chapter16allen

= The Circus =

"The Greatest Show on Earth" was established in 1871 by P.T. Barnum and Anthony Bailey. The traveling show showed up annually and paraded through cities as advertisement. The circus was very popular and when Barnum and Bailey were nearing the peek of their success, the Ringling brother's started up in Wisconsin providing "The Greatest Show on Earth" with a bit of competition. Though there were other smaller traveling circuses, the Ringling brothers quickly gained success, allowing them to afford train travel and grow to be the largest traveling source of entertainment. The Ringling brothers traveled to the East coast, which was where Barnum and Bailey mainly put on their shows, which forced "The Greatest Show on Earth" to move west of the Rockies in hopes of picking up more business. Once Bailey died in 1907, the Ringling brothers bought out "The Greatest Show on Earth." Animal care is a major problem in traveling circuses because large animals are kept in very small enclosures, with unhealthy living conditions. In March of 2015, the Ringling brothers made a statement that they will stop using elephants in their shows in the upcoming years, and send those elephants to a center for elephants here in Florida. This may be due to the lawsuits from PETA, but the Ringling brothers state that they came to this conclusion on their own.

Photo: "A Visual Tour of the Greatest Show On Earth." The View From Saris World. Web. 5 Nov. 2015. Info: "Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 5 Nov. 2015.