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RINGLING BROS & Barnum and Bailey, America’s best-known circus, has staged its final show after 146 years, marking the end of an era brought on by animal rights advocates.
The final performance of “the greatest show on earth” took place on Sunday at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Long Island, New York State.
“It’s sad,” said Angel, son of the general manager, after taking a selfie in front of the circus’ famous logo on the side of a truck. “It’s all my life.”
Members of the audience also took the end of the last show hard. Some still lingered at the venue nearly an hour after the performance ended.
There’s a place for circuses in the United States, said Puja Hathi, who brought her five-year-old daughter.
Children “need to see what real entertainment was back in the day instead of electronic media entertainment,” she said.
News of the closure came only in mid-January, when the circus’ parent company, Feld Entertainment, made the surprise announcement that it would shut down in four months.
The decision to end the elephant show in May 2016 after public outrage about the animals’ treatment caused a steep drop in attendance that made the circus no longer profitable, the company said.
Not everyone buys that explanation, however, pointing to audiences that are often packed.
“It wasn’t handled properly,” said Greg Packer, whose memories of Ringling Bros, like most spectators’, go back to his childhood.
‘Ripping a community apart’
Now in his forties, he said the circus should have been sold, not closed.
“People are being pushed out, losing their jobs,” he said. “You’re ripping a community apart.”
Although Ringling Bros isn’t the only circus in America, “this one’s the best,” said spectator Crystal Porvaznik, 30, who has seen the show almost every year since her childhood.
“We don’t like the small ones,” she said.
We don’t care for those. Which is why it’s sad that this is over.
With its enormous stage measuring more than 30 by 20 metres, its 300 employees and its own train, the circus that inspired the Disney film “Dumbo” and Cecil B. DeMille’s ”The Greatest Show on Earth” has been a giant in the public imagination.
At more than two hours long, the performance was perfectly honed and was put on sometimes up to three times a day, with clowns, acrobats, trapeze artists, motorcyclists and animal riders and tamers.
Although the elephants had gone, lions, tigers, horses, dogs, llamas and even pigs and a kangaroo still took part in most of the performances.
At a time when many circuses had abandoned animals in favor of athletic and artistic performances — such as the Canadian group Cirque du Soleil — Ringling Bros. clung to its animal menagerie.
The prominent pressure group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, protested the inclusion for more than 15 years.
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FFG will ‘find a way’ out of this by bending ordinary people over just like they did the last time
@Spartacus Ireland: exactly , it certainly won’t ask the main men in Pfizer who made all the billions on the vaccine to help out ,.just like us clowns helped out with the”" 2 year max”" USC tax
That Rian lad will be along shortly with carpet burns on his knees.
@Anthony Curran: NOT to mention an Brown Nose!
The snary head on him
Forget about “dialogue” Michael. Trump doesn’t do dialogue. The rest of the world is bigger than the US. Make Ireland competitive, get rid of all these Mickey Mouse hangouts for political populism and run a tight ship again.
Mihall didn’t crawl enough. He’s only an amateur at it really. Pity he doesn’t know what herr putin has on the tangerine man/r
@Paul: Well he’s done a lot more than the head the balls on here like your good self.
@Paul: I think you’re wrong. I don’t like the way FFG run this country day to day, but I reckon they’re the right gang for a situation like this. Sleeveens are born for it. Trump is the major amateur here. Mr Bankrupsy himself and his loon financial advisor Paul Navarro who’s a joke in economic economic circles.
@Louis Jacob: FF let the country get screwed seven ways to Sunday in 2008. Adding FG to the mix means we get screwed there and back again
@Oh Mammy: What happened in 2008 had every bit as much to do with FG as it did FF and it actually would have been worse if FG had been in power in 2008 based on their budget proposals during the 00s calling for higher tax cuts than we already had. It wasn’t entirely their fault though. That was a global credit collapse. This is different and I think FFG are best placed to deal with it. There will only be losers but I predict Trump will be a bust flush come midterms 26. Only time will tell.
@Louis Jacob: read Ship of Fools by Fintan O Toole. They are ALL clowns. The banks got away with what they did because there was not a single brain cell in government at the time. They did
not understand the risk the banks were putting on their books. NOT A CLUE. Read the part about the head of the central bank. Beyond a joke. Fast forward to today. These clowns have all our eggs in one basket, made of dry reeds on top of a leaking kerosene tank with a bunch of pyromaniacs funded by NGOs running around it juggling torches. They have no clue how it works.
@Tim Brennan: Please explain to the rest of us what great feats, in you head anyway, has MM achieved that in anyway have made our lives better. I am dying to hear this.
One good thing is these tariffs help smoke out all the traitors in Ireland whose loyalty is with Mr. Trump.
@Jacintha Dumbrell: Very few of them would have the balls to say in public what they on say here and if they did, they’d hardly be the type of people anyone pays attention to anyway. We all know the type. Kind of harmless in their way. You can’t fix stoop!d.
@Louis Jacob: Very true, poor deluded fools.
@Jacintha Dumbrell: i am a traitor because I ask a question? I want to know why someone would not want to tax someone is taxing them? This is predictable. The reason I ask the question is that I want to know why gobsh!tes in government could not see this and act to reduce the risk. I think you are right about traitors but I think you are looking for them in the wrong place…..mmm
@Jacintha Dumbrell: You really need to stay off the Gunja weed, seriously!
Congratulations President Trump on highlighting the Irish TAX scam love to see it over.
@Rian O’Sullivan: Another one who doesn’t understand what a tariff is
@Rian O’Sullivan: Tell us What American Goods You Bought Lately? Answer on a Stamp!
@Mick Hanna: it’s a tax on eu goods being imported to USA, not a tax on American goods
@Liam Collins: My Question Stands!
Everyone can play their part. Get rid of your amazon app. Buy local. It should be an EU directive to show where your product is manufactured. Avoid where possible anything US built. It needs a European response. This buffoon dosen’t follow logic.
Bow down to Micheál Martin Trump… Why won’t America accept that FF and FG became FFG so that beats everything on planet Earth.
Zero action ,zero credibility, zero accountability.
conor mcgregor unfortunately
@sakk sa: What you talkin bout Willis?
@Anthony Curran: stormy weather !
@sakk sa: More Stormy Daniels if you ask me!
EU charge 39% tariffs on the US. What Trump is doing seems completely fair.
@Unridden Ana: no they don’t lol
@Unridden Ana: They don’t. I suppose you think the previous election was ‘rigged’ as well just because Trump said so?! Don’t believe this mans lies. Its just another one of his false claims to make it look justified.
Trump is foolhardy for lobbying 20% tariffs on the European Union, but let’s not pretend that this was unprovoked. The EU already slaps heavy tariffs on a wide variety of American products. These include a 10% tariff on cars, a 50% tariff on dairy products, a 20% tariff on cereal grains, a 25% tariff on alcohol and a 20% tariff on steel and aluminium among others. The EU recently increased the tariff on whiskey to 50% in response to Trump mulling over but not actually implementing any new tariffs on alcohol from the EU. You don’t put out a fire by adding more fuel to it. However, that’s exactly what the EU has done and now they are reaping the blowback from Trump. They’ve made no attempts to try and bring him to the negotiating table so that discussions on equalising tariffs could happen.
@William Jennings: What date did the 50% tariff on whiskey come into effect?
@Jason Memail: As of yesterday morning, the 50% tariff on American whiskey is already in effect.
@William Jennings: Delayed until April 13th, at least.
@Jason Memail: The price changes have already taken effect though. Whiskey prices have already increased as producers and suppliers brace for the impact of the EU’s actions. So yes, while the EU has slightly adjusted the date that they kick in, prices shot up yesterday anyway and the tariffs might as well have officially just kicked in on the 1st of April as planned. It’s an unacceptable act of provocation from the EU.
@William Jennings: Can you state the source of your claims??!
@Steve Davis: Which of the claims I made would you like me to specifically give a source for you? Everything I said can be easily accessed online but I can give you specific websites if you wish.
And to think Ireland fought the Apple tax bill lol. We are going to need every last cent of it. People of Ireland have alot to answer for with their pathetic voting. FFG at all costs will have serious consequences for our future generation. Luckily for them it will never be reported on!
@Dan The Man: and made €25bn each of the last 3 or 4 years. SF wanted to take the original one off €14bn.
The EU will see this as an opportunity to once and for all destroy the tax haven economy here. Double blow for Ireland. :) Tech giants are next to go.
Why? Why NOT say We don’t care and Will NOT Import US products at this time! What Really IS SO Important above them! We Can do Better with Canada…our European Neighbours and Asia….GOOD NIGHT AMERICA!
So what has all the trump lovers in Ireland got to say now ???
@Ned: Well Ned, speaking for myself and no one else. Trump doesn’t give a fiddlers flute about you or I. He got elected on promises, which it looks like hes carrying out every one of them. Unlike the shower of bowsie’s in the Dáil. Will take time for America to recover from the disastrous Biden term. Americans already have more money in their pockets and Trump is only 3 months in. I can only see gloom and doom ahead for the Irish and European economies. And dont blame Trump, hes just doing what he promised the electorate he would do. Unlike the bowsie’s here.
@Father Ted: even if what he is doing is wrong in most people’s eyes??
As for the Dail crowd you are likely right.
@Ned: much of the reason a lot of people are up in arms is because they go along with the masses. Nobody ever takes a look at the masses, why they think the way they do, who is manipulating them etc…….
@Father Ted: They might have more money in their pocket at the moment, but the biggest recession they’ve ever seen is on the way, like a steam train – thanks to Donald. Watch this space.
Just about all Irish textile factories are now closed. Clothing, footwear etc are imported from factories in Asia where wages are $100 a month, or less for slave labour children, working 18 hour shifts and who sleep at their work stations. We have correctly insisted on minimum wages and standards, but have not equalised trading standards through balancing tariffs, so all our textile factories are now closed. The “good for the consumer” crap should be reassessed
Cheaper stock market. I make my living from investing.
@darragh condren: Bought a Forex scam from a tiktok chav with a rented lambo, did ya?
@darragh condren: cool story
@Jason Memail: get rich quick schemes are just scams unless your a genius at investing. I only made 7% to 10% for past 30 years so much so I have quit low paid work.
The smirking gimp had his chance in the White House to go head-on with Trump. He definitely didn’t look like a leader, that’s for sure
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