--- title: Ringling Brothers Circus: Behind the Scenes, Under the Big Top, 1949 description: Photographs chronicling the lives lived behind the scenes at the Ringling Brothers circus extravaganza in the late 1940s. canonical: https://time.com/3605183/life-at-the-circus-behind-the-scenes-with-ringling-brothers-1949/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-01T18:36:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:06:55.165Z og:title: Ringling Brothers Circus: Behind the Scenes, Under the Big Top, 1949 og:description: Photographs chronicling the lives lived behind the scenes at the Ringling Brothers circus extravaganza in the late 1940s. og:url: https://time.com/3605183/life-at-the-circus-behind-the-scenes-with-ringling-brothers-1949/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdc2945bd30c9aa73/69876ae48e06015319458d24/141125-ringling-circus-1949-01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Ringling Brothers Circus 1949 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ringling Brothers Circus: Behind the Scenes, Under the Big Top, 1949 twitter:description: Photographs chronicling the lives lived behind the scenes at the Ringling Brothers circus extravaganza in the late 1940s. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdc2945bd30c9aa73/69876ae48e06015319458d24/141125-ringling-circus-1949-01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # LIFE at the Circus: Behind the Scenes With Ringling Brothers, 1949 by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Oct 1, 2014 6:36 PM UTC  Caption from LIFE. Nothing but circus all day every day is the happy fate of these two performers' tots, who sit around the big tent watching as pretty Miss Lola practices on a tightwire and an acrobat balances an odd contraption on his feet. Caption from LIFE. Nothing but circus all day every day is the happy fate of these two performers' tots, who sit around the big tent watching as pretty Miss Lola practices on a tightwire and an acrobat balances an odd contraption on his feet.Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Oct 1, 2014 6:36 PM UTC LIFE.com celebrates the legendary entertainment juggernaut that Charles Edward Ringling (Dec. 2, 1863 – Dec. 3, 1926) and several other Ringlings owned and operated through the years: the Ringling Brothers Circus (later the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, the “Greatest Show on Earth”). Here are photographs by LIFE’s Nina Leen, chronicling the lives lived behind the scenes by the huge extended family that made up the traveling extravaganza in the late 1940s. In fact, Charles Edward’s nephew, John Ringling North, was the larger-than-life focus of the LIFE feature for which these photos were originally made. (Very few of the photographs ran in the magazine.) --- > “” --- The 1949 article goes on to portray a man of outsize appetites, remarkable talents (“He tap dances, plays the saxophone and cornet, juggles lighted torches and sings songs of his own composition. . .”) and boundless, near-manic energy who somehow was able to put his stamp on a massive pop-culture phenomenon while, if the article is to believed, he rarely slept, constantly boozed it up in his private Pullman train car and galloped around on a stallion named Stonewall’s Pride. Under the Big Top or outside of it, they just don’t make ’em like that any more. Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at [@LizabethRonk](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk).  Caption from LIFE. Nothing but circus all day every day is the happy fate of these two performers' tots, who sit around the big tent watching as pretty Miss Lola practices on a tightwire and an acrobat balances an odd contraption on his feet. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Circus president John Ringling North with performers, 1949. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1949. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Trapeze artists Elsie Alzana, 1949. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1949. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1949. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1949. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1949. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1949. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1949. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1949. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1949. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1949. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1949. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1949. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Natalia Tock, Ringling Bros. circus, 1949. NINA LEEN  Gloria Mash, Ringling Bros. circus, 1949. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1949. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. In grand aerial ballet Bella Attardi hangs on canvas-covered rope, practicing part of one of girls who swings from a moon. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1949. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1949. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1949. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1949. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1949. Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3605183/life-at-the-circus-behind-the-scenes-with-ringling-brothers-1949/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3605183/life-at-the-circus-behind-the-scenes-with-ringling-brothers-1949/"},"headline":"LIFE at the Circus: Behind the Scenes With Ringling Brothers, 1949","datePublished":"2014-10-01T18:36:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:06:55.165Z","description":"Photographs chronicling the lives lived behind the scenes at the Ringling Brothers circus extravaganza in the late 1940s.","url":"https://time.com/3605183/life-at-the-circus-behind-the-scenes-with-ringling-brothers-1949/","keywords":["photography","circus","Nina Leen"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdc2945bd30c9aa73/69876ae48e06015319458d24/141125-ringling-circus-1949-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ben Cosgrove","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdc2945bd30c9aa73/69876ae48e06015319458d24/141125-ringling-circus-1949-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ringling Brothers Circus 1949","caption":"Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1949.","creditText":"Nina Leen—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/photography/","name":"photography"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3605183/life-at-the-circus-behind-the-scenes-with-ringling-brothers-1949/","name":"LIFE at the Circus: Behind the Scenes With Ringling Brothers, 1949"}}]}] ```