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J. Clarke[_4_]

In article ,
says...

On 1/15/2017 12:42 PM, woodchucker wrote:
Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey is closing down in May.
One of the factors .. animal rights groups.

Others declining sales. I group up being wowed by the menagerie before
the show. To me, that was the big part of the show. Getting to feed the
elephants, seeing bearded woman, the snake people, The smallest man on
earth.. The tigers...

When the elephant killed the kid years ago and that all stopped, I felt
that was going to be the end... In then end it might have been, just
took a long time.

While I hate to see a 160 year old business close, I never saw the
attraction. Went to the circus once about 60 years ago and never had a
desire to go back. Remember, it used to be two different circuses that
combined to survive. May have even been a third one swallowed up too,
Cole Bros.

For certain values of "combined to survive".
The purchase happened in 1906 after the deaths
of Barnum and Bailey, and the two circuses
merged a few years later when due to declining
numbers in the Ringling family they decided that
running two separate circuses was more work than
they could handle. It was Ringling Brothers
Barnum & Bailey for not quite a century.

Cole Brothers was still operating under the Big
Top in 2014 but appears to be dead now, again
due to the animal rights loons. It certainly
has never been part of Barnum & Bailey.