The Ringling Mansion and Museums

Saturday, 1/9/16 – Travel day to Tampa area, actually we are in Dover, FL.  The campground is lovely – wide grassy areas, TV by antennae, good internet.  Settled in and rested.

Sunday, 1/10/16 – Tom and I headed to The John and Mable Ringling Mansion in Sarasota, FL.  At the visitor center we learned that it was a large property with gardens, 3 museums, and the mansion.  According to their schedule, we decided to go to the original circus museum first, then the new circus museum, then lunch, and finally the mansion.  Off to the old circus museum—we signed up for the docent to hear his talk of the history of the circus and about many of the artifacts in the museum. 

Here is just a little history: The Ringling family settled in Baraboo, Wisconsin. They had 7 sons, and finally 1 daughter, Ida.  In 1870, a traveling circus came to their town and the boys immediately fell in love with the circus.  John, who was 4 years old, and the youngest son, was completely taken by the circus.  Five of the seven brothers (including John)  started practicing and then performed with the traveling circus.  They joined up with the Yankee Robinson Circus.  Here is a poster circa 1880.

Yankee Robinson Circus poster - 25 cents

The owner of Yankee Robinson Circus died, and the five brothers took ownership.  That was the beginning of  The Ringling Bros. Circus.  The two other brothers worked for the circus.  Here is a picture of the boys.

The 7 Ringling brothers
John is on the top row, far right

 As time passed they continually bought up smaller circus groups.  Here is a picture of the whole family around 1893 (John, who is 27, is seated to his mother’s right).

The entire Ringling Family 1893

  In 1905, after the death of P.T. Barnum, the Ringling Bros. bought Barnum and Bailey Circus with the condition that the name would always remain ‘Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus’.   Over time all the other brothers died, and John Ringling took charge of the circus.   The years between 1905 and 1929 were the heyday of the traveling circus.  At the peak, Ringling employed 1300 people, and over 400 work horses, along with all the animals and performers.  They traveled by rail (over 100 cars), and moved from town to town usually for only a 1 day show.  What an organizational nightmare!  After John died in 1936, Ida's oldest son, John Ringling North, and the namesake of John Ringling, took over.  He ran the circus until around 1967, when it was sold to a new owner.

wagon 1

wagon 2

We walked through the old museum.  Here are some of the original circus wagons, and a cannon that shot a man (or woman) into the air. 

wagon 3

wagon 4

wagon 5

 Calliope
(last wagon at the end of the parade)

Cannon

  Here is the restored private rail car for John and Mable Ringling circa 1905. It had every possible amenity – a 75 foot long RV!

Ringling private rail car

Now we went to the new circus museum.  It was actually a display of a complete miniature of the circus in it’s heyday.  It was put together by Howard Tibbals, who spent most of his life, beginning in 1956, to build a ¾ inch scale of the complete circus.  I was unable to get any pictures of the display due to the lights and the glass, but it was truly amazing.  It filled two floors of the building.  This is where I learned about how many employees they had (that meant 3900 meals were prepared daily), and all about the animals.  Hey had three large tents – one was a dining tent for the employees; one was for the menagerie of animals, which was open to the public; and the Big Tent for the actual show.  Here are pictures of a mural on the front wall of the museum.  It was too large to get on one picture. 

Mural on front entrance of the new museum

close up of clowns

close up of tigers

On the first floor was a hands on circus.  Here is Tom trying to 'Walk the Wire'.

Tom trying to walk a wire
(it is actually a narrow bar)

 

After lunch we picked up the tram to take us to the mansion which is called ‘Ca’ d’ Zan' – which means the House of John in a Venetian dialect.  John and Mable loved Venice and modeled their mansion in the Venetian Gothic architectural style.  It was built from 1924-1926.  Unfortunately, Mable only enjoyed 3 winters in their beloved home.  She died in 1929, shortly before the stock market crash, at the age of 52.  Here is a picture of the front of the house.  

Ca d' Zan - The Ringling Mansion

front close up of the tile work

Mable did all of the decorating inside and out.  Here are pictures of some of the inside.

The Main Salon

Ceiling of the Main Salon

Ceiling of the Dining Room

Here are pictures of the back patio.

The back patio

Back of the house

Patio over the water of the Gulf

Close up of the patio over the water

We ran out of time.  The property closes at 5, and we did not get to see the Art Museum.  Tomorrow is another day.

Monday, 1/11/16 – Back to The Ringling property.  I will visit the Art Museum and Tom will visit the Classic Car museum across the street.  John and Mable Ringling were big collectors from 1925-1931 in the heyday of the circus.  As the profits mounted, they invested in stocks, oil, real estate, and art.  They built a large museum complex on their property.  The first site I visited was the historic Asolo Theater, built in 1798 in Asolo, Italy.  Ringling bought it through an art dealer in 1949 for $8000.  Here is a picture of the inside of the theater.

1798 Asolo Theater

The Art Museum was built from 1928-1929.  It houses a remarkable collection of European paintings from the late middle ages to the nineteenth century.  Most were acquired through auctions in New York and London.  John supplemented his paintings with paneled rooms and other architectural from the Astor and Huntington mansions in New York, as well as over 300 pieces from medieval and Renaissance periods from the Vanderbilt Marble House in Newport, R.I.  Feast your eyes on my favorites below.

Rembrandt (the only one in the museum)

Tiepolo (my favorite in the museum)
I hope you can see the depth in the painting

1632 Harpsichord

Room from the Astor mansion in New York

1876 Weber piano from the Aster room

fireplace

And here are pictures of the inside courtyard at the museum.  Please note the copy of ‘The David’ in the back of the courtyard.

Courtyard of the Museum

Fountain in the Courtyard

close up of The David in the back of the courtyard

the rear of The David
(what a great picture!)

Just a little more history:  John Ringling had a meteoric rise in his net worth over the hey days, but his declining health, over-extended finances, the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression all contributed to his demise as the “King of the Sawdust Ring”.  However, the greatest of his heartbreaks was the death of his beloved Mable in 1929.  He managed to keep the mansion and the museum and kept the creditors away until he bequeathed both to the State of Florida on his death in 1936.  He died with $311 in the bank.  The circus went on under the management of John Ringling North, his nephew. 

While I was enjoying the Art Museum, Tom was across the street at the Florida Classic Car Musuem.  The museum claimed to be the oldest car museum in the U.S., having opened in February of 1953.  He said that he enjoyed it, and he actually spent more time there than I did at the museum, Here are some of his favorite pictures.

John Ringling's 1922 Silver Cloud Rolls Royce

1957 Pontiac Bonneville convertible

Tuesday, 1/12/16 – We stayed home and gave the RV a good cleaning, so it would be ready to take in for service tomorrow.  Our kids and grandkids arrived here in Florida at Orlando Disney World.  They have a very busy week scheduled and are very excited about it.  We are all in the same state, but too far apart to see each other.

Wednesday, 1/13/16 – Traveled to Lazy Days dealership in Tampa, Florida.  Again, I am amazed.  This is the largest RV dealer in the U.S.  The dealership itself covers 120 acres of ground.  They have over 250 service bays, and the thing runs like a top.  We had an appointment, so no problems.  All of us, Mom, Tom, myself, and 2 dogs left the coach and went to a dog park to kill a couple of hours.  We tried to go the state fairgrounds for a big RV show, but the traffic was just too bad, so we went back to Lazy Days to wait for our coach.  They had the complete service of the chassis and even greased and serviced the slides – all in about 4 hours.  I truly expected it to take more than one day, so we didn’t have any reservations for a campground for that night.  We camped out in the parking lot of the dealership overnight.  All went well and the coach seems to run better.

Thursday, 1/14/16 – Travel day to Lake City, FL campground for an overnight.  We only planned to stay here for one day, but escrow is about to close on the new house, and the wire instructions which were to send the closing money to escrow failed.  So I am back on the phone with everybody to fix the problems. 

Friday, 1/15/16 – Happy Birthday to Donna today.  She is taking care of all of our mail while we are gone, and that is a very BIG job.  Donna is my neighbor and very good friend.  I miss her.  We will have to stay here at Lake City for one more day as we have a very good internet connection and phone service.  Escrow helped solve our problems and are sending amendments for signature.  We have to stay here, so I might as well catch up my blog!   Tom is doing laundry – what a guy!   Amendments arrived.  All signed and faxed back.  Also got confirmation that the wire will go through, so we are all done.  It will close next Wednesday, 1/20/16.  Hooray!

Tomorrow we will travel about 260 miles, which is a long day.  We are headed to Panama City on the panhandle of Florida.