The final performance of the Ringling Brothers Circus is airing right now on Facebook Live. It is the end of an era. I have many happy memories from my childhood of attending Ringling Brothers. I understand that circuses with animal are being shut down but it is still sad to see this one end after more than a century.
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Final Ringling Brothers Performance Tonight
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It is. It's such a big part of Americana.
When I was a kid I went to Ringling Bros. Circus. My hero was a German lion tamer named Gunther.
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Gunther Gabel Williams and his family were in charge of the cats, the elephants and the horses for one of the two travelling units. His wife was part of the Williams Family Circus that later joined with Ringling Brothers. I remember a documentary about his family. They owned an animal sanctuary in Florida where the animals could run wild when they weren't on the circus tour. All of their elephants were rescued or born into the circus. Same thing with their cats. They rotated the animals between shows and the sanctuary so they would not be caged all the time. Many of the elephants were retired to animal sanctuaries in Africa and Asia when their circus days were over. After the Gabel Williams family retired and separated from Ringling the new animal trainers did not follow the same guidelines for treating the animals. So sad really. Hopefully, many of the other circus acts will be able to find work in other venues.
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At one show in Cleveland we were allowed backstage to meet the performers and the animals. I got to ride one of the elephants. My little sister got to help bottle feed one of the tiger cubs. I think it might have influenced her. She nicknamed her oldest son Tiger when he was born with red hair.
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When my wife was a little girl in Germany she got lost backstage at a "Lilliput" circus. To this day she's deathly afraid of little people.
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Not me. We had some little people attending our school.
One of my nephews was terrified of clowns or anyone in full makeup. We had a friend who was a clown for Shrine Circus take him with his mom and I to the makeup trailer. Then he sat down and let my nephew watch as he put on the clown face. All the while teaching my nephew how to create his own clown face. By the time they were done my nephew was no longer afraid of clowns.
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That's hilarious!
I like circuses and I'm not going to condemn them all for the poor conditions of the past. Indian elephants and horses are not wild animals and if you train them right, they can do wonderful things and enjoy doing them. Big cats, maybe not so much!“A sinner can always repent, but stupid is forever.”
Billy Sunday
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