Under the Small Top

By Wendy Cole

The last time a renowned circus visited Rome, Ga., American troops were engaged in a foreign war. That would have been World War II. Yet for second-generation circus owner Kenneth Feld, many of the show's issues haven't changed much in the more than 60 years between stops. Would the locals fill the arena? Would the ringmaster get his head out of the alligator's mouth in time? Had Feld budgeted enough for gasoline? Would his cell phone work in Rome? O.K., some issues are new.

And so is the show. In March the granddaddy of all circuses, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, set foot on a different sort of high-wire act aimed at boosting ticket sales amid a still-shaky economy and at a time when families have so many outlets movies, cable, video games, the Internet competing for their entertainment dollars. Having conquered the "big top," Ringling's latest growth strategy is to think small. "We're going to every nook and cranny we can," says Feld. Rome (pop. 34,980) was the first of 58 towns scheduled on its new Hometown Edition tour, a third traveling production of the 134-year-old circus, the last survivor of an epic business struggle that once featured dozens of companies competing furiously across the country.

Ringling is sending a trimmed-down version of its time-tested three-ring extravaganza to places the company either has never visited (Shelbyville, Tenn.) or hasn't been to since Harding was President (Bowling Green, Ky.). Perhaps a few ancient Romans may fondly remember the last time Ringling set up its big top there, on Oct. 22, 1942, but the locals acted recently as if they had never seen anything like it, lining the streets to gawk at the 64-vehicle circus caravan rolling into town.

Ringling has long been the crown jewel of Feld Entertainment. The company, based in Vienna, Va., also produces Disney on Ice and will soon launch a Winnie-the-Pooh live-entertainment show. Until entertainer Roy Horn's near fatal encounter with a tiger last year, the company also had a steady money-maker as producer of Siegfried & Roy in Las Vegas. The privately held company doesn't disclose its finances, but Feld indicated that the circus business lately has been far from spectacular. Ringling revenues are up 13% over the past five years and 36% over the past decade. According to Forbes magazine, the company earned $80 million on $776 million in revenue in 2001. Its CEO won't confirm or deny the figures.

Feld, 55, inherited Ringling from his impresario father Irvin, a rock promoter who bought the circus in 1967 for $8 million. The elder Feld's vision included dumping the brightly colored big top in favor of staging productions in indoor arenas. And though Irvin Feld sold Ringling to Mattel in 1971 for $47 million, the Feld family continued to run the company. The Felds then bought back the show in 1982 for $23 million, and since then the low-key but tough-as-elephant-hide heir has made shrewd changes. He cut the show's length from three hours to just more than two and hired top theater professionals to keep it high-toned and engaging. Eldest daughter Nicole, 26, who joined the family business in 2001, recently assumed the title of co-producer, the first woman in Ringling's fabled history to hold that position. She offers an edgier sensibility, particularly in terms of music and costumes. "I'm a lot cooler than my dad," she notes. "But we see eye to eye on most decisions." And they agree he won't be handing over the reins anytime soon.

With two full-size touring units almost constantly on the go, the trademarked Greatest Show on Earth reaches 90 U.S. cities annually. Still, over the past decade, more intimate one-ring tented presentations, like the animal-less Cirque du Soleil and the Big Apple Circus, have generated bigger buzz. In 1999 Feld's answer was the single-ring, big-topped Barnum's Kaleidoscape, which toured urban centers for two years. "When we were in great locations, business was great. When we were off the beaten path, business was not so good. I didn't want to be in the real estate business," says Feld.

With Hometown Edition, Feld is returning to the road less traveled but with a cozier approach. Because the company has once again forgone tents for local arenas (with capacities typically less than 6,000 seats), the setup time has been drastically reduced. Kaleidoscape took 10 days to set up, compared with six hours for Hometown, which can be dismantled in four. The next gig is never more than 300 miles away, allowing the tour to reach two towns every week.

The smaller show, of necessity, packs fewer pachyderms--two elephants vs. 10 in the main act. And whereas the big shows use 100 animals, Hometown makes do with six horses, six gators, three snakes and three dogs. There are four clowns, which is 75% fewer than usual, but there's no laugh deflation, insists Feld. "The quality is just as high, but the show is of a different magnitude," he said. A hallmark of the Hometown version is the degree of interaction between performers and the audience. Trapeze artists pause to explain, for instance, how it feels to do a triple somersault. The top ticket price for the four Rome shows was $18, about a third of the cost of VIP seats for Ringling's New York City dates in Madison Square Garden. Though production costs have been cut 60%, Feld says, wages for Hometown performers (some of whom have moved over from the big units) are comparable to what other Ringling performers earn.

Feld has targeted an additional 100 small markets to include on future Hometown tours. "I like to think of ourselves like Wal-Mart," he says. It's not a bad strategy. Wal-Mart may be the world's largest company, but it got that way by first dominating small towns. Indeed, in many places, heading to Wal-Mart is an evening's entertainment. Even with a smaller show, Feld figures he can top that. With reporting by Paige Bowers/Rome

With reporting by Paige Bowers/Rome