The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, the largest circus associated with Sarasota County and the one with the longest connection to Venice, grew from a small show founded by the five Ringling brothers in 1884. Its winter quarters were first in Baraboo, Wisconsin, the Ringlings' home, and Bridgeport, Connecticut, winter quarters of the Barnum & Bailey Circus, became its second home. In 1927 John Ringling moved the circus winter quarters to Sarasota, where they remained until 1959. In 1960, no longer needing the acreage in Sarasota but still needing a rail connection, the circus moved its winter quarters to Venice under a 30-year lease for 15 acres of undeveloped airport property, with an option to renew for an additional 20 years, at a rent of $1000 per year adjusted by the federal cost-of-living index. Because the circus no longer performed under the Big Top, construction soon began on a 55,000 square-foot, 5000 seat arena, with adjacent structures for staging, costumes, and wardrobe space. On November 29, 1960, a crowd of more than 10,000 greeted The Greatest Show on Earth at the Seaboard Air Line Railroad Station on its first arrival, as the Venice High School Band played and Mayor Smythe Brohard, atop a new Venice Fire Dept. truck, led a parade of officials, performers, and animals to the new winter quarters. For the next thirty-two years, the circus was the city's major tourist attraction, and circus employees who made the Venice area their permanent home added to its circus reputation. Ownership changed in 1967 when the Ringlings sold the circus to Hoffeld Corp., owned by Roy Hofheinz and brothers Irvin and Israel Feld. The following year, Irvin Feld established Clown College to pass the skills of clown masters to future generations, with faculty including Lou Jacobs, Frosty Little, and Bobby Kaye. In 1992, after the Seminole Gulf Railroad announced abandonment of the ten miles of track into Venice, the circus closed its winter home there.