Ringling Bros. Ends Era that Began in the Hudson Valley

SOMERS, NY — The 146-year-old extravaganza that is the traveling Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey circus is folding, a year after the company retired all its circus elephants.

It's the end of an era that had its roots in the Hudson Valley.

The first circus elephant in the United States is memorialized in Somers at the Somers Town House, also called the Elephant Hotel. On a large column in front of the building is a statue of Old Bet, the elephant owned by Hachaliah (sometimes spelled Hackaliah) Bailey.

Old Bet, said to be an African elephant, was the second elephant in the States, but was the first circus elephant because Bailey brought her up and down the eastern seaboard and exhibited her. He had purchased her for $1,000 in 1808. To ensure that no one got free peeks, Bailey marched her along the roads at night.

Bailey’s success at exhibiting animals gave other locals, like Nathan and Seth Howes of Brewster and others, the idea of making money with traveling menageries and other attractions. Brewster became a hub for circus folk and circuses — some called "exhibitions" so they could get past the blue laws against entertainment on Sundays. Somers became known as the cradle of the American circus.

P.T. Barnum acknowledged having met and been inspired in his youth by Hachaliah Bailey. Later, he joined forces with circus owner James Bailey, an adoptive nephew of Hachaliah, to form the Barnum and Bailey Circus, which in 1919 merged with the Ringling Bros. Circus.

The circus will hold its last shows in May with the Circus XTREME concluding its tour at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence, R.I., on May 7 and the Out Of This World production concluding with a final show at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y. Both will perform a total of 30 shows with major stops including Atlanta, Washington, Philadelphia, Boston and Brooklyn.

In the statement, Kenneth Feld, chairman and CEO of Feld Entertainment, cited high operating costs and declining ticket sales, which apparently saw a further drop after the circus stopped using elephants responding to growing pressure from animal rights activists.

The elephants, which are Asian elephants, now reside at the a 200-acre, “state-of-the-art” center that is “dedicated to the conservation, breeding and understanding of these amazing animals,” at the Ringling’s Center for Elephant Conservation (CEC) in Florida.

Patch file photo

Valerie DeBenedette contributed to this report.