Kenneth Feld

Kenneth Jeffrey Feld (born 1948 in Washington, DC) is the CEO of Feld Entertainment, which owns Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Disney on Ice!, Doodlebops Live!, Disney Live!, Monster Jam, International Hot Rod Association, and AMA Supercross Championship. He is also the producer of several Broadway plays. The business was started by his father Irvin Feld and Ken became CEO upon his father's death in 1984.

Biography

Feld is the son of Adele and Irvin Feld. He graduated from the Boston University School of Management in 1970 with a management degree (Feld is currently a member of the BU Board of Trustees). According to a 2004 article in Forbes magazine, he was worth $775 million and lives in Potomac, Maryland. His mother committed suicide in 1958 so he and his sister Karen were raised by their aunt and uncle.

Disney Studio co-produced "Largely New York" with Feld that premiered on 000000001989-05-01-0000May 1, 1989 at St. James Theatre.

In July 2006, he was inducted into the International Circus Hall of Fame.

Feld Entertainment

Feld Entertainment Inc. (FE) is a live show production company which owns the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and a number of other traveling shows.

History

In 1967, Irvin Feld and his brother Israel and Roy M. Hofheinz offered to purchased Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Broadway producers Cy Feuer and Ernest Martin sued in 000000001967-12-01-0000December 1967 to stop the sale. Instead the purchase of the combine circuses from the Ringling and North families to the Feld group took place for $8 million. The company was taken public in 1969.Kenneth Feld joined the business in 1970 after finishing college.

Mattel purchased the company in 1971 for $50 million in Mattel stock while Feld continued managing the circus. After Walt Disney World opened near Orlando, Florida in 1971, the circus company attempted to cash in on the resulting tourism surge by opening Circus World in nearby Haines City. Irvin & Kenneth Feld Productions in 1979 purchased from Chicago-based William Wirtz the Holiday on Ice and Ice Follies for $12 million. The company soon approach Disney about doing a Disney show on Ice. By 1980, the company produced 10 circus and ice show TV specials. An investment was also made in Barnum, the new Broadway musical. In 1981, Ken Feld started the Beyond Belief show at the New Frontier Hotel and Casino.

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is an American circus company billed as The Greatest Show on Earth. The circus, known as Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows, was started in 1919 when the circus created by James Anthony Bailey and P. T. Barnum was merged with the Ringling Brothers Circus. The Ringling brothers has purchased the Barnum & Bailey "Greatest Show on Earth" following Bailey's death in 1907, but ran the circuses separately until they were merged in 1919. On July 16, 1956 at the Heidelberg Race Track in Pittsbugh, Pennsylvania the circus ended its season early, with President John Ringling North announcing that it would no longer exhibit under their own portable tents and starting in 1957 would exhibit in permanent venues, such as sports stadiums and arenas that had the seating already in place. In 1967 Irvin Feld and his brother Israel, along with Houston Judge Roy Hofheinz bought the circus from the Ringling family. In 1971 the Felds and Hofheinz sold the circus to Mattel, buying it back from the toy company in 1982. After the death of Irvin Feld in 1984 the circus has been a part of Feld Entertainment, an international entertainment firm headed by Kenneth Feld.

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern United States and is the United States' 27th-most extensive, fourth-most populous, and seventh-most densely populated state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. The state has a maritime border in the Atlantic Ocean with Rhode Island, east of Long Island, as well as an international border with the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the north and Ontario to the west and north. The state of New York, with an estimated 19.8 million residents in 2015, is often referred to as New York State to distinguish it from New York City, the state's most populous city and its economic hub.

With an estimated population of nearly 8.5 million in 2014, New York City is the most populous city in the United States and the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States. The New York City Metropolitan Area is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. New York City is a global city, exerting a significant impact upon commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and entertainment, its fast pace defining the term New York minute. The home of the United Nations Headquarters, New York City is an important center for international diplomacy and has been described as the cultural and financial capital of the world, as well as the world's most economically powerful city. New York City makes up over 40% of the population of New York State. Two-thirds of the state's population lives in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and nearly 40% live on Long Island. Both the state and New York City were named for the 17th century Duke of York, future King James II of England. The next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany.

Ringling brothers

The Ringling brothers were seven siblings who transformed their small touring company of performers into one of America's largest circuses in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in McGregor, Iowa and raised in Baraboo, Wisconsin, they were the children of Heinrich Friedrich August Ringling (1826–1898), of Hanover, Germany, and Marie Salome Juliar (1833–1907), of Ostheim, France. They merged their Ringling Brothers Circus with America's other leading circus troupes, ultimately creating the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which still tours today under that name.

Siblings