New York Times

RBRED09, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 24, 2009 Circus Flies O’er Troubles With Greatest of Ease By GLENN COLLINS Five minutes into each performance of “Zing Zang Zoom,” the new magical menagerie from the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, an 8,500-pound elephant named Asia seems to vanish abruptly in a grand illusion. Is it possible this disappearing act presages the future of the circus itself? The down economy has taken its toll on working-class families, the traditional core audience of Ringling, a show-business perennial that offended circus purists by abandoning its classic three rings three years ago. And competitors, both nouveau and non, have proliferated, from Cirque du Soleil to New York’s Big Apple Circus. Furthermore when Ringling’s 139th edition arrives Thursday at Madison Square Garden, audiences will be leafleted by animal-welfare protesters following a six-week trial in federal court where the circus answered charges that it mistreats the very symbol of the show: its elephants. And even the traditional opening-night postperformance gala has been canceled for the first time in decades. Big Bertha, as circus folk call Ringling, is under siege as never before. Kenneth Feld, the company’s 60-year-old producer, dismissed any idea that Ringling is no longer the Greatest Show on Earth. “We have survived — and thrived — through every upheaval, every world war, every election, every economic crisis, and even 9/11,” he said. “And now we are the nation’s entertainment security blanket.” Experts say the show could benefit from the economic meltdown. “The circus is recession-proof — or at least, Ringling is,” said William B. Hall, a 75-year-old circus producer in Churchville, Pa., who has observed it since the 1950s. “It’s about escape and family.” And value, which is king: McDonald’s sales are up, Wal-Mart revenues have bounced, and the movie industry has seen a box office surge in audiences and ticket sales. “For many families now a trip to Disney World is out of the question, but a drive to Ringling can give the kids a vacation for an afternoon,” said Thomas J. Crangle, an independent event-marketing consultant in Las Vegas. The recession has benefited the circus in other ways: excess railroad capacity and the oil-price collapse have been boons to Mr. Feld’s enormous global transportation operations, including both its mile-long circus trains. Nevertheless the future use of Ringling’s emblem — the elephant — is threatened in United States District Court in Washington, where closing arguments took place last week. The lawsuit turns on whether, under the 1973 Endangered Species Act, it is legal to chain the company’s 54 Asian elephants and prod them with pointed bullhooks. (Circus executives call them “guides.”) “We don’t think a circus is a good environment for animals like elephants,” said Jonathan R. Lovvorn, counsel for the Fund for Animals, one of four plaintiffs in the case. He said the chaining and hooking amounts to abuse. In court Ringling denied any abuse and marshaled veterinary records, saying that the care exceeded federal regulations. Ringling also cited its $5 million, 200-acre conservation center in Polk City, Fla., where 22 elephants have been born since 1992. Mr. Feld said he couldn’t discuss the lawsuit (a judge is expected to rule in several months), adding: “Performers come and go, but the constant factor has been the elephants. They are our most valuable asset, so why would we ever do anything to treat them badly?” He added that domesticated elephants have been working with humans for centuries. The company has long bested animal-rights challengers in the courts. In 2006 a jury in Fairfax County, Va., found that Ringling did not harm or conspire against the advocacy group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The organization had sued, claiming that Mr. Feld and his associates orchestrated a huge conspiracy, sending agents into the organization and other animal-rights groups to monitor their activities. With the latest court case, Mr. Lovvorn said, the narrow issue involved made it different from previous lawsuits. Though Ringling’s arena crowd pleasers have been disparaged in comparison to Cirque du Soleil’s high-end shows in the United States, Europe and South America, the privately held Montreal-based Soleil has always rejected the notion that it competes with Ringling. Mr. Feld agreed that Soleil has “a different niche, a different experience and a different audience.” And these days Soleil shows are hard hit in the Las Vegas recession malaise; its higher-priced tickets are, unthinkably, being discounted. Ringling benefits from its “ticket price, which isn’t exactly a loss-leader, but it gets people into the tent,” said David Rosenwasser, director of the Greater St. Charles Convention and Visitors Bureau in Missouri and an experienced arena manager. Mr. Feld said circus attendance is up 12 percent from last year. But with discounting Ringling is charging less for tickets now and is offering, at the Garden, some tickets for $5 with promotional coupons. Mr. Feld acknowledged that average ticket prices were down 7 percent to 8 percent from last year, presenting this as a plus. “We are the Wal-Mart of the entertainment business, affordable for everyone.” Drawing in audiences with saturation television coverage, school promotions, shopper deals and ethnically targeted mailings, Ringling “has made an art of selling their merchandise,” Mr. Crangle said, pointing to child catchers like the $20 Astro Light Swords. Most event producers hand over 30 to 50 percent of merchandise sales to arenas, but Ringling keeps 100 percent, Mr. Crangle said. The markup can be four times the cost. Though arenas make money on soda, alcohol and parking, they accede to the Ringling contract in order to attract crowds and excitement. “Some of the arena operators will lose face in their local communities if they don’t get Ringling,” Mr. Rosenwasser said. The prices Mr. Feld charges for concession items have not increased this year, he said, but revenues “are the same, though my first thought in the recession was that concessions would drop.” The Ringling cavalcade includes three touring circus shows visiting 120 cities a year; 10 million customers see each new arena show as it travels 30,000 miles during the nearly two-year run. But the circus is just a unit of Feld Entertainment, a third-generation family-owned private company started in 1967 that bills itself as the largest live entertainment production company in the world; it is headquartered in Vienna, Va., near Washington. Its many other proliferating entities include “Disney on Ice” touring companies, “Disney Live!” theatrical shows and a consumer products division that creates the novelty merchandise. But the company is no stranger to failure: its “Three Musketeers” musical flopped on Broadway in 1984, and its $25-million one-ring tent show, “Barnum’s Kaleidoscape,” failed in 2001, to be replaced by Ringling’s less-costly truck-transported Gold unit, also tented, which visits smaller locales. Its newest business, Feld Motor Sports, presents 600 performances a year of truck, motorcycle and drag-racing shows in North America and Europe. In 2007, when the purchase price of the motor-sports businesses was reported as $205 million — the biggest deal in Feld’s 40-year history — analysts said that annual revenues were more than $150 million and growing. “People were shocked at the dollar amount,” said Mr. Crangle, the consultant in Las Vegas. “But it’s a perfect fit for Ringling,” which intends to promote the business internationally, where audiences can enjoy monster trucks smashing into stock cars sans translators. But like a currency arbitrageur, Mr. Feld lamented that international profits have “grown more slowly because — with the euro down 27 percent — we took a hit.” As a private company Feld has always been guarded about its financial data, but analysts estimated its pre-recession annual revenues to be more than $600 million, and commercial rating agencies have published profit estimates of $50 million to $60 million. Mr. Feld’s personal fortune has been estimated at more than $700 million by Forbes. “The circus is tremendously lucrative,” Mr. Rosenwasser said. It was puzzling, then, to circus buffs when Ringling canceled its venerable opening-night gala, Mr. Hall, the veteran circus producer, said. The party wasn’t canceled because the circus couldn’t afford it, Mr. Feld said, but rather because “it’s an extravagance that isn’t appropriate at this time.” He was willing to spend more than $15 million on “Zing Zang Zoom,” his most expensive offering. When Ringling axed the three-ring show and enhanced the pyrotechnics and video projections, some critics derided it as the “ringless brothers circus,” saying that the show emphasized technology over artistry. But sophisticated arena audiences demanded a “contemporary show,” Mr. Feld replied, adding: “Paying customers are not coming to pay for technology. They come for the talent.” Some purists, however, take issue. No rings and high technology were “deplorable — they just lost their mystique,” said Buckles Woodcock, 74, a retired elephant trainer who runs Buckles Blog (bucklesw.blogspot.com). “I understand that times change, but the money Ringling spends on all those pyrotechnics they could spend on hiring more acts.” He sighed, then added: “But they’re making money. Business is business. And the parade moves on.”