INSTRUCTIONS:
Read about circus logistics here: (ATTACHED)
Format of the paper
Select any one of the logistics principles mentioned in the circus article by
Mabert. Explain in detail how that principle was adhered to by the circuses
in 1900s. You are expected to provide more details and explanation than
what is provided in the article. Reference additional articles and books to
explain the principle. Online versions of books on supply chain
management and logistics are available from the library website.
Explain how you would execute that principle for a circus in the current
era based on the new technologies and new level of awareness. You can
use references for any travelling activities like sports (Football, Formula 1,
etc.) or music shows for this.
Read the culture map article and then explain how to enable the execution
described in part 2 (= point 2 above) in the USA based on the cultural
requirements. You are expected to look for additional references besides
the culture map article.
Select another non-USA country mentioned in the culture map article.
Describe how you would enable the execution described in part 2 in this
non-USA country based on the cultural requirements. You are expected to
look for additional references besides the culture map article.
Please provide in-line references for the claims you make. Include all the
references at the end. The project should be 2500 words. References are
not a part of the word count.
NEED TO WRITE IN 1250 WORDS, SINGLES SPACED, PREFINAL
LEVEL OF WRITING./n P&IM
PRODUCTION AND INVENTORY
MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
PUBLISHER
APICS The Association for Operations Management
2010 Logistics of the American Circus: The Golden Age
VINCENT A. MABERT (Corresponding author)
Kelley School of Business, Indiana University (Emeritus), Bloomington, IN, 47405, mabert@indiana.edu
MICHAEL J. SHOWALTER
College of Business, Florida State University (Emeritus), Tallahassee, FL, 32306, mshowalter@cob.fsu.edu
ABSTRACT
Competitive pressures today require enterprises to continually improve performance for various business
activities, such as customer service or waste reduction. One area currently receiving significant attention
is the logistics function within organizations. In the last decade, numerous authors have proposed many
modern logistics management principles and practices that focus on dimensions such as lean, fast, flex-
ible, and so on. Many of these approaches are not new, but rather have been used and refined by business
organizations in earlier times. In this paper, we describe many logistics methods employed by the major
circuses more than a century ago. While the technology and terminology of that time were different,
similarities with current management thought and practice are evident. Hopefully, by reviewing these
logistics activities from a century ago, new ideas about logistics for tomorrow can be formulated.
Keywords: logistics, transportation, stowage, circus operations
INTRODUCTION
Let us turn back the clock to another era! It is early
Friday morning, August 9, 1895, in Connersville,
Indiana, and the “Barnum & Bailey Greatest
Show on Earth” circus train has arrived in town
for a one-day stand. The circus's scheduled street
parade is set for 11:00 a.m., with performances to
follow at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. With the circus
in town, the community has declared a “holiday,”
and most local businesses and government offices
are closed. Paying only 50 cents per ticket (25
cents for children), nearly everyone in the com-
munity of more than 7,000 souls, as well as those
living in the surrounding countryside, will be at
the circus. If the evening performance sells out,
there will be 9,000 people watching the show.
The public will absorb the unique sights, sounds,
smells, pageantry, and excitement generated by the
circus parade and shows. They will marvel at the
exotic animals, sideshow oddities, death-defying acts,
and aerial artistry of the performances. Magnificent
clowns will provide smiles and laughter. This circus
experience is something that stays in the memory of
the audience, both parents and children.
Given that over 50 percent of the country's
population in 1895 is rural and relatively isolated,
it is easy to understand why the traveling circus
is the No. 1 form of entertainment in America.
Although Barnum & Bailey is one of the largest
circuses, dozens of smaller ones crisscross America,
making similar one-day stops in other towns.
Now let's peek behind the curtain of the Barnum
& Bailey circus. For the parade and performances
to go on today as scheduled, a large contingent
of circus employees is needed—700 people (400
workers and 300 performers). In addition, a large
number and variety of animals is needed-300
horses (200 baggage and 100 ring), plus numer-
ous exotic animals such as lions, tigers, elephants,
camels, zebras, rhinoceroses, hippopotami, mon-
keys, llamas, and more. (Moffett 1895). Also, tons
of supporting resources (equipment and materials)
are available to assist the employees and animals.
Circus management must acquire, allocate,
and coordinate all these employees, animals, and
resources so that today's parade and performances
adhere to a tightly developed schedule. Oh, and by
the way, after the last performance ends at 10:30
p.m., management is responsible for moving
(sometimes 100-plus miles) the entire circus-
people, animals, and equipment/materials-by
rail from this town to arrive at the next before
sunrise. This daily ritual of arrive, unload, deploy,
perform, pack, load, and move on will typically
occur 150 times during a seven-month season.
As one might imagine, supporting the daily
74 Production and Inventory Management Journal | VOL. 46 NO. 1 ■ 2010 LOGISTICS OF THE AMERICAN CIRCUS: THE GOLDEN AGE
activities and movement of the circus employees,
animals, and equipment/materials more than
a century ago was a massive logistics challenge.
Although circus management did not label this
task as “logistics management,” they did, in fact,
develop specialized logistics practices to achieve
their seemingly impossible operational goals.
In this article, we intend to examine many
features of the American circus that traveled by
railroad during its Golden Age¹ and to highlight
many of its specialized logistics practices we now
consider to be common principles underlying
modern logistics management. To set things into
perspective, the next section provides a historical
review of the circus, which is followed by a detailed
description of typical operational activities for
a circus show day. We next highlight the many
logistics uncertainties faced by the circus, and then
discuss the practices and principles they employed
to be commercially successful enterprises.
CIRCUS BACKGROUND
While this short historical sketch cannot do jus-
tice to the rich and colorful heritage of the circus,
it is meant to provide the reader a background for
the different approaches and processes employed
in managing a circus. The interested reader can
consult many of the references cited at the article's
end for further background information. Hoh and
Rough (1990) provide a nice overall coverage.
The modern concept of a circus presented in
a circular arena dates to the early 18th century.
It has roots in the exhibition of equestrian skills,
which was popular in England at the time. Over
the years, other acts such as clowns and jugglers
were added to the performance. Originally, these
circuses performed in theaters or permanent are-
nas in large cities that could accommodate the
events. But in 1825, Joshua Purdy Brown was the
first circus in America to use a large canvas tent.
The use of a a tent enabled circuses the opportunity
to travel by horse-drawn wagon to more remote,
rural locations (Hoh and Rough 1990).
At the same time, the public was interested
in seeing exotic animals that were often written
1 It is difficult to provide a precise time interval, but the Golden Age
is generally agreed to span the period 1890 through 1930, when the
circus was the No. 1 form of entertainment in America.
about but not readily accessible, since zoos were
uncommon in America during this time. This
gave rise to the traveling menagerie, where ele-
phants, lions, monkeys, and other animals could
be seen by the local population. The addition of
the menagerie became the final major structural
element defining the American circus.
The early circuses of the 1800s traveled Amer-
ica using horse-drawn wagons. Some larger shows
required 300 to 400 draft stock horses (primarily
Percherons) to transport the dozens of wagons
necessary to move the circus from one town to
another. The typical distance a circus could travel
by (dirt) road per night was 10-15 miles, with good
weather conditions. Thus, the choice of town to
perform in next was limited to those towns within
10-15 miles of the current location.
The first pioneer in transporting a circus by
rail was Dr. Gilbert A. Spaulding, an Indiana
druggist and part owner of a small circus. In
1856, his circus traveled on nine railroad cars
custom-built by James Goold & Sons of Albany,
NY. In 1871, William Coup, with support from
P.T. Barnum, put together a show that traveled by
rail. Rail travel enabled the circus to move 50-200
miles per night, depending on weather and track
conditions. Moving by rail added flexibility in
the choice of which town to visit next. Rather
than play the next “small” town, the circus could
choose to jump (100-plus miles) to larger cities.
Coup reasoned that with receipts of $5,000-
$7,000 in larger cities versus $2,000 in smaller
ones, the added cost of rail travel would be offset
by the higher revenues in larger cities, resulting in
greater profitability. (Hubbard 1923, p. 56)
During the late 1800s and early 1900s, more
circuses employed railroads to move from one town
to another. The high point in railroad circus travel
was 1911, when more than 30 circuses moved by
rail. These circuses varied in size, requiring a dif-
ferent number of rail cars. For example, the Al
G. Barnes, Sells Floto, and Hagenbeck-Wallace
circuses used between 17 and 48 rail cars. The
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey big circus
shows each required 84 cars (divided into sections
of about 20) to move all the workers, perform-
ers, animals, and equipment (Parkinson and Fox
1978, p. 26).
2010 ■ VOL. 46 NO. 1 | Production and Inventory Management Journal 75 LOGISTICS OF THE AMERICAN CIRCUS: THE GOLDEN AGE
FIGURE 1: Typical Circus Time Line
Develop circus route Billing car #1
City license & supplies
Billing car #2
contracts
Billing car #3
Rail contracts
Trains arrive
Major Circus Milestones Timeline
Unload trains
Matinee performance
24-hour man
Erect tents
Tent dropping starts &
pack
Parade
Evening Performance
Load & depart
late
fall
4 mths 3 mths 3 wks 2 wks 1 wk 1-2 5-7 AM 5-8 AM
ahead ahead ahead ahead ahead days
6-11
AM
11:00 2-4:30 7-11
12 AM PM PM
ahead
8- 8-12
10:30 PM
PM
Pre-Show Day Activities
Show Day Activities
The figure illustrates the major early tasks to be completed prior to the actual show date for the circus, plus the critical
within-day activities.
HOW THE CIRCUS "CAME TO TOWN"2
Planning and preparation were important tasks for
the circus to arrive and depart smoothly at each
town. As Figure 1 illustrates, the planning process
began months in advance of the actual show date,
with early visitations to the town by contracting
agents and promotional billing staff. Then one or
possibly two days prior to the arrival of the circus
train, the “advance man,” also referred to as the
"24-hour man," arrived to ensure that everything
was in order. He first checked the show lot site to
determine whether any changes such as grading,
moving obstacles, cutting down trees, and so on
were needed. Based on the lot site characteristics,
he prepared a proposed schematic of where the
tents would be located on the lot. Next, he visited
2 The information included in this section focuses upon the daily tasks
and activities of the two largest rail road circuses of the 1890s and early
1900s. They were the "Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows Circus"
and "Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth Circus." Other circuses
from Forepaugh-Sells Bros. and Hagenbeck-Wallace followed similar
procedures, but were half the size. The following data sources were used
for this description: Jerry Apps, 2005, Ringlingville USA, Madison,
WI: Wisconsin Historical Society, pp. xviii-xxii; Cleveland Moffett,
1895, "How the Circus is Put Up and Taken Down", McClure's
Magazine, Vol. 5, No. 1 (June), pp. 49-61; William C. Thompson,
1905, On the Road with a Circus, New York: New Amsterdam Book
Co., New York, pp. 29-57; Dixie Willson, 1932, Where the World
Folds up at Night, New York: D. Appleton & Company, pp. 63–70.
the train station and determined where the circus
trains would unload at the rail yard. He arranged
for any planking and grading to ensure the smooth
transition of circus wagons and equipment from
the rail cars to the ground. Next, he telegraphed
instructions to the circus train master to load
the circus wagons “poles to engine," or "poles to
caboose" so the wagons faced toward the front or
back of the train, respectively. These instructions
significantly affected the ease with which the cir-
cus train could be unloaded at the next town. He
also selected and marked the street route the cir-
cus wagons and equipment would travel between
the rail yard and the show lot.
In addition, the advance man contacted local
suppliers that had contracts to provide the circus
with food, feed, and other supplies to remind
them of their commitments and to inform them
of the time and location(s) to deliver their sup-
plies. These supply contracts were established by
a contract agent who may have visited the town
previously (as much as three months earlier) if the
town had not played host to the circus before. But
if the circus was familiar with the town's suppliers
due to prior visits, the supply contracts may have
been established via written communications.
76 Production and Inventory Management Journal | vOL. 46 NO. 1
■ 2010 LOGISTICS OF THE AMERICAN CIRCUS: THE GOLDEN AGE
FIGURE 2: Barnum & Bailey Circus
-
1908 Train Loading Information
Train Section #1
Train Section #2
Train Section #3
Cars
16 flat (6 @ 50 ft. &
10 @ 60 ft.)
9 flat (5 @ 50 ft. & 4
@ 60 ft.)
3 baggage stock
2 sleeper
6 baggage stock
5 sleeper
14 flat (14 @ 60 ft.)
5 baggage stock
Train Section
#4
1 trunk
6 animal stock
5 ring stock
5 sleeper
1 private
1 dining
Cargo
equipment
wagons
Cook house wagons
Side show (2)
Africa
(4)
Business
Queen
Stake driver
Buggy
America
Buggy
Property pole
Props
Water wagons (3)
Stable
Big Band
Calliope
Stable wagon (2)
Stable poles
Stable tools
Menagerie stakes
Ambulance
Dress R. canvas
Dress R. stakes
Big Top stakes (2)
Big Top canvas (2)
Big Top poles
Quarter poles (2)
Chandelier (3)
Menagerie poles
Trappings
Menagerie canvas
Rope
Commissary
Props
Blacksmith
Wardrobe
Europe
Asia
Animal gear
Chariots (4)
Buggy
Egypt
Chairs (3)
Tkt. Wagons (2)
Seat Planks (8)
Stringers (4)
Jacks (2)
Props (7)
Wardrobe
Ring curb
Tableau
Animal wagons (30)
Total No. Wagon
53
23
45
Wagon Linear
894
469
824
Footage
Cargo - stock
Baggage stock
66 horses
Baggage stock -
126 horses
Baggage stock -
110 horses
Caged animals
elephant (20)
camel (10)
pony (14)
ring stock -
128 horses
A total of 79 rail cars comprised the 1908 Barnum & Bailey performing circus. Three additional rail coach cars traveled in advance of the
show for promotional billing.
Source: Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1908 Train Loading Memorandum, Special Circus Collection, Milner Library, Illinois State University, Normal,
IL.
On the day of the circus, sometime before
5:00 a.m. (noted in Figure 1), the first of four
train sections arrives at the local train station.³
Each section contains a vast array of equipment,
wagons, animals and personnel, as shown in
Figure 2 for the 1908 Barnum & Bailey circus.
3 The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus referred to the first
train section as the "Flying Squadron." Its task was to rapidly organize
the show lot and support the remaining circus elements.
The first section is met by the advance agent
who takes the boss canvas man and his layout
crew to the show lot site. Once at the lot, the
layout crew begins the process of staking out the
locations for the 18 or more tents. If the circus
had visited the town/site lot before, the tent lay-
out will likely utilize the previous layout scheme.
The crew chief instructs the layout crew to set
the hundreds of small, two-to-three-foot-long
2010 ■ VOL. 46 NO. 1 | Production and Inventory Management Journal 77
