Friday, March 31, 2006

"Greatest Show on Earth" - No more?

Received another letter from Mr. Penndorf.

Hi Buckles,

I don't know if this really means anything, but I thought the following was very interesting.

This morning I was watching the "Early Show" on CBS. They did a feature on Brian and Tina Miser, a husband and wife team who do a human cannonball act on the 135TH Edition of Ringling Brothers. The interviewer, Hannah Storm, introduced them, and said that they currently appearing at the Verizon Center in Washington, D. C. with Ringling Brothers, "America's Favorite Circus", seemingly shunning the trademarked "The Greatest Show On Earth". It had me wondering if this was a catch phrase dreamed up by a CBS writer, or does this represent a new marketing strategy to go along with the Feld's new concept of the circus. Could it be that the Felds are rejecting the familiar circus hype and shying away from claims that maybe longer justified? "America's Favorite Circus" is "nice", but it doesn't have the impact of "THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH!" What would P. T. Barnum say?

I see that you liked my analogy of the staging of the 136TH Edition to a set for a production of the "Wizard Of Oz".

Thank you for finding my first E-mail interesting and posting it to your Blog. I was surprised to see that it generated so many comments. I enjoyed reading each of them. Your Blog is a great forum to find and exchange information on the circus, and to hear just what other circus fans are thinking.

Shannon here - I found that interview on the internet. Click on the link below to view it.

CBS EARLY SHOW

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

These young performers try and do their best. I feel sorry for them that Ken and Nicole cheapened their show. Thats what it is supposed to be about. The performers. No one will want the bragging rights that were a lot of the pay from RBBB, for being on RBBB. Producers can and do make or break a show. Most of them were at one time performers themselves and understand how things work. We are behind the performers all the way. Keep your head up high, the season will not last forever.

Anonymous said...

To coin a phrase repeated overand overandover again in the 1973 Red Show spec... "No place to go but up; no place to go but higher."