Blue Ringling Bros.-Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows, Inc. - Multicolored Specimen Circus Stock Certificate

Blue Common Stock Specimen printed by American Bank Note Company. This is the most colorful stock ever issued.

The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, famously known as The Greatest Show on Earth, is an American traveling circus company that operated from 1871 to 2017. The circus’s history can be traced back to 1919 when the Barnum & Bailey’s Greatest Show on Earth, a creation of P.T. Barnum and James Anthony Bailey, merged with the Ringling Bros. World’s Greatest Shows. The Ringling brothers had acquired Barnum & Bailey Ltd. in 1906 but operated the circuses separately until their merger in 1919.

After 1957, the circus transitioned from using its portable “big top� tents to permanent venues such as sports stadiums and arenas. In 1967, Irvin Feld, along with his brother Israel, and Houston Judge Roy Hofheinz, acquired the circus from the Ringling family. In 1971, the Felds and Hofheinz sold the circus to Mattel, only to purchase it back from the toy company in 1981. Following Irvin Feld’s passing in 1984, the circus became an integral part of Feld Entertainment, an international entertainment firm led by his son Kenneth Feld, headquartered in Ellenton, Florida.

Facing declining attendance, animal rights protests, and substantial operating costs, the circus concluded its 146-year run on May 21, 2017, at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. On May 18, 2022, after a five-year hiatus, Feld Entertainment announced the circus’s resumption of touring in the fall of 2023, however, this time, it will be animal-free.