'I'll£ GRrArt:sr Suows Of\ EARTII to buy the entire ACC operation for approximately succeeding years, $2 million. The ACC accepted the offer, and Ringling, including Sparks, without the slightest inkling that the stock market Sells-Floto, and would crash in just a few weeks, borrowed substantially AI G. Barnes. in order to make the purchase. On 6 September 1929 Hagen beck­ Ringling acquired the former ACC holdings. Wallace hung Unable to pay off his personal note, Ringling, over on through the the objection of family members, transferred own­ 1933 and 1934 ership of the ACC, along with the concurrent debt, seasons but had to the Ringling Brothers Circus. In July 1932 Ringling dwindled in size was deposed as manager of Ringling Brothers and from forty-eight Barnum and Bailey. Ballard fared even worse. A dis­ circus cars to gruntled employee shot and killed him in 1936. Mter thirty-five by 1935. • Ballard's death, his heirs sold all his real estate hold­ The circus finally ings in West Baden Springs, including the winter closed in 1938. quarters. Eventually the circus buildings were In 1935 Jess destroyed, and the ornate wagons, cages, and Adkins and Zack calliopes they once contained mysteriously-and Terrell, former permanently-disappeared. ACC managers, Former managers of the American Circus The Ringling conglomerate returned three of the bought the Cole Corporation bought the Cole Brothers Circus in former ACC circuses-the John Robinson, Sells­ Brothers Circus 1935 and staffed it mainly with Peru residents. Floto, and Hagenbeck-Wallace-to Peru the winter and staffed it pri­ Headquartered in Rochester, it was the only BELow: The Sells·Fioto Circus, after they were purchased. marily with Peru Indiana circus to survive the 1930s. one of the largest touring in They toured again in 1930, residents. The 1927, was part of the American but the Great Depression thirty-nine-car show requested, but was denied, per­ Circus Corporation syndicate. reduced attendance, caus­ mission from Ringling Brothers to spend its first off­ The ACC eventually acquired the ing the shows' early return season at the Peru winter quarters. Instead, Cole Peru circus winter quarters, rail to Peru. The John Robinson, Brothers wintered in nearby Rochester. When those yard, and surrounding farmland. the oldest circus then in con­ winter quarters burned the following year, the circus Sells-Fioto wintered in Indiana's tinuous operation, folded. transferred its headquarters to Louisville's fairgrounds. Circus City during the 1920s. Other shows fo llowed suit in Throughout the 1930s the Peru circus complex also served as a farm, growing stock fe ed for Ringling's headquarters in Sarasota, Florida. In the fall of 1941, however, Ringling prepared to divest itself of the Peru site. John Ringling North, Ringling manager, ordered most show wagons stored at Peru to be set afire. Appalled, local circus buffs implored North to sell them the ornate wagons, but he refused. To ensure rival operations would never · · acquire the wagons, Ringling personnel torched 126 of them in a Peru field in November 1941. The following year the main railcar shed in Peru also burned, incinerating most of the remaining stocks and coaches. The last five wagons went to Sarasota in April 1944. The late Emil Schram, president of the New Yo rk Stock Exchange, purchased a large tract, including the circus quarters, Winter 2001 23 .