Thursday, June 19, 2008

John Ringling North


Scan10287, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

"John Ringling North, president of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus at his desk in winter quarters of the Greatest Show on Earth."

Posted by Buckles at 6/19/2008 06:33:00 AM

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's surprising that no one has yet compared and contrasted JRN's and Nicole Feld's use of design and performance consultants to update RBBB in different eras. That would seem to be a natural for the pundits.

20 June, 2008 13:01
Anonymous said...

Excellent question. As I have remarked before, as a young circus fan in the 1960s, I knew a generation of then much older fans who had no admiration for JRN--he brought Broadway to the circus and later had a singing ringmaster to boot when Fred Bradna had long been regarded as the standard. Even today, JRN is still criticized for Mr. Mistin! Unfortunately, if one were to look at how the trade journal (Billboard) judged the earlier JRN shows, there is no comparable circus trade journal today as the reviewers are all fans. One should also consider just how long the Felds did hold on to the old formula largely created in the 1930s of spec, manage, aerial ballet, etc., before wanting to do their own thing, as JRN did as soon as he got control. When Robert Ringling's faction got hold of the show again in the mid-1940s, some of the old tradition returned. Also, as I've said before, how about those extreme alterations in the performance back when Kiralfy's specs were introduced--and copied in downsized versions by other shows (e.g., John Robinson in the 1890s introduced Solomon and used it for years). Kiralfy was sort of a Bel Geddes of his era. In summary, the question posed is very much worth considering, even if only as a perspective before folks judge the next few editions of RBBB. The real issue is how the current product will evolve in future editions after some trial and error and box office results (i.e., how good were those marketing surveys) in the quest to beat rising costs.
Dick Flint
Baltimore

20 June, 2008 14:25

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)