Biography

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. 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.

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. Unfortunately, the stock market crash of October 1929 almost wiped him out, though he retained a substantial art collection. He used it as a basis for a museum in Sarasota, Florida, where the circus wintered each year since 1909.

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.

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. The circus had gone into debt, and when North assumed control of the family business in 1947, he shrewdly used its business skills to get the company out of debt. In his 20 year tenure as circus boss, John North oversaw the evolution of Ringling Brothers from a train-transported to a truck-borne operation. The circus expanded its operations into the western United States, and with the demise of many of its rival circuses, truly lived up to its billed title as "The Greatest Show on Earth."
- IMDb mini biography by: Jon C. Hopwood