PHOENIX - Frank Ferrante's love affair with the circus goes far beyond an office full of collectibles.
"My experience began when I was 13 years old and ran away with Ringling Brothers for a summer," Ferrante recalled from his home office in Mesa.
As you can imagine, the news of the Ringling Bros. Circuis closing isn't easy for a man who spent nearly his entire life under the big top.
"I feel for my friends, I feel for some 600 performers who have to find a job within a few weeks,” he said. “That hurts.”
The demise of this circus has more to do with the animals though -- elephants in particular, whose absence from the show has changed everything.
Kelly Pinkleton is the Arizona State Director of the Humane Society of the United States, one of the groups responsible for pressuring the Greatest Show on Earth to phase out its elephants.
"When a tiger jumps through a hoop of fire or an elephant balances on a small ball, you have to force them to do that," Pinkleton said.
"The people who protested had the right to protest and they made their opinions known," Ferrante says. "They were a group that took down Goliath in their eyes … In my heart they took down families."
In the end, the Greatest Show on Earth is a business. Ferrante understands why it's coming to an end. But that doesn't make it any easier.
"This is a show that's gone for 146 years,” he said, “and in a few weeks it will be gone."
The last show is scheduled to take place on May 21 in Uniondale, New York.
The circus won’t be returning to Phoenix – the last show here happened in June of 2016.