Circus World – A City to Itself
Baraboo Wisconsin is the home of the Circus. That history is captured at the amazing Circus World. Thanks to Rebecca Werner of the Wisconsin Historical Society I was able to secure a wonderful tour. During the summer months, you can see not only the museum and buildings but also watch performances onsite!
Scott O’Donnell, Executive Director, Jennifer Cronk, Curator of Circus History, and Pete Shrake, Archivist at the Robert L. Parkinson Library and Research Center provided me with an amazing in-depth tour.
Scott McDonnell’s story
I had to ask Scott how he came to be part of Circus World. His journey could easily be a story in itself. “I was a quirky kid from Canada, and I fell in love with the circus. While lots of kids were playing hockey, I was fascinated by clowns and learning clown makeup in my youth.”
After going to college, and obtaining a degree in Russian history, he decided to follow his passion and began working as a clown. He performed at Circus World and even had a role in Tim Burton’s Big Fish. Eventually forming his own circus, Scott performed as a dog trainer and had his own traveling dog show With Scott’s unique history, he was truly qualified, learning from the bottom up, when he took on the Executive Director position, a title he has had off and on since the early 2000’s. “Now I have been here 12 years,” he shared. He had a brief sabbatical before returning.
“Wisconsin is the only state with such diverse historical settings,” he said about being one of the Wisconsin Historical Society sites. “We are the only one with clowns and a ringmaster on the payroll.”
The current exhibit Master’s of Mirth, shares some of the clown paraphernalia. Scott shared that once when Ernest Borgnine was on the Johnny Carson show that Johnny asked him what he always wanted to do. He responded, “Be a clown”. At Circus World they made that happen.
Circus World the story
Set on 64 acres, there are 30 structures, and 260 circus wagons, the largest collection anywhere. For years, it was Ringling Brothers winter headquarters, and for me, the question always comes to mind, how in the world did the circus end up in the northern climes of Wisconsin? It was simple, that is where the Ringling family was from. As a farmer’s wife, I found it interesting that the roots of the Ringling Brothers began with an agricultural connection. The father of the Ringling Brothers was Hinrich Friedrich August Ringling, (originally Rungling), a German immigrant and harness maker. August married French immigrant Marie Salomé Juliarco and together the two had seven sons and one daughter. Four of the boys were born in McGregor, Iowa, then they moved to Prairie du Chein, Wisconsin, settling in Baraboo in 1875.
The Brothers
Five of the seven brothers, Albert, Otto, Alfred, Charles and John in 1882 formed a small wagon show, the Classic and Comic Concert Co. After two years, they added acts to their show, and organized their first small circus, which opened on May 19, 1884. The circus grew until the eventually bought out small circuses and their main rival, Barnam and Bailey, who started in nearby Delevan, Wisconsin. Then, they truly were the largest circus in the world. Later on, brothers Henry and Gus joined the show as well.
While they first moved the circus with wagons, later they turned to the rail. The Ringling’s created an art of moving people and machinery. In fact, Scott O’Donnell shared, “The Department of Defense came to study the Ringling’s before World War I, and Nazi spies later studied how they moved from place to place before World War II. This is just the tip of the iceberg on the circus story. Come to the museum to hear as Paul Harvey says, “The rest of the story.”
Art of the Circus
“We have over 9,000 lithographs with art from around the world,” Scott O’Donnell shared. “Some of the largest lithographs have over 100 sheets.”
While Circus World has the largest archival research materials, Illinois State University in Bloomington is another, Pete Shrake shared. This was news to me. He said that in Bloomington they had a large colony for aerialists. The other large circus research site is the John & Mable Ringling Museum in Sarasota. “We have half a million photos and 7000-8000 posters with 5,000 square feet of archival material. There are over 4,000 books and film that is now in Madison,” Pete said.
Along with all this visual history there are also oral archives as well. “Some are show recordings, boot leg tapes,” Pete added. Many have used this material like when the movie, Water for Elephants was made. Business records date back from 1911 to 1965. “All are extensive,” Pete said along with an amazing collection of music. Did you know that the circus had their own band? A group called the Wind Jammers gather and play circus music putting on concerts.
Pete who has a Collections Management background worked for many years at the Wisconsin Historical Society in the International Harvester and McCormick archives. To this day he said he stops to identify Farmall red items!
The amazing circus wagons display beautiful carvings and creativity. “We have the largest circus wagon collection,” Scott said, “with 90% of what exists, but it is only 20% of what was built. Many wagons were burnt for steel during WWII.”
Props and wardrobe!
Along with the posters and wagons there are also amazing props, and costumes. Jennifer Cronk shared some of the amazing wardrobe pieces. “Our artifact collection is a constant process,” Jennifer who has been there for seven years shared. Josiah May’s costumes are part of the collection along with his dairy that Jennifer said, “Talk about everyday life.”
The Ringling Brothers wintered in Baraboo until 1918 when they moved to the Barnum and Bailey quarters in Bridgeport, Connecticut. From there, in 1927, they moved to Sarasota, Florida. When they left though, they had not known they wouldn’t return, and Jennifer said, “They left lots of pieces.”
She said the move to Bridgeport was because of a variety of things. “Taxes, the War, the Spanish Influenza,” they had been running two outfits and life caused them to merge both circus acts into one, and they headed to Bridgeport. Some of the amazing costumes left behind were from acts Joan of Arc, Queen of Sheba and more. These were part of the opening act. “Trying to tie a costume to a show is lots of work,” Jennifer said. “It is a lot of detective work.”
Along with the actual costumes there are also drawings of the costumes by the designers.
The archives vary greatly from concession items to props. “There is so much eye candy,” Jennifer said. Some are quite startling like the metal chair with the notches used by the famous Walenda family to go across space on a high wire.
Ag in the circus
Agriculture was a huge part of circus life, feeding the animals, tending to the wagons and more. In the wagon display there is a cool exhibit about Caterpillar tractors which they shared, was, “The elephant’s only power rival.”
The first Caterpillar Tractor affiliation with a circus took place as early as 1926 at the Al G. Barnes -Ring Wild Animal Circus. They used a 5-ton Caterpillar. The circus Scott shared was a place where technology was often unveiled. The exhibit From Horse Power to Horsepower says it all.
This includes internal combustion engines promoting self-propelled vehicles. When the crawler came on the scene, it made moving machinery easier and safer. In 1938 John Ringling North, a nephew of the original Ringling brothers transitioned from horses to tractors. Once they started using the railway in 1956 the need for crawlers decreased, although they still came in handy setting up and tearing down.
Some of the tools of the circus included state of the art equipment like a Champion Blower and Forge that was used by large wagon shops for work like shrinking tires and welding axes in the 1910’s and 20’s.
The AL Ringling Theater
Scott even took time to take me downtown Baraboo to tour the amazing AL Ringling Theater. Forever I had hoped to view this amazing 700 seat theater built in 1915. Designed by Rapp and Rapp, it was built for $100,000 and has served as a home of vaudeville silent movies and opera. The design is based on the Orpheum Theater built in Champaign, Illinois in 1914 with decor derived from the Palace of Versailles. Besides the amazing beauty of the theater, it also boasts a Barton circus style pipe organ. “The theater was Al Ringlingj’s gift to the community,” Scott said.
The theater went through a 3.2-million-dollar restoration. There are 15 box seats, and the center on was Al’s, Scott shared.
Scott’s favorite thing about Circus World is the chance to enjoy being like a kid and seeing children’s ultimate joy. At first, he said they go in their iPhone in their face and a “What did you bring me to” expression. When they leave, he said, “The phone is gone there is a smile on their face and traces of cotton candy.”
What better advertisement could there by than that?
