[1] After 1957, the circus no longer exhibited under its own portable "big top" tents, instead using permanent venues such as sports stadiums and arenas.

In 1967, Irvin Feld and his brother Israel, along with Houston judge Roy Hofheinz, bought the circus from the Ringling family.

In 1871, Dan Castello and William Cameron Coup persuaded Barnum to come out of retirement to lend his name, know-how, and financial backing to the circus they had already created in Delavan, Wisconsin.

Bailey's European tour gave the Ringling brothers an opportunity to move their show from the Midwest to the eastern seaboard.

They decided that it was too difficult to run the two circuses independently because of labour shortages and complications to rail travel brought about by American involvement in World War I, and on March 29, 1919, "Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows" debuted in New York City.

[21] In 1938, the circus made a lucrative offer to Frank Buck, a well-known adventurer and animal collector, to tour as their star attraction and to enter the show astride an elephant.

[23] Special dispensation was given to the circus by President Roosevelt to use the rails to operate in 1942, in spite of travel restrictions imposed as a result of World War II.

[23][24] On July 6, 1944, in Hartford, Connecticut, during an afternoon performance attended by some 8,000 people, the Big Top tent caught fire.

Ringling Brothers' management set aside all profits for the next ten years to pay the claims filed against the show by the City of Hartford and the survivors of the fire.

Public tastes, influenced by the movies and television, abandoned the circus, which gave its last performance under the big top in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on July 16, 1956.

[24] In 1956, when John Ringling North and Arthur Concello moved the circus from a tent show to an indoor operation, Irvin Feld was one of several promoters hired[28] to work the advance for select dates.

[35] Venture Out in America, Inc., a Gulf Oil recreational subsidiary, bought the combined shows in January 1974, and the opening was further pushed back to 1975.

In 1990, the Seminole Gulf Railway, who took over the rail line serving the Venice facility in 1987, could no longer support the show's train cars, which led the combined circus to move its winter base to the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa.

[40] Clair George has testified in court that he worked as a consultant in the early 1990s for Kenneth Feld and the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

He was involved in the surveillance of Janice Pottker, a journalist who was writing about the Feld family, and of various animal rights groups such as PETA.

[42] Designed to compete with similar upscale circuses such as Cirque du Soleil, Barnum's Kaleidoscape was not successful, and ceased performances after the end of 2000.

[45] The circus cited steeply declining ticket sales associated with the loss of the elephants combined with high operating costs as reasons for the closure, along with animal cruelty concerns.

[45] On May 7, 2017, its "Circus Extreme" tour was shown for the last time at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island.

The circus's last performance before the hiatus was its "Out of This World" tour at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York on May 21, 2017.

[49][50] On September 29, 2023, after a six-year hiatus, the relaunched circus kicked off at Brookshire Grocery Arena in Bossier City, Louisiana.

Each train presented a different "edition" of the show, using a numbering scheme that dates back to circus origins in 1871 – the first year of P.T.

Ringling estimated that 150 employees were on board at the time of the accident; fifteen received minor injuries, and clown Ceslee Conkling and elephant trainer Ted Svertesky were killed.

[43] In 2004, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey were investigated following the death of a lion who died from heat and lack of water while the circus train was traveling through the Mojave Desert.

[62] The 14-year course of litigation came to an end in May 2014 when The Humane Society of the United States and a number of other animal rights groups paid a $16 million settlement to the circus' parent company, Feld Entertainment.

[64] From 2007 to 2011, the United States Department of Agriculture conducted inspections of the circus's animals, facilities, and records, finding non-compliance with the agency's regulations.

[65][66] An inspection report alleged that a female Asian elephant, Banko, was forced to perform at a show in Los Angeles despite a diagnosis of sand colic and observations that she appeared to be suffering abdominal discomfort.

[67][68][69] Feld stated that this action was not a result of the allegations by animal rights groups, but rather due to the patchwork of local laws regarding whether elephants could be used in entertainment shows.

[72][73] Seven tigers, six lions and one leopard were part of a convoy to temporarily move the animals out of Florida ahead of Hurricane Irma on September 5, 2017.

One of them, a 6-year-old Siberian tiger named Suzy who had previously starred in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, escaped from a convoy of trucks transporting her from Florida to Memphis International Airport and was fatally shot by police after attacking a nearby dog.

In August 2011, 20th Century Fox announced that a biographical musical drama film entitled The Greatest Showman was in development.