Ringlingville USA
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Circus elephants sometimes caused problems. For the 1909 season, the Ringlings replaced Pearl Souder, elephant superintendent, with William Emery. Problems with the elephant herd began immediately. On July 30 five elephants ran away while the herd was unloading in Laramie, Wyoming. Two were captured immediately, but three others headed for the open prairie. One elephant was still on the loose when the train had to leave for Rawlins. Two elephants and three men were left behind to search for the runaway. They all returned to the show two weeks later, presumably with the recalcitrant elephant.
When the show played in Bakersfield, California, on September 19, 1909, five elephants ran away again, this time while the street parade was assembling. They knocked over the snake den and caused general havoc. The same five elephants bolted the next day in Santa Barbara. They were rounded up with great difficulty and were loaded back onto railcars, where they remained for the next seven weeks, with Al Ringling’s approval.9
In 1910, while handlers were unloading the elephants from their railcars in Danville, Illinois, nine elephants ran away. They knocked down fences, destroyed outhouses, trampled gardens, and smashed sheds. The havoc went on for four hours before the escaped elephants were caught and brought under control. A reporter for the Rockford, Illinois, Morning Star wrote, “The attendance at both [Ringling] performances today were enormous, the thrilling events of yesterday having acted as a splendid advertisement for the show.” Ringling lawyer John Kelley was busy settling claims.10
An elephant debarks the elephant car one early morning in 1902. The elephants were loaded side by side with their heads toward the car’s center door. RICHARD E. AND ALBERT CONOVER COLLECTION, CWM
* * *
NOTES
1. Richard J. Reynolds III, correspondence with the author, December 1, 2002.
2. Red Wagon: Route Book of The Ringing Bros. World’s Greatest Show, Season 1898 (Chicago: Central Printing and Engraving, 1898), pp. 78–79.
3. E.D. Colvin to Otto Ringling, March 3, 1900, Fred Pfening III, private collection, Columbus, Ohio.
4. To date this was the fourth baby elephant (all Asians) born in the United States. All were circus elephants: Howes Great London (1875)—the calf apparently did not survive—Cooper and Bailey (1880), and Barnum and London (1882). Richard J. Reynolds III, correspondence with the author, December 5, 2002.
5. “Shows in Winter Quarters,” Billboard, December 12, 1900. Also see Richard J. Reynolds III, “Baraboo’s Baby Elephants,” Bandwagon, November/December, 1993, pp. 4–12.
6. Baraboo (Wisconsin) Evening News, December 6, 1900.
7. Mention of baby elephant’s death in correspondence from the Standard Embossing Company of Chicago to Charles Ringling, March 11, 1901, Pfening collection.
8. Reynolds, “Baraboo’s Baby Elephants.”
9. William H. Woodcock Jr., unpublished lists of circus elephants and elephant history notes, CWM Library.
10. Rockford (Illinois) Morning Star, April 29, 1910; Danville (Illinois) Commercial-News, April 27, 28, 29, 1910; Sauk County (Wisconsin) Democrat, May 5, 1910, and May 10, 1910; Baraboo (Wisconsin) News, May 5, 1910, and June 23, 1910; Baraboo Republic, May 5, 1910; Richard J. Reynolds III, correspondence with the author, December 18, 2002.
The winter of 1888–1889 was a busy time for the Brothers as they made plans for their 1889 season. They called their 1889 show “Ringling Bros. and Van Amburgh’s United Monster Circus, Museum, Menagerie, Roman Hippodrome and Universal World’s Exposition.” They had paid a small amount to include the name Van Amburgh, a once-famous trainer who had died in 1865. They opened on May 4 in Baraboo, with a larger, more elaborate circus parade preceding an all-new show. The parade was described as “The largest, longest, richest, rarest and most generously resplendent gratuitous display that human resources and effort can render possible. Arabian Nights and fairy tales made real. Wild Beasts, Bands, Gorgeous Chariots, Wide-open Dens and Glorious Art and Dress in ravishing array. Something that no one came afford to miss. It is worth going 100 miles to see.”28
That year Gus Ringling, the second-oldest son, joined the show as advertising agent, although he remained an employee of the partners. Now all seven brothers were with the show. The Brothers also hired Spencer Alexander (nicknamed Delavan because of his connections to Delavan, Wisconsin) as boss hostler in charge of all the horses. That year the Ringlings had 110 horses and ponies. Butch Parson continued to manage the candy and lemonade stand.
By this time the Brothers had acquired another elephant, and this season’s show traveled with those beasts plus two camels, nine cages of other animals, one cage of birds, and three advance wagons that traveled several weeks ahead of the others and were in charge of advertising, posting bills, and pasting signs on the sides of barns. During the muddy spring of 1888 the advance men briefly switched to rail travel, but they went back to driving wagons as soon as the roads allowed. The entire circus traveled by horse-drawn wagon in 1889.
The circus was out twenty-four weeks, closing in Lodi, Wisconsin, on October 15. The Ringlings made 147 stands, the most in their six years of operating an overland circus. And they made money. From May 10 to August 17 they deposited $22,731.00 ($437,000 in 2002 dollars) in the Bank of Baraboo.
Reviews for the 1889 show were generally positive:
The Circus last Monday was far better than the majority of traveling shows, equal to any that ever visited Hartford. … There were probably as many as four thousand people from the outside in this city on Monday to see the street parade and circus, as by the ticket count 3,384 passed under the tent in the afternoon; besides these there was a large number of children in arms who gained admission free.29
Another writer said of the 1889 show:
The glitter of tinsel, the gloss of varnish, the glare of vanity, and the glut of ambitious men for the almighty dollar! What more was it than this? But then, comparatively speaking, the Ringling and Van Amburgh combination that squatted here on Wednesday was equal (magnitude aside) to the best of circuses, and probably not one that paid his or her ten cents to see the museum, or fifty cents to take in the “entire combined show,” kicked, and there being no demands made for refunding of money, we conclude the public got all it paid for.30
Unlike many circuses, traveling medicine shows, and other rural attractions, the Ringling Brothers’ show was an honest show—no shortchanging, pickpockets, or game-of-chance cheats. They even snagged pickpockets and turned them over to the local authorities. These immoral and illegal acts were known as “grift.” A rural newspaper editor wrote, “The Ringling Brothers are personally known to many of our citizens and they are esteemed as upright young men. Their purpose to exclude every disreputable feature and ‘snide’ affair from connection with their show, is but characteristic of them.”31
Once more in winter quarters, the Brothers immediately began planning for 1890. No one had forgotten the rains in the spring of ’88, when they almost lost their show. One way to make sure muddy roads would no longer affect travel was to switch to rail. What’s more, as an overland circus they could not grow much larger, and their routes would always be limited by how far horses and men could walk. By 1878 several circuses (Barnum starting in 1872, John Robinson in 1872, W.W. Cole in 1873, Cooper and Bailey in 1876, Forepaugh in 1876 or 1877, and Sells Bros. in 1878) traveled by rail.32 The Brothers decided it was time to take to the rails as well. No more mud and dust. No more walking fifteen, twenty, or more miles a day, usually at night and often half asleep, through the dark and gloom on their way to the next town.
The Ringlings offered their road-show equipment for sale. An ad in a national trade magazine proclaimed: “From Road to Rail. The Ringling Brothers Great United Circus and Menagerie has closed the most successful season known in the history of wagon shows.” The ad went on to list for sale tents, seats, lights, poles, ropes, cages, dens, baggage wagons, harnesses, costumes, banners, and more. “All property in first class condition, and can be seen at winter quarters in Baraboo
, Wisconsin.”33
Meanwhile, the Ringlings scoured the national trade journals searching for circus rail equipment. They discovered that the Adam Forepaugh Circus had surplus equipment for sale. Otto headed to Philadelphia, hoping to strike a deal. On November 8, 1889, he tentatively agreed to purchase several pieces of Forepaugh rail equipment, but his dealings with the Forepaugh Circus went on through December. When the negotiating dust cleared, the Brothers owned eleven railroad cars (three stockcars, one boxcar, one baggage car, three loaded flatcars, and three empty flatcars). The flatcars included one cage and six baggage wagons, and the boxcar included a zebra, kangaroo, and camel, “with enough feed and bedding for the trip.” Total cost: $4,500. Otto Ringling also bought additional railcars and a bandwagon from the former Burr Robbins circus of Janesville, Wisconsin, bringing the total number of cars to sixteen.34
Now the Ringlings needed a place to store their train. In November 1889 the Ringlings were negotiating with a Mrs. Potter for land she owned across the Baraboo River from the Bassett property. They ending up leasing some of Mrs. Potter’s land and began constructing a spur line for their newly purchased railcars. The Chicago and Northwestern Railroad had a major rail operation near the Potter property that included machine shops, a roundhouse, a water tank, wood yards, depots, and a switching yard.
The Sauk County Democrat reported: “The new buildings which are being erected at ‘Ringlingville’ for the accommodation of the Ringling Bros. Circus paraphernalia are getting along nicely under the personal supervision of Chas. Ringling.”35 This is the first evidence of the use of the term Ringlingville, and from this time forward, the Ringling buildings in Baraboo would be known as Ringlingville. A few years later, the cluster of Ringling tents on the road would also become known as Ringlingville.
Also during that busy winter of 1889–1890, the Brothers opened a new office over Horstman’s Meat Market on Oak Street.36 It was an extremely busy planning season: the Brothers established routes for the coming summer season, contracted the acts, developed advertising and promotional materials and budgets, organized and readied equipment, trained animals, and ordered supplies.
The city of Baraboo thought well of their efforts. “Ringling Brothers contribute no small amount to the volume of business of the city this winter. They have twenty-eight people on their payroll. Besides this the cost of keeping a large number of horses, animals, etc. to say nothing of the five Ringling Brothers’ personal expenses, which help to reduce their bank account for the benefit of the community.”37
In January 1890 August Ringling, now sixty-three, Salome Ringling, fifty-seven, and daughter Ida moved from Rice Lake back to Baraboo. The entire family was together again, for the first time in many years.
The Brothers were more optimistic than ever as they made the giant and expensive transition from an overland wagon circus to a railroad circus. If they managed well, routed carefully, and had a little luck, their opportunities would be unlimited. Their relationship to their hometown of Baraboo was strong. The community had been watching what they were doing down on Water Street, and it liked what it saw. The Ringlings had built a substantial reputation as an overland circus; now the challenge was to keep their reputation and enhance it as they moved to the rails.
Women and the Circus
The Ringlings’ female performers were overseen by a circus mother, a combination chaperon, hospital nurse, friend, and counselor. Officially, she was matron of the women’s dressing room.1 Mother ruled with a heavy hand. There was no “hanky panky”; women were expected to do their work and adhere to a closely kept schedule.
The Ringling Brothers published a list of “Suggestions and Rules.” It was said to be for all employees, but most of the rules applied only to women:
1. Do not dress in a flashy, loud style; be neat and modest in appearance.
2. You are required to be in the sleeping car and register your name not later than 11 p.m. and not to leave car after registering.
3. Girls must not stop at hotels at any time.
4. [Girls] are not permitted to visit with relatives, etc., in cities where show appears without permission.
5. [Girls] are not permitted to talk or visit with male members of the show company, excepting the management, and under no circumstance with residents of the cities visited.
6. The excuse of “accidental” meetings will not be accepted.
Note—if some of the rules seem harsh and exacting, please remember—experience has taught the management that they are necessary. It is intended to protect the girls in every possible way. Good order and good behavior are necessary, if you are to be comfortable and happy. The management urges each girl to live up to the spirit of the rules as well as to the letter.2
On the one hand, the circus strove to protect women, on the other hand it exploited them. Few places in late-nineteenth-century America would condone scantily clad young women as did communities embracing the circus. As historian Janet Davis has noted, “[I]t seems that proprietors succeeded in selling the contradictions between titillation and respectability because sexual display at the circus escaped state regulations. Not only did state officials ignore the circus’s spectacle of semi-nudity. They actually condoned it.”3
A peek inside the women’s dressing tent, 1902. Second from the right is the acclaimed strongwoman Katie Sandwina. DON S. HOWLAND CIRCUS COLLECTION SCRAPBOOK, CWM
In 1914 the Factory Department of the State Department of Illinois examined the wages and working conditions of Ringling Brothers’ female employees. The department’s report concluded that “the girls with the circus receive higher wages, perform easier duties and enjoy more wholesome physical and moral surroundings than girls working in Chicago department stores and factories.”4
* * *
NOTES
1. W. C. Thompson, On the Road with a Circus (Self-published, 1903), p. 131.
2. Charles Ringling, Ringling Brothers, “Suggestions and Rules: Employees,” ca. 1900, CWM.
3. Janet M. Davis, “Instruct the Minds of All Classes: The Circus and American Culture at the Turn of the Century” (Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin, 1998), p. 166.
4. Quoted in Davis, “Instruct the Minds of All Classes,” p. 167.
Taking to the Rails and Growing: 1890–1894
“Give us fun and laughter,
And hand the smiles around.
We cannot laugh much after,
They put us in the ground.”1
Arailroad circus presented new opportunities and challenges for the Ringlings. Now the Brothers could travel anywhere in North America where there was a rail line. True, the Ringlings would now find themselves competing against the older and larger eastern circuses that had already been traveling by rail for several years. And they would now be at the mercy of the railroads’ schedules and rules; although the Ringlings owned their own railcars, they hired locomotives to pull their trains. But entertainment opportunities remained limited, especially for rural people, and the Ringlings were confident they would succeed. At least they would never again be pulled down by muddy roads and unceasing rains now that they were on the rails.
The Ringlings called their 1890 show “Ringling Brothers’ United Monster Railroad Shows, Menagerie and Museum.” They wanted everyone to know that their overland days were behind them and that they were ready to compete with other rail circuses. They had about 225 employees, 18 railroad cars, and a Big Top that was a 125-foot-round top with two 50-foot middle sections. In the menagerie they featured three elephants, three camels, a “Bovalapus” (water buffalo), a zebra, a zebu, a hippopotamus named Pete (the Ringlings’ first hippo), several monkeys, deer, two wolves, a couple of boa constrictors, and additional animals making up a total of fifteen cages. The show included 107 horses and ponies. Ringlingville was ready to roll.2
An 1890 handbill advertised the Ringlings’ “Enormous Railroad Shows.” It was the first year the Ringlings’ circus traveled by rail instead of by wagon. HANDBILL COLLECTIO
N, CWM
The last decade of the nineteenth century in the United States was a period of great expansion. In 1890 Congress passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, which sought to prevent companies from becoming monopolies and restraining trade. Initially, the act was poorly enforced. On April 22, 1890, the first Oklahoma land rush took place. Within twenty-four hours, fifty thousand settlers claimed more than two million acres. The Oklahoma Territory was formed on May 2. North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington had gained statehood in 1889, and Idaho and Wyoming were admitted as the forty-third and forty-fourth states in July 1890. In December 1890 two hundred Sioux Indians were massacred at the Battle of Wounded Knee in South Dakota.3
Many people were using Bell’s telephone and Morse’s telegraph to communicate. George Eastman invented a handheld camera in 1888; it became popularly known as a Kodak. Thomas Edison’s lightbulbs and mercury vapor lamps were coming on the market in 1890, but his motion pictures didn’t appear until 1893 (sound motion pictures were not perfected until the 1920s).4
In rural communities most farmers had shifted from hand-operated cradle scythes to McCormick’s mechanical reaper to harvest their grain. J. I. Case’s steam tractors began to power threshing machines and do limited farmwork. But horses continued to be the main power source and means of transportation in the country as well as in villages and cities.
This was the milieu in which the Ringlings mounted their new railroad circus. On April 12, 1890, Ringling Bros. Advertising Car No. 1 left Baraboo. A few days later Advertising Car No. 2 left. A Baraboo newspaperman noted: “A first class artist worked several months on these cars embellishing them with representations of the various features of the monster shows. They are each supplied with steam boilers for making paste, etc., and were loaded with tons and tons of bills [advertising posters]. A small army of bill posters accompanied them.”5 That small army consisted of sixteen men in Car No. 1, under Gus Ringling’s direction, and fewer men in the other car.6