Cause of death Stroke Name John North | Siblings Henry Ringling North | |
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Relatives Henry Ringling North, brotherJohn Nicholas Ringling, uncleCharles Edward Ringling, uncleOtto Ringling, uncle Died June 4, 1985, Brussels, Belgium Education University of Wisconsin-Madison Parents Ida Loraina Wihelmina Ringling, Harry Whitestone North Similar People Henry Ringling North, Germaine Aussey, Cecil B DeMille | ||
John ringling north ii keeping traditional circus alive
John Ringling North (August 14, 1903 – June 4, 1985) was the president and director of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus from 1937 to 1943 and from 1947 to 1967.
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Life and career
North was born on August 14, 1903 in Baraboo, Wisconsin, the son of Ida Loraina Wihelmina (Ringling) and Harry Whitestone North. His mother was the sister of the Ringling brothers. As a boy, he hawked balloons and novelties at his uncles' circus. He learned to dance and play the saxophone from circus performers and formed his own dance band while at college.
He attended the University of Wisconsin and Yale University, but left the latter in his junior year. After working for two years in a New York stock brokerage, North worked for the Ringling brothers' real estate companies and for the circus during the summers. He returned to the brokerage business from 1929 to 1936, while continuing to assist the Ringling brothers with their business interests. After the death of his uncle and namesake, John Ringling, the last of the original Ringling brothers in 1936, North became president and director of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows Inc.
He married French actress Germaine Aussey on May 11, 1940. They were divorced three years later.
During World War II, North joined the Office of Strategic Services. In 1943 as a US Army lieutenant assigned to the OSS, he was part of the MacGregor Mission that arranged the surrender of the Italian naval fleet to the Allies. He parachuted into France with a Jedburgh team in 1944, using his contacts in the circus world to obtain intelligence information.
Under North's management, the circus switched from tents to air conditioned venues in 1956, in part to offset rising labor costs. North also replaced the circus's unrelated acts with thematic programs, and once hired Igor Stravinsky to compose a ballet for the circus' elephants with choreography by George Balanchine. The Ringling heirs sold the circus in 1967, ending 80 years of Ringling family control of the enterprise.
After the sale of the circus, he moved to Europe, where he lived in Switzerland and Belgium. In the early 1960s, North and his brother, Henry Ringling North, who had bought their father's ancestral home in County Galway, became Irish citizens.
North died of a stroke on June 4, 1985 in Brussels, Belgium at the age of 81.