John Ringling North

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 602-604. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998.

John Ringling died in 1936 in New York City, bequeathed his museum, its art collection and his Sarasota mansion to the state of Florida. Control of the circus eventually passed to his nephew, John Ringling North, who possessed the same sharp business sense as his uncle.

Unfortunately, the stock market crash of October 1929 almost wiped him out, though he retained a substantial art collection.

Upon the death of his brother Charles in 1926, John took full control of the circus.

As an individual, John Ringling invested widely in the booming early 20th Century American economy, and was listed as one of the richest men in the world in 1925.

He used it as a basis for a museum in Sarasota, Florida, where the circus wintered each year since 1909.

In 1907, the Ringling brothers bought Barnum & Bailey Circus in London, after it had completed a European tour. Possessed of shrewd business skills, he was deeply involved in both the management of the circus and in its finances.

John Ringling North, who was born in Wisconsin in 1903, worked in the financial industry before joining tingling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus after the Great Depression.

John Ringling North was the nephew of John Ringling, one of the five Ringling brothers. John Ringling was born Johann Nicholas Rungling in 1866 in MacGregor, Iowa - the family Americanized the name to Ringling - and with his four brothers, founded what was to become the world's most successful circus in 1884. John Ringling traveled throughout Europe searching for new acts and forging global show business connections.