Circus America (From Jerry Digney)

Circus_America2, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. Just had a story come across my desk highlighting notable passings in 2009--among them in late Nov., Abe Pollin, whose name rings a bell with those of us on Ringling in the 70s when Pollin built and owned the new arena in DC and he and Irvin got into a major feud. The result was the Paul Kay produced Circus America at the Capital Centre starring Emmett Kelly and all star line up of circus muscle, which day and dated our Ringling shows at the DC Armory. From the story below, the feud apparently stretched from the 70s, when i was dealing with it on the pr front, into the early 1990s. The Feld-Pollin showdown is very much a part of American circus lore as it pitted two arena titans against each other and involved some of the top circus attractions of that era, NEWS/BALTIMORE SUN Ringling Bros. circus will return by 1993 as arena feud ends By Michael A. Fletcher | January 4, 1991 The Greatest Show on Earth will return to Baltimore by 1993, now that Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus has patched up its differences with the managers of the Baltimore Arena.The Centre Group, which was given a contract to manage the Baltimore Arena in 1988, had not done business with Ringling Brothers since 1978, when the circus pulled out of the Capital Centre in Landover following a dispute with the arena's owner, Abe Pollin.The feud ran so deep that Ringling turned its back on a quarter-century history of money-making shows in Baltimore and pulled out of the Arena when Pollin's Centre Group assumed control of the venue.