It was a sad day when I read Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus was closing in a few months. The circus and particularly Ringling Brothers circus was a beloved institution when I was a kid and like all kids I could hardly wait for them to come to town. We didn’t have much money, but somehow my mother would get enough cash together to not only get us seats, but also to be able to buy some of the things peddlers would sell as they went up and down the aisles. Some of those thing were bizarre by today’s standards. Let me give you an example of a purchase I made when I was about 8 years old. I bought a chameleon which the peddlers would sell. They were in blue boxes just big enough to hold the animal. I don’t remember seeing holes in the box so the creatures could breathe, but they must have been there. Besides selling live creatures, you could buy small lights on a string which you could twirl around in the air and when enough kids bought them it was like a light show was going on. I remember getting home with the chameleon and somehow it escaped into our apartment and we looked for it for two weeks and then suddenly there it was and it was fine.

When you watched the circus as a kid there were certain acts which you looked forward to and then there were the clowns and the clown who was the most famous clown anywhere was Emmitt Kelly. Kelly was the featured clown at Ringling and had become world famous. His clown persona was Weary Willie and he had based it on the hobos of the Depression Era. He became so famous he appeared in a movie. It was “Wind Across the Everglades” and was released in 1958 with an all-star cast. His act was that of a downtrodden poor soul. When Jackie Gleason developed the character of the Poor Soul he might have based it on Emmitt Kelly’s act. Gleason would only perform it in pantomime much as Kelly did. Kelly died in 1979 in Sarasota, Florida which was the winter home of the Ringling Brothers circus.

The high wire act of the Great Wallendas both fascinated and scared us kids. They came from Germany where they were called Der fliegenden Wallendas. They would get up on the high wire which was well overhead and do things that no rational person should do, especially since they would drop the safety net. While the act was performing in Akron, Ohio they actually fell off the wire en mass. Amazingly none of them were hurt. It was said they fell so gracefully that it seemed as if they were flying. They would bring up chairs and tables and balance them on the wire while standing on top of them as everyone in the audience, not only the kids, would hold their breath. The group renamed themselves the Flying Wallendas. In 1978 Karl Wallenda’s luck ran out and he fell from the wire and died.

The circus was composed of three rings and each ring had an act going on in it simultaneously. There would be ponies doing tricks, elephants, plenty of elephants, also doing tricks as pretty girls rode on them and animal trainers with whips and chairs getting lions and tigers to do things they would never naturally do. One act featured a trainer who had been attacked in the past, at least this was what we had been told by the ringmaster. The ringmaster was dressed in a coat and tails along with a high hat and I think many of the things he told us were just meant to heighten our excitement. One act the kids really loved was the guy who they would shoot out of a cannon. He would land in a net on the other side of the show. I will never forget the screams of the kids when that cannon was fired and the applause when the daring guy who substituted himself for a cannon ball landed safely in the net.

The clowns had their own little shows which would go on between acts. One which amazed all the kids was an act where a very small car would roll out into the ring and many clowns would get out, so many it seemed impossible. There would be tall clowns, small clowns, male clowns, female clowns and kid clowns. Another clown act would be clown police chasing clown rascals. Then Emmitt Kelly would come out and do a very simple act, but everyone loved it. He came out with a broom and went over to a spot on the floor where a spot light was shining. He would sweep in into a very small beam and clean it up. It doesn’t sound like much, but you had to see it.

This circus had a large sideshow. As a kid we were fascinated by what we saw. There was the fat lady, a woman of immense proportions, the bearded lady and assorted interesting people such as a giant woman and a tiny man. The strongman would lift huge weights and bend iron bars as we kids watched in awe. Looking back on this now I realize much of this was just tricks, but at the time it mesmerized us. The sideshow was mostly what was known as a freak show. Sideshows of the day had acts such as the world’s tallest man and the half lady. The half lady was a poor soul who had no legs. They featured acts like Frank Lentini known as the three legged man and the four legged girl. No sideshow would be complete without the tattooed lady. I wonder how many people today would even care about that. They would have fire eaters and sometimes Siamese twins and let’s not forget the sword swallowers. As a kid some of acts scared us while others amazed us, but we looked forward to seeing them all.

One of the very worst accidents in circus history happened to the circus in 1944. A fire had started in the main tent while the circus was performing in Harford, Connecticut. Over 700 people were injured and 160 died. As television became a staple in the American home, circuses began to suffer and attendance fell off. In 1956 Ringling gave its last performance under a tent. The cost of moving everything and setting up the tents just got to be too much.

The Ringling Brothers circus was an institution, one that was dear to many generations of children. There will never be another institution which will replace it, because times have changed and so have the tastes of the public and the tastes of children. Televisions, computers and console games have replaced wild animals, clowns, hire wire acts and sideshows and there is no going back.