(Photo courtesy of Marietta College) Legacy Library, Slack research collection It was a big deal when the circus came to town, shown here unloading near Butler Street.

On a quiet May morning in Marietta 110 years ago, the first of five trains made their way from Zanesville to Marietta as the sun slowly rose over the city, the last one pulling in at 9 a.m. on May 6, 1915.

Hundreds were gathered in the railyard on Second Street to watch the passengers get off the train. These were not just any trains, these were circus trains, and it wasn’t just any circus.

It was the Ringling Circus, the Greatest Show on Earth, and it was here to put on a show.

In short order massive tents were erected at the fairgrounds, and the entire circus family prepared to sit down for a meal together. Three hundred fifty dozen eggs, 5,600 pancakes, 500 pounds of chops were prepared by the “cookhouse” and washed down with gallons of coffee.

They soon formed a line to snake through Marietta in what The Times said, “was by far the longest and most gorgeous procession ever seen in the streets of this city.” The parade, The Times reported, was miles in length and was an “unending array of novelties light and color …. long cavalcade of massive and glittering tableau wagons and allegorical cars, filled with pretty ballet girts in gay costumes.

Then came the menagerie wagons displaying choice specimens from the Ringling Brothers big menagerie. The herd of 26 ponderous elephants was another interesting and impressive sight. Two calliopes and six bands furnished a continuous round of melody and the clowns were out in full force to amuse the children.”

The crowd of course followed the parade to the fairgrounds, where the sideshows were open and ready to sell tickets prior to the afternoon performance in the big top, which The Times claimed could seat 12,000 people.

A production of the “Queen of Sheba” opened the show with more than 1,200 performers. This was immediately followed by the main circus with three rings, two stages and the aerial rigging overhead featured the talents of circus performers from around the world. The antics of 50 clowns kept the “audience in a constant state of good natured uproar.”

That evening they would do everything again for the evening performance, and then they would pack the wagons and the horses, the tents and the elephants, the performers and the clowns back onto the five trains and leave quietly in the middle of the night. The next morning it would start all over again in Fairmont, W.Va.

The circus had opened its season that year in Chicago where they performed from April 17, until May 2. They then went to Zanesville for one night before coming to Marietta. They would criss-cross the country until their last show on Nov. 1 in Memphis, Tenn.

The Times reported how fresh and clean everyone and everything looked when the circus stopped in Marietta, it was near the start of six months of constant traveling.

After loading and unloading what amounted to a moving city. The whole circus must have been pretty worn out by the time they got to Memphis.

Through mergers, Ringling Brothers became the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

They quit setting up the giant tents in 1957. In 2017 the circus closed due to low attendance, high operating costs and protests over animal rights.

The circus returned in 2023 without any animals.

Art Smith is online manager of The Marietta Times, you can reach him at asmith@mariettatimes.com