Circus Museum in Sarasota

John was one of seven brothers that started The Ringling Brothers Circus in 1884. The small circus began in Baraboo, Wisconsin. They quickly became a financial success because of their reputation for honesty. The ticket sellers were not allowed to short change the customers. The Ringlings didn't have games of chance that conned customers, either.

The decision to buy two railroad cars in 1889 allowed the circus to travel between big cities and skip the small towns. That gave them larger audiences and increased the profits. The Ringlings bought the Barnum & Bailey Circus and merged the two circuses in 1919. At that time their winter quarters were in Bridgeport, Connecticut. During those early years John Ringling was the advance man and Charles Ringling was the manager.

John and Mable Burton were married in 1905, but never had children. The last of John's brothers died in 1926 leaving him the sole owner of the circus. The following year he moved the winter headquarters to Sarasota, Florida, where he and his wife had a winter home and a museum building for their art collection. The Ringlings named their 30 room mansion Cà d'Zan which means "The House of John" in a Venetian dialect.

Ringling lost almost all his fortune during the Great Depression in 1929. His wife Mable died in 1929 and he died in 1936. Ringling left Cà d'Zan, the museum, and his art collection to the state of Florida.

This map, hanging in the Circus Museum building, shows the Ringling Circus winter quarters in Sarasota, Florida. You can see the railroad tracks in the lower right corner. That was the circus's means of transportation out of Florida to the big cities where it performed.

It amazed me that the circus had its own hospital, upper left corner of map, Aviary, middle right of map, wagon building facilities and canvas waterproofing facilities, middle left of map. They could even repair their railroad cars themselves. The circus was a city within a city.