John Ringling North (August 14, 1903 – June 4, 1985) was the president and director of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus from 1937 to 1943 and again from 1947 to 1967.
John Ringling North | |
|---|---|
 North (right) and Frank Buck | |
| Born | August 14, 1903 |
| Died | June 4, 1985 (aged 81) |
| Relatives | Henry Ringling North, brother John Nicholas Ringling, uncle Charles Edward Ringling, uncle Otto Ringling, uncle |
Life and career edit
North was born on August 14, 1903, in Baraboo, Wisconsin, the son of Ida Loraina Wihelmina (Ringling) and Harry Whitestone North. His mother was the sister of the Ringling brothers.[1] As a boy, he hawked balloons and novelties at his uncles' circus.[2] He learned to dance and play the saxophone from circus performers and formed his own dance band while at college.[2]
He attended the University of Wisconsin and Yale University, but left the latter in his junior year. After working for two years in a New York stock brokerage, North worked for the Ringling brothers' real estate companies and for the circus during the summers.[1] He returned to the brokerage business from 1929 to 1936, while continuing to assist the Ringling brothers with their business interests.[1] After the death of his uncle and namesake, John Ringling, the last of the original Ringling brothers in 1936, North became president and director of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows Inc..
Under North's management, the circus switched from tents to air conditioned venues in 1956, in part to offset rising labor costs.[2][3] North also replaced the circus's unrelated acts with thematic programs, and once hired George Balanchine to choreograph a ballet using the circus's elephants.[4] Balanchine, in turn, brought Igor Stravinsky on board to compose the Circus Polka for the elephant dance.[4] The Ringling heirs sold the circus in 1967, ending 80 years of Ringling family control of the enterprise.[1]
Marriage edit
North married French actress Germaine Aussey on May 11, 1940; they divorced in 1945.[5]
Personal life edit
After the sale of the circus, he moved to Europe, where he lived in Switzerland and Belgium.[2] In the early 1960s, North and his brother, Henry Ringling North, who had bought their father's ancestral home in County Galway, became Irish citizens.[1]
Death edit
North died of a stroke on June 4, 1985, in Brussels, Belgium, at the age of 81.[1][3]
References edit
- ^ a b c d e f "Circus' John Ringling North", Chicago Tribune, June 7, 1985. Retrieved August 30, 2013.
- ^ a b c d Burt A. Folkart. "'Greatest Show on Earth': John Ringling North, Circus Developer, Dies", Los Angeles Times, June 7, 1985. Retrieved August 30, 2013.
- ^ a b "Died". Time. June 17, 1985. Archived from the original on December 11, 2008. Retrieved July 20, 2008.
John Ringling North, 81, flamboyant, fast-talking showman who from 1937 to '43 and from 1947 to '67 ran "The Greatest Show on Earth," the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, started by his five uncles in 1884; of a stroke; in Brussels. North took over the debt-spangled show after the death of his last uncle, John Ringling, and modernized it with such attractions as Gargantua the Great, the "vehemently vicious" 550-lb. gorilla that drew more than 40 million circusgoers. In 1956, North folded the big top and reincarnated the show for new arenas of the air-conditioned era.
- ^ a b Davida Krista. George Balanchine: American Ballet Master. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications, 1996, p. 72.
- ^ "Tampa Bay Times 14 Oct 1945, page 47".