SARASOTA, Fla. — Sarasota and the circus became forever linked more than 70 years ago when John Ringling decided to move the headquarters of his "Greatest Show on Earth" to the lovely Gulf Coast city where he spent his winters.
"No announcement ever made in Florida has meant more to the state as a whole," gushed the Sarasota Herald on March 23, 1927. News of Ringling's decision to transfer the show's winter quarters from Bridgeport, Conn., the newspaper said, created a "jubilant air" in town.
The Sarasota winter quarters of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus opened to paying visitors on Christmas Day that year and quickly became one of Florida's first tourist attractions.
John Ringling, one of the five brothers who turned a small traveling circus into an international entertainment empire, already knew Sarasota well by then. He and his wife, Mable, had spent winters here for two decades and built a 30-room mansion on Sarasota Bay. A museum to house their extensive art collection was in the works.
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The art gallery complex — now home to the mesmerizing Museum of the American Circus — and the Ringlings' meticulously restored Mediterranean Revival homestead, are the marquee stops on Sarasota's Circus Heritage Trail.
The trail ties together for the first time the bits and pieces of the big-top history so richly woven into the fabric of the region.
Circus aficionados also will want to see downtown Sarasota, featured prominently in Cecil B. DeMille's epic 1952 film "The Greatest Show on Earth," and the Edwards Theatre (now called the Florida Theatre), where it premiered to great fanfare. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey performers of the day were featured in the movie alongside Charlton Heston and James Stewart, and 3,000 local residents were used as extras.
Around the glitzy St. Armands Circle shopping complex, legendary showpeople have been honored with plaques on the Circus Ring of Fame. About a third of the performers featured are still living, and many live in the Sarasota area.
Other notable stops on the self-guided tour include the Ringling College of Art and Design, the art school established in an abandoned hotel John Ringling bought for back taxes; a life-sized bronze statue in nearby Venice of legendary animal trainer Gunther Gebel-Williams, who made his home there; and Venice's Circus Bridge, named in honor of the circus animals and equipment that paraded across from the train yard at the winter quarters each year from 1960 to 1992.
If You Go
• Museum of the American Circus: At the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, 5401 Bay Shore Road, Sarasota; www.ringling.org.
• Sarasota Circus Heritage Trail: www.SarasotaCircus History.org. Sites on the self-guided tour of the region's circus history include the Ringling mansion, downtown Sarasota and the Florida Theatre, Circus Ring of Fame at St. Armands Circle, St. Martha's Catholic Church, Ringling College of Art and Design, Gunther Gebel-Williams statue and Venice's Circus Bridge. Sarasota is about 60 miles south of Tampa, served by the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport and the Tampa International Airport.
