Portrait of performer Paulo Cesar Oliveira dos Santos.<br />
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After 146 years, the "Greatest Show on Earth" will close its curtain in the end of May. <br />
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus started in 1919 when the circus created by James Anthony Bailey and P. T. Barnum merged with the Ringling Brothers Circus. The circus' parent company, Feld Entertainment, made the decision to end the show after waning ticket sales and long court battles over the treatment of animals, particularly the elephants, made the costly entertainment event unsustainable.