The final days of the circus

[lurch234]

Nowhere left to run away to: The final days of the circus

 

By TAMARA LUSH

Associated Press

 

SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) -- Goodbye to death-defying feats - daring young men (and women) on the flying trapeze, whip-wielding lion tamers, human cannonballs. Goodbye to the scent of peanuts and popcorn, the thrill of three rings, the jaunty bum-bum-dadadada of circus music.

 

Send out the clowns. The Big Top is coming down - for good.

 

On Saturday, officials of the company that owns the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus announced that it will close in May, ending a 146-year run that dates back to a time before automobiles or airplanes or movies, when Ulysses S. Grant was president and minstrel shows were popular entertainment

 

What killed the circus? There are many suspects: increased railroad costs. Costly court battles with animal rights activists that led to an end to elephant acts - and the fact that some people didn't want to see a show without elephants.

 

But mostly, in an era of Pokemon Go, online role playing games and YouTube celebrities, the "Greatest Show on Earth" doesn't seem so great.

 

"It's been through world wars, and it's been through every kind of economic cycle and it's been through a lot of change," said Kenneth Feld, chairman and CEO of Feld Entertainment, owner of the Ringling Bros. "In the past decade there's been more change in the world than in the 50 or 75 years prior to that. And I think it isn't relevant to people in the same way."

 

For a long time, the circus was more than relevant - it was the stuff that dreams were made of

 

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[dMog]

.. the 12 ring circus act begins on the 20th...Ringling/Barnum act was only 3 rings by contrast