Ringlingville USA
Page 19
We can take the new ones Henry [Ringling] built and use them here and sell off the light ones. … The Forepaugh stock cars (old lot) are very bad being built too narrow, but they will do for Buffalo Bill.
Forepaugh harness is fine and I should think it advisable to put it away. Do not need it with Barnum show if it does not parade.31 But it matches Ringling and is always available for that or if we should put out Forepaugh some other time.
Otto was already thinking about one day putting Forepaugh-Sells back on the road.
As for the menagerie, Otto wrote:
Forepaugh show has some nice led animals and Ringling Bros. are short. Barnum is long on [led animals]. Forepaugh Hippo is a male breeder and there is room in Baraboo same as when we kept Pete. Barnum can use Forepaugh Eland also horned horses. Only two leopards here [Bridgeport] can use same. Only two tigers here, one of them 26 years old. Getting very thin and stomach gone. Three lions here. This show has very poor cages and only 21 [cages] besides giraffe cages. … The very best here is not in it with the poorest on the Forepaugh show.
He went on to describe in great detail the Barnum & Bailey equipment, often making negative comments:
The Barnum coal oil ranges are all used up being five years old and the coal oil taints the food. Instead of refrigeration wagon they need car which takes tons of ice.
The 18 tier reserve [seats] here are impossible from our stand point. It takes four men to carry the stringers and they twist so much they are dangerous. … [W]e need new stringers and plenty of planks and jacks. We will have to change the pitch of the grand stand as the risers here are only 63/4 while ours are eight.
Otto also wrote about the importance of a circus parade, which Barnum & Bailey had not offered in recent years. He made recommendations for decreasing the number of railcars “holding it down to 68 or 69 cars [for Barnum & Bailey] and 75 cars for Ringling Brothers.”32
From Otto’s lengthy letter of October 26, we learn not only about the rather sorry state of the Barnum & Bailey equipment, we also learn a great deal about Otto Ringling’s gift for dealing with the minutest detail while seeing the bigger picture.
The Brothers suffered another loss in late 1907. August Albert “Gus” Ringling died of Bright’s disease on December 18 in a sanitarium in New Orleans. He was only fifty-three years old. At the time of his death, he was manager of the advertising department of the Forepaugh-Sells show, although he still was not a Ringling partner. He left behind his wife, Annie, and three daughters, Mattie, Alice, and Lorene. The Baraboo Republic reported:
The death of August G. Ringling is the first break in the Ringling ranks among the seven brothers. Although not a member of the firm his position was important and the salary large. … It is hard to find so many brothers who have spent so much of their lives together as these seven brothers. They have been brothers in every sense of the word, and his death is felt very keenly by them.33
Most businesses hunker down during financial panics, avoiding expansion or anything new or unusual. In 1907 the Ringling Brothers, with Otto and John taking the lead, once again proved their business skill and foresight when they bought the great Barnum & Bailey Circus. At less than a half-million dollars, the price was right, but to outsiders the purchase must have looked foolish and ill-advised, especially considering that the Brothers had to obtain a sizable loan at a time when banks were under financial pressure and the country was in a near economic crisis. But men like Otto Ringling and his brothers saw beyond the immediate. The Ringlings realized that this purchase was one more way for their enterprise to keep growing.
The Circus Parade
The Ringlings’ fabulous parade dazzled people in rural areas and small towns, as seen in this photo taken in Algona, Iowa. No matter the size of the community, the parade was a powerful advertising tool for a circus. PRINT COLLECTION, CWM
Like the Pied Piper, the circus parade got people’s attention—mesmerizing, entertaining, thrilling, astounding, and above all, attracting them to the circus grounds, where they would plunk down their quarters and fifty-cent pieces for a ticket to the Big Top. The parade was one of the circus’s most powerful forms of advertising.
In 1882, when the Brothers put on their first Ringling Bros. Classic and Comic Concert Company shows, they marched down Main Street of the towns where they were scheduled to play, tooting their horns and pounding on a big drum. The parade of brothers and a few other would-be performers took five minutes or less to pass.
By the turn of the century, the Ringling Brothers’ parade lasted an hour or longer. An ad for the 1900 Ringling circus in a Columbus, Ohio, paper proclaimed:“Big new free street parade in 30 sections, every morning at 10:00. 1,000 people. 500 horses. 100 cages of wild animals. 25 elephants. 20 camels.”1 A writer for the same paper described the parade this way:
Big cities turned out thousands of people to watch a circus parade, as seen in this photo taken in Detroit. When automobiles and streetcars began clogging the way, mounting the circus parade in larger cities became very difficult. PRINT COLLECTION, CWM
The mounted band, the silver chimes, the clowned band; the coucheecouchee music and last but not least, the [clown] straw ride party at the end of the parade, caught the crowd.
There were numerous open cages of snakes, leopards, polar bears, hyenas, black bears and other “creepin” and “crawlin” things that were greatly admired by the spectators who lined the street wherever the toot of the calliope could be heard.
The parade started from the show grounds on St. Clair Avenue promptly on time. First came the route manager and Detective Sergeant Kelly; then a ten-horse chariot with a band. The band was different from other circus bands inasmuch as it played regular marches instead of the rumptar-rarum of the grand entrée. The horses were all white or gray, well fed and well groomed. The cages were all clean and neat and the parade did not seem to be in a hurry to get through. There were equestriennes in neat gowns; the mounted band led by outriders with the flags of America and England; Chasseurs and—well about everything new or novel in the circus line.
The hippopotamus had a mouth on him like the entrance to a mammoth cave; and in one of the cages, a black leopard “rubbered” out to see what kind of town Columbus was anyhow.
At the tail end of the parade came the rubes on their straw wagon. At each stop the [clowns] amused the throngs with acrobatic performances that were at once clever and comical. The camels, of which there was a big caravan, were all nice appearing beasts and did not look as if they had to patronize some dandruff cure.
One of the most interesting features of the parade was the elephants’ act. Each beast grasped the tail of the animal in front of him with his trunk and held on like grim death. Well ahead of the elephants a man on horse back rode by yelling “friends, secure your horses tightly the elephants are about to pass by.”2
Both the sights and the sounds of the circus parade were something to behold, as C. P. “Chappie” Fox, longtime director of Circus World Museum, described:
The deep throated knock of the heavy wheels caused by the slight lateral motion of the wheel when it hit the axle [hub]; the soft shuffling sound as dozens of elephants slid their sandpaper-like feet on the pavement; the clopping of 40 shod hooves as a ten-horse hitch passed by; the rattle of chains on the eveners; the sudden roar of a lion.3 Thousands of people turned out for circus parades. Many had come early to watch the crew unload the trains and set up the tents and now could get a glimpse of what to expect in the show. Circuses prided themselves in having colorful circus parade wagons. The decorations often included gold leaf, intricate hand-carved designs, mirrors, and pictures. Many wagons had beautifully painted sunburst wheels with painted wooden panels between the spokes. For many people the quality of the circus parade and its wagons was a powerful measure of the quality of the circus show itself.
* * *
NOTES
1. Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, June 4, 1900.
2. Ibid.
3. Char
les Philip Fox, A Ticket to the Circus (Seattle, WA: Superior, 1959), p. 79.
Managing Two Big Shows: 1908–1909
“The system of management is superb. Great things are accomplished with quiet effort, the results in many instances being nothing short of startling. An inspection of the Ringling Show in its entirety serves to impress one with its many exceptional features and above all its tone of elegance.”1
The Ringling Brothers Circus would celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary in 1908. By that year the Ringling Bros. World’s Greatest Shows was a mammoth affair, with more than a thousand employees, upwards of six hundred horses, forty elephants, eighty-plus railcars, and a tent city that covered twelve acres. The Big Top had a seating capacity of twelve thousand people.
For the 1908 season, the Brothers added several acts, many imported from Europe. One new act, the “thriller,” featured an automobile. An Ohio reporter wrote:
The “thriller” is nothing less than a double somersault in mid-air by a heavy automobile with Mlle. La Belle Roche, a young French woman, at the wheel. The car dashes down a steep incline from the dome of the tent. An abrupt up-curved terminal hurls the car high above the heads of the audience, where is accomplished two complete revolutions and then lands with a crash on a narrow speed way, exhausting its terrific momentum on the hippodrome track.2
Along with exciting new acts, the Brothers continued promoting traditional circus acts, the sideshow, and the menagerie because they knew these standbys attracted people to their tents. For 1908 they advertised sixty acrobats, sixty aerialists, sixty riders, fifty clowns, and “the tallest giraffe in the world.”3
Another ad for the 1908 season sang the praises of both the show and the Brothers’ reputation:
The “thriller” act, new for 1908, featured an automobile driven by Mademoiselle La Belle Roche, a young French woman. The car did a double somersault in mid-air. POSTER COLLECTION, CWM
The Gibraltar of modern circus development, rising high and mighty over all, an inspiration and glory to the business, stalwartly American, the substantiated, stupendous, supreme institution of the wide, wide world; and recapitulating back—back through the all the ages of tragedy and splendor to the days of Genesis.
The firm name of Ringling Brothers is known and honored wherever the dawn of civilization has risen. It stands for solidity and truth. It requires no decorative building or rhythm of worlds to invoke interest. Wherever the banner of Ringling Brothers flies, there is a vast dome beneath which is revealed the highest expression of the circus idea.4
The Ringlings continued their strict adherence to providing a clean, honest, family-friendly show free of pickpockets, short-changers, confidence men, and the other low-level crooks that plagued many other circuses. One newspaper reporter wrote in the summer of 1908:
Even from the time several years ago when the show was not nearly so large as it is today the people of Racine were impressed with the high moral tone of the Ringling Brothers’ show and growth has not interfered with the morals about the Ringlings’ tents. The circus is twice as big as it was fifteen years ago, but it is run with the same regard for the welfare of the people. The entire concern is policed and perfect order is maintained.5
Despite their size and power in the circus business, the Ringling Brothers never lost sight of their customers. They even policed their ticket sellers to make sure that there was no shortchanging of patrons. It was said that they had the ticket sellers wear aprons without pockets, so that a dishonest ticket seller had no place to slip money obtained from unknowing customers.
The Ringling Bros. World’s Greatest Shows opened the 1908 season indoors in Chicago on April 2 and went under canvas on April 24, playing the Midwest, Pennsylvania, New York, and back to the Midwest, where they showed until late September.
To many people it was unbelievable that such a giant establishment could pick up and move each day and still put on two spectacular performances. A Duluth newspaper writer, no doubt with the help of a Ringling press release, described Ringlingville’s kitchen and dining enterprise in 1908:
The “flying squadron,” by which term the first section of the four show trains is known, will arrive here shortly after midnight. It will carry the kitchen and dining tents, equipment and helpers, and by the time the three following trains are unloaded a steaming hot breakfast will be ready for the several hundred working people. In order to have a fresh supply of wholesome food for the small army of attaches, an agent was here yesterday contracting with grocer, bakers, dairymen, butchers and others for the immense quantities of food to be delivered at the show grounds early in the morning. [The contracting had actually been done several weeks earlier by the advance man.]
Ninety gallons of fresh milk, twenty gallons of evaporated milk, 1,000 pounds of bread, 300 pounds of steak, Westphalia ham, young lamb chops and young veal cutlets, 90 pounds of butter, 45 bushels of potatoes, 18 bushels of spinach and young beets, 250 dozen eggs, 35 pounds of American cheese, 100 pounds of rice pudding, 300 pies of four varieties and 185 quarts of coffee and 65 gallons of tea are consumed each day. Nine cooks work under one chef to prepare the food.6
Barnum & Bailey, The Greatest Show on Earth, opened at Madison Square Garden in New York on March 19, 1908, and played there until April 18. That show then headed east to New Jersey and New York and later spent nearly all of September in California.
The Brothers had to prevent their two big shows from competing with each other—a complicated endeavor. Generally, a city hosted Barnum & Bailey one year and the Ringling show the next.
The Menagerie
People young and old were attracted to the Ringlings’ vast collection of wild animals and birds. At the turn of the twentieth century, community zoos were just opening and were not yet common.1 A circus menagerie provided people—especially those from rural communities—an opportunity to see exotic animals for the first time.
The Ringling Brothers purchased their first rhinoceros, Mary, in 1902. PRINT COLLECTION, CWM
In 1901 a newspaper reporter proclaimed:
The menagerie carried by the Ringlings this season must be even finer than Noah’s. It is certain that Noah never had such a fine bunch of elephants, nor had he such magnificent lions. There is one particularly fine specimen in the lion family. His name is Prince, and he is a forest-bred beast. Another big feature in the animal display is the immense Royal Bengal tigers—quite the largest that ever traveled with a circus. There are yaks, zebus, zebras, … ibexes, Philippine water buffalo, some handsome deer and antelopes, a large cage of kangaroos, and a hippopotamus weighing 4,800 pounds.2
Even in those parts of the country where some religious groups deemed the circus decadent or even immoral, their members could visit the menagerie because it was considered an educational show.3
The reputation of the menagerie was as important to a circus as the performance under the Big Top, and to be considered first-rate, a circus had to offer the “big four” animal attractions: elephant, giraffe, hippopotamus, and rhinoceros. In 1902 the Brothers had not yet exhibited any rhinos, which were scarce. Then in December 1902 the Ringlings learned of a rare Sumatran rhinoceros for sale by the Wildlife Conservation Society (formerly the New York Zoological Society at its Bronx Zoo). The zoo had acquired the animal in March of that year but had no place to house it properly. The Ringlings paid five thousand dollars for the animal, named Mary. She was the rarest animal ever housed at Ringlingville.4
The Brothers received very careful directions on how to care for the animal:
In the morning, after giving her water, the following mash was prepared. Three loaves of graham bread cut in coarse cubes, 1/2 dozen medium sized carrots, 1/2 dozen potatoes, 1/2 head of cabbage, 1 pint of bran, 1/2 handful of salt. In the afternoon (about 4 p.m.) after watering her the second time for the day, she usually drinks about a pail and a half of water, we gave her a bundle of clover hay—about 16 pounds. We tried various ways of feeding her, and found she did best as stated above.
She was given no hay in the morning and provided with peat bedding during the day as she would eat considerable quantities of ripe straw bedding when provided with the same. The mash given her in the morning, when well mixed, just filled a sixteen quart pail.
Hoping you will have good success in keeping her alive and in good health, and believing you will have no difficulty in doing so.5
Mary died in fall 1908 and at the time was the only Sumatran rhino in the United States.6
In 1904 the Ringlings valued their menagerie at $66,815.00, which included twenty-eight elephants ($1,200 each), a hippopotamus and rhinoceros ($3,000 each), and three “horned horses” (gnus) ($150 each).7 By 1908 the Ringlings had acquired the largest and most varied menagerie of any circus in the world.8
* * *
NOTES
1. The nation’s first zoo opened in New York’s Central Park in 1861. The Philadelphia Zoological Society was organized in 1859 but because of the Civil War did not open its zoo until 1874. Richard J. Reynolds III, correspondence with the author, December 10, 2002.
2. Ashland (Wisconsin) Daily Press, July 27, 1901.
3. Milton J. Bates, “The Wintermutes’ Gigantic Little Circus,” Wisconsin Magazine of History 87, no. 1 (Autumn 2003): 10.
4. Receipt for $5,000 from New York Zoological Society, December 20, 1902, Fred Pfening III, private collection, Columbus, Ohio.
5. William T. Hornaday, Director, New York Zoological Society, to the Ringling Brothers, December 22, 1902, Pfening collection.
6. Richard Reynolds III, correspondence with the author, December 11, 2002.
7. Handwritten inventory of animals, 1904, Pfening collection.