John Ringling North

John Ringling North (14 August 1903 - 4 June 1985) was the president and director of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus from 1937 to 1943 and from 1947 to 1967.

Biography
North was born on August 14, 1903 in Baraboo, Wisconsin, the son of Henry and Ida Ringling 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 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 the last Ringling brother in 1936, North became president and director of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows Inc.

During World War II he worked for the Office of Strategic Services. He parachuted into France as part of Operation Jedburgh.

He later married the actress Germaine Aussey.

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.