Ringlingville USA

by Jerry Apps

  But they were not at all bashful in proclaiming the virtues of their efforts. The show program stated: “Do not fail to see the many attractions presented by this company. See our Priseworthy and Unequalled Program.”

  Alf T. later wrote: “We had about a thirteen-dollar house, but the fifty-nine people composing the audience looked bigger to me than an audience of fifteen thousand under our tents does today. It seemed as if every individual knew our history, and was aware that this was our first attempt, if not perhaps our first offense, and was ready to guy and laugh at our efforts.”6

  The troupe included Al Ringling (plate spinner, juggler), Alf T. Ringling (leader of the band), Charles Ringling (leader of the orchestra), E. M. Kimball (Old Man Dutch Big Von-Comedian), E. S. Weatherby (tuba and double bass), Fred Hart (song and dance), and Wm. Trinkhouse (song and dance, alto player, Indian club). M. A. Young was advance agent.7

  Concert Company Program

  RINGLING BROTHERS CLASSIC AND COMIC CONCERT COMPANY

  1. Overture selected Orchestra

  2. Vocal Trio (Brother soldiers, we’ve met here tonight.) E. M. Kimball, Will Trinkaus, and C. E. Ringling.

  3. Cornet Duet.“The Enchanted.” Alf T. Ringling and E. M. Kimball.

  4. Japanese Specialties Al Ringling

  5. Trinkaus and Hart in Songs and dances.

  6. Euphonium Solo Chas. E. Ringling

  7. Sketch, the Traveling Prestidigitator By Company

  8. E. M. Kimball in character songs and sayings

  9. Violin Duet (Der Barbier von Sevilla) Charles and Alf Ringling

  10. Vocal Duet Chas. And Alf Ringling

  11. Fred Hart in Unequalled Clog

  12. Wm.Trinkhaus in Parlor Pastimes

  13. E. M. Kimball in Dutch Character Songs.

  14. Bass Solo, vocal Chas. E. Ringling

  The whole to conclude with Ringling Brothers original laughable farce entitled “A Cold Bath.” Or as a failure a great success. Admission, .25, .35 and .50.8

  The aspiring performers survived their first show—just barely. “From the very beginning, the troupe in its entirety seemed to fly to pieces. … It seemed that as if every note from the cornet was a blue one, every tone from the violin a squeak, every blast of the clarinet a shriek, and as if all the different instruments were in a jangle.”9

  When they totaled their expenses ($25.90) and subtracted their income ($13.00), they could only hope for better times ahead. They continued on by train to the Wisconsin towns of Spring Green, Richland Center, and Boscobel, on their way to their former hometowns of McGregor, Iowa, and Prairie du Chien. John Ringling joined his brothers in Sanborn, Iowa, on December 18.

  The Ringlings and their colleagues continued on, traipsing from small town to small town in Wisconsin, Iowa, Dakota Territory, and Minnesota. They were snowed in and snowed out; they arrived by train and from the trains by buggy, by horse and sleigh, and on foot. They played in cold, drafty halls in little towns—Emmetsburg, Spencer, Sanborn, Sheldon, and Peterson, Iowa; Fulda, Jackson, and Fairmont, Minnesota; Canton, Dell Rapids, and Egan, Dakota Territory; and West Salem, Bangor, Norwalk, Wilton, Kendall, Elroy, and Wonewoc, Wisconsin. The population of each town was but a few hundred people.

  The Ringlings’ advance agent, M. A. Young, secured the bookings and made local arrangements, put up advertising posters, and negotiated rental fees for halls. Hall rental for their first show in Mazomanie was $6.00, which they paid from ticket receipts. Other expenses for their first show included livery from Baraboo to Sauk City, $8.00; railroad fare from Sauk City to Mazomanie, $2.40; hotel bill, $7.50; and salaries for two amateurs, $2.00 (there is no record of which “amateurs” were paid).10 The following year Otto Ringling joined his brothers and worked as advance agent.

  To create excitement before each big show, the performers marched in a band parade down the town’s main street each afternoon—a forerunner of the great circus parades the Ringlings later mounted.

  They closed the first half of their 1882–1883 season in Oregon, Wisconsin, on February 3 and then rested for a few weeks before resuming shows on March 12 in Baraboo. They closed again on May 11 in Waunakee, Wisconsin. The Ringlings had performed 107 times in their first winter season; they took off Sundays but not holidays, performing on both Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.11

  Playing daily shows was an enormous accomplishment for a brand-new troupe, and meeting this grueling schedule taught the boys valuable lessons about scheduling and doing one-day stands. They gained invaluable experience in promotion and advertising, securing hotels and opera houses, and contracting for horses and wagons to travel from the depots to the show halls. They learned how to get along with people in the host cities, many of whom were more than a little skeptical of traveling actors. Above all they learned that pleasing the audience—and newspaper reviewers—had to be at the top of their list of priorities. One review of the 1882 season read, “Ringling Bros.’ Classic and Comic Concert Company made their appearance in our village on Tuesday and put up at the Park Hotel. … Their program was fitting to the occasion and well carried out. … The vocal and instrumental music by the company with a few exceptions was good.”12 Positive comments like these would nearly ensure an audience when the Brothers returned with their show.

  Baraboo, 1880

  By 1880 Baraboo’s population had reached 3,266. The Chicago and Northwestern Railroad had come to town in 1871, and the telegraph had become the primary way for people to communicate. Baraboo included all the services one would expect in a small rural city: Carlos Bacon was the city undertaker and furniture dealer; the Baldwin Brothers manufactured monuments and headstones; John Barker was an attorney; Adolph Bender ran the Baraboo City Brewery (“Bottled beer for family use always on hand”); W.A. Boyd was a physician and surgeon; C. A. M. Burnham was a “lady physician and surgeon”; H.J. Case ran a stable; B.K. Cowles was proprietor of R.R. Eating House and Hotel; James Dickie, a competitor of August Ringling, made saddles and harnesses on Fourth Street; B.S. Doty sold flour, feed, and lime; August Ringling’s brother-in-law G. G. Gollmar was a blacksmith, wagon maker, and horseshoer; W. Gust ran a meat market on Oak Street (“All kinds of meat, fresh and salt, of the best quality”); G. M. Reul manufactured sashes, doors, and blinds with a factory on the corner of East and Water Streets; F. Sneathen was a dentist (“New teeth at $12.00 to $20.00 a set. No extra charge for extracting; if desired, teeth taken out without causing pain. Gold filling reasonable.”); and J. Van Orden was cashier of the First National Bank.1

  * * *

  NOTES

  1. Town and Country Business Directory, Sauk County, Wisconsin (Baraboo, WI: Woodman and Powers, 1881).

  With their first hall show season behind them, the Brothers spent the summer of 1883 gathering more experience, earning more funds, and planning the upcoming winter season. That summer Al Ringling performed with the Gregory Brothers Circus and worked as equestrian director for Parson’s Great Grecian Circus of Darlington, Wisconsin.13 Also in 1883 he found time to work with the Yankee Robinson’s Double Show as manager of the equestrian department.14 John also appeared briefly with the Great Grecian Show in 1883.15

  According to Charles Ringling’s recollections, Otto, Charles, and John spent much of the summer of 1883 in Baraboo.16 The Ringlings had made little if any profit from their first concert season, but they would be ready to try it again when the cool days of fall returned to the Midwest, the crops were in, and rural people had time to attend a hall show in their town.

  For their second season, the boys named their hall show simply “Ringling Bros. Grand Carnival of Fun.” They tried to select towns that were growing and where local business was strong. The Brothers often picked lumber towns in the north, where lumberjacks had plenty of money and little in the way of entertainment.

  That fall the traveling crew included several new faces: Otto Ringling, agent; Barry Stanwood, Geo Rowan and his brother, M. A. Young (agent for a short time), Jack Kernan, F. Taylor, Jas. Blai
ney, Harry Harmoyne, and Lottie Harmoyne. Continuing with the troupe were Alf T., John, Charles, E. M. Kimball, and, later that winter, Al Ringling.

  To raise money to start a circus, the Ringling Brothers put on hall shows starting in 1882. HANDBILL COLLECTION, CWM

  They started out in Ironton, Wisconsin, on August 20 and played western Wisconsin towns until the end of September. Then they crossed the Mississippi River into Minnesota and put on shows there into November.

  Unfortunately, as they moved from town to town, disagreements erupted among the Ringlings and several employees. One employee “began the habit of drinking,” and two others “refused to attend to their duties.”17 On November 2 the disagreements reached an impasse, and the Brothers fired the entire collection. Charles Ringling later wrote:

  The Company did a good business but prosperity did not agree with the Rowan Bros. who were arrested in St. Cloud [Minnesota] and fined for disorderly conduct and discharged by us. As Kimball and Taylor thought they could do about us as they pleased and as Kimball thought we could not yet get along without him we concluded to run a smaller company and we left them at Campbell, Minnesota, November 2nd and ran the remainder of the season [with Otto], Alf T. John and Charles [Al joined January 6, 1884]. From this day, we commenced to make money fast and with less trouble.18

  The company indeed was now smaller; the street band on November 3, 1883, consisted of Alf T., cornet; John, alto; Charles, baritone; and Otto, bass drum. As a marching band they were considerably short staffed, especially since Otto was no musician and was challenged to even pound on a bass drum. Even worse, the hall show performers now included only Alf T., Charles, and John (and later Al). But they marched on, determined to satisfy their audiences and relying more than ever on each brother’s unique contributions to the success of their shows.

  While the Brothers were busy on the road, back in Baraboo father August got the itch to move again. In November 1883 August, Salome, and children Henry and Ida packed their goods and moved to Rice Lake in northwestern Wisconsin. Rice Lake was a growing town in the midst of the lumbering region and had a strong demand for harness makers. What’s more, they would now be closer to son Gus, who worked in the carriage-trimming business in Minneapolis.19

  Al Ringling married Eliza “Lou” Morris on December 19, 1883. She was a performer, seamstress, and snake charmer with the early Ringling circus. PRINT COLLECTION, CWM

  That winter the Brothers again played on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Eve. They even played four Sundays, breaking their own rule. They performed every day from October 29 to November 15—eighteen shows without a break, although on December 19 Al married Eliza “Lou” Morris, who worked with the show as a performer, seamstress, and snake charmer. From mid-December to the first of the year they played small towns in Nebraska and then back in Iowa. Finally, in March they crossed the Mississippi and returned to Wisconsin.

  For their first circus, in 1884, the Ringling Brothers enlisted the services of Fayette “Yankee” Robinson, a well-known circus man. OVERSIZE PRINTS COLLECTION, CWM

  For the 1883–1884 season the Brothers played 185 shows (starting on November 2, the staff consisted solely of five Ringling Brothers: Al, Alf T., Charles, Otto, and John). They closed on Friday, April 11, 1884, in Poynette, Wisconsin.20

  The Brothers had one thing on their minds—starting a full-scale traveling circus—and they were focusing nearly all their efforts on accumulating enough money to do so. They were confident that they would have enough money to take a circus on the road in summer 1884, and they ran this notice in a national trade magazine in February: “Ringling Brothers close their specialty Company April 20 [1884; they actually closed April 11] and open their tenting season May 15. Wanted. Gymnasts, Acrobats, Leapers, Contortionists, Tumblers and people in all branches of the circus business. Sideshow and outside privilege to let. Address Al. Ringling, Baraboo, Wisconsin.”21

  Al Ringling had worked for Fayette Lodawick “Yankee” Robinson during the summer of 1883, and he convinced the circus veteran (then sixty-six) to join the Brothers in forming their first circus.22 One of the best-known circus showmen in the country, Robinson helped Al design a ninety-minute program and helped plan a wagon route for the circus that would start in Baraboo, stop in several Wisconsin towns, then move into Iowa and Minnesota, Illinois, and back to Wisconsin.23 Recognizing Robinson’s drawing power, the Boys named the show “Yankee Robinson and Ringling Bros. Great Double Shows, Circus and Caravan.” It was the only time the Ringlings put someone else’s name ahead of theirs in billing a show.

  Despite having just completed their exhausting concert tour on April 11, the Ringling Brothers planned to open their circus on May 19—giving them scarcely seven weeks to prepare. But they had several things in their favor. Al and to a much lesser extent John had gained valuable experience working for other circuses. All five of the Brothers now in the circus business had learned how to perform day after day, each day in a different place. And they had accumulated $1,000 from hall show profits.24

  Each of the five knew by this time that he did not want to spend the rest of his life in a harness shop, sewing leather, repairing harnesses and horse collars, and doing fancy leather work on a rich man’s buggy.

  And so the boys got busy bringing their circus to life. They bought lumber and made seats and supports. They purchased three second-hand farm wagons, one to be used by their advance agent and two to travel with the circus. For the advance agent’s wagon they lettered the name of the show on the side and fashioned a canvas cover. They paid a farmer a few dollars and went into his tamarack swamp to cut tent poles. They cut stakes in a nearby oak grove. They removed the bark from the tent poles using a draw shave and left the stakes and poles outside to cure.25

  The Brothers designed advertising sheets and ran ads in local newspapers. The Baraboo Republic reported:

  The Ringling Bros. arrived in this city Saturday night last for the purpose of organizing a circus with Yankee Robinson, one of the best and widely known showmen in the United States. … Their tent and circus property is being got together as fast as possible, and they will give their first show in this city May 19th. This circus will be known as “The Old Yankee Robinson and Ringling Bros. Double Shows.” These young men have exhibited great enterprise and pluck, and we wish them financial success. Our circus going people should give the boys a good opening. We shall have more to say about the Baraboo Circus.26

  A few weeks later, the Sauk County Democrat carried this story:

  This week a reporter of the Democrat visited the headquarters of the Yankee Robinson and Ringling Brothers double show in the Robert’s building on Oak Street and found the boys working like beavers getting everything in readiness for their show which opens the season in this city on the 19th of the month. The tent has arrived and it is a mammoth affair. … Mr. Al Ringling, one of the head men in the concern, is an old show manager, having been in the business over fifteen years, and he thoroughly understands every branch of it. Yankee Robinson is a veteran in the show business having been in it over thirty years, and has been in nearly every town in the United States, his name is as familiar as Barnum, and old Dan Rice. He will be in Baraboo next week. The Ringling Bros. still claim this as their home, and our citizens will give the boys a big send off.27

  The Baraboo Republic did a special two-column piece on Yankee Robinson prior to the first show. “Mr. Lafayette [sic] L. Robinson, who is one of the proprietors of the ‘Yankee Robinson and Ringling Bros. Double Show,’ is one of the oldest living showmen and actors, is familiar with all the events connected with the history of the drama and the show ring of this country. … Mr. Robinson has produced his comedy drama ‘Days of ’76’ … over 5,000 times and has played in all the principal cities of the United States.”28

  There was great anticipation during the first warm days of May in Baraboo as the date for the opening of the circus grew closer. It was common for cities to charge circuses a license fee, anywhere
from twenty-five dollars to more than a hundred dollars. The city of Baraboo granted the Ringlings rights as “home artists” to put on their May 19 show without charge.29

  The Brothers’ main tent was forty-five feet by ninety feet and was designed to hold six hundred spectators. As the first show’s eager audience crowded under the canvas, one seating section collapsed, sending several people to the ground. Yankee Robinson rushed to the site of the near-calamity, cracking jokes and assisting people to their feet while workers put the seats back in order.30 After the chaos subsided, Robinson, who was small and frail but had a voice that echoed throughout the big tent, took center stage and gave a speech. He said the Ringling Brothers were “destined to become the greatest circus in the world.”31 And with that, the Ringling Brothers’ Circus was launched. The show included “contortionists, jugglers, balancers and comedy acts interspersed with musical selections, but the Ringling boys were most of the show. They played various instruments in the band, danced, performed and led most of the acrobatic stunts and tricks.”32

  The Brothers had enlisted area farm boys and their wagons, and when the show was over, the hired workers took down the big tent, folded the canvas, pulled the stakes, took the seats apart, and loaded everything on wagons, including the long tent poles, which stuck out far behind one wagon. The motley procession of twelve horse-drawn wagons trailed out of Baraboo that cool spring night, across the Baraboo Bluffs to Sauk City, their next stop.