Circus: American Experience

See how Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey merged to create a circus of more than 1,100 people and 1,000 animals, only to limp through the Great Depression against competition from radio and movies. In 1956, the big top was pulled down for good.

Episode Duration: 1 hour 56 minutes and 46 seconds

Episode Number: 3008

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About Circus: American Experience:

This series follows the rise and fall of the gigantic, traveling tented railroad circus, recounting the era when Circus Day could shut down a town, and circus stars were among the most famous people in the country.

For many Americans, the circus embodied the improbable and the impossible, the exotic and the spectacular.

Through the intertwined stories of several of the most innovative and influential impresarios of the late 19th century, the series reveals the circus was a uniquely American entertainment created by a rapidly expanding and industrializing nation; that it embraced and was made possible by Western imperialism; that its history was shaped by a tension between its unconventional entertainments and prevailing standards of respectability; and that its promise for ordinary people was the possibility for personal reinvention.

Drawing upon a vast and richly visual archive and featuring a host of performers, historians and aficionados, it brings to life an era when multitudes of Americans gathered to see the improbable and the impossible, the exotic and the spectacular.