John Ringling

It's the Circus King's Venetian Palace.

John Ringling's...

Finished the Car de Zon, House of John in Venetian dialect, on Sarasota Bay in 1926.

About 36,000 square feet and 56 rooms.

Look this place up.

There's no contemporary record of Jose Gasparra.

The legend first shows up in an early 1900s Gasparilla Inn brochure written by a publicist for the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway.

The brochure credited an old fisherman, Panther Key John, who said he'd sailed with Gaspar and supposedly lived to 120.

Sarasota, Florida is in fact has been known as Circus City or the Circus Capital of the World.

Christmas of 1927, Ringling Brothers opened, or excuse me, John Ringling opened the doors to his Circus Winter Quarters, which was headquartered there during the winter due to good climate and access to the railroad.

And at one time, his winter circus area was Florida's number one attraction, attracting over 100,000 visitors a year who would come there to see the animals and watch the trapeze train and that kind of thing.

And then in 1960, it moved to Venice, Florida and They no longer have a winter things, but though that was interesting that that was Florida's number one attraction, uh, back in the day.

Uh, started roots in Switzerland and Italy.

My parents got invited to come to America, uh, with John Ringling, so one of the original Ringling, uh, uh, invited them over with a very unique act.

And, um, and then it, it's just so great to be able to follow in your parents' footsteps because of the love and passion that you see in what they do.

Um, it was never talked about.