The Ringling story is one that typifies what was and is possible in America. Seven sons born to recent immigrants were propelled by a childhood dream to escape their poverty through hard work. They chose a path for which they had no experience or capital, only their self-discipline and determination. The business they selected was one of the riskiest in the world: the circus. It required everything of its people: the full measure of time, energy, and money, along with knowledge of public performance, technology and transportation, marketing, creative artistry in several forms, and a broad awareness of the national economy in all of its many ramifications.
The Ringling Brothers succeeded in their quest, far beyond their wildest dreams. The secret of their achievements was teamwork, facilitated by their personal bonds. It was their mutual respect and trust, not a piece of paper, that empowered them to rise above all competitors. Each had his assigned area of responsibility, but their capability in working together was greater than the sum of the parts because of their awesome allegiance to each other.
The Ringlings and their circus were last studied in depth more than four decades ago. A significant amount of new archival material has subsequently become available to justify an entirely new appraisal of the Ringlings as people, their circus, and the winter quarters where they organized their show efforts for each annual tour. For the first time, the circus’s financial records, along with the personal correspondence that passed among the brothers as they planned and managed their circus empire, are available for review and analysis. Jerry Apps has woven that information together with local documentation in newspapers, circus ephemera, and photography to re-create the time of the Baraboo boys and their circus. Placed in the context of the America of their time, the work brings about a broader perspective of the importance of their accomplishments and contributions.
The Ringling circuses were marvels of business enterprise, enthusiastically admired as much for their logistical expertise, technological innovations, and educational value as for their tented presentations. But their rise was probably fueled equally by the Brothers’ genuine appreciation for their guests. Their philosophy of “The New School of American Showmen” set the stage. Their circus was a quality enterprise, safe and wholesome for the entire family, devoid of anything that anyone might have judged, in that time, offensive in the slightest degree.
Initially, the Ringlings were “Baraboo’s Boys” and “Wisconsin’s own” adopted sons, owners of an upstart circus that was prospering largely by efforts that took them outside of the Badger State. Their payroll pumped dollars into the pockets of local merchants during the winter, and their deposits enhanced the status of the Bank of Baraboo. Their good fortune, however, did not translate into recognized community support. The Ringlings’ only charitable giving that was publicly noted during their residency was a contribution toward a local church’s pipe organ.
The Brothers may have expressed their charitable demeanor by continuing to personally manage their circuses long after they could have sold them and retired as wealthy men. They felt an obligation to the well-chosen, dedicated men and women who served them diligently for many years. The Brothers continued on with the road shows until they died in harness. Anyone seeking financial improvement could have taken a job with the Ringlings and worked hard, as the Brothers did in the beginning to earn their security. And thousands did so.
Eventually, like the prophet, the one place where the Ringlings did not have honor was in their hometown. When the Brothers offered the Al Ringling Theatre as a gift to the city, Baraboo rebuffed the offer. The reaction was a hallmark of the local perspective. Taxes were another sore point, and the Brothers kept them at bay through constant leaks of “plans” to relocate elsewhere. The failure of the circus to return home following the 1918 tour caused hardly a ripple in the city that had served as its winter quarters for over three decades. The rift that was first felt years before was complete.
In 1919, long after the Ringling Brothers had risen to the top of the circus world, John Ringling admitted, “The psychology of the circus is really simple: Our appeal is to elemental instincts, to the child that is in every man. What they call ‘the lure of the circus’ is merely the great, unexpressed yearning of every human being to be young again.” The Brothers’ quest to make their valued guests feel young again suggests that they sought to relive their own childhood, one marked by poverty but also by imagination that knew no bounds.
Fred Dahlinger Jr.
Former Director of Historic Resources and Facilities
Circus World Museum, Baraboo, Wisconsin