The Greatest Show on Earth is a 1952 drama film set in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and starring Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, and Charlton Heston. The film was produced, directed, and narrated by Cecil B. DeMille, and won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Its storyline is supported by lavish production values, actual circus acts, and documentary, behind-the-rings looks at the massive logistics effort which made big top circuses possible.
The film stars Hutton and Wilde as trapeze artists competing for the center ring, and Heston as the circus manager running the show. James Stewart also stars as a mysterious clown who never removes his make-up, even between shows, while Dorothy Lamour and Gloria Grahame play supporting roles.
In addition to the film actors, the real Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's Circus' 1951 troupe appears in the film, with its complement of 1400 people, hundreds of animals, and 60 carloads of equipment and tents. The actors learned their respective circus roles and participated in the acts.
Adjusted for inflation, the film's box office is among the highest-grossing films in the United States and Canada.
A television series, also called The Greatest Show on Earth, was inspired by the film, but with Jack Palance in the role of Charlton Heston's character. The program ran on Tuesday evenings for thirty episodes on ABC during the 1963—1964 season.
Read more about The Greatest Show On Earth: DeMille's Opening Remarks, Plot, Cast, Production, Reception, Awards, Influence
Famous quotes containing the words greatest and/or show:
“When she asked him about birth control, he sat down beside her and talked for half an hour about what a great woman Margaret Sanger was and how birthcontrol was the greatest single blessing to mankind since the invention of fire.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“The opposition is indispensable. A good statesman, like any other sensible human being, always learns more from his opponents than from his fervent supporters. For his supporters will push him to disaster unless his opponents show him where the dangers are. So if he is wise he will often pray to be delivered from his friends, because they will ruin him. But though it hurts, he ought also to pray never to be left without opponents; for they keep him on the path of reason and good sense.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)