James Anthony Bailey

Early life James Anthony McGinnis was born July 4, 1847

Bailey later associated with James E. Cooper, and by the time he was 22, he was manager of the Cooper and Bailey circus. He then met with P.T. Barnum, and together they established Barnum and Bailey's Circus (for which Bailey was instrumental in obtaining Jumbo the Elephant) in 1880, with their combined show opening the following spring in Madison Square Garden.

Barnum was the face of the circus, but James Bailey was the hard worker who insisted on staying behind the scenes. Barnum once wrote to him that James managed the show "ten times better than I could." He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, in The Bronx, New York City. His widow subsequently sold the circus to the Ringling brothers in 1907, who eventually merged the rival operations in 1919.

In his book about the circus, Earl Chapin May wrote, "Probably...no circus owner and manager left more sincere mourners than the thin little magnate known to millions as James A. Bailey."

Taped beneath a photo of James Bailey in the scrapbook of employee Harrison Gunning is a small scrap of paper that reads, "P.T. Barnum was the great showman, but Mr. Bailey was the supreme of all circus managers, past and present."

James A. Bailey was inducted into the International Circus Hall of Fame in 1960 and into the Circus Ring of Fame in Sarasota, Florida in 1990.