fellowship fund.
All images courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Circus World Museum, Baraboo, Wisconsin, unless otherwise indicated. All Circus World images are identified as CWM.
For permission to reuse material from Ringlingville USA (ISBN 978-0-87020-354-1, e-book ISBN 978-0-87020-549-1), please access www.copyright.com or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that provides licenses and registration for a variety of users.
Photographs identified with PH, WHi, or WHS are from the Society’s collections; address inquiries about such photos to the Visual Materials Archivist at the above address.
Designed by Jane Tenenbaum
09 08 07 06 05 5 4 3 2 1
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Apps, Jerold W., 1934–
Ringlingville USA: the stupendous story of seven siblings and their stunning circus success / Jerry Apps; foreword by Fred Dahlinger Jr.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-87020-354-1 (hardcover: alk. paper)—ISBN 0-87020-355-X (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Ringling Brothers—History. 2. Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Combined Shows—History. 3. Circus performers—United States—Biography. 4. Circus—United States. I. Title.
GV1821.R5A66 2005
791.3—dc22
2004007086
For Fred Dahlinger Jr.
and Circus World Museum,
national treasures.
MAP BY AMELIA JANES
Contents
Foreword by Fred Dahlinger Jr., ix
Preface, xi
Acknowledgments, xiii
Introduction, xv
1 The Idea for a Circus: 1848–1881 1
2 Hall Shows and an Overland Circus: 1882–1884 11
3 Establishing a Reputation: 1885–1889 25
4 Taking to the Rails and Growing: 1890–1894 44
5 A Giant Emerges: 1895–1899 67
6 Facing a New Century: 1900–1901 88
7 Making Money and Pleasing People: 1902–1903 101
8 Keeping the Lead: 1904–1905 114
9 Becoming Even Larger: 1906–1907 126
10 Managing Two Big Shows: 1908–1909 146
11 Doing the Impossible: 1910–1911 161
12 Tax Woes: 1912–1914 173
13 The Effects of War: 1915–1918 190
Epilogue: After Ringlingville 207
Appendixes
I. 1903 Ringling Brothers’ Official Program, 217
II. The Ringling Family, 221
III. Ringling Homes in Baraboo and Vicinity, 225
Notes, 227
Index, 245
Foreword
The Ringling story is one that typifies what was and is possible in America. Seven sons born to recent immigrants were propelled by a childhood dream to escape their poverty through hard work. They chose a path for which they had no experience or capital, only their self-discipline and determination. The business they selected was one of the riskiest in the world: the circus. It required everything of its people: the full measure of time, energy, and money, along with knowledge of public performance, technology and transportation, marketing, creative artistry in several forms, and a broad awareness of the national economy in all of its many ramifications.
The Ringling Brothers succeeded in their quest, far beyond their wildest dreams. The secret of their achievements was teamwork, facilitated by their personal bonds. It was their mutual respect and trust, not a piece of paper, that empowered them to rise above all competitors. Each had his assigned area of responsibility, but their capability in working together was greater than the sum of the parts because of their awesome allegiance to each other.
The Ringlings and their circus were last studied in depth more than four decades ago. A significant amount of new archival material has subsequently become available to justify an entirely new appraisal of the Ringlings as people, their circus, and the winter quarters where they organized their show efforts for each annual tour. For the first time, the circus’s financial records, along with the personal correspondence that passed among the brothers as they planned and managed their circus empire, are available for review and analysis. Jerry Apps has woven that information together with local documentation in newspapers, circus ephemera, and photography to re-create the time of the Baraboo boys and their circus. Placed in the context of the America of their time, the work brings about a broader perspective of the importance of their accomplishments and contributions.
The Ringling circuses were marvels of business enterprise, enthusiastically admired as much for their logistical expertise, technological innovations, and educational value as for their tented presentations. But their rise was probably fueled equally by the Brothers’ genuine appreciation for their guests. Their philosophy of “The New School of American Showmen” set the stage. Their circus was a quality enterprise, safe and wholesome for the entire family, devoid of anything that anyone might have judged, in that time, offensive in the slightest degree.
Initially, the Ringlings were “Baraboo’s Boys” and “Wisconsin’s own” adopted sons, owners of an upstart circus that was prospering largely by efforts that took them outside of the Badger State. Their payroll pumped dollars into the pockets of local merchants during the winter, and their deposits enhanced the status of the Bank of Baraboo. Their good fortune, however, did not translate into recognized community support. The Ringlings’ only charitable giving that was publicly noted during their residency was a contribution toward a local church’s pipe organ.
The Brothers may have expressed their charitable demeanor by continuing to personally manage their circuses long after they could have sold them and retired as wealthy men. They felt an obligation to the well-chosen, dedicated men and women who served them diligently for many years. The Brothers continued on with the road shows until they died in harness. Anyone seeking financial improvement could have taken a job with the Ringlings and worked hard, as the Brothers did in the beginning to earn their security. And thousands did so.
Eventually, like the prophet, the one place where the Ringlings did not have honor was in their hometown. When the Brothers offered the Al Ringling Theatre as a gift to the city, Baraboo rebuffed the offer. The reaction was a hallmark of the local perspective. Taxes were another sore point, and the Brothers kept them at bay through constant leaks of “plans” to relocate elsewhere. The failure of the circus to return home following the 1918 tour caused hardly a ripple in the city that had served as its winter quarters for over three decades. The rift that was first felt years before was complete.
In 1919, long after the Ringling Brothers had risen to the top of the circus world, John Ringling admitted, “The psychology of the circus is really simple: Our appeal is to elemental instincts, to the child that is in every man. What they call ‘the lure of the circus’ is merely the great, unexpressed yearning of every human being to be young again.” The Brothers’ quest to make their valued guests feel young again suggests that they sought to relive their own childhood, one marked by poverty but also by imagination that knew no bounds.
Fred Dahlinger Jr.
Former Director of Historic Resources and Facilities
Circus World Museum, Baraboo, Wisconsin
Preface
When I started this project I knew almost nothing about the circus or the Ringlin
gs. As a kid, I had never attended a circus, had never been in a Big Top tent, and had never seen a circus menagerie or a sideshow display. I had heard about the Ringling Brothers, of course, but I didn’t even know how many brothers there were.
A few years ago, when I was working on a presentation about barns, I contacted Circus World Museum about photographing some of the old winter quarters barns that I knew were there. I drove up to Baraboo and met curator Fred Dahlinger, who showed me through the buildings. As we crawled up ladders and looked into dusty corners, Fred began sharing his vast knowledge of these structures that the Ringlings had built to house everything from elephants, horses, and giraffes to pythons, panthers, and zebras.
“Any interest in writing about what’s here?” Fred asked when I returned a second time for more information. I answered no, that I was immersed in another book project. But his invitation intrigued me, and a couple of months later I was back in Baraboo, and Fred was showing me the vast collection of materials in Circus World’s Robert L. Parkinson Library and Research Center. Soon I was making weekly visits to the library, reading old newspapers, paging through route books (the day-to-day records of each season’s shows), glancing at account ledgers, looking at circus posters, examining circus records, and before long becoming thoroughly confused and overwhelmed. But I was more than a little intrigued with what I was learning and felt compelled to continue the research. It also became evident that I was facing a book-length project.
One summer day, Fred called and said that a couple of circus historians were coming to Baraboo. Would I like to have lunch with them? The four of us gathered at a little coffee shop in downtown Baraboo and talked circus—I should say, I listened and asked questions while Fred, Richard Reynolds III, and Fred Pfening III, talked. Before we finished coffee, both men had agreed to help me with the project. Some months later, I had lunch with Stuart Thayer, circus historian and author of several circus histories, and I learned even more. Thayer, an expert on pre–Civil War circus history, helped me begin to put the Ringling story into a broader historical perspective.
I read The Circus Kings (1960) by Henry Ringling North and Alden Hatch for an overview of the Brothers and their circus and for some perspective on the project I was undertaking.1 But I purposely did not read other books about the Ringlings until later because I did not want anything that had been written earlier to effect the approach I might take to the work.
By this time I had decided that the book I was attempting to write had to include not only the Baraboo story but also the history of the Ringling Brothers: how they got started and how they created the largest and most prosperous circus in the world.
I spent a week in Columbus, Ohio, at Fred Pfening’s invitation. There I pored over Ringling account books, photocopied original correspondence, and became acquainted with Pfening’s vast collection of Ringling material. To have unlimited access to original letters and spend uninterrupted hours paging through business records is the kind of situation any historian hopes for. These materials had been largely unexamined, especially the financial and employee records, which provided new insights into the Ringlings’ circus operations.
After a news article about the book project appeared in the Baraboo paper, several people contacted me and offered to share stories about the Ringlings in Baraboo. Often the stories were part of oral family histories as people shared anecdotes told to them by their grandparents. I twice interviewed Chappie Fox, longtime director of Circus World Museum and a font of Ringling stories, some that have become legends. (Chappie Fox died on September 12, 2003.) Such stories put a human face on history, and for me they are essential to historical writing.
My wife and I spent several days in McGregor, Iowa, guests of Iowa historians Elmer and Carol Marting, to get the flavor of the town where the Ringling Brothers grew up and first developed their ideas for a circus. I read old Iowa newspapers, dug through the archives in the library, and interviewed locals who had Ringling stories.
By this time I had accumulated boxes of research materials—audiotapes of interviews, photocopies of newspaper articles, correspondence—and I hadn’t written a word. In the writing workshops I teach I tell my students that once they have done some research, they should listen to the material and it will tell them how it wants to be organized and presented. My six file boxes of material stood mute.
Faced with a contract deadline, I began writing without knowing where I was headed. But quickly, the words began coming, pages of words. The story was taking shape. Occasionally as I wrote, I discovered that I needed to do more research. Along the way, as happens in most historical research, I encountered contradictions. When circus records contradicted newspaper accounts, I relied on the circus records. Some stories of the Ringlings, especially those from oral histories, have likely been embellished as the years have passed. I have tried to point out which stories may not be entirely true—but I kept the stories.
After several months of writing, and even more rewriting, the Ringling story began to take shape. It is one of the most interesting, intriguing, and sometimes baffling stories I have ever encountered.
Acknowledgments
Fred Dahlinger Jr., former Director of Historic Resources and Facilities at Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wisconsin, convinced me to work on this project and helped me every step of the way. When I couldn’t find what I needed at Circus World Museum’s Robert L. Parkinson Library and Research Center, Fred pointed me in the direction to look. John F. Polacsek (Detroit, Michigan) provided access to his vast newspaper clipping files at Circus World Museum. The late Bob Brisendine (Atlanta, Georgia) did the same with his notes and files, also at Circus World Museum. Meg Allen, former Parkinson library assistant, and Erin Foley, former Circus World Museum archivist, were of great help in finding and photocopying materials from the library.
Circus historian Fred D. Pfening III (Columbus, Ohio) made his collection of Ringling materials available and spent untold hours computing Ringling 1890s circus income for me. He also read and commented on the entire manuscript. Fred’s father, Fred D. Pfening Jr., also a circus historian, shared his materials collections as well. Circus historian Richard J. Reynolds III (Atlanta, Georgia) read the manuscript page by page, suggesting additions and spotting errors. Stuart LeR. Thayer (Seattle, Washington), author of several circus history books, met with me, read the manuscript, and offered many useful comments.
My never-tiring wife, Ruth, read the manuscript several times, correcting errors. My son, Steve, a professional photographer and journalist, offered many suggestions for improvement and took several photographs for the book. Susan Apps Horman, my daughter, read early drafts of the material and helped me decide on a structure for the work.
Others who helped with research include Carol and Elmer Marting, Monona, Iowa; Michelle Pettit, head librarian, McGregor Public Library; Sally Veitt Scarff, McGregor, Iowa; Peter Shrake and Mary Farrell-Stieve, Sauk County Historical Society Library; Paul Wolter, president of the Sauk County Historical Society; the late C. P. “Chappie” Fox, longtime director of Circus World Museum; Walter Gollmar Jr., Evansville, Wisconsin; Jorge and Lou Ann Jacob Barreda, elephant trainers; Paul Ringling (grandson of Alf T. Ringling), Miles City, Montana; Merlin E. Zitzner, president, Baraboo National Bank; Robert Barnes, Madison; Allen Paschen, Baraboo; Verne Albert, Baraboo; John and George Isenberg (direct descendents of the Ringling contractor); Marge Krohn, Madison; Donald Heflin, Naples, Florida; John Dresser, Marshalltown, Iowa; Steve Swenson, Aldo Leopold Foundation, Baraboo; and Jan and Duane Neuman, Baraboo.
I have likely overlooked several people who have helped me with this project. I thank you for your kindness and apologize for the oversight. A book of this magnitude requires the assistance of many. I so much appreciate everyone’s contributions.
Introduction
In the late nineteenth century the Midwest was still a frontier, with immigrants and other settlers continuing to arrive by the thousands. Most people lived on farms and in small to
wns. Winters were miserably cold, summers were humid and hot, and life was hard, with little opportunity for entertainment. The circus, with its exotic performers, beautiful horses, wild animals, and low admission cost—fifty cents for adults, twenty-five cents for children—was the major entertainment in many communities, especially rural towns.
The Samuel Nichols tented circus was the first circus to appear in Wisconsin Territory. It opened in Racine on August 2, 1843, five years before Wisconsin became a state. RACINE ADVOCATE, AUGUST 2, 1843. WHS MICROFILM P28649
Modern-day circuses have their beginnings in the late eighteenth century in England, and the first known circus in the United States showed in 1793 in Philadelphia. These early circuses did not travel, had but one show ring, and performed inside a building. It wasn’t until 1825 that a New York circus man, J. Purdy Brown, had a tent sewn that would cover a circus ring and provide shelter for a few hundred customers. With tents as shelters, circuses began traveling on horse-drawn wagons and later moved by riverboat and rail.
The first circus to show in Wisconsin was Samuel Nichols’s tented circus, which appeared in Racine on August 11, 1843. At least one circus visited Wisconsin each year thereafter, playing in Milwaukee, Kenosha, Racine, Beloit, Janesville, and Watertown. These cities had major population concentrations at the time, as did the lead-mining region of southwestern Wisconsin, where by 1850 circuses had also visited Dodgeville, Mineral Point, Platteville, and Hazel Green.
In 1847 circus owners Edmund and Jeremiah Mabie, originally from New York State, arrived in Delavan in southeastern Wisconsin. Edmund Mabie bought four hundred acres on Delavan Lake with pastureland for horses, plentiful water, and a location that allowed him to take his Grand Olympic Arena and United States Circus to midwestern states before his East Coast competitors. Several circuses eventually followed suit and settled in Wisconsin for the same reasons.