RI’s curious history with traveling circuses as Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey returns
PROVIDENCE – The circus is coming to town.
After a six-year hiatus, Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey is bringing back its traveling show to Providence’s Amica Mutual Pavilion this weekend. The last time the circus came to town was also its last performance before closing its doors for five years and relaunching as a reimagined show in 2023.
This weekend’s shows promise an “immersive environment” with new technology. Of course, the circus’ acrobats, clowns, extreme BMX riders, trapeze artists and teeter-totters will be there. So will 20-year-old Skyler Miser, the human rocket who will fly 110 feet through the air above the audience after being shot from a cannon.
Rhode Island is no stranger to circus visits, but it has a complicated relationship with the traveling shows. Here are a few curious facts from the Ocean State’s circus history.
Rhode Island was the first state to ban bullhooks
Rhode Island has a soft spot for exotic animals. For evidence of this look no further than the amusing tale of 11 escaped monkeys who wreaked havoc and captured hearts in Warwick in the late 1930s.
Perhaps because of this, it may be no surprise that Rhode Island became the first state in the U.S. to ban bullhooks. Also known as an elephant goad, it is a long rod fitted with a hook and a sharp metal tip. Trainers and animal keepers have used them to poke elephants in sensitive areas, according to Elephant Voices, a nonprofit. The practice drew sharp criticism from human rights advocates, who said it caused physical and psychological damage to elephants.
Rhode Island happened to be the last place where Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey included elephants as part of the show. The circus retired its elephant act about a month before Rhode Island banned the use of the devices in the state.
No exotic animals, please
Some Rhode Islanders love exotic animals so much that they have determined to keep them out, if possible. Last December, the Providence City Council approved an ordinance – later signed by Mayor Brett Smiley – prohibiting shows that use wild or exotic animals.
“It shall be unlawful for any person or organization to conduct, sponsor, walk, exhibit, or operate a traveling show or circus that includes live wild or exotic animals on any public or private land within the City of Providence,” the ordinance says, though it makes exceptions for educational purposes and domestic animals.
Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey has phased out all animals from its shows. Instead, the circus now travels with a robotic dog that performs tricks with a trainer.
A near-fatal accident leaves aerialists severely injured
The most dramatic moment in the circus history of Rhode Island is also the most tragic. On May 4, 2014, eight acrobats, tethered by their hair to a chandelier-like contraption more than 20 feet above the floor, plummeted to the ground during a live performance of Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey. They broke bones and suffered internal and spinal injuries.
The accident resulted in a lawsuit against the Rhode Island Convention Center Authority and its managing company. It was settled six years later, in 2020, for $52.5 million.
A look back: After a harrowing plunge toward death, circus aerialists rise back to life
The road to recovery was not easy. It was full of tears and setbacks. But one by one the former performers carved lives for themselves out of the wreckage of the accident.
"You need to fight for your life," said Widny Neves, one of the survivors. "You need to fight for something even better. You need to see that beyond that big, dark tunnel, there's light at the end. There is light.”
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey has a curious history with RI
