29. Reynolds, correspondence with the author, December 22, 2002; cables and telegrams between Jordon and Ringling in September and October 1910, Milner; and Baraboo (Wisconsin) News, April 6, 1911, and May 4, 1911.
30. Ringling Brothers Road Ledger, 1911, CWM
31. Ringling Brothers Standard Daily Journal, 1911, Pfening collection.
32. Ibid.
33. Richard J. Reynolds III, correspondence with the author, December 19, 2002.
34. Ringling Brothers Road Ledger, 1911, CWM.
35. Baraboo (Wisconsin) News, November 9, 1911.
36. Fred Pfening III, correspondence with the author, December 1, 2002; sales agreement for Adam Forepaugh and Sells Brothers Circus, 1911, Milner Library collection, Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois.
Chapter 12
1. Baraboo (Wisconsin) Republic, November 16, 1911.
2. Buenker, The History of Wisconsin, vol. 4, The Progressive Era, 1893–1914, pp. 553–554.
3. Reprinted in Baraboo (Wisconsin) Weekly News, May 30, 1912.
4. Ibid.
5. Milwaukee Sentinel, February 5, 1888.
6. Fred Pfening III, correspondence with the author, December 1, 2002.
7. Sauk County (Wisconsin) Democrat, September 16, 1897.
8. Baraboo (Wisconsin) Weekly News, March 7, 1912.
9. Baraboo (Wisconsin) Republic, April 18, 1912.
10. Al Ringling to Charles Ringling, March 6, 1912, Pfening collection.
11. Summary of information in regard to winter quarters at Chicago office, July 1, 1912, Pfening collection.
12. Necedah (Wisconsin) Republic, April 18, 1912.
13. “With the White Tops,” Show World, January 15, 1910, p. 17.
14. Sauk County (Wisconsin) Democrat, April 25, 1912.
15. Baraboo (Wisconsin) Weekly News, May 30, 1912.
16. Baraboo (Wisconsin) Weekly News, April 25, 1912.
17. Ibid.
18. John Ringling to Al Ringling, January 27, 1912, Pfening collection.
19. Al Ringling to John Ringling, February 1, 1912, CWM.
20. John Ringling to Al Ringling, March 4, 1912, CWM.
21. Charles Ringling to John Ringling, March 12, 1912, CWM.
22. Ibid.
23. Toledo (Ohio) Blade, June 14, 1912; Duluth (Minnesota) Herald, July 17, 1912.
24. Ad in Toledo (Ohio) Blade, June 25, 1912.
25. Toledo (Ohio) Blade, June 25, 1912.
26. Duluth (Minnesota) Herald, July 17, 1912.
27. Unidentified writer, Coliseum Building, Chicago, to John Ringling, April 10, 1912, Pfening collection.
28. Baraboo (Wisconsin) Weekly News, April 18, 1912.
29. Findley (Ohio) Courier, August 23, 1912.
30. Charles Ringling to Al Ringling, August 8, 1912, Pfening collection.
31. Ibid.
32. Baraboo (Wisconsin) Weekly News, December 26, 1912.
33. Ibid.
34. Ringling Brothers, Baraboo, to various suppliers, January 24, 1912, November 8, 1912, November 13, 1912, Pfening collection.
35. John H. Snellen to Al Ringling, December 12, 1912, Pfening collection.
36. Display ad published by the News Publishing Co., Baraboo, Wisconsin, November 1, 1912, Pfening collection.
37. Harry Humphrey to Ringling Brothers, December 30, 1912, Pfening collection.
38. Al Ringling to Charles Ringling, February 6, 1913, Pfening collection.
39. Contract between Ringling Brothers and Thomas Zingaro, November 9, 1911, Pfening collection.
40. Thomas Zingaro to Al Ringling, December 9, 1912, Pfening collection.
41. Al Ringling to Thomas Zingaro, December 12, 1912, Pfening collection.
42. Al Ringling to John Ringling, December 16, 1912, Pfening collection.
43. George Rapp to Al Ringling, February 3, 1913, Pfening collection.
44. Al Ringling to C. W. and Geo. L. Rapp, February 5, 1913, Pfening collection.
45. Baraboo (Wisconsin) Weekly News, April 24, 1913.
46. Ibid.
47. Wisconsin was the first state to pass a Workmen’s Compensation Act (1911). Before the law, a worker who was injured had to sue his employer for compensation and prove that the employer was negligent. Under the new law no such proof was needed, and an injured worker could be promptly compensated, although with financial limits. Employers could choose whether to comply with the act. State of Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance, http://oci.wi.gov/.
48. Duluth (Minnesota) Labor World, December 28, 1912.
49. Charles Ringling to Al Ringling, August 14, 1913, Pfening collection.
50. See Fred D. Pfening Jr., “Ringling Bros. World’s Greatest Show: The 1913 Season,” Bandwagon, March–April 1993, pp. 6–7, for an extended discussion of the electric generator.
51. Billboard, June 6, 1914, p. 22; Baraboo (Wisconsin) Weekly News, May 28, 1914; Sauk County (Wisconsin) Democrat, May 28, 1914; Cleveland (Ohio) Leader, May 26, 27, 1914.
52. Three contracts between the Ringling Brothers (signed by Henry Ringling) and the Barney & Smith Car Company, May 29, 1914, CWM.
53. Correspondence between Ringling Brothers and Barney & Smith Car Company, June 18, 1914, and June 22, 1914, CWM.
Chapter 13
1. “Deaths,” New York Clipper, January 8, 1916.
2. Ringling Brothers to Eretto Trio, December 17, 1914, Pfening collection.
3. Richard J. Reynolds III, correspondence with the author, December 29, 2002.
4. New York Clipper, May 1, 1915.
5. Fred Bradna, The Big Top (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1952), p. 306.
6. Havirland list of railroad shows, 1915, CWM.
7. Daily Receipts, Ringling Bros.’ World’s Greatest Shows, Season 1915, Pfening collection.
8. Volksblatt, September 10, 1915, translation from German by Jon Romelton.
9. Winter Quarters Ledger, 1915–1916, CWM.
10. Sauk County, Wisconsin, Register of Deeds, recorded December 1, 1914, vol. 104, p. 301.
11. “From Mud to the Field of the Cloth of Gold,” Show World, September 17, 1910, p. 12.
12. North and Hatch, Circus Kings, p. 169.
13. Charles Ringling to Fred Warrell (a Ringling employee), February 7, 1916, Pfening collection.
14. Columbus Citizen, May 16, 1916.
15. Charles Philip Fox, A Tribute to the Percheron Horse (Boulder, CO: Pruett, 1983), pp. 168–169.
16. Ringling Brothers Receipts Book, 1916, Pfening collection.
17. Official Route: Ringling Brothers World’s Greatest Shows, Season 1916, CWM.
18. Sauk County (Wisconsin) Democrat, November 8, 1916.
19. Thomas J. Knock, “World War I,” in Paul S. Boyer (ed.), The Oxford Companion to United States History, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 844; Nash, Howe, Davis, Jeffrey, Frederick, and Winkler, American People, pp. 485–494; and Oscar Handlin, The History of the United States (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968), pp. 329–340.
20. Bradna, Big Top, p. 93.
21. Chicago Herald and Examiner, April 5, 1917.
22. Artist’s contract and release, The Clarkonians (three Clarke Brothers), April 7, 1917, Pfening collection.
23. Havirland list of railroad shows, 1917, CWM.
24. Official Route: Ringling Brothers World’s Greatest Shows, Season 1917, CWM.
25. Daily Receipts: Ringling Bros. World’s Greatest Shows, Season 1917, CWM.
26. Charles Ringling to the Strobridge Lithographing Company (Cincinnati, Ohio), July 20, 1917, Pfening collection.
27. W. W. Dunkle, “Ringlings Ready to Ramble,” Billboard, March 23, 1918, p. 16.
28. Havirland list of railroad shows, 1918, CWM.
29. Dunkle, “Ringlings Ready to Ramble,” p. 16.
30. The American Experience, “Influenza, 1918,” Public Broadcasting System, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/influenza/.
31. World Almanac, The World Almanac and Book of Fac
ts (Mahwah, NJ: World Almanac Books, 2001), p. 448.
32. “Circus Season Virtually Brought to Close,” Billboard, October 19, 1918, p. 26.
33. Daily Receipts, Ringling Bros. World’s Greatest Shows 1918, Pfening collection.
34. Richard Thomas, John Ringling (New York: Pageant Press, 1960), p. 126.
35. “Still a Question: Nothing Definite as to Barnum & Bailey Wintering in Baraboo,” Billboard, May 25, 1918.
36. Baraboo (Wisconsin) Weekly News, October 17, 1918.
37. C. P. “Chappie” Fox, interview by the author, Baraboo, Wisconsin, December 10, 2001.
38. “Ringling Circus: To Winter at Bridgeport?” Billboard, October 5, 1918.
39. “Circus Season Virtually Brought to Close,” Billboard, October 19, 1918, p. 54.
40. North and Hatch, Circus Kings, p. 171.
41. “Circus Season Virtually Brought to Close,” Billboard, October 19, 1918.
42. Railroads and other seized carriers were returned to private control on March 1, 1920. See www.archives.gov/research_room/federal_records_guide/us_railroad_administration_rg014.html.
43. Richard J. Reynolds III, correspondence with the author, July 21, 2001, and December 29, 2002.
44. Thomas, John Ringling, pp. 125–126.
45. According to the 1917 Barnum & Bailey Route Book, they showed in Toledo, Ohio, on June 13, 1917. 1917 Barnum & Bailey Route Book, CWM.
46. Bradna, Big Top, p. 95.
47. Fred Dahlinger Jr., correspondence with the author, February 10, 2004.
48. Robert Barnes, interview with author, Madison, January 2002.
Epilogue
1. North and Hatch, Circus Kings, p. 174.
2. Thomas, John Ringling, pp. 122–123.
3. Havirland list of railroad shows, 1920, 1921, 1927, 1928, CWM.
4. North and Hatch, Circus Kings, pp. 194–195.
5. Sarasota Government homepage, “John Ringling, Dreamer,” http://www.co.sarasota.fl.us/.
6. Jane Bancroft Cook Library, “The Charles Ringling Estate,” http://www.ncf.edu/library/speccoll/CREstate.htm.
7. Peoria (Illinois) Journal Star, September 29, 1991.
8. Chicago Tribune, October 11, 1987.
9. Will of Charles E. Ringling, dated September 1, 1926, Sauk County, Baraboo, Wisconsin, Register of Deeds, vol. 140, p. 545.
10. Richard J. Reynolds III, correspondence with the author, December 30, 2002.
11. John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, http://www.ringling.org/.
12. Havirland list of railroad shows, 1929, CWM.
13. North and Hatch, Circus Kings, p. 220.
14. Ibid., pp. 222–226.
15. Ibid., p. 251.
16. David Lewis Hammarstrom, Big Top Boss: John Ringling North and the Circus (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992), pp. 38–39.
17. White Tops, May–June 1962, p. 23.
18. John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, http://www.ringling.org/.
19. Reynolds, correspondence with the author, July 21, 2001.
20. Fred Dahlinger Jr., correspondence with the author, February 11, 2004.
21. Reynolds, correspondence with the author, July 21, 2001.
22. Robert Barnes, interview with the author, Madison, January 2002.
23. Baraboo (Wisconsin) News, March 2, 1939.
24. Ibid.
25. Baraboo (Wisconsin) Weekly News, June 15, 1939.
Appendixes
1. See Bob Dewel, “The Opulent Ringling Bros. Homes,” Baraboo (Wisconsin) News Republic, April 14, 1999, for a description of Ringling homes. Paul Wolter, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, also provided information.
Index
Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations.
A
accidents, 35, 47, 65, 80, 95, 101–102, 111
claims settlements, 125
diversions during, 118
parade mishaps, 79, 171
as staged attractions, 96
tent blow downs, 48, 98–99, 122, 127
train wrecks, 59, 102, 128
Adam Forepaugh and Sells Brother Circus.
See Forepaugh-Sells Circus
Adam Forepaugh Show, 66, 233n56
admission prices, 31, 33, 46, 199
advance agents, xviii, 14, 40, 132, 135
advertising
1887 handbill, 29
advance agents and, xviii, 14, 40, 132, 135
“Baby Boo” the elephant, 38, 38
banners and bannermen, 134
for “Caesar’s Triumphal Entry into Rome,” 50
for Canadian tour, 94
for Chicago indoor show, 69
Chinese language handbill, 105
circus heralds, xvii
competition and, 132, 133, 134, 136, 155
employees in advertising department, 72, 130
for “Enormous Railroad Shows,” 45
for “Field of the Cloth of Gold,” 122
“five brothers” trademark, 70, 70, 169
for Forepaugh-Sells Circus, 162
giraffes featured in, 62, 94
“Greatest Show on Earth” slogan, 89–90, 90
Gus Ringling’s role in, 24, 40, 57, 72, 130
for hall show, 12
for harness making business, 2, 4
hippopotamus featured in, 46, 68
hyperbole in, 130, 136
for “Jerusalem and the Crusades,” 108
for “Joan of Arc” show, 178
largest tent claim featured in, 75
Lillian Leitzel featured in, 192
lithograph posters described, 130
for local businesses tied to Ringlings, 127
for Madison Square Garden show, 157
newspapers and, 10, 11–12
for performers, 18
posters, 9, 132, 133
press agents, 72, 135
rail cars for, 45, 57, 130–132, 131
reputation featured in, 146–147
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, 208
for Ringlings’ first circus, 19
Saxon Trio featured in, 135
for “World’s Greatest Shows,” 62
World War I and shortages of paste, 198
Alexander, Spencer “Delavan,” 40, 72, 73, 169
Algona, Iowa, 48, 143
Al Ringling Theatre, 174, 185, 203, 203–205, 204, 205
American Circus Corporation, 211
Andress, Charles, 49, 125
Andro, Adolph, 215
animals, 27, 156
camels, 153, 153
dog acts, 36
escapes and runaways, 38–39, 57, 93, 121, 129
kangaroos, 57
lions, 46
panthers, 93
polar bears, 55
“Pot Gang” of animal caretakers, 81
rhinoceroses, 149, 149–150
“sacred ox,” 121
snakes, 17, 73, 93, 194
tapirs, 55, 232n36
training of, 36, 52–53, 53, 93, 109–110
walruses, 88–89
water buffalos (bovalapsus), 44, 46
zebras, 93, 111, 170–171
see also elephants; horses and ponies; menageries
Appleton, Wisconsin, 127
Army, circus studied as model of efficiency by, 189
Asmus, Theodore, 26
attractions
band concerts as, xxii, 69, 71
bicycle acts, 115
clowns and comedians, 26–27, 69, 81, 85, 118, 128
free ascension acts, 35
high dive acts, 69–70
“human volcano,” 26
motion pictures in “black tent,” 76
strongwomen, 43
technology as, 56–57
audiences
Alf T. on, 64
convicts at prison, 80, 82
crowds, 89
Indians as, 90, 105
la
ck of language barriers, 105
patients at insane asylum, 74
in Rock Springs, 76
Aurora, Illinois, 127
automobiles, 154, 161
“thriller” act, 146, 147
B
Bailey, James, 115, 116, 127
ballet dancers, 128, 199
balloon contract, 184
bands. See music
Baraboo, Wisconsin,
abandoned as winter quarters, 200–202
Al Ringling Theatre in, 174, 185, 203, 203–205, 204, 205
animal escapes in, 93, 121, 129
bird’s eye view of, 28
circus opens in, 25
circus ownership offered to city, x
circus records and properties abandoned in, 214–215
Circus World Museum in, 212–213, 216
construction at Ringlingville, 36, 60–61, 83–84, 97, 115, 159–160, 166, 174, 193
described, 3, 15
as home to Ringlings, x, 3, 9, 19–20, 49, 154, 194, 206
local economy and circus business, 55–56, 65–66, 96, 154, 176, 206
map of, vi
Mrs. Potter’s land leased, 42
press reports on circus, 137, 139
“Ringling Day,” 57
Ringling Hotel, 55–56, 196
Ringling residences in, 140, 140, 225
Ringlingville properties sold, 215–216
Robert L. Parkinson Library and Research Center, 216
as winter quarters, 27, 36, 42, 49, 92–93, 152, 166, 174–177, 180, 186
barbershop, 86
barns vs. houses, 36
Barnum, P. T., xvi
Barnum & Bailey Circus, xvi, 55, 67, 77, 89–90, 101, 115, 165, 179
acquisition of, 126, 138–139, 141–142
as competition, 112–113
consolidation of circuses, 202, 205–206, 207–208
noncompete agreements with, 66, 126
under Ringling management, 186
Barreda, Jorge, 110–111
baseball, 47–48, 88
Baskett, Thomas, 35
bicycle acts, 115
Black River Falls, Wisconsin, 56
blacksmith shop, 86
Blainey, Jas., 15
Bode Wagon Company, 104, 106, 106
Boise, Idaho, 111
Bolivar, Missouri, 48
Boston, Massachusetts, 73
bovalapsus (water buffalos), 44, 46
Braathen, Sverre, 214
Bradna, Fred, 191–192, 197, 206
Bridgeport, Connecticut, as winter quarters, xvi, 104, 181, 200–202
Brodhead, 6