RINGLING BROS: A REVIVED TRADITION

Well, it’s back! After seven years the Greatest Show on Earth rises from the ashes of bankruptcy and delights us again. I had to make the pilgrimage to Amica Pavilion this weekend to mark this happy occasion. Of course, in many ways it is no longer the Ringling Bros Barnum & Bailey Circus I remember from my youth. This came about gradually. By the early 2010s the elephants were gone (the surviving pachyderms sent to a sanctuary in Florida) and then the lions and tigers were also retired. I was hoping the circus would survive without performing animals and I was always of the mind that the clowns and the acrobats were worth the price of admission alone. Yes, there is a primal thrill dating back to gladiator days of seeing the beasts under the big top but if the survival of this piece of Americana meant performing without animals and, more importantly, if entertainment could be delivered humanely, the Ringling Bros could do without animals. The show this Sunday confirmed my belief. I didn’t miss the animals. The stunts, the spectacle and the music carried the day. One gripe I must express. There was a pair of bumbling comics in the show. Amusing as they were I must insist they are joined by the traditional party of clowns that became staples of circus life. My affinity for the circus dates back to the mid-80s when myself, my parents and my extended family made our way to the Boston Garden for what I believe was my first Ringling Bros show. I returned a few years later with my parents and some childhood friends but my most vivid memory was when my father took me (again to the Boston Garden) in 1991 to one of the most spectacular shows the Ringling Bros ever put on. There were clowns aplenty and a host of acrobats but what stunned me then was the wildest assortments of animals I had ever (or have ever) seen under the big top. There were the usual elephants and lions and tigers but that year there was also a black bear, a wolf, a hyena, a few leopards and even a rhino that did little more than pace around a circular cage with its trainer. I remember my father later explaining to me that it is hard to train a rhino. The souvenir book from that year I kept for many years after and to this day I still regret letting go of it for I have become something of a collector of Barnum & Bailey memorabilia (I recently found a tiger-head flashlight from the 80s to join the oldest item in my collection, a first edition of P.T. Barnum’s autobiography). A fitting hobby for someone who in their childhood loved not only the circus but its merchandise, right down to the circus themed spaghetti-o’s and Barnum’s Animals cookies which came in boxes shaped like a circus wagon. So, welcome back Ringling Bros. I’m glad to renew a tradition in a new guiltless way. The circus has changed but so have its fans and that’s just as well. Blessedly, what hasn’t changed is the thrill and fun. The Ringling Bros are there now for not only their old fans but a new generation of fans, like my niece and nephew who came along and were awed as much as I was. It’s been seven years since the Ringling Bros folded but its fans never did and had no trouble packing the arena.

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