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The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, also known as the Ringling Bros. Circus, Ringling Bros.,the Barnum & Bailey Circus, Barnum & Bailey or simply Ringling is an American traveling circus company billed as The Greatest Show on Earth. The circus started in 1919 when the Barnum & Bailey’s Greatest Show on Earth, a circus created by P. T. Barnum and James Anthony Bailey, was merged with the Ringling Bros. World’s Greatest Shows.
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| The Alzanas of the high wire |
The Ringling brothers had purchased Barnum & Bailey Ltd. following Bailey’s death in 1906, but ran the circuses separately until they were merged in 1919. After 1957, the circus no longer exhibited under its own portable “big top” tents, instead using permanent venues such as sports stadiums and arenas.
These photographs were taken by Charles Weever Cushman, an amateur photography, in the 1940s. Take a look at the performers through 23 fascinating Kodachrome photographs below:
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| All five Alzanas Highwire performers at Ringling Circus |
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| Two Alzanas hang out their wash |
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| Flying Trapeze star Antoinette Concello |
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| Flying Concello doing some washing |
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