James A. Bailey

James A. Bailey (born July 4, 1847, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.—died April 11, 1906, Mount Vernon, New York) was an American impresario credited with the great success of the Barnum & Bailey Circus.

As a boy, Bailey traveled with an itinerant circus. In 1872 he became a partner in James E. Cooper’s Circus, later called the Great International Circus, which made a profitable two-year tour of the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Java, and several countries of South America. From 1876 called Cooper, Bailey and Co.’s Circus, it became a serious competitor of P.T. Barnum’s “Greatest Show on Earth” and merged with that enterprise in 1881. Bailey’s managerial astuteness complemented Barnum’s abilities as a promoter and made their circus the most successful enterprise of its kind in the United States. After Barnum’s death in 1891, the circus made several triumphant tours of Europe under Bailey’s sole leadership. A year after he died in 1906, the circus was bought by the Ringling Brothers. The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, as it eventually became known, remained in operation until 2017.