Just another memory from my childhood going away.
Nowhere left to run away to: The final days of the circus

On Saturday, officials of the company that owns the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus announced that it will close in May, ending a 146-year run that dates back to a time before automobiles or airplanes or movies, when Ulysses S. Grant was president and minstrel shows were popular entertainment.

What killed the circus? There are many suspects: increased railroad costs. Costly court battles with animal rights activists that led to an end to elephant acts — and the fact that some people didn't want to see a show without elephants. But mostly, in an era of Pokemon Go, online role playing games and YouTube celebrities, the "Greatest Show on Earth" doesn't seem so great. "It's been through world wars, and it's been through every kind of economic cycle and it's been through a lot of change," said Kenneth Feld, chairman and CEO of Feld Entertainment, owner of the Ringling Bros. "In the past decade there's been more change in the world than in the 50 or 75 years prior to that. And I think it isn't relevant to people in the same way." The Felds said they looked at scenarios and costs. They ran numbers and tried new things — an interactive phone app, ice skaters in the show, adding motorcycle stunts — but nothing worked.

The show will go on at smaller and more specialized circuses. But come May, after almost a century and a half of spectacular revels, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will vanish, like a big, colorful, improbably long dream. Sixty-three years ago, in his circus program essay, Hemingway marveled at the way performers made stunts and tricks in the ring look so simple.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/14/us/r ... .html?_r=0

Cirque du Soleil is still out there.

A real shame

Lot's of great childhood memories!!!

There are so many things that I never thought I would live to see. I guess this is what folks in early 20th century thought. RB&B&B Circus made it work almost 150 years. Times are always a changing. Appreciate the past as it guides the future.

That's a shame. I went to the circus as a child and took my own kids. Same for the Harlem Globetrotters. Hope they hang on. Guess we can't stop the world from spinning. Sometimes the simple things are better but people now want interaction- you can experience a roller coaster with a pair of goggles. Why go?

Once they had to ditch the elephants it was just a matter of time.

TheMoody1 wrote:Once they had to ditch the elephants it was just a matter of time.

I think you're right. I took my then 10 year old to see a small circus at the Cabarrus Arena near Concord last year. It was the last time that particular circus was having elephants. He actually got to ride an elephant. He was thrilled.

P.T. Barnham was quoted as saying "There's a sucker born everyday." I guess a shortage of suckers has developed.

appstate77 wrote:P.T. Barnham was quoted as saying "There's a sucker born everyday." I guess a shortage of suckers has developed.

Not in 2016

I hope there is a silver lining in this. I hope the animal activists will now have some time to devote to the children who get murdered in this country every year.