Note: If you're having a hard time reading this on a mobile device, change your email view settings to "mobile" or tip your phone to portrait view.
On the road again:
Greetings on Leap Day from Panama City Beach, Florida, where Cyndy and I have made plans and reservations for the next eight weeks in New Orleans, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.
We’ve also taken care of some truck maintenance, ridden our bikes a bit, walked the white-sand and shell-speckled beach, and picnicked within eight feet of a great blue heron that really didn’t seem interested in our sandwiches.
Back in Michigan, one of my best long-time friends was memorialized today. Nearly 30 years ago, Captain Dave of the sloop
Feelin’ Good taught me to sail.
Since then, he and I and others enjoyed many voyages on and across Lake Michigan, Lake Huron’s North Channel, and the Gulf of Mexico.
Fortunately, Cyndy and I were with Dave and his family in recent weeks since he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He passed on February 3. Thanks for everything, Skipper.
Today's Story
In recent days, Cyndy and I visited the summer homes and museums of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, which are side by side in Fort Myers, and that of John Ringling in Sarasota.
Edison (1847 - 1931) holds the world record for patents with 1,093.
Ford (1853 - 1947) was renowned for creating the assembly line on which his employees manufactured the famous Model T and Model A, the world’s first affordable automobiles.
As a freelance creative person, it’s hard for me to wrap my mind around Edison’s diligent determination and Ford’s industrial innovations.
I can only shake my head in wonderment at Edison’s tens of thousands of trials and errors that preceded his many accomplishments or Ford’s pioneering prowess that led him to design a multi-faceted factory with its thousands of systems and procedures.
So, instead, I’m going to write about Ringling (1886 - 1936) and his genius to bring entertainment—“The Greatest Show on Earth”—to hundreds of thousand American citizens during the Golden Age of Circus (1919 – 1938).
Having wintered in Florida, the circus would wend its way northward along with warming spring and summer temperatures.
The first team were the marketers who would advance into a town or city and put up dozens of brightly colored posters with the show date and images of the circus stars and attention-attracting animals. Many of these are viewable online today.
The words on these posters were full of alliteration of grandiosity and grandeur, magnificence and magnitude, laced with amazing superlatives: “The Most Astonishing, The Most Exhilarating, The Most Incredible.”
The town would then buzz with anticipation. On the day of the show, businesses and schools would close so that everyone could attend.
The circus traveled with over 1,300 workers and performers, 800 animals—including elephants and giraffes, apes and monkeys, horses and dogs—and all the tools, costumes, and props to put on a show.
The circus horses included prancing performers as well as stout draft horses to pull wagons.
During the season, the show would journey up to 15,000 miles and do 150 shows, mostly one per town. Each venue was an empty field close to the railroad station.
In 1928, the Ringling Show traveled on 100 railcars composed of 46 flatcars, 27 stock cars, 22 coaches, three advertising cars, a dining car, and John Ringling’s private car. It would pull into a local train station in the middle of the night.
Food supplies were ordered in advance and delivered to the circus lot early. A typical day’s order consisted of two barrels of sugar, 30 gallons of milk, 36 bags of salt, 50 bushels of potatoes, 110 dozen oranges, 200 pounds of tea and coffee, 226 dozen eggs, 285 pounds of butter, 350 pounds of salad, 1,300 pounds of fresh vegetables, 2,200 loaves of bread, 2,470 pounds of fresh meat, and 3,600 ears of corn.
The circus crew would set up the cook tent first, completing that task before sunrise. The cooks prepared meals for the workers and performers three times a day. Each person sat in a designated place.
Other tents housed performers and animals, provided a costume-changing space, and accommodated support services such as sewers, blacksmiths, and leather workers.
But the biggest tent was, of course, the Big Top, where entertainment took place in three rings and on four stages.
The Big Top consisted of six center poles, 74 quarter poles, 122 sidewall poles, 550 stakes, and 26,000 yards of canvas. The workers assembled it in less than four hours, utilizing elephants for the final hoist.
The Big Top could hold up to 13,000 visitors who sat on bleachers or bales of straw.
To get to the Big top, they passed through the Midway, where, amid of a blaze of color and hype, vendors hawked their wares and sideshows touted such anomalies as the midget General Tom Thumb, sword swallowers, Siamese twins, a lion-faced man, a bearded lady, and others.
In 1926, the Ringling Show lasted two-and-a-half hours, without intermission, and included more than 800 artists performing in 22 displays. There was always something—or many things—for the eye to see.
But seldom did the non-performers view a show. Before the Big Top would fill with ready-to-be-awestruck townsfolk, the set-up personnel would already be taking down some of the tents and reloading the train, making it ready to start over again in a different place on the next day.
So, while I recognize Edison and Ford as titans of the Industrial Revolution, I think that the ability of Ringling and his employees to move such a large organization—daily—is overwhelming.
Their logistics and coordination were a masterpiece and a tribute to the complexities of circus life.
When you visit the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, you can also tour the home of John and Mable Ringling, a Venetian Gothic mansion they dubbed Ca d’Zan, on the shore of Sarasota Bay.
But, most of all, go through the museum and view, from ground level and above, the magnificent scale model of the typical layout of a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus venue.
Created by Howard Tibbals at a scale of one-to-twelve, it is huge and amazing … just like the great entertainment industry that it represents.
Cyndy has posted some of her photos of this display on her Facebook photo album, which you can
view here.
Thanks for reading my stories.
God blesses everyone ... no exceptions.
Robert (Bob) Weir
