Circus Information

Temporal:

• 1768 - Philip Astley offers horsemanship displays in a ring, with variety acts

1825 - first record of a Big Top in use

• 1815 - Elephants and menageries added as sideshow attractions

1831 - wild animals actually perform in the show

• Ringling circus starts in 1884

Merged with Barnum & Bailey circus in 1919 to become "Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows"

Spatial:

• First circuses started in London, England. Ringling Bros. started in Baraboo, Wisconsin

• most flying trapeze acts are performed between 20 and 40 feet above the ground.

• Typical oval-style circus tents come in a size of 118 by 150 feet, though some can reach sizes of 500 feet

Quantitative:

• 18 % of the population visited a circus, street festival or carnival in 2000

• Ringling has a single elephant incident: the death of a trainer at the company's elephant farm. Wild elephants kill 50-225 people annually in Africa

• Ringling tickets today range from 27 to 298 dollars. In 1895 a ticket for a show in Wichita Kansas ran 50 cents for adults. Children 12 and under were half off.

Sources:

http://www.naiaonline.org/about/animalactivists.htm

http://www.circusarts.org.uk/about-circus/index.php

http://www.ticketsnow.com/ringling-bros-bb-circus-tickets/?gcid=S16598x073-thpz_ring&keyword=ringling%20tickets

http://www.flickr.com/photos/historian77/3049859110/

http://www.elephantcare.org/humanele.htm

http://www.jugglenow.com/circus-history.html