Industry Entertainment Area served International Number of employees 3,000 Founded 1967 Founders Roy Hofheinz, Irvin Feld | Genre live shows Production output live arena shows Number of locations 4 Type of business Private corporation Subsidiaries Ice Follies | |
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Predecessor Ringling Brothers-Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows Inc. Key people Kenneth Feld
(CEO & Chairman)
Juliette Feld (COO)
Mike Shannon (president) Headquarters Palmetto, Florida, United States Profiles | ||
Feld Entertainment Inc. is a live show production company which owns the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and a number of other traveling shows.
Contents
Bonnie feld of feld entertainment gives a tour
History
In 1967, Irvin Feld and his brother Israel and Roy M. Hofheinz offered to purchase the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Broadway producers Cy Feuer and Ernest H. Martin sued in December 1967 to stop the sale. Instead the purchase of the combined circuses from the Ringling and North families to the Feld group took place for $8 million. The company was taken public in 1969. Kenneth Feld joined the business in 1970 after finishing college.
Mattel purchased the company in 1971 for $50 million in Mattel stock while Feld continued managing the circus. After Walt Disney World opened near Orlando, Florida in 1971, the circus company attempted to cash in on the resulting tourism surge by opening Circus World in nearby Haines City. Irvin & Kenneth Feld Productions in 1979 purchased from Chicago-based William Wirtz the Holiday on Ice and Ice Follies for $12 million. The company soon approached Disney about doing a Disney show on Ice. By 1980, the company produced 10 circus and ice show TV specials. An investment was also made in Barnum, the new Broadway musical. In 1981, Ken Feld started the Beyond Belief show at the New Frontier Hotel and Casino.
The Felds bought the company back in 1982 for $22.8 million by then the business had also Holiday on Ice, Ice Follies, Walt Disney's World on Ice and Beyond Belief Las Vegas nightclub act. Circus World was sold to Arizona developer James Monaghan in 1984. Ringlings' third touring company, Gold Unit, premiered on July 1, 1988 in Japan. In late 1988, Beyond Belief Las Vegas act went on an international tour.
Feld Entertainment
In 000000001996-10-01-0000October 1996, Irvin & Kenneth Feld Productions, Inc. changed its name to Feld Entertainment, Inc.
In 2001, Ken Feld began gifting shares of Feld Entertainment to his three daughters Nicole, Alana and Juliette Feld. Nicole was hired into the family business in 2001 and became the first female producer of Ringling Circus in 2004. Alana also signed on in 2003.
Due to an accident in October 2003, the Siegfried & Roy show was closed. FE started producing Disney Live! shows in June 2004 with Winnie the Pooh in the United Kingdom. Alana produced the first Doodlebops Live! in 2006. In 2006, Nicole was a vice president in charge of the circus. The company sold its Vienna, Virginia headquarters in 000000002006-05-01-0000May 2006 to America's Capital Partners then leased it back until 2018. In 2007, Nicole and Alana were elevated to executive vice president of the company.
The company signed a 10-year agreement with Disney Live Family Entertainment for Disney on Ice, Disney Live and other Disney productions in August 2008. In September, Feld also acquired the motorsports division of Live Nation, including the properties of Monster Jam (and several associated monster trucks), Supercross, Arenacross, and the IHRA. The motor sport division was renamed Feld Entertainment Motor Sports. Feld Motor Sports launched its first new arena-based freestyle motocross touring production, Nuclear Cowboyz, in 2010.
Feld Entertainment and Zignia Live, management company of Arena Cuidad de Mexico and Arena Monterrey, signed a promotion agreement in April 2011 bringing any of Feld shows to Zingia's managed arenas for a total of 18 weeks. This brings back the Ringling Bros circus in May 2012 that had been absent from Mexico since 2002.
In January 2012, the company purchased Palmetto Corporate Center, a former Siemens Corp. complex in Ellenton, Florida, and plans to move most of its various operations and its world headquarters there over a five-year period starting with its worldwide production center. Feld agreed in October 2013 to occupy a to be built 241,457-square-foot warehouse in the Baltimore-Washington Industrial Park, Jessup, Maryland expected to be finished in November 2014 to consolidated two other warehouse elsewhere in the industrial park used for merchandise.
In March 2013, Feld agreed with Marvel Entertainment, which was acquired by The Walt Disney Company in 2009, to produce Marvel Universe Live!, a Marvel character-based live arena show. Marketing campaign company Cimarron Group was hired in 2013 by Feld Entertainment for all media campaign for Marvel Live and other Feld shows. The Cimarron Group however shut down August 2013.
Juliette Feld was promoted to chief operating officer of the corporation in February 2016. In November 2016, Feld Entertainment and Sesame Workshop announced an agreement for a new Sesame Street Live show to debut in October 2017 to replace one by VStar Entertainment Group ending in July 2017.
Citing low attendance rates, Feld Entertainment has announced the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus will close after their final performance on May 21, 2017. The retirement of the elephants was a factor in the decreased attendance, but the company would continue operating its Center for Elephant Conservation.
Units
Feld Entertainment owns:
Disney Live!
Others
Theatrical
(most on Broadway):