[quote]
After much evaluation and deliberation, my family and I have made the difficult business decision that Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® will hold its final performances in May of this year. Ringling Bros. ticket sales have been declining, but following the transition of the elephants off the road, we saw an even more dramatic drop. This, coupled with high operating costs, made the circus an unsustainable business for the company.
Nearly 50 years ago, my father founded our company with the acquisition of Ringling Bros. The circus and its people have continually been a source of inspiration and joy to my family and me, which is why this was such a tough business decision to make. The decision was even more difficult because of the amazing fans that have become part of our extended circus family over the years, and we are extremely grateful to the millions of families who have made Ringling Bros. part of their lives for generations. We know Ringling Bros. isn’t only our family business, but also your family tradition.[/quote]
I know… Good riddance, animal cruelty, etc.
Still, I’m glad I saw their show a couple of times when I was a young child.
We took my son to the last show in Chicago with elephants. They announced the no more elephants shortly after coming through. He was probably too young to remember permanently, but it was still a thing to take him to.
It’s weird, because it is one of those cross generational cultural touchstones and it’s gone. Sure the animal cruelty aspect isn’t something to be downplayed, but it’s still something lost.
Saw them three or four times in my life, as a child and as a dad.
I also remember seeing them parade down Manchester Ave., one of our main arteries from the railroad to their show destination, the old Arena. I was working and people started gawking out the window, so I went over and the elephants and clowns and everyone else in the circus I guess were just strolling down the middle of the street.
Yeah, it’s definitely one of those “changing of the guard” moments, but all in all, I’m ok with it. I haven’t been able to attend anything with animals being used like that in ages, just because it made me very uncomfortable, so I think this sort of thing was probably inevitable.
I did have a teacher in fourth grade, a Mr. Kelly, who had been a circus clown for some years before turning to teaching. He had some great stories about circus life. I remember in particular his story about bears. He said, you could work with a bear for years, and it would be perfectly docile, and then one day it would turn on you and rip your head off.
I’m always torn about these things. My general love of animals came from touching and seeing in person, at Zoos, at the circus, and the drive through Safaris. of course I am against animal cruelty, but Discovery channel doesn’t hit the emotional button in the same way as having a giraffe or camel eat from your hands.
Sure it’s just another one of those things the younger generation won’t experience, but I wonder if it’s harder to sell to that generation the importance of nature if they experience it only from afar.
The cost to maintain animals on the road must have been incredible. I wish they’d given a solid year ahead of time to let people go one last time. I bet sales would have been way up and they could have paid their performers better on their way out.
Watched these guys once ~ 10 years ago with my son. It had some good moments, but was inundated with the push to sell merchandise… dolls, swords, whatever. Stuff like that really pisses me off - you (as the parent) are forced to be the bad guy when you tell your kid(s) that you’re going to buy some lion stuffed animal.
