Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey history

In 1938, the circus made a lucrative offer to Frank Buck, a well-known adventurer and animal collector, to tour as their star attraction and to enter the show astride an elephant.

In 1943, Edith used this majority to nominate her son to the role of president and director, which had been given by default to his cousin, John Ringling North II.

A tragic low point for the circus occurred on July 6, 1944, in Hartford, Connecticut, when a fire broke out during an afternoon performance, taking the lives of at least 167 people and injuring hundreds more.

North resumed the presidency of the circus in 1947.

Established in 1948, the Ringling Museum of the American Circus was the first to document the rich history of this phenomenally popular entertainment.

She spent time living in her brother Al's Baraboo chateau after his death, and later moved into the Bird Key island's "New Edzell Castle" where she lived until her death in 1950.

Ironically, a movie, The Greatest Show on Earth, which featured scores of real circus performers and animals and won the Academy Award for best picture in 1953, brought new attention to the circus.

In 1957, however, the circus resumed operations after North entered into an agreement with concert promoter Irvin Feld, under which the circus continued performing—not under the big-top tent but in indoor facilities which Feld contracted.

In 1959, Ringling Bros. started wintering in Venice, Florida.

After years working for his uncles' circus, Henry Whitestone Ringling North penned "Circus Kings: Our Ringling Family Story," which follows the circus family's history up to 1960.

Members of the Ringling family controlled the circus until 1967 when they sold it to the Feld family, who kept the name.

In 1970, Feld's only son Kenneth joined the company and became a co-producer.

In 1971 Mattel, Inc., bought the circus from Feld for $40 million, though members of his family continued to manage it.

Confident in his son's abilities, Irvin Feld made Kenneth Feld a co-producer in 1973.

The park's opening was then delayed until February 1974.

By May 1980, the company expanded to three circuses by adding the one-ring International Circus Festival of Monte Carlo that debuted in Japan and Australia.

The Felds bought the circus back in 1982 less Circus World.

Irvin Feld died in 1984 and the company has since been run by Kenneth.

"John Ringling North passed away in 1985, having achieved a wealth far beyond his more famous uncle," reported circus historian Fred Dahlinger, Jr. in the afterword of Henry Ringling North's memoir.

In 1993, the clown college was moved from the Venice Arena to Baraboo, Wisconsin.

In 1995, the company founded the Center for Elephant Conservation (CEC).

After three years in Baraboo, the clown college operated at the Sarasota Opera House in Sarasota until 1998 before the program was suspended.

In 2001, a group led by The Humane Society of the United States sued the circus over alleged mistreatment of elephants.

Nicole Feld became the first female producer of Ringling Circus in 2004.

In January of 2006, the Circus Museum Tibbals Learning Center opened to house posters, special exhibitions and its centerpiece – the 3,800 square foot Howard Bros.

In 2009, Nicole and Alana Feld co-produced the circus.

In 2012, a west wing was added to the Tibbals Learning Center.

The suit and a countersuit ended in 2014 with the circus winning a total of $25.2 million in settlements.

According to his nephew's memoir, the building — recently restored in 2016 — was built as "an almost perfect copy" of Marie Antoinette's theater at Versailles.

At the final performance on May 21, 2017, he called it “the last safe space.