I’m glad I had the experience(s) with circuses in general (I saw this circus a few times in particular and have friends/colleagues who toured with it) but I understand why this is something that is coming to an end.
I never caught the circus parade. A friend once told me that after RB/B&B finished a tour in our small city, she happened to be driving by when they were exiting the arena. She said the performers and animals, well, the elephants anyway, formed a parade and walked maybe a quarter? half? mile to a railroad siding where the train was waiting. I’d never heard of it and was really envious and then I forgot to check it out the next year. Was that a thing?
Aye; this was how they loaded in nearly everywhere (I’d say ‘everywhere’ but I could be wrong). The excuse was usually that it was dangerous and cost-prohibitive to transport the elephants by flatbed truck (seems obviously dangerous IMO) so they’d just (have the local promoter) pay to shut the road down for a parade and they’d get free publicity because of it. I know that in all 3 towns where I had anything to do with RB/B&B load-ins or -outs, that was the way they did it.
My grandmother used to take us when I was a kid. She had a huge crush on Gunther Gebel-Williams. It was a blast. I took my kids a few times, but the last time I went, it was a one-ring circus instead of three rings, it had video segments (lame) and instead of lion taming they had house cat taming. Super lame.
It used to be over-whelming – where should I look? There’s so much happening in the three rings! With one ring, it was distinctly under-whelming, or, at best, whelming.
I understand the animal welfare issues and how difficult it would be to be a circus today. But, they had lost their edge years ago when they got small and modern. With one ring and video, it was no longer the greatest show on earth anyway. So, even with animal welfare issues set aside, I would never have gone back.
I think it’s a sad day. There seem to have been many factors involved: falling attendances, the organized outrage of the animal worshipers, the rising costs of moving such a huge operation around the country and so on.
But Ringlings just couldn’t win. When they finally removed the elephants from the circus because of constant complaints from people that the act was cruel and undignified for the animals guess what happened? Right, attendances suddenly plummeted because people wanted to see elephants when they came to the circus!
Still, the tradition is not dead yet, though it’s certainly on its sick bed. Here’s a list of American circuses many of which are still active. I’m not sure though just how many are of the traditional sort, ie the whole nine yards with elephants, tigers, etc. I’d guess very few.
I’m saddened. My wife and I used to bring the family every year, until the family grew to the point where it was no longer affordable. But I remember packed houses. Hard to believe it’s going to be gone. I was definitely looking forward to bringing grandchildren to see it in the future.
I went a couple of times when I was a child. I agree with others’ assessment that there’s little to match a three ring circus for excitement and noise. It was also very dangerous, I saw performers injured both times I went as a child.
It had already changed a bit when I worked the ticket booth as an adult when they came through town once, and saw the show several times then. Safety was higher, and there was a lot more merchandise being sold. But, it was still exciting, and acts such as The Ball of Death were still around.
I can’t say that it’s necessary for folks to see these sorts of death-defying acts, but I will miss that the largest purveyor of them in the US is going to be gone. There’s something about those acts that seems vibrant and alive to me, and the uncertainty of their success playing out before your eyes can’t really be reproduced by watching a recording of the act. The involvement in that moment of the performer testing their skill and the audience witnessing it just can’t be reproduced.
I wonder what they’ll do with the trains? I hope they end up in one or more of the big rail museums - they’re definitely a part of American rail history. Here is a video of one of the last operational Union Pacific steam engines pulling the Ringling Brothers circus train in Wyoming from a few years back.