The legendary, world famous, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus announced on January 14, 2017 that the company is liquidating after 146 years in business due to “declining tickets sales and high operating costs.” The final performances will be in Providence, Rhode Island on May 7 and Uniondale, New York on May 21, says Kenneth Feld, chairman and CEO of Feld Entertainment, the Florida-based producer of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. In May of last year, the circus retired its elephant act, years after a suit by activists. The Animal rights group PETA says “we herald the end of what has been the saddest show on earth for wild animals, and ask all other animal circuses to follow suit, as this is a sign of changing times.”  PETA President Ingrid Newkirk says “our protests have awoken the world to the plight of animals in captivity.” The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus went by the slogan: “The greatest show on earth,” a catchphrase so famous it was employed for the title of the 1952 Cecil B. DeMille best picture Oscar-winning film starring Charlton Heston and Betty Hutton.  For more than 100 years, schools would close in towns and cities when Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey came to town; those days are long gone.

Source:  Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Robert Birsel.  http://www.aol.com/article/2017/01/14/ringling-bros-circus-folding-its-tent-after-nearly-150-years/21655111/