Circus World

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Circus World (disambiguation).

Circus World was a theme park built in Polk County, Florida, United States, on the east corner of the intersection of US 27 and Interstate 4. It was originally a property of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, and was intended additionally to be the Circus's winter headquarters.

The Preview Center for "Circus World Showcase" as it was originally called, a 27,000-ft² building designed to look like a circus tent, was erected and opened in 1974. The building featured, among other things, an IMAX movie theatre. Exhibits were built around it throughout the next two years, including a carousel, several shows, and an interactive experience where visitors could actually attempt certain daredevil stunts such as tightrope walking and the trapeze (with copious safety equipment and expert help, of course). In addition, the Showcase part was eventually dropped, making the park "Circus World".

Mattel sold the Circus back to its original owner, Kenneth Feld, in 1982, but kept the park, further expanding it with shows, rides, a roller coaster, and several animal exhibits including a petting zoo. It never did become profitable. They sold the park to Jim Monaghan in 1984 for $10 million. He added landscaping and several more rides, but ultimately sold the park to Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (Now Harcourt, a division of Reed Elsevier) in April 1986. HBJ, which had just bought several parks including the SeaWorld parks and Cypress Gardens, had a new idea for the area, and immediately closed the park, rebuilding it into Boardwalk and Baseball, which opened on February 14, 1987.

  • Circus World at Florida's Lost Tourist Attractions (source of information for this article)
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