Robert Stolarik for The New York Times Clowns from the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus performed on Monday in the waiting room of the Children’s Hospital at the Brooklyn Hospital Center. When the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus made its first appearance at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn last week, it marked a return to the borough where it was born in the 19th century. The circus revived another tradition on Monday, when it staged a performance for young patients, staff members and other guests at the Brooklyn Hospital Center.
The performance featured the familiar circus clowns, who elicited smiles from children being treated at the hospital. That same desire â€" to bring a little joy to a place often in need of it â€" was the reason Ringling Brothers had for decades performed outside Bellevue Hospital, now called Bellevue Hospital Center. Back then, the circus went all out for its hospital shows, which would also attract nearby residents, even bringing along some of its elephants.
“Dr. Ringling’s medicine is of the finest quality, easy to take, good for almost any ailment; children love it and adults enjoy it,†Dr. William F. Jacobs, Bellevue’s medical superintendent, told The New York Times in 1946, when about 6,000 people, many of them children, watched the show. “I’ll prescribe it any time in same dosage for young and old alike.â€
From 1960:
From 1944:
