by Jerry Apps
A bird’s-eye view of Baraboo, Wisconsin, in 1886. The Ringlings located their winter quarters along the Baraboo River, on the north side of Water Street (toward the lower right of this image). In 1887 they purchased the Bassett property on Water Street, and in 1888 they built a ring barn and an animal house. Note the substantial railroad yards to the south of the river, including a railroad repair shop. The Ringlings rented the rail yards from the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad until they built their own railroad repair shops in 1893. SAUK COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
An 1887 advertising handbill for the Ringling Brothers show. Theirs was an overland circus, traveling by wagons until 1890, when they took to the rails. HANDBILL COLLECTION, CWM
The Brothers called their 1887 circus “Ringling Bros. United Monster Shows, Great Double Circus, Royal Menagerie, Museum, Caravan and Congress of Trained Animals.” The main tent was a ninety-foot round top with a thirty-foot middle section. The sideshow tent was forty-five by fifty-five feet, and the menagerie was a seventy-foot round top. They had sixty horses and ponies. Five cages transported the wild animals that John had purchased the previous fall. They also added a camel while traveling, but it died before season’s end. The show opened in Baraboo on May 7.
Why the Ringlings decided on such a verbose title for their circus is anyone’s guess, but perhaps they wanted to make up for in words what they lacked in assets. Newspaper reviews of that season’s shows were mixed. A Fond du Lac newspaper reported, “The show this afternoon was disappointing to those who attended and afforded less amusement than the average traveling dime museum.” According to a Juneau, Wisconsin, paper, “The menagerie part of the business was not very extensive, the ‘elephant’ being conspicuous for his absence. The ring performance was up to the average 50 cent show, while the clown was far below the average buffoon.” The Stoughton, Wisconsin, newspaper promoted the Ringlings with back-handed encouragement, “The home circus will be about all the shows the people will be apt to have a chance of seeing this season. The interstate commerce law makes the tariff of travel so high that the monster [railroad] shows from the east will be unable to make Wisconsin.”12
In 1887 the Ringlings traveled the farthest yet from home, showing in Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. They traveled hundreds of miles by horse-drawn wagons over rough, rutted roads that were sometimes nearly impassable. They put up their tents each morning, put on a parade and a show, took down the tents, and drove on to the next town—six days a week, resting only on Sunday. For everyone from the teamsters to the performers, it was hard, dirty work. Each night or early morning they faced another trip, usually along an unknown road, to an unknown place, often with little or no sleep and eating on the fly. No matter if the weather was bad, a wagon broke down or someone got sick or hurt, the show had to go on.
For many people a circus was not a “real” circus until it had an elephant. The Ringlings purchased their first two elephants in 1888. PRINT COLLECTION, CWM
The Brothers closed the 1887 circus tour in Warrenton, Missouri, on October 22, and the group traveled back to Baraboo via a Mississippi steamboat to East Dubuque, Illinois, and from there by road.13 They quickly sent out two groups of performers for the 1887–1888 winter hall show season. Company One included Alf T., Charles, John, and Henry Ringling plus five others and toured from mid-December to early February. Company Two had Al Ringling and his wife, Lou, plus five more employees and toured from early December to mid-March.
The winter hall shows had added to the Brothers’ financial coffers, and they acquired two elephants in February. When John heard that the elephants had arrived in Baraboo, he quit the hall show five days early so he could see them.14 Although the first of these exotic animals had arrived in the United States in 1796, few midwesterners had ever seen one.15 Those along the circus route would now be treated not only to a long parade of wagons, horses, and cages of wild animals making strange sounds; they would see two huge elephants shuffling along. The sight would stop anyone in their tracks, no matter what they were doing. With the purchase of these amazing beasts, the Ringlings’ show became a “real” circus.
Albert “Butch” Parson was in charge of the Ringling show’s candy and lemonade stand for many years. In this photo, from 1890, Butch is fourth from the left; his brother Frank is second from the left. PHOTO BY HUDSON & SHADLE, ALGONA, IOWA; PRINT COLLECTION, CWM
Along with two elephants, the Brothers now had two camels, three lions, a hyena, deer, kangaroo, zebu, emu, birds, monkeys, and eighty horses and ponies. The 1888 Big Top was 100 by 148 feet. The Brothers contracted out for refreshment services, and that year Al “Butch” Parson from Darlington, Wisconsin, had the privilege, selling pink lemonade and other treats. Al Ringling had worked for the Parson family as a performer and knew the Parsons well.
By early May 1888 the wagons were ready to roll. Since their first shows in fall 1882, every season had been more successful than the previous one; the Brothers could see no reason why this year wouldn’t be the best yet. Otto kept his eye on the books, watching all expenses and keeping everyone on the budget straight and narrow. This included managing the Ringlings’ contracts with various teamsters, who furnished horses and cared for and drove the teams—a major expense.
The circus had reached a size where the Brothers believed they could charge a higher admission without complaint, and they doubled admission to fifty cents for adults and twenty-five cents for children. The show opened in Baraboo on May 5 and drove on to Reedsburg, Cazenovia, and Hillsboro, Wisconsin. Then the rains began to fall—every day and every night, thunder and lightning and a steady downpour. Once dry, dusty roads turned to sticky quagmires. Everything was stuck in the mud. Everyone was wet and complaining. “[We] did not see the sun for four weeks. Missed many afternoon stands on account of mud and rain … were obliged to abandon advance wagons and bill by rail [advertising men traveled by train] for a short time.”16
The Ringling Brothers had standard contracts for everything, from hotels to performers to teamsters. In the 1888 teamster contract shown here, they agreed to pay fifty dollars per month for two teams, harnesses, and services. RINGLING BROTHERS COLLECTION, CWM
The Brothers soon found themselves in desperate straits, perhaps the worst financial situation since taking their circus on the road in 1884. Otto wrote to the Bank of Baraboo for help:
It has been raining continually, and the roads have been in terrible condition. We were stuck in those clay hills at Ontario, Hillsboro & Cazenovia during the worst part of the storm. … During the past week commencing at Reedsburg we showed only one half of the time. The balance of the time was spent digging our wagons out of the mud—trying to meet our appointments. From Cazenovia to Hillsboro, 18 miles, it took us from 3 o’clock in the morning until 9 at night to get the show in town and then hired all the farmers we could find along the road to help draw our wagons to town. … The continual rain has put farmers behind with their work and it will necessarily make business dull for a short time. After considering everything carefully, we have decided that it will be better for us to cut down the show to 25 cents and reduce our expenses to a low notch and be entirely safe. In order to do this we must pay off the people we do not want next Saturday and ship what stuff we do not wish to carry [back] to Baraboo. If you could loan us enough to this effectually and before we meet with any more losses we will give you any security you may ask for (in our power).
Otto Ringling asked for a $1,000 loan. The postscript to the letter captured the depth of the Brothers’ despair:
You cannot form any idea of the terrible strain on us with everything at stake, in the rain and mud almost every day and night for over a week. … The wagons would sink down to the hubs and the poor horses could not budge them. We had to hire farmers at their own figures and we had to put all our men to work with shovels to get the clay away from the wheels. Our repair bills besides were enormous. Wagons continually pulled to pieces, springs broken, etc.17
The Ringlings had borrow
ed money from the Bank of Baraboo before and always promptly repaid it, so they had a good credit rating. This time the bank granted them a ninety-day loan of $1,000.18
Ringling Brothers Loans, Bank of Baraboo
May 1885: $100
May 1886: $300
May 1887: $500
November 1887: $1,000
May 1888: $1,000
May 1889: $1,000
All loans were at 8 percent interest.19
Otto sent a letter of thanks to the bank upon receiving the loan and indicated that they had not yet used any of the loan money and were “trying our utmost not to.”20
In a follow-up letter Otto wrote:
Please find enclosed draft on Chicago for $1,000 payment for money sent us Caledonia, Minnesota. … The past ten days have been favorable and we have made about $1500 in that time. … [T]he past four days have been excellent. We can hardly realize that we have got through and overcome the difficulties that seemed to make it impossible to proceed any further. … We have now about $2,000 on hand, cash, besides returning your $1,000 and have paid for a new lot of paper [for advertising] have paid all expenses … and the prospects are brighter for the future. During the 4 weeks of Hell you could have seen a muddy, cold disheartened, dirty wet gang of forlorn people if you had been with the show, but the sun shines again. We are very thankful for the kind favor you have shown us and of course can not repay you by thanks alone. We believe it worried us more than yourselves and it is a great relief to be again on something like a paying basis. It was our first experience in a losing business and coupled with the terrible work and uncertainty of being able to get the show through the mud was disheartening. … We did not touch the $1,000 you sent us but got down to $1,220.00 that was cash on hand, besides your remittance. That was the low water mark.21
Once the skies cleared and the mud disappeared, the Ringlings were on their way with their usual confidence. After Minnesota and Iowa, they moved into Dakota Territory, Nebraska, and back to Iowa, finally returning to Wisconsin for eight stands in October.
Business was not especially good in Nebraska. In an August letter Otto wrote, “Business has been very bad during harvest (it always is) but is steadily improving and harvest is nearly over.”22
Besides problems with the weather and harvest time, the Brothers faced other unforeseen events. For years circus people and local folks often got into tussles over one thing or another, leading to fist fights and worse. On June 23, when the circus was playing in Webster City, Iowa, James Richardson, a Ringling performer, was murdered, reason unknown. His killer, Thomas Baskett, was convicted and sentenced to fifteen years in prison.23
A crowd of Ringling circus goers at Algona, Iowa, 1888. The person on the top of the tent at left (shown in highlighted area) is Joe Parson, doing a free ascension act. PHOTO BY SAUNDERS, ALGONA, IOWA; PRINT COLLECTION, CWM
Accidents also plagued the circus. When the Ringlings played in Prairie du Chien the local paper noted: “During the grand entry act in Ringling’s circus, Mrs. Al Ringling was thrown from her horse by stumbling of the animal. The knee of the horse struck her on the head, and the immense crowd thought she was killed as she was carried out of the ring to the dressing pavilion. Mr. Ringling soon came in and announced from the ring that she was not injured, and at the time she fell could not speak from fright. The news was received with loud shouts by the people.”24
The 1888 season closed October 13 at Sauk City, Wisconsin. The local paper reported:
As anticipated, the appearance of Ringling Bros. colossal consolidation of seven shows at Sauk City on Saturday, attracted one of the largest crowds of people that has been seen here for some time. … The performance in the afternoon … about 1,500–2,000 people [were] present, and the features introduced in the ring were fully as entertaining as those of any first class show on the road. [The Ringlings] report this to have been the most profitable season since their organization, having more than doubled the net receipts of last year, and it is said to be over $50,000. Every resident of the county will be pleased to learn of the success which is crowning their efforts and hope for a continuance of the same.25
Al Ringling was always directly involved in circus activities. Here he is seen training show dogs in 1888. PRINT COLLECTION, CWM
The 1888 circus season had been sufficiently successful that the Brothers offered no more winter hall shows. They returned to winter quarters in Baraboo in October and moved onto the Bassett property on Water Street that they had purchased in November 1887.26 In fall 1888 they had built a new ring barn (sixty feet square) and a new animal house at the winter quarters.27 The new ring barn included a standard-size circus ring (forty-two feet in diameter) where the horses and riders could practice throughout the winter.
The new animal house sheltered the exotic animals during the long, cold winter months. In Ringling circus parlance barns were unheated structures that primarily housed horses. Horses gave off sufficient heat to keep the buildings warm. Houses sheltered animals such as elephants and the other exotic animals that required additional heat from coal-fired furnaces.
Elephants
Trimming an elephant’s toenails was no small task. Notice the equipment: a hacksaw and a large file. This photo was taken behind the elephant house at Ringlingville winter quarters. PRINT COLLECTION, CWM
A circus wasn’t really a circus until it owned an elephant. But elephants were expensive. The Ringlings didn’t purchase their first ones (Babylon, or Babe, an Asiatic, and Fannie, an African) until February 1888, four years after they went on the road. By 1892 the Ringlings owned six elephants, and by 1908 they had forty huge beasts in their elephant herd. To many observers, the number of elephants a circus owned was a measure of its size and prestige.
In 1898 the Brothers purchased a “white elephant.” The Ringlings heavily advertised the animal, named Keddah, as sacred, mythical, and “the most expensive of animals.” It was not really white, but lighter colored than most elephants, with pink around the ears, white feet, light hair around its lips, and no tuft of hair at the end of its tail. Barnum & Bailey had a white elephant that had proved a disappointment in attracting crowds, so the Ringlings are likely to have purchased Keddah at a discounted price. Frugal as the Ringlings were, they converted a giraffe wagon into quarters for their prize “sacred” animal. Keddah traveled in this wagon on the train, to and from the lot, and in the street parade. He did not ride with the other elephants.1 While traveling to Ft. Smith, Arkansas, on October 15, 1898, the wagon carrying the white elephant caught fire, and the animal suffered bad burns and smoke inhalation. As hard as his handlers worked to save the animal, it died five days later in Arkansas.2
The Ringlings were always on the lookout for additional elephants. In an exchange of letters with E. D. Colvin, an agent for Hagenbeck’s, the German animal dealer, Otto inquired about the big beasts. Colvin replied, “I quote you a list of all the elephants on hand at the present time: One male (Albert) 4 ft. 10 in. high—$1,400, One male (Tambus) 4 ft. 5 in. high—$1,375.00, one female (Clara) broken, 5 ft. high—$1,500.” In March Otto learned from Colvin that the animals he had ordered from Germany could not get on the mail boat and had to come by way of Bulgaria on a ship that took fourteen days.3
On November 19, 1900, a spectacular event occurred at winter quarters: a baby Asian elephant was born, the first one in Baraboo.4 A magazine reporter enthusiastically wrote:
The Ringling Bros. are without question the proudest and happiest showmen in America today. The baby elephant is of course the cause of this joy. And such a dear little baby he is. A perfect miniature elephant, 34 inches long, weighing 300 pounds, carrying a trunk one foot in length. … Little Nick was born about 4:30 Monday morning, only a few hours after the show arrived in winter quarters. Alice, a monster elephant is the mother of the small wonder, and his father, Baldy, boasts of being the largest pachyderm in America today. When the calf was born the mother awakened the sleeping elephant men who were in the elephant buildi
ng. … Like many animal mothers, Alice tried her very best to kill her offspring by trampling on him, and it was only by heroic measures little Nick was carried out of the mother’s way into a place of safety. When picked up it was between life and death, but he lived, and today is as spry as a kitten. … [S]he was removed, together with little Nick, to the ring barn where the two are now kept. The mother is getting over her ferociousness toward the infant elephant, and it is firmly believed that after a few weeks she was become reconciled to him.5
For the 1903 season the Ringlings advertised “Little Baby Boo” as an “American born baby elephant.” The little elephant had in fact come from Ceylon with its mother. PRINT COLLECTION, CWM
The elephant was christened some days after its birth by Wisconsin governor Edward Scofield and his wife, Agnes, who visited winter quarters.6 The baby elephant would have been a great draw for the circus, but unfortunately it died before the Ringlings went on the road in 1901.7
Alice gave birth to an unnamed baby elephant on October 26, 1902, but she killed the calf. The Brothers ordered another elephant and calf from Hagenbeck’s about November 22, 1902, and the animals arrived in Baraboo on December 18, 1902. The boys decided to advertise the new little elephant as having been born in Baraboo, and they named it “Baby Boo.” This was an elaborate hoax—or advertising genius. An April 4, 1903, article in Billboard proclaimed:“Ringling Bros. possess quite an attraction this year in the shape of a baby elephant, which is about seven weeks old. It is named ‘Baby Boo,’ and she is about 30” high. She is the daughter of Baldy and Alice, two of Ringling Bros. largest elephants.” In fact, the elephant and its mother had come from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).8