5. Ringling Brothers took advantage of their competitor’s absence
When P. T. Barnum died in 1891, after suffering a stroke, James Anthony Bailey purchased Barnum’s interest in the circus from his widow, but shrewdly kept the late showman’s name on the marquee. Barnum had been celebrated in his lifetime in Europe, presenting, among other exhibits, the minuscule Tom Thumb to Queen Victoria, the Russian Tsar, and to the populations of the European continent. Bailey decided to take advantage of his late partner’s name and reputation and tour Europe with Barnum and Bailey’s Greatest Show on Earth in the late 19th century. From late December 1897, through 1902, Barnum and Bailey’s toured the European continent.
While the competition was overseas Ringling Brothers took advantage of the vacuum left behind, and began touring, by train, the eastern states which had previously by mutual agreement been the province of Barnum and Bailey’s. By 1898 Ringling Brothers presented the largest traveling entertainment enterprise in the world. The concept of three rings presented under the so-called Big Top was developed by the Ringlings, and the spectacle of watching the circus erect its tents and exhibits, using the elephants and draft animals which were part of its show, became as much a part of the circus experience as attending the presentations themselves.