Historically Speaking

Phillip Astely is thought to have originated the circus as we know it today. Astley's 1768 London circus featured trick horseback riding, acrobats, clowns and a band.

John Ricketts opened America's first circus in philadelphia in 1793, a show frequented by President George Washington.

The first elephant arrived in the U.S. in 1796.

Tent Tidbits

The circus tent used by the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus from 1921 to 1924 still holds the record for the largest circus ten in history. This magnificent canopy covered 91,415 square feet with a round top 200 feet across.

Circus tents built for the barnum circus in 1871 were big enough to hold 10,00 people.

Under the Big Top

The word "circus" comes from the Latin word for "circle" or "oval," based on the circular structures where circuses have been held since their beginnings.

New Orleans' Superdome hosted the recordholding circus audience in
September of 1975; 52,385 people gathered there to watch the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. A 1924 circus boasted the greatest attendance in a tent; 16,702 folks from the area surrounding Concordia, Kansas, flocked to the circus to set a record that still endures 77 years later.

The circus calliope takes its name from Calliope, the ancient Greek goddess of poetry. This "organ on wheels," patented in 1855 by an American inventor, contains its own boiler that produces the steam necessary for producing the music.

Barnum Bits

Before he was the owner of his own successful circus, Phineas Taylor Barnum worked the ticket booth and performed as a clown in a small circus. In 1871, he started his "Grand and Traveling Circus, Menagerie, Caravan and Circus." P.T. Barnum grossed $400,000 his first year. He wasn't afraid to use a little deception to bring in customers, and featured fake mermaids and bearded ladies, earning him the title "an all-American huckster." one of Barnum's promotions featured a "6-foot man-eating chicken," which was in actuality nothing but a 6-foot-tall man munching on a chicken leg.

At age 25, P.T. Barnum opened his first show which featured a black slave named Joyce Heth, reputed to be 161 years old, who claimed to have been George Washington's nurse. Barnum featured the original Siamese tweins, Chang and Eng, in his New York City museum of oddities. Chang and Eng, identical twins joined at the sternum, were born in Siam (now Thailand), hence, the term Siamese twins.

P.T. Barnum took on a partner named James A. Bailey in 1881, and the Barnum & Bailey Circus became known as the "Greatest Show on Earth." The circus began using the railroad to transport the business from town to town, revolutionizing the industry. It took between 60 and 70 railroad cars to convey Barnum's show on tour.

Five Brothers from Wisconsin

A German-born harnessmaker named August Rungeling instilled the love of the circus in his seven sons. Five of the boys--Al, Otto, Charles, John, and Alf --changed their surname to Ringling and went into the circus business. Brothers Henry and Gus joined them later. In 1887, spectators could watch the Ringling Brothers United Monster Shows, Great Couble Circus, Royal European Menagerie, Museum, Caravan and Congress of Trained Animals--quite a mouthful for their new exhibition.

The first Ringling performance came about with the effort of the five brothers and 17 employees, who together sewed the tent, sold the tickets, provided the band music, as well as performed all the acts.

Both Barnum and Bailey had passed on by 1906, and in 1907, the Ringling Brothers purchased the Barnum & Bailey circus for $400,000. The two shows operated separately until 1919 when they combined to become the now-famous Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The family sold the circus in 1967, but it still operates under the same name.

Baraboo, Wisconsin is home of the Ringling brothers and a winter home of their circus. It is also home to the Circus World Museum, housing 200 vintage circus wagons.

Those Great Wallendas

In 1947, the Flying Wallendas perfected the world's first seven-person, three-tier pyramid on a tightrope. Fifteen years later, while performing the stunt in a Detroit arena, one man lost his footing, sending the pyramid plummeting, killing two members of the family and paralyzing another. Over the next 36 years, the pyramid was performed only twice. In 1998, the stunt was accomplished in the same arena where the accident occurred.

The seven-person pyramid was performed 25 feet above the ground without a safety net. Family patriarch Karl Wallenda nixed safety nets since he felt the net gave the performers a sense of security and caused "lapses in concentration."

German-born Karl Wallenda joined the Ringling Brothers circus in 1928. Karl perished in a 1978 fall at the age of 73 while attempting to walk a 123-foot wire strun between two hotel buildings in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

No Bigger Than a Minute

Although you may not recognize his name, Charles S. Stratton was a very famous circus personality. perhaps, you know him by his stage name, Tom Thumb. Born of normal-sized parents, Charles seemed to be an average child until the age of about seven months. Charles was only four years old when P.T. Barnum coaxed his parents into allowing the boy to join Barnum's museum of oddities. At age six, he was delighting European royalty, including Queen Victoria, and making a fortune for Barnum.

The young Tom Thumb was 24-inches tall and weighed 15 pounds. His maximum adult height was 40 inches, and his wight was 70 pounds.

At age 25, Tom Thumb married a fellow circus personality, "The Little Queen of Beauty," Lavinia Warren. At the time of her marriage, Lavinia was 32-inches tall and weighed 29 pounds. Their nuptials were dubbed "The Fairy Wedding" by the public.

P.T. Barnum received more than 15,000 requests at attend the wedding reception of Mr. And Mrs. Charles Stratton, with a ticket price of $75 each.

The original wedding photograph of the Strattons, taken by famed Civil War Photographer Matthew Brady, can be seen in Washington, D.C.'s Smithsonian Institute.

Final Barnum Bits

Because P.T. Barnum wanted to know what folks would say about him after he was dead, the New York Sun published his obituary two weeks prior to his death. The tune Auld Lang Syne was sung at Barnum's funeral.

On the day of P.T. Barnum's death, the circus was performing at New York City's Madison Square Garden. Barnum's last words were, "Ask Bailey what the box office was at the Garden last night."

The university of Bridgeport, Connecticut is located on the estate of P.T. Barnum where a dormitory bears his name.

Although Barnum is credited with saying, "There's a sucker born every minute," there is no proof that he actually said it. The quote has also been attributed to Abraham Lincoln.

About 12 million people watch the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus every year.