Ringlingville USA

by Jerry Apps

  Charles, who had a fine home in Evanston, Illinois, also bought waterfront land next to John’s in Sarasota. By 1926 both of the brothers had built multimillion-dollar homes in Florida, and both owned two yachts. Charles and Edith Ringling’s marble mansion on Sarasota Bay was built in 1925. Marshall Field and Company of Chicago did the interior decoration, and many of the furnishings were imported from Europe. The cost of the home was estimated at $880,000 (about $9 million in 2002 dollars). Charles also built a home for his daughter, Hester, on adjoining property; both buildings are now owned by the New College of Florida.6

  John and Mable Ringling’s mansion, Ca d’Zan (house of John), was built in 1925 and 1926. The palatial home is the largest Sarasota has ever seen, with thirty-one rooms and servant quarters in one wing. It was later proclaimed to be “among the most charming products of the 1920s fashion for new historical mansions for the rich and famous.”7 A restoration of the home, which is open to the public, was completed in 2002.

  By the late 1920s John Ringling had collected more than 625 paintings and hundreds of other pieces of art. In 1927 he and his wife began construction of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, also on their estate, to house the collection. “It is the largest art museum south of Washington, D.C. and has been authoritatively called ‘the most important collection of Italian baroque art, and Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens in the United States.’”8 Unfortunately, Mable Ringling died on June 8, 1929, and did not see the completion of the museum.

  Charles Ringling, age sixty-two, died on December 3, 1926. He left his interest in the circus to his wife, Edith.9 As Richard J. Reynolds III noted:

  John Ringling (1866–1936) was disliked by some but loved by many. He was a railroad routing genius and was largely responsible for the Ringling Brothers’ shows finding success in out-of-the way places. PRINT COLLECTION, CWM

  Charles Ringling (1864–1926) was an accomplished musician and was loved by nearly all the Ringling employees. He was responsible for the behind-the-scenes operations of the circus moving smoothly. PRINT COLLECTION, CWM

  John Ringling would regret not having pressed brothers Alf T. and Charles to make a formal written partnership agreement. … [E]volving business principles argued for an agreement. [An agreement] usually provides that in the event of a partner’s death the survivors have the option to purchase his share before it goes to his heirs. Since the Ringlings had no such agreement, John wound up a minority owner of the circus. He had a third of it but the two women … Edith Conway Ringling had one-third, inherited from her husband, Charles; and Aubrey Ringling—later Aubrey Haley—had one-third, inherited from her husband, Richard, who had inherited his father Alf T.’s share. Despite his minority position, the imperious John operated the show as though he alone owned it.10

  With Charles’s death, flashy John Ringling was the last remaining of the original seven brothers. The Bridgeport winter quarters lease would expire on January 1, 1928, and in 1927 John moved the circus winter quarters from Connecticut to Sarasota, where he had purchased a former fairgrounds. It proved to be a good business decision: thousands of visitors came to the Sarasota winter quarters, making it one of the top tourist attractions in the state and providing winter income for the circus. Many circus performers also made their winter homes in Sarasota, bringing a considerable diversity to the area.11 Many people today associate the Ringlings with Sarasota, not with Bridgeport or Baraboo.

  In 1928 the Greatest Show on Earth’s most serious competition was the American Circus Corporation, headquartered in Peru, Indiana. On September 10, 1929, the Associated Press carried this surprising news item:

  John Ringling, who started as a singing clown, rules as supreme master of the circus world Tuesday by purchase of five of his foremost competitors. The last of the famous Ringling brothers has acquired control of the largest group of tent shows in the world, including their talent, menageries, equipment and winter quarters. The shows which have been added to the Ringling group are Sells-Floto, Hagenbeck-Wallace Animal Show, John Robinson’s, Sparks, and Al. G. Barnes Wild Animal Show. The properties were purchased from the American Circus Corporation in a transaction which friends of the showman said, involved several million dollars. The exact figure was not disclosed. There are about 3,000 persons employed in the newly acquired shows, as compared with 1,600 in the present Ringling Bros-Barnum & Bailey organization.12

  Of course, even John Ringling, who had fame and fortune and considerable luck, could not predict the devastating stock market crash that occurred but a month after his purchase. The crash of October 29, 1929, launched the worst depression in the nation’s history. And the devastating economic times took their toll on the John Ringling empire. Circus attendance was down so much in 1931 that the Greatest Show on Earth closed on September 14, the earliest closing in its long history.13

  John eventually was not able to meet an interest payment on a loan, and at a 1932 meeting with circus creditors and his partners, Edith Ringling and Aubrey Ringling, he was voted out of control of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. By this time John was very ill, having suffered a stroke in 1931. Although he was now no longer general manager of the show, John would retain one-third of the stock in a new stock company that was formed in 1932. That fall John suffered another stroke, from which he recovered only partially.14

  Sam Gumpertz became general manager. Gumpertz had no experience in circus management, but he had considerable circus experience, having begun his career as an acrobat at age nine. Before managing the Combined Shows, he was a producer of kinetoscopes, early motion picture projectors. According to Henry Ringling North, Gumpertz allowed the circus to deteriorate. Wagons remained unpainted. The quality of performances declined. The circus was losing money “like a broken hydrant gushing water.”15 (Henry North’s statement may have been a bit of an exaggeration; in 1937, still under Gumpertz, the Greatest Show on Earth once again became profitable.)16

  Circus World Museum

  Karen DeSanto, an education coordinator at Circus World Museum, introduces some young friends to the thrills of the circus. PHOTO COURTESY OF CIRCUS WORLD MUSEUM FOUNDATION, INC.

  In 1959, thanks to Ringling attorney John M. Kelley’s vision, a statewide fund-raising drive, and $10,000 provided by the Baraboo City Council toward the purchase of the old ring barn at Ringlingville, Circus World Museum was born.

  According to Robert Ott, a longtime Baraboo resident who was a city council member at the time, Baraboo people didn’t think much of museum organizer John Kelley.“About everyone in town avoided John M. Kelley when he came down the street because they knew he was going to pitch his vision for the circus museum to them again.”1

  The land and the buildings were deeded to the State of Wisconsin debt free. Since the museum’s opening on July 1, 1959, it has been owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society. It is operated by the nonprofit Circus World Museum Foundation, Inc. The museum site was listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1969.

  Charles P. “Chappie” Fox was an original Circus World Museum board member. He became director of Circus World Museum in January 1960, at which time the museum owned only two of the historic winter quarters buildings, the camel house and the ring barn. Since then the museum has acquired the baggage horse barn, two animal houses, the former office building, and the car shops. Two other former winter quarters buildings, the 1916 hotel and the paint shops, still stand but are privately owned.

  In addition to acquiring the historic buildings, the museum maintains an extensive library and research center that attracts circus researchers and historians from around the world. The museum preserves more than eight thousand circus posters and has collections of handbills, business records, personal papers, old newspapers, films, photographic prints totaling more than one million items. In 1996 the museum established an artifacts department.

  Chappie Fox conceived the idea of a historic circus parade. Circus World Museum presented the first horse-drawn parade in downtown Milw
aukee in 1963, and the parades continued each year until 1973. In 1985 the circus parades in Milwaukee began once more, continuing through 2003. The colorful circus wagons were loaded onto train cars in Baraboo using horses and following historic loading techniques. Then the train rumbled from Baraboo to Milwaukee, stopping at several communities along the way. Tickets were sold to those who wanted to experience an old-time circus train ride. Tickets were also earned by donors who supported museum programs and operations. In 2004 the Great Circus Train did not run, and the circus parade was held in Baraboo on July 3.

  In preparation for the Great Circus Parade, Circus World Museum staff loads railcars by traditional methods, using horses to get the job done. PHOTO BY STEVE APPS

  John Kelley acquired the first of Circus World’s historic wagons before the museum opened, and in 1969 the museum constructed a pavilion to house some fifty restored wagons. In 1998 the C. P. Fox Wagon Restoration Center opened on the museum grounds.

  Circus World Museum is open year-round; the library and archives are open to researchers by appointment. During the summer visitors to Circus World can take in a live circus performance under the Big Top, with elephants and other circus animals, a ringmaster, aerialists, and clowns. It’s an incredible chance for older people to relive the circus experience and for youngsters to learn what circuses were like when the big tent shows traveled the country. Programs are also offering during spring, fall, and winter, along with holiday programs and several special events. For anyone interested in the circus, whether researcher or fan, Circus World Museum is truly a national treasure.

  In 2004 Circus World Museum employed about 20 full-time people, 80 to 105 seasonal employees, and 30 to 40 volunteers assisting with everything from library research to summer programming.

  * * *

  NOTES

  1. Fred Dahlinger Jr., correspondence with the author, August 28, 2001.

  John Ringling died on December 2, 1936, a sick, defeated, and crushed man. He had lost much of his fortune and no longer controlled his beloved circus. John Ringling North, Ida Ringling North’s son, took over management of the circus in 1938, two years after John’s death. In 1956 the circus quit showing under canvas; it continued to show in arenas, coliseums, and auditoriums, booking throughout the winter.17

  On November 11, 1967, the Irvin Feld family purchased the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Successful rock and roll concert promoters, brothers Irvin and Israel Feld were familiar with the new arenas popping up around the country and saw them as a venue for their newly purchased circus. Irvin’s son, Kenneth, joined the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey show in 1970. When his father died suddenly on September 6, 1984, Kenneth took control. The Feld family continues to operate the show, sending out three different “editions” to different communities, playing indoors.18 The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, The Greatest Show on Earth, is the last remaining railroad circus.

  When the Brothers didn’t return to Baraboo in winter 1918, it was like someone leaving for a short trip but intending to return. But the Ringlings didn’t come back, not even to retrieve their business records, which remained in the little gray office on Water Street. According to Richard Reynolds, “Property that didn’t go aboard the circus trains when they left in the spring of 1918 stayed there. Some properties were sold, but a lot of it seems to have been left to rot, not least a treasure trove of business files.”19 Also abandoned were such items as wagons, blacksmith equipment, lumber, and show props.

  Many of the records were stored in an underground vault, where they got wet and mildewed. The records remained in the vault until the 1930s, when the office buildings and other properties were sold. The new owners freely gave Ringling records to circus fans who wanted them. Madison attorney Sverre Braathen obtained a considerable amount of the records, and he eventually gave them to Illinois State University in Normal. Braathen, for reasons largely unknown, was not fond of Circus World Museum and chose Illinois State University because it had a modest circus history collection.20

  William Kasiska, member of a prominent Baraboo family and known among circus historians as “Baraboo Bill,” obtained even more Ringling office records. When Kasiska died in 1978, a circus collector bought Kasiska’s material at auction. Other people acquired additional Ringling records. Over the years, through donations and purchase, a large amount of material has returned to the Circus World Museum Library in Baraboo.21

  The several buildings that made up Ringlingville in Baraboo sat empty for years, receiving little if any attention as attorneys and the courts debated who owned what after all the Ringling boys had died. Baraboo native Robert Barnes recalled playing at the abandoned winter quarters as a child in the 1920s. “We played in the elephant house. It was all boarded up, but we got in anyway. There we found African shields and spears. We tossed spears at old dried elephant dung. It was great fun.”22

  Finally, in 1933, after considerable negotiating, local judge Adolph Andro and businessman Fred J. Effinger completed the agreement to purchase the Ringlingville property, which had an assessed value of $37,000.23

  The new owners began repairing the Ringlingville buildings, which had stood vacant since 1918. They leased several of the buildings and began selling them in 1939. Schwartz Farm Equipment purchased the horse barn. The Baraboo Chick Hatchery bought the menagerie building; a second menagerie building was sold to L. R. Carpenter for storage. The W. C. Fullmer Transfer Company bought the elephant barn for use as a garage and storage building. The City of Baraboo bought the former paint shop, and the Deppe Lumber Company purchased the middle portion of the paint shop to use as a machine shed. Several of these new owners had previously leased these buildings from Andro and Effinger.24 In June 1939 Andro and Effinger sold five more buildings—the ring barn, giraffe and zebra barn, blacksmith shop, a storage building, and a building used for drying tent poles—to a Mr. Liss.25

  Ringlingville, Water Street, Baraboo, 2002. Now part of Circus World Museum, these are several of the original buildings that made up the winter quarters for what became the largest and most profitable circus in the world, the Ringling Bros. World’s Greatest Shows. PHOTO BY STEVE APPS

  It was attorney John M. Kelley, the Ringlings’ general counsel for more than thirty years, who first dreamed of a museum honoring the golden age of the railroad circus. In 1954 Kelley incorporated the Circus World Museum. The museum opened to the public on July 1, 1959, at the site of the Ringlings’ Baraboo winter quarters. The museum and its Robert L. Parkinson Library and Research Center, established in 1965, help preserve the legacy of the Ringling Brothers and their great circus.

  APPENDIX I

  1903 Ringling Brothers’ Official Program

  APPENDIX II

  The Ringling Family

  The Ringling family, circa 1895. Standing, left to right: Al, Alf T., Gus, Charles, and Otto. Seated: John, Salome, August, Ida, and Henry. PRINT COLLECTION, CWM

  August Frederich Rungeling (Ringling)

  Born: 11/24/1826, Hanover, Germany

  Died: 2/16/1898, Baraboo, Wisconsin. Buried at Walnut Hill Cemetery, Baraboo

  Married: Salome Marie Juliar, 2/16/1852, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

  Salome Marie Juliar

  Born: 7/25/1833, Ostheim, Alsace, France

  Died: 1/27/1907, Baraboo, Wisconsin. Buried at Walnut Hill Cemetery, Baraboo, Wisconsin

  Married: August Frederich Rungeling (Ringling), 2/16/1852, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

  Albert Charles “Al” Ringling

  Born: 12/13/1852, Chicago, Illinois

  Died: 1/1/1916, Baraboo, Wisconsin. Buried at Walnut Hill Cemetery, Baraboo, Wisconsin

  Married: Eliza “Lou” Morris, 12/19/1883

  August Albert “A. G.” “Gus” Ringling

  Born: 7/20/1854, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

  Died: 12/18/1907, New Orleans, Louisiana. Buried at St. Joseph’s Catholic Cemetery, Baraboo, Wisconsin

  Married: Anna G. “Annie” Hurley, 11/21/1883

 
George G. Ringling

  Born: 1857(?)

  Died: February 19, 1857, Baraboo, Wisconsin. Buried at Walnut Hill Cemetery, Baraboo, Wisconsin

  William Henry Otto “Otto” Ringling

  Born: 6/28/1858, Baraboo, Wisconsin

  Died: 3/31/1911, New York. Buried at Walnut Hill Cemetery, Baraboo, Wisconsin

  Never married

  Baby Boy/Girl

  Born: Circa 1860, birthplace unknown

  Died: Circa 1860, burial place unknown

  Alfred Theodore “Alf T.” Ringling

  Born: 11/6/1863, McGregor, Iowa

  Died: 10/21/1919, Oak Ridge, New Jersey. Buried at Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla, New York

  Married: Adella Mae “Della” Andrews, 7/8/1890

  Divorced: September–October 1913, Madison, Wisconsin

  Married: Elizabeth Shuttleworth, date unknown

  Carl Edward “Charles” Ringling

  Born: 12/2/1864, McGregor, Iowa

  Died: 12/3/1926, Evanston, Illinois. Buried at Manasota Memorial Park, Sarasota, Florida

  Married: Edith Conway, 10/23/1889, Baraboo, Wisconsin

  John Nicholas Ringling

  Born: 5/31/1866, McGregor, Iowa

  Died: 12/2/1936, New York. Buried at Ringling Museum Grounds, Sarasota, Florida

  Married: Mable Burton, 1905 (Mable died 6/8/1929)

  Married: Emily Haag Buck, 12/19/1930

  Divorced: 7/6/1936