After a nine-year hiatus, the circus is back in town. Well not our town. The field near my backyard where it once visited now houses a funeral home, condominiums, and the police station. Instead, it stops at cities around New England and points west. The famous Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus is now called just Ringling. They stopped performing in 2017 after 146 years.
Ownership said operating costs were high, audiences were growing smaller, and pressure from animal rights groups made it difficult to put on a proper show. So, they folded their tents (Actually, they hadn’t used tents in years, instead performing in vast arenas. I imagine the basketball and concert fans were glad to see them leave because it has been reported that the smell of the elephants left an unpleasant aroma behind for weeks).
One of my favorite memories as a kid was when I would wake up in the morning to the sounds of the elephants trumpeting. Thanks to the generosity of the circus’s band leader, who stopped into my dad’s barber shop for a haircut, I got free tickets and the run of the grounds, meeting the performers and watching them rehearse. My favorite parts were the clowns. To this day I cherish those memories.
According to Ringling’s website, management decided to “modernize”, to “re-imagine the circus”, and focus on “authentic human personalities” and avoid “pop-culture” tastes. They moved away from “corny, traditional tropes.” Hey, what’s wrong with tradition and what’s a trope anyway?
Tradition is the circus arriving in town on a train or on trucks. Children and their parents would line the streets to watch the elephants and clowns marching to the fairgrounds in anticipation of a fun afternoon or evening of excitement and laughs.
Alas, the “Greatest Show on Earth” is not so great as it once was. The new version has no elephants, no lions, no tigers, no dancing bears, no prancing ponies… no animals. They don’t even have a ringmaster or a live band. And no clowns! That’s right, no clowns.
I can see getting away with eliminating wild animals, they were often abused. Living in small cages is no way for a wild animal to live. But clowns! Really? They also felt that clowns were creepy hiding behind heavy make-up, a stereotype associated with horror, and “scary”. What? Thanks Stephen King!
Where are these hard-working funny folks supposed to go? Are they expected to pack up their red noses, giant shoes and tiny cars and move to Washington?
Fear not, clowns are not going away. The World Clown Association held their annual convention in Boston this past March. (Imagine thousands of clowns roaming the streets of our state’s capitol city.) The top banana of the group visited nearby New Bedford, which is surprisingly, a mecca for clowns, and I don’t mean the city’s politicians. There is actually a clown school there. Really.
If you are not afraid of clowns (coulrophobia) and have a love of clowns (a crurophilia) and have a desire to yuk-it-up, be silly and goofy just for the fun of it, you can enroll at the not-for-profit Smile Factory, which trains clowns for performances at hospitals, parties, schools and a three-ring-circus of other events… but not the Ringling Circus.
Call me corny, but I say bring in the Clowns.
By Dick Morgado
Mattapoisett resident Dick Morgado is an artist and happily retired writer. His newspaper columns appeared for many years in daily newspapers around Boston.
The “CLOWNS” we have in Washington D.C. are very scary. They have the entire World on edge for no logical, honest reason, Everyone can “see thru” their lies. Heaven help us all.