Barnum and Bailey's circus began to flourish in the era known as the Golden Age of the American circus. This period began in the last decades of the 1800s and lasted into the 1920s. The number of great circuses that existed then has never been equaled.
Several shows were popular enough to be rivals of the giant. They included the John Robinson, the Sells Bros., and the Adam Forepaugh circuses. One other show was finally able to surpass, and eventually to own, Barnum and Bailey's. That one was started by perhaps the most famous of all circus people the Ringling brothers.
