by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
When Jacksonville’s new Municipal Coliseum opened Downtown the day after Thanksgiving in 1960, it ushered in a new era in sports and entertainment.
Within a week, the $3 million indoor arena hosted the first ice hockey game ever played in Florida when the Charlotte Checkers defeated the New York Rivers 3-1 in front of a standing-room-only crowd of 8,609 spectators.
Within 60 days of its dedication, the Coliseum was the site of a two-day Billy Graham Crusade and the Jacksonville Symphony Association’s first gala, which was reported as “the first really big venture of its kind” in the area.
A few weeks later, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus arrived for its first indoor engagement in North Florida, offering seven shows Feb. 2-5.
The “Greatest Show on Earth” has come to Jacksonville every year since and presents the beginning of its second half-century of annual performances today in the Arena.
Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey is owned by Feld Entertainment and its founder, Irvin Feld, put the circus’ mark on the design of dozens of new municipal arenas built across the country in the late 1950s and the 1960s, said Melinda Hartline, spokesperson for Feld Entertainment.
“If you look at the old blueprints, you’ll find ‘elephant doors’ because they had to be taller and wider than usual for the circus animals,” she said.
This year’s show, the 141st edition, is entitled “Fully Charged” and features “Tabayara,” an animal trainer who leads 4-ton Asian elephants in a dance and climbs into a cage with 12 tigers.
Also in the show are the Fernandez Brothers, who perform feats of balance on the Twin Turbines of Steel, and Brian Miser, aka “The Human Fuse,” who launches himself 80 feet through the air from a crossbow.
In addition to a trainload of animals, the circus also needs a cast and crew of more than 300 people, from acrobats and trainers to concession operators and stage hands. Jacksonville is the third of 90 cities that will see the circus in the 2011-2012 season.
“Fully Charged” comes to Jacksonville following record-setting weekends in Orlando and Tampa, said Hartline. She attributed the success to the classic circus acts in the show and the care the company takes when auditioning acts.
“We listen to our customers and watch the audiences during our shows. People want to see the elephants and they want to see tigers. They also want to see the clowns and the trapeze and high-wire acts, and we have the best performers in the world,” she said.
The classic circus acts strike a chord in the audience, said Hartline. That’s why they have endured when other forms of entertainment have drastically changed over the years.
“We all have our inner child inside. Nowhere else can you escape reality and be in reality the way you can at the circus. It’s the ultimate reality show,” she said.
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