[1] Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey closed on May 21, 2017, following weakening attendance and high operating costs.

[2] After a six-year hiatus a newly designed production was launched in Bossier City, Louisiana September 28, 2023.

This was followed by the purchase of a half share of the Adam Forepaugh Sells Brothers Circus from Bailey.

Bailey, under the area division, prohibited the Ringlings from playing at Madison Square Garden, a location it was the brothers' ambition to perform at.

[4] Due to declining audiences, the Spanish flu pandemic and the World War I manpower shortage, the Barnum and Bailey and Ringling circuses were merged in 1919 as Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.