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.

Life and career

North was born on August 14, 1903 in

Baraboo, Wisconsin Baraboo is a city in the Midwest and the county seat of Sauk County, Wisconsin, United States. The largest city in the county, Baraboo is the principal city of the Baraboo Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2020 population was 12,556. It is situ ...

, the son of Ida Loraina Wihelmina (Ringling) and Harry Whitestone North. His mother was the sister of the

Ringling brothers The Ringling brothers (originally Rüngling) were seven American siblings who transformed their small touring company of performers into one of the largest circuses in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Four brothers ...

."Circus' John Ringling North"
''Chicago Tribune'', June 7, 1985. Retrieved August 30, 2013. As a boy, he hawked balloons and novelties at his uncles' circus.Burt A. Folkart
"'Greatest Show on Earth': John Ringling North, Circus Developer, Dies"
''Los Angeles Times'', June 7, 1985. Retrieved August 30, 2013. He learned to dance and play the saxophone from circus performers and formed his own dance band while at college. He attended the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

and

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, 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. He returned to the brokerage business from 1929 to 1936, while continuing to assist the Ringling brothers with their business interests. 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 Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

venues in 1956, in part to offset rising labor costs. North also replaced the circus's unrelated acts with thematic programs, and once hired

George Balanchine George Balanchine (; Various sources: * * * * born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze; ka, გიორგი მელიტონის ძე ბალანჩივაძე; January 22, 1904 (O. S. January 9) – April 30, 1983) was ...

to choreograph a ballet using the circus's elephants.Davida Krista. ''George Balanchine: American Ballet Master''. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications, 1996, p. 72. Balanchine, in turn, brought

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...

on board to compose the ''

Circus Polka ''Circus Polka: For a Young Elephant'' was written by Igor Stravinsky in 1942. He composed it for a ballet production that the choreographer George Balanchine did for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The ballet was performed by fifty ...

'' for the elephant dance. The Ringling heirs sold the circus in 1967, ending 80 years of Ringling family control of the enterprise.

Marriage

North married French actress

Germaine Aussey Germaine Aussey (born Germaine Adrienne Agassiz, December 18, 1909 in Paris – March 15, 1979 in Geneva) was a French actress who worked with, among others, René Clair, Julien Duvivier, Paul Fejos, Jean Grémillon, Marc Allégret, and ...

on May 11, 1940; they divorced in 1945.

Personal life

After the sale of the circus, he moved to Europe, where he lived in Switzerland and Belgium. In the early 1960s, North and his brother,

Henry Ringling North Henry Ringling North (November 12, 1909 – October 2, 1993) was an American businessman, as a circus proprietor who was the vice president, treasurer, director and operations chief, while his brother, John Ringling North, was the president and ...

, who had bought their father's ancestral home in

County Galway "Righteousness and Justice" , anthem = () , image_map = Island of Ireland location map Galway.svg , map_caption = Location in Ireland , area_footnotes = , area_total_km2 = ...

, became Irish citizens.

Death

North died of a stroke on June 4, 1985, in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, Belgium, at the age of 81.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:North, John Ringling 1903 births 1985 deaths People from Baraboo, Wisconsin University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Yale University alumni Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus people Circus owners Recipients of the Silver Star United States Navy personnel of World War II Military personnel from Wisconsin United States Navy officers People of the Office of Strategic Services Naturalised citizens of Ireland