Big Top

I am writing to respond to the review on Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.

My first question would be; “Whose kids?”. I have a 3-year-old-son, who I took to see his first circus on July 16th in San Diego. He laughed at the clowns, sat silently while watching the acrobats and applauded the trained animal acts. True, he did lose interest during the second half, but his normal bed time is around 8 p.m., and it was approaching 9:30 p.m. The point is: He was entertained, and quite frankly, so was I. The circus appeals to the child in all of us. What exactly is John Godfrey looking for in a circus? The only exciting thing Godfrey seems to have found during the show was the “Ninja” portion involving martial arts demonstrators from a Chinese sports federation.

My wife, son and I, and apparently most of the audience (judging from the applause and yells), enjoyed the 122nd edition of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The impression reviewer John Godfrey leaves with this reader is that the circus should provide lasers, televisions, computer graphics, and Nintendo style entertainment for the more sophisticated “children” in the audience. The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus would become just another traveling technological arcade and would cease to be what Godfrey himself describes as “. . .a part of Americana for nearly a century.”

MARK GREGG, Chula Vista