It took us a whole day to look around the Ringling museum; well I suppose we didn’t get there until about 12ish and they close at 5.30. John Ringling was second generation, his father moving to America from Germany in 1848, started life with humble surroundings and became a multi-millionaire. The Ringling circus empire was founded by John and four of his brothers who started giving shows in their back garden. Over the years as their talents developed and they purchased other small circuses, including the Barnum and Bailey circus it became so large that it required 100 railway cars, measuring some 1 and 1/3 miles long to ferry it around.
We started with a brief guided tour of the art collected by the John and his wife Mabel. The guided bit lasted for about an hour and only included the pieces that she thought should be brought to our attention. We spent the next hour looking at the some of the art works she didn’t mention, but only on one wing; we never did get to see all of the art, which was a great disappointment for Paul as that was his main reason for going there, 
I, on the other hand, was much more interested in seeing the house and the ‘miniature circus’. So then we went and looked at the ground floor of the house, with the back of the house looking over Sarasota Bay. We could have had a guided tour which would have included much more of the house but we didn’t really have the time (plus they wanted to charge us an extra 20 bucks!).
Then we went to look at the original personal Pullman carriage 
of Mr and Mrs R, currently under restoration, and some of the wagons left over from the days when it was the ‘Greatest Show on Earth’. We found out that the movie of that name was filmed in Sarasota with the assistance of the Ringling Circus. We arrived shortly before the start of another guided tour, this one was included in the cost of the ticket and furnished us with some very fascinating facts; but it wasn’t until we went into the miniature circus that we really appreciated the logistical feat of getting this show on the road. Every thing in the miniature circus was made as a tribute to the Ringling and the Barnum and Bailey Combined Circus, including the mess tent, better known as ‘the hotel’.
We were both exhausted when we came out, I don’t know if that was because of all the walking we did yesterday or just because walking around museums is slow with lots of standing about (reading).
I would include this as one of our really good days.
No comments:
Post a Comment