Barnum & Bailey
Greatest Show Earth
Barnum & Bailey was an American circus company, famous in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as "The Greatest Show on Earth." The name evokes spectacle, hype, and showmanship—P.T.
Barnum was legendary for promotional exaggeration.
Something described as Barnum & Bailey suggests theatrical excess or carnival-like chaos: The press conference turned into a Barnum & Bailey circus.
- Ringling BrothersFamed family circus enterprise
- acrobaticsSkilled physical feats
- elephantsTusked, trunk-bearing mammals
- sideshowSecondary carnival attraction
- freak showExhibition of human oddities
advertising posters · circus train · sawdust floor · lions · popular entertainment · clowning · Americana · tigers · trapeze · death-defying acts · Bridgeport · juggling · circus performer · big top · circus tent · three ring circus · center ring · horses
- circuscircus, big top, clown, clowns, ringmaster
Barnum & Baileyminimalism
Aesthetic of reduction
understatement · authenticity · intimate performance · chamber music · solo recital
Barnum & Baileyopera house
Venue for staged singing
Broadway · concert hall · Lincoln Center · Carnegie Hall · Royal Albert Hall
Barnum & BaileyMetropolitan Opera
NYC opera institution
Bolshoi Ballet · high culture · opera · ballet · Royal Shakespeare Company