The Greatest Show On Earth will all to soon be no more

[Johnch]

Hate to see it happen
But with games and the Do Gooders , It was just a matter of time

https://www.ringling.com/

John

[starmac]

They had a 146 year run, but folks has changed. they will be missed for a few years, then just be history.

[Hickory]

Life is not without its changes.
Even feeding Christians to the lions lost its popularity too and fell out of vogue.

[Artful]

How sad - I remember going with my father - it was a great show.

[Sasquatch-1]

According to the article, it seems that the loss of the elephants was the biggest contributor to their demise. and modern technology that keeps kids glued to a TV set or Smart phone was second. Long live the liberals because they sure are killing off a lot of the good things in life.

[Riverpigusmc]

Took my son last year to see the elephants before they were gone. Ended up in a cussfight with an elephant protester in downtown Jacksonville

[kmrra]

Maybe it time we revive feeding the lions , we can feed them Liberal Democrats LOL

[dragon813gt]

PETA's tweet about it really annoyed me. I've never been a fan of the circus. But it's still sad to see it come to an end. It was an old form of entertainment that didn't stand the test of time.

[Ithaca Gunner]

I remember seeing Ringling Bro's, Barnum and Baily Circus as a kid. It was held in the city, a big complex next to a rail head, but it was a little circus that I enjoyed more, they came to our little town and set up tents in a field, just like the old time shows.

[rockrat]

Probably upset the lions stomachs and be considered animal abuse

[leeggen]

Those lions would have either a real case of constipation or they would have the screaming memememes not sure which it would be. For sure it would not be good for the lions.
I think the circus has kind of lost its passas. Kids just are not interested like we were when we were young.
CD

[Plate plinker]

Found it odd that they have their first women ring master then bammo no more circus.

[kingstrider]

I went a few times as a kid and was able to take my own kids a few years ago. If you ever get the chance, the Ringling museum in Sarasota is incredible, we went last year and might go back this summer while visiting the theme parks.

[Sasquatch-1]

I saw it as a kid in Washington, D. C. at old Griffith Stadium. It was one of the last events held there after the opening of RFK. Took my kids back in the 90's while Gunther Gebel-Williams was still around.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Here is the poster for Buffalo Bill's wild west show, which my grandfather saw on the 13th September 1904, after seeing that very poster. He was most disappointed that Annie Oakley wasn't with that tour. When my mother was eighty I suggested she spend some of her money on riotous living - going up in an aeroplane, for example. She aske an odd question: "Would it have a window?" I assured her it would, and a window seat could probably be arranged. It emerged that she had flown with Sir Alan Cobham's air circus from that same field when she was fourteen, and an aeroplane with a window just wouldn't be the same.

The point is, media forms die, and with those two the self-righteousness industry played no part. What about quality children's books, or comics - and in the UK many comics were extremely good and pro-establishment values? We have all these marvellous electronic media, and few of us would have it any other way, but it costs.

All the same the antis did have some valid arguments on their side. On of my favourite books, as an Irish terrier owner, is Jack London's "Jerry of the Islands", and I am convinced by its less-known sequel, "Michael, Brother of Jerry". It is a crusade against cruelty in animal training, and I believe what he has his characters say, that it doesn't matter what your dog may do most of the time, in the bosom of his family. Producing tricks from often less obliging animals, dependably and in front of hundreds of squealing strangers, demands cruelty. Just why would the big cats want to do tricks for people? London says that a man with a broom handle can bully a lion, and while I don't have the necessary expertise or the necessary lion to find out, some of his descriptions are horrifyingly believable.

I don't suppose any such argument applies to the human trapeze artists, though. Perhaps they didn't like being a small transient community, rootless in the towns they passed through, or maybe they just didn't like death or injury. Maybe their children are all computer game developers or game show hosts by now, or big names in some silly ball game.

[dagger dog]

Saw the show at the Ohio State Fairgrounds Columbus, OH, under the Big Top 3 ring tent, must have been 1954-55. Emmet Kelly was a big draw then especially with the youngsters, can't remember his last name but his first name was Otto, he was the guy that was shot out of a cannon, I can still see him flying through the air from the side ring over the center ring to land in a net in the third ring. Must have been a smooth bore 'cause he wasn't spinning

[castalott]

Ballistics in S.... yes, I agree about animal cruelty.. I watched a man pinch a bird dogs ears with a pair of pliers while shouting at it.... I just about pinched his ears with a pair of pliers and spoke to him in some unknown tongue... being the guest of a guest at his location...well... to my great shame I did not do it....


That said, animals are cruel to each other. Watch a cat play with a mouse.... or a turtle eat a live fish on a stringer.... or if you want real cruelty...investigate the insect world...

[Half Dog]

I saw them in Dallas a few years ago. I enjoyed the show but I enjoyed it when I was young too.

[Char-Gar]

I have attended every circus I could for as long as I have been alive. I have seen Ringling Bros four or five times over the years and took my kids when they were young. With the closing of Ringling Brothers, I feel a big slice of America is gone, one that my grandchildren will never get to experience.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Ballistics in S.... yes, I agree about animal cruelty.. I watched a man pinch a bird dogs ears with a pair of pliers while shouting at it.... I just about pinched his ears with a pair of pliers and spoke to him in some unknown tongue... being the guest of a guest at his location...well... to my great shame I did not do it....


That said, animals are cruel to each other. Watch a cat play with a mouse.... or a turtle eat a live fish on a stringer.... or if you want real cruelty...investigate the insect world...

Or the millions of bacteria PETA disinfect every day, which are about as limited as the highest animals in their inability to think "Oh God, I'm going to die!" The cat is just obeying an instinct that says it should sharpen its hand and eye coordination every chance it gets. But I think it takes human imagination and grasp of concepts to amount to real cruelty. With a dog it may make him conform to specific behaviour patterns, but that is a dog that will never say "Hey, I've found something the boss likes!" With gundogs you just have to accept that once in a while a two hundred-year instinct won't be as reliable as a million-year one. I knew a dobermann that loved night-time visitors too.

I've had the guest of a guest situation myself. It was when it was the bucks-only season, and I had stood off-balance in a mud puddle hoping that a deer would turn at the fence at the top of a brushwood-overgrown abandoned railway cutting. He did, and stood eight yards away in the last light of the setting sun for a good ten seconds, but a branch obscured his antlers. If I had even been on my friend's land, I'd have taken a chance on this gender, for I was only a few days out, and we don't have game wardens. But it was a friend of a friend's. He gave a very masculine bark as soon as he was out of sight too. But I got to say "You lost." Still, the antis will never understand why that was a better day than just accidentally running across the chance to kill something.