 Ringling Bros Circus makes history with three shows in North Carolina RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey are bringing a new meaning to the idea of the three-ring circus.A statement from the circus says it will make history on Wednesday when its blue, red and gold units perform simultaneously in three cities in North Carolina. Shows are scheduled for Raleigh, Fayetteville and Greensboro through Sunday.Clowns from all three shows will gather at the state capitol on Wednesday for a picture.The three shows will involve more than 700 performers and 160 animals. A spokeswoman says it's the first time in the 141-year history of the circus that three units will perform simultaneously in North Carolina.  |
Friday, February 11, 2011
Clowns Assembled!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
14 comments:
I am certain that the GSOE of 47-50 and other times aswell was larger than all three put together.
A review of the show in BillBoard in 24 or 25 will give an idea of its size. Or just watch the movie on video of The Greatest Show On Earth
Is it because of bad routing that all 3 units are in the state, at the same time? Or, just building "availability"?
My "hats off" to all that the Feld organization has done, positively, for the circus industry, as a whole, but would this be considered some sort of "clusterf***"???
It would be interesting to measure the length of the old four section RBBB trains vs that of the present ones.
The Blue now on 61 cars is some 5,500 ft in length, over a mile. Add the 59 cars of the Red and we have a combined total of over 10,000 ft of circus train between the two. Each moves in a single section, the longest single section circus trains in history
The big difference is that the accomodations for the people are so much more lavish now. In the old days they piled them into the sleepers like cordwood. Back then folks would put up with it. Not now.
In the old days the sleeprs had neither heat nor air conditioning.
Who is the comely lady in the picture? May Wirth?
Pat Valdo in the center.
The comely lass is none other than Jenny Rooney, long-time Ringling and RBBB star. She rode in the "Cinderella" chariot that appeared on this blog recently. It looks like she's sitting in a ground-situated elephant howdah.
Two shows day and dating was pretty common, back to about the 1840s. Maybe the route king in Detroit can tell us if three shows ever appeared in the same city on the same day, or maybe two circuses and a Wild West.
One blog reader just acquired a postcard wherein a showman in 1912 wrote that five circuses were all advertised to appear in the future in the same small North Dakota community. Now, that's competition for the available disposable income.
Imagine, people in South Carolina can go and see all three RBBB shows within a couple days. It has the makings of a circus festival. Don't look back to say what isn't, think about what's possible in the future.
Speaking of circus routes, my sister in law Peggy called yesterday saying she spotted a give-away ticket on the counter of a local Circle K, advertising the Picadilly Circus to appear at the Palmetto Fairgrounds next weekend.
She said it included a picture of a large male elephant.
Some winters one of the Rooneys would come down to Hot Springs for the baths.
I remember him visiting with my dad and looking at pictures at our home.
It’s only been possible for three Ringling shows to do this since the Gold unit debuted about 8 years ago but I guess its just good press agent hyperbole to say 141 years. I wouldn’t be surprised if the red and blue had played the same state in the years since they’ve both been on the road.
Dick Flint
Baltimore
With the Blue Show in '94 Fred and Walter Logan caught our final performance in Jacksonville, then made the walk with us to the cars and we then cut up jackpots in the pie car for an hour or so.
As they were saying goodbye, the Red Show train suddenly passed by us headed North going Hell Bent for Leather.
I'm trying to remember how this could have come about since they had closed in Miami the same night.
They probably got the cheapest
track mileage by using mainline
north to connect to the western
run southbound
If the ownership of Pick a Dilly
hasn't changed then the only
pachyderms are likely to be the
inflatables on balloon sticks
Went looking for tickets at ticketliquidator.com; they show the circus is in Philly PA this week, nothing in NC through March 20???
Post a Comment