The cruise ship that ran
aground in Italy sure caught our attention! I understand the Captain was
2 1/2 miles off course when they went aground. Not a pretty picture
with that big rock torn right thru the hull!
The intracoastal waterway
around here is very shallow. We have seen as little as 4’ of water below
us, and that’s not much margin when we draw 3’. A few days ago, we
watched as a very large pleasure craft pulled out of Marina Jack early
in the morning. I knew we were at dead low tide when it left. I figured
it was going out the Big Sarasota Pass, and into the Gulf. Later that
day, our friends Rusty and Jan on CBAY pulled in. They said they had
passed a large boat that had gone aground in the intracoastal a few
miles north of here. It was sitting there, waiting for high tide so they
could get off. It was the boat we watched leave. Just goes to show -
take nothing for granted, watch the tides and charts, and always ask the
locals about the conditions. I’ll let Pat tell you about our run with
Brian and Melissa out into the Gulf. Should have checked with the locals!!
Brian and Melissa had a
chance to fly down and spend a few days with us. One day we went to the
Ringling Museum / Estate. What John Ringling amassed and created in his
life time is mind boggling to me. For starters, I’ll put this in,
which I found on Wikipidea, telling a little history about John
Ringling:
“John Ringling was born in McGregor, Iowa,
the fifth of seven sons and a daughter of German immigrants, Marie
Salomé Juliar and August Ringling, who was a farmer and harness maker.
The original family name was "Ruengling". Five of those sons worked
together to build a circus empire.
The Ringlings started their
first show in 1870 as the "The Ringling Brothers United Monster Shows,
Great Double Circus, Royal European Menagerie, Museum, Caravan, and
Congress of Trained Animals", charging a penny for admission. In 1882,
it was known as "The Ringling Brothers Classic and Comic Concert
Company". In 1884, they formed the "Yankee Robinson and Ringling
Brothers Circus", the only time they accepted second billing.
By 1889 the circus was large enough to travel on railroad cars, rather than animal-drawn wagons. Admission rose to 50 cents for adults and 25 cents for children.
In 1905, John married Mable
Burton. In 1907, the brothers bought the Barnum & Bailey circus for
$400,000 and ran the two circuses as separate entities for a few years.
John worked the circus with his brothers, declaring "We divided the
work; but stood together." John took the advance position, traveling
ahead and booking the appearances and Charles was the operating manager.
The Ringling Brothers Circus was renowned for its honesty and fair-dealing”
That honesty and fair dealing
lead to John Ringling amassing a fortune during his life. Their winter
home was in Sarasota, and in later years the Circus was based in
Sarasota.
John & Mable traveled to
Europe numerous times to see what the Circuses there were doing, to hire
new talent, and to purchase art for their collection. John and Mable
had acquired so much art, that they also built an art gallery on their
Sarasota property to house the collection.
John Ringling was also
involved in many other businesses. He owned Railroads, oil exploration,
and real estate in Florida. He became one of the wealthiest men in the
US.
The Great Depression served a
real blow on Ringling, and he lost most of his fortune. He was able to
keep his house, the art gallery, and his extensive art collection.
The tour guide told us that
the Feds approached Ringling numerous times in later years, attempting
to collect back taxes in excess of two million dollars. John told them
to simply talk to his attorney, and ignored them. Mabel died in 1929.
His brothers also had passed earlier.
The Feds came back to him,
and told John that they were going to seize his estate, and put his art
work up for auction to pay his back taxes. He decided to create a will,
and labeled every piece of art, his house, and the art gallery to one
benefactor. John Ringling died soon after. When the will was read, it
stated that all was to go to the City of Sarasota. The Feds and Sarasota
fought over this for eight years, until the Feds finally gave up, and
let Sarasota have everything.
The result is the Ringling
Estate, consisting of the house and gardens, called Ca’ dZan, meaning
The House of John, the art museum with all his collection intact, and a
museum of Circus History.
Ca’ dZan, pictured below, is a 30 room Gothic mansion. It sits on Sarasota Bay, and occupies a great deal of water front.
The back of the home has an expansive slate patio. You can imagine the parties that occurred here!
There are
numerous hand painted murals throughout. The chandelier is from the
original Waldorf Estoria. Mabels rose garden was designed after the
wagon wheel gardens of Europe.
They did not allow photography inside. It was full of statues and paintings. Note all the statues at the top of the walls.
As John and Mabel traveled Europe, they would purchase paintings, statues,
and columns for the art museum. Notice in the picture below that the
columns are not all the same. Some are smooth, some are turned, the
cornices are different, and they are different heights, so the support
columns at the bottom are built different heights.
Capt'n Ken
