Star performers

Over the decades, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey featured an array of stars whose names are among the most prominent in circus history. One the circus’s early stars was May Wirth (1894–1978), who performed flips, leaps, and contortions on horseback. German-born aerialist Lillian Leitzel (1892–1931) dazzled audiences by performing her acrobatics on Roman rings 50 feet (15 metres) above the ground without a net. Husband and wife Arthur (1912–2001) and Antoinette (1910–84) Concello earned fame on the trapeze as the Flying Concellos. Antoinette, the first woman to successfully execute an airborne triple somersault, was hailed as the “greatest woman flyer of all time.”

Among other women who made their mark with the circus were the diminutive animal trainers (both of whom were about 5 feet [1.5 metres] tall) “Marvelous Mabel” Stark (1889–1968), who commanded tigers for some six decades despite receiving many hundreds of stitches as a result of attacks by her animal charges, and Ursula Blütchen (1927–2010), who worked with polar bears.

Arguably, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s best-known animal trainer, though, was Clyde Beatty (1903–65), who flamboyantly prodded lions and tigers with a chair, a whip, and a blank-shooting pistol.

The Zacchini brothers (including Hugo [1928–2016]) acted as human cannonballs, fired from a cannon into a net across the tent. Founded by Karl Wallenda (1905–78), the Great Wallendas (later Flying Wallendas) joined Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey in 1928 and thrilled audiences by forming human pyramids on the high wire. Emmett Kelly (1898–1979), one of the most famous clowns in history, was a featured performer for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey from 1942 to the late 1950s.

In the 21st century Bello Nock combined daredevil acrobatics and stunts with a comic persona.

Animal rights criticism and the end of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in 2017

In the last quarter of the 20th century, animal welfare groups began arguing that the techniques used by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey to train its animals, especially its elephants, were inherently cruel and abusive. Those methods included the frequent use of bullhorns and electric shock, which resulted in serious injury or even death. Animal rights advocates also claimed that much suffering was caused by chaining the animals in confined spaces for prolonged periods. In 1995 Feld Entertainment, Inc., established the Center for Elephant Conservation in Florida, but, as the understanding of the complex intellectual and emotional lives of elephants spread and protests of the circus’s treatment of elephants increased, more and more people began to view elephant performances negatively.

Although several animal rights groups lost a lawsuit in 2009 in which they accused Feld Entertainment of abusing elephants, two years later the U.S. Department of Agriculture fined the Feld organization $270,000 for violations of the Animal Welfare Act dating from 2007. In 2015 Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey announced that it would end its elephant performances by 2018 but moved the date up to May 2016.

Partly as a result of the protests by animal rights groups—but also as a consequence of the changing tastes of contemporary audiences—attendance at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus had been declining for several years. In January 2017, citing decreasing revenues and increasing costs, the Feld organization announced it would be closing the circus, and it said a performance on May 21, 2017, in Uniondale, New York, was its last.

A “reimagined” circus in 2023

In 2023 the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus began a North American tour of what it called a “reimagination” of its show. Featuring traditional performers—trapeze artists, acrobats, clowns, a human cannonball—but no live animals, the circus also introduced musical, dance, and narrative elements.