The wild animal trade that developed in colonial days made new beasts available. Shows presented the white trainer as a hero subduing savage beasts, hinting at human racial relationships as well.

Menageries travelled in many countries, including Japan. In America menageries gradually joined circuses.

Small animals were easy to transport and train. Generally animals were portrayed as friends such as comic dogs or horses that rescue people.

A few animals walked with early circuses: but how do you get an elephant across a river with a fragile bridge?

Lions, tigers, and other beasts that could not walk with the circus required heavy cages in wagons, so traveling menageries were limited.

"The children have been to see the Japanese."

Jugglers from India and the far East dominated in the 19th century.

Italian acrobat families had dynasties that continue today, while most high wire acts started in Germany.

Macho muscle men juggled cannon balls, and there were strongmen that elephants and draft horses couldn't move.

Really? I once saw a young elephant easily drag two entire tug-of-war teams of bulked up men.

Circus women were role models to urban women. At the beginning of the 20th century circus star Josie DeMott Robinson became a suffragette. She rode her rearing horse to rallies: the press made her a symbol of the women's movement.

A French equestrian introduced a circus to Russia in 1825.

Fire destroyed his theater in 1842: he died soon after.

William Batty was the next successor. He was known for extravagant narratives, like Indians rising from the dead (through trap doors under the stage) riding cream-colored horses.

He claimed to mesmerize his animals with his intense gaze, and to intuit each animal's essential nature.

In 1838 Amburgh was in London with his cats, cued with whips and pistols to pretend to be enraged. In one act he dressed as a gladiator in a toga and sat among a pyramid of lions. Queen Victoria, 19 years old, saw him perform six times in six weeks. She said that the cats feared but appeared to love him.

 

George Conklin was another American who worked animals into a fury with a pistol. He pretended fear, and ran for his life. He wrote a memoir later in his life (about when this photo was taken) that admitted to starving the animals and to using cruel training techniques.

Animal baiting is illegal today but there are still people who pit dogs or cocks against each other.

At 3'4" General Tom Thumb was said to be "The Smallest Person to Ever Walk Alone." (His real name was Charles Sherwood Stratton.) Thumb sang and danced. He frequently dressed as Napoleon. Barnum also toured with him, and eventually brought him into his circus.

Matthew Brady photographed Tom Thumb and his wife c. 1860. Thumb met Lincoln and performed for Queen Victoria.

In 1850 Barnum managed a tour for Jenny Lind, the "Swedish Nightingale." (If you see the play Barnum, don't believe a thing in it, especially the parts about Lind.)

Barnum called his museum's theater "The Moral Lecture Room" to appeal to American's Puritan values. He always put forward wholesome family entertainment.

The museum drew 400,000 visitors a year, the most of any contemporary institution. Visitors were rushed through because of long lines. To keep people from recirculating, Barnum cleverly posted a sign "To Egress" with an arrow, knowing that most people wouldn't know that Egress was the exit. His plan worked.

The museum burned to the ground in 1865. His rebuilt museum burned up in 1868, and Barnum retired.

He then served two terms in the Connecticut legislature and was a progressive mayor of Bridgeport. Barnum converted to the Universalist Church. He was an abolitionist who supported women's rights. He never said "There's a sucker born every minute"; to the contrary, he did not disrespect his patrons. He actually gave people their money's worth in wonder and laughter.

Rice was a gymnast, a weight lifter, a dancer, and a singer, but mainly a clown with a huge personality. He did political satire and burlesque versions of Shakespeare. He said that while ringmasters claimed that clowns were fools, audiences saw clowns as wise philosophers.

Ashton's Circus was founded in Australia... and is still operating today!

He invented the flying trapeze in France. He noticed ropes over a swimming pool, and came up with the idea of adding a bar to swing on. The pool provided safety while he experimented.

At first he worked alone, but he soon established the standard act of three artists: a flier, a catcher, and a third to send out the trapeze for the return.

Léotard did the first trapeze somersault.

His shocking costume was given his name.

He's said to be the world's first sex symbol. The Man on the Flying Trapeze immortalized a real lament: Léotard represented a new threat to the male ego.

George announced: "Risking life and limb, William will leap from his pedestal onto the first trapeze, from here to the second, and then the third. From the third trapeze, he will attempt to land on this pedestal. Good luck and God go with you, dear brother William." And William did somersaults as he leapt.

Thomas created a variation: one brother held a ladder while the others performed acrobatics at the top. In 1861 they came to New York. Audiences were said to have "a blood-lust, not unlike that of the Ancient Romans."

In 1865 Thomas fell 40', his skull hitting a footlight burner. He survived but could no long perform at heights, and he had periods of insanity. He committed suicide three years later by banging his head against the wall of a hospital.

After this fall, circuses introduced nets. Performers needed to know how to fall to a net or they could still be injured, but the audience felt awe instead of terror or blood lust.

The name morphed periodically. In 1872 the names started to include "The Greatest Show on Earth."

One of the key marketing messages was that the circus held high moral standards, making a visit appropriate for women, children, educators, and clergymen. Barnum did not drink and discouraged alcohol. He forbade grift and offensive words or gestures. He offered "amusement blended with instruction" and sponsored orphan days. Indeed, he was not in it just for the cash. The circus, to him, was about courage, discipline, and bodily fortitude.

Human "wonders" were displayed in a tent to the side, a “sideshow.”

Barnum, who called himself the "Prince of Humbug," popularized sideshows. The Wild Men of Borneo and other exhibits "evoked dreams of mysterious wonders from lost and faraway worlds."

Millie and Christine McCoy, "The Two-Headed Nightingale," were born to slavery in 1850. They were sold to a circus as infants. They were intelligent, multi-lingual women. At each stop a doctor confirmed that they were actually conjoined. They were sold several times, stolen once, but eventually reunited with their mother. They died wealthy in 1912.

Captain Costentemus, one of the first Illustrated Men (tattooed all over) was a star in the 1870s.

All we know is what they claimed, which surely included some humbug. For example, if the actual cast was 300 they would claim 1,000, counting costume changes as new cast members. But Barnum's circus was clearly extremely profitable.

The menagerie tent was second in size to the big top. (In smaller circuses the menagerie might be the largest tent.) The menagerie served as the foyer to the big top. Most animals didn't perform, they were just viewed: the people got very close to the animals. Feeding meat to the cats was done in a way to show them as ferocious.

There were about 30 circuses in competition: Barnum's was one of the largest.

The railroad made it possible to travel with such a giant show.

Barnum's partner W. C. Coup perfected systems and equipment for loading onto and unloading from trains. His system was pretty much the standard for the next century.

Barnum ended the 1872 season at the Hippotheatron in New York City. Barnum intended it to be their winter quarters, but it burnt down on Christmas Eve. They lost all of their physical property and most of the animals, but were back in full glory for the 1873 season, and opened the show with the first circus spectacular or "spec."

By 1876 they said they had three acres of canvas, employed 4,000, spent $200,000 a week to feed man and beast, and put down three tons of sawdust at each venue. George Bunnell's "Palace of Wonders" sideshows included three tents: a theater with 50 ballerinas, "living curiosities," and a black tent with lighting and mirrors that included such marvels as a disembodied head smoking a cigarette.

Lewis B. Lent's New York Circus was already touring by train with special cars in 1872, although he had a permanent home in the Hippotheatron.

He bought many costumes (there were 1,000 in one show) and chariots from Britain's John Sanger.

Farini saw acrobats and did home shows as a child. He was a self-trained acrobat and by 1859 a ropewalker. He saw Blondin walk over Niagara.

Soon the circus hid the spring apparatus in a "cannon" and added smoke and a good "BOOM!" for effect.

"Mademoiselle Lulu, 8th Wonder of the World" was featured because shooting a woman was more dramatic. “She” was really a 14-year-old male aerialist. He/she was shot into a net. Ella Zuilam, the "Ethereal Queen," was the first actual female human cannon ball.

The Great London Circus was one of Barnum's biggest competitors. One of Great London's partners was James Anthony Bailey, a slight, quiet, 33-year-old who worked cleverly behind the scenes.

Barnum offered Bailey $10,000 for a baby elephant discovered in the Great London's menagerie. Bailey not only turned him down, he used the offer in promotions, a move that impressed Barnum, who offered to merge forces.

Barnum  took half of the profits, Bailey and his old partner Hutchinson each took a fourth. They worked together for 10 years. Bailey had Barnum's admiration and trust.

In 1881, the Barnum, Bailey, & Hutchinson Circus began to tour.

The merged circuses had many acts under contract so it had to expand to three rings. The new circus had a 40-piece band. The daily nut, the amount to break even, was a fortune: $4,500.

They did three shows a day when in cities. There were 21 fabulous electric chandeliers: people were invited to see the generators.

James Otis serialized Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks with a Circus, which paints a picture of cruel, abusive treatment of Toby, discouraging kids from running away to join the circus.

In 1881 the Seven Sotherland Sisters had, among them, almost 40 feet of hair. They sold hair tonic.

In 1895 "Elastic Man" James Morris was born without the interior third layer of skin, so he could stretch his skin in any direction like a dog's neck.

Thrilling new acts

A man on a bike up on a high wire supposedly went 100 mph, faster than a horse or a train.

Ball spirals: a man walked on—or in—a ball that traveled up a giant spiral. One act set off fireworks. The spirals were often too large to fit in the tent: they were used to lure people in.

Electricity, a novelty in rural areas, was considered dangerous so was incorporated into acts.

Decades before Perils of Pauline, animal trainers and other dangerous acts thrilled circus audiences who loved to see vulnerable women.

Zalo, née Adelaide Wieland, did a somersault dive into a net from a 50' platform. Her father invented this "great fall."

Zazel, née Rosa Richter, performed the "Eagle Swoop." She was shot from a cannon 80' up to catch a trapeze, then dropped into a net.

Zazel was an experienced aerialist which gave her some control in the air. Many human cannon balls were killed when they missed their net.

A few years later Carl Hagenbeck used his animal hunters to collect "characteristic types" of humans. He brought families and small groups. They worked together in exhibits in the menagerie tent with their domestic animals. Visitors were free to wander around.

Barnum dressed diverse people in stereotypical clothes and had them act stupid. A famous example was the "Aztecs." One was from Ohio, like me.

Albert, at 18, was the ringmaster and juggled hats and plates.
Otto, 12, trained a goat.
Charles, six, rode a pony.
John, four, was the clown, performing to the Dan Rice song "Root, Hog, or Die!"

Though I'm chief cook, bottle washer, captain of the waiters,
Take old "Buck" to strip the jackets from the taters;
They say about his Cabinet he's acted very sly,
But I've found out all about it—"it's Root, Hog, or Die."

They made enough pennies to buy a real tent.

In 1871, Ringling's Big Circus had a noisy parade down the streets of McGregor. Admission to their tent show was 5¢. Friends of the brothers joined in performing: there were tumbling, a trapeze act, and more riding and clowning.

In 1875 the family moved to Baraboo, Wisconsin, and opened a harness shop.

Baraboo thus became the winter quarters for the Ringlings. And that's why you now can visit a circus museum in the town.

The Ringling Brothers Classic and Comic Concert Company was formed in 1882 and toured around the music halls of the Midwest. In 1883 it was the Ringling Brothers Grand Carnival of Fun.

In 1884 they joined with Yankee Robinson, who was bankrupt. The combined show was called the Yankee Robinson and Ringling Brothers Great Double Shows. The name kept morphing and becoming more grandiose. Robinson soon died, leaving the brothers in full control.

At first only domestic animals were included: performing dogs, horses, et al.

By 1886 they had a 90' round tent, a 30' middle tent, and a 75' x 45' sideshow tent. They also had two lions, a kangaroo, an anteater, an elk, a monkey, and a cage of birds.

In 1888 they added two elephants and a few more wild animals. They had 80 horses and ponies.

By 1890 they were travelling by rail. The advance team had cars filled with boilers for making paste to put up literally tons of posters and bills.

The Ringlings called themselves the "Monarchs of Circus" and put their faces on the posters. They bragged they were "self-made, most moral & upright gentlemen." They cooperated with police to discourage pickpockets, gamblers, and con men on circus grounds. The "Sunday School Boys" published rules for their personnel, and they outdid even Barnum as moral entertainers.

And in 1889 Barnum left America for his six-year European adventure. While Barnum was gone Ringling advanced with arenas instead of tents, electric lights with their own generators, night shows, and increasing sizes and varieties of offerings. They amassed a fortune, which they reinvested in the show.

They offered to send 25 elephants to the Spanish-American war. The offer was declined, but it was great publicity.

In 1887 he became an advocate for humane treatment of animals. His "gentling method" was based on the assumption that cruelty causes hatred and kindness brings trust. He believed that animals enjoyed performing and the reactions of audiences. His shows weren't about growling and attacking, but about balancing on globes, walking on seesaws, or riding tricycles.

Bikes whirled around inside a basket. In some acts the basket was gradually raised, with the bottom dropping out.