Circus Hall of Fame

As many of you know, the original Circus Hall of Fame was in Sarasota, Florida just down the street from the Ringling Art Museums. When RBBB closed up under canvas, 90% of what they owned wasn't needed anymore. Every body was buying equipment and animals. Rail cars were sold off as scrap metal and a few to individuals. Clyde Beatty bought one of the arenas. The Ringling Museums and the Circus Hall of Fame bought a lot of the surplus wagons for their Displays.

Around 1980, my Dad and I toured Florida for a couple weeks. When we visited the Royal American Shows winter quarters in Tampa, Florida, we found a good majority of the old Circus Hall of Fame wagons that had come from Ringling stored there. The Circus Hall of Fame had been sold and closed. Royal American had bought a lot of the Ringling train cars including the Thrall flats. A couple of the stock cars were sitting on the ground being used for storage sheds.

It doesn't take a lot to realize that when the International Circus Hall of Fame in Peru, IN. was established 16 years ago and they bought some of the Circus Hall of Fame collection from John Zweifel, that the wagons were in pretty bad shape and falling apart a little bit more every day. Some were basically junk metal. They were falling apart.