John_Ringling_at_White_House_5_14_1925

John_Ringling_at_White_House_5_14_1925, originally uploaded by bucklesw1. From Chris Berry I recently came across this old news photo of John Ringling at the White House on May 14, 1925. A quick check of the Ringling-Barnum schedule shows that indeed the circus opened in Washington DC that day - but I wondered what the purpose of the meeting was, and whether Mr. John actually met with President Coolidge. I posed that question to a group of circus historians - and while we will probably never know for sure, a little detective work by Judy Griffin resulted in a newspaper article that said that John Ringling did indeed invite Coolidge to the show and that he planned to attend. Fred Dahlinger took the question a step further and reports that Mrs. Coolidge did indeed attend the show the evening of May 14 with a "Mrs. Sargent" and while the New York Times reports that they "stayed until the end" there is no indication that the President himself attended that night. Nevertheless Mr. Dahlinger reminds us that Calvin Coolidge was one of the biggest supporters of the circus to inhabit the White House - and he did indeed attend a performance in Washington DC in 1928.