Viability

Soon after his return from Europe in 1903, James A. Bailey began a correspondence with the Ringling brothers.  His circus had become unwieldy, and the parades almost unmanageable.  Bailey wrote to the Ringlings in the hopes that they could come to a mutual truce and surrender their parades simultaneously.  Bailey had suspended his parades in 1905, but reinstated the practice in 1906 due to public outcry and lower attendance.  Bailey died that same year, and the Ringlings bought his circus, initially operating it independently from their own.  The parades continued on both shows, but even the Ringlings found it difficult to manage both immense shows and their equally massive parades.  In 1919, the Ringlings decided to merge their two behemoth circuses in an attempt to simplify their operation.