Come one, Come all! Let me tell you about a magnificent creature famous throughout the American continent. Where he was born, the natives referred to him as Phineas Taylor Barnum, P.T. Barnum for those who struggle with the local dialect. However, he is better known as ‘The Greatest Showman on Earth’. Believed to be born in 1810 in the exotic lands of Bethal, Connecticut, Barnum is part of a unique race known as the Freak Show Showman. Standing at approximately six feet tall, he is possibly the finest example of his kind. A unique feature of the Showman is his ability to spout absolute nonsense and for people to believe him wholeheartedly.
Wow. It turns out that making the mundane sound exiting is harder than I initially thought.
Life Overview
I was unsure what I should write in this post. I mean, P.T. Barnum’s life was heavily intertwined with the history of freak shows, some of which I covered a few weeks ago. I don’t want to repeat myself, as that would be boring to read, as well as write. To be honest, while the name P.T. Barnum was vaguely familiar, I didn’t know who he was until I saw The Greatest Showman a few years ago. The thought occurred to me to compare the movie to reality, but there were not many facts in the movie to work with. Instead, I am just going to give an overview of his life and try to highlight the interesting bits.
When Barnum was a young child, he admired his grandfather (also called Phineas) who was fond of practical jokes. He felt that it brought entertainment and fun to an otherwise dull existence. When Barnum was 15, his father died, leaving him to provide for his mother, as well as his five brothers and sisters. He became publisher of the weekly newspaper, Herald of Freedom. However, he was arrested three times for libel. This gave him a glimpse of what it was like to be famous and he enjoyed it. At the age of 25, a customer in Barnum’s New York grocery store told him he was selling the 161-year-old slave Joice Heth and knew Barnum loved risky investments. Barnum snapped up the opportunity to buy Heth and thus his career as a showman had begun. Although slavery was outlawed in New York at this time, Barnum found a loophole by paying $1,000 to lease Heth for a year. I can’t remember them mentioning that in the film!
I will go onto his time as a showman shortly but first I will discuss other aspects of his life. At 19, he married Charity Hallett, a 21-year-old Bethal woman and they were married for 44 years. They had four daughters together, the youngest of which unfortunately died in childhood. Due to his talent as a showman exhibiting freak show performers and other curiosities, he became hugely famous and immensely rich. He was able to afford huge mansions where he entertained celebrities such as Mark Twain. It was not until his 60s that he became involved in the circus. He initially joined forces with circus owners Dan Castello and William C. Coup. They established Barnum’s Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan and Hippodrome in 1871. Ten years later, Barnum teamed up with James A. Bailey and James L. Hutchinson to form what would become the Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth in 1887. The circus was bought by Ringling Brothers in 1907 and lasted until 2017. Barnum died in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on 7 April 1891. Apparently, with his last words he inquired about the previous night’s gate receipts at the circus. A businessman till the end!
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| Jenny Lind, 1850 (wikimedia commons) |
Barnum The Showman
There is much more information about Barnum than I initially thought. This post will go on forever if I’m not careful. I shall endeavour to pick out the key highlights. After Joice Heth died in 1836, Barnum needed a new attraction. He found it in the form of the Feejee Mermaid. You have probably guessed that mermaids aren’t real. It was actually a preserved monkey’s head sewn onto the preserved tail of a fish. Once interest in the Feejee Mermaid waned, Barnum needed the next big hit. He found him in the form of Charles Stratton, a child with dwarfism who he renamed General Tom Thumb. Stratton was perhaps his most famous attraction and will get a post to himself next week.
I bet you are wondering where Barnum displayed all of these performers and curiosities. In 1841, Barnum bought Scudder’s American Museum in lower Manhattan and changed its name to Barnum’s American Museum. The museum was already filled with strange and exotic items, but Barnum added his own to bring the total to 850,000 exhibits. More than 4,000 visitors entered the museum per day paying 25 cents a trip. Over the course of time, the museum burnt down twice, forcing him to join the circus. He was a politician for a while and even became mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut. During the Civil War, some people were displeased with his views and did the logical thing, resorting to arson.
The Swedish Nightingale
Barnum’s goal was to become one of the best promoters of talent in the world, but this was not the reputation he had. Instead, his name was linked to low brow entertainment. In order to change this, he persuaded the Swedish singer, Jenny Lind to do a tour of America with him. He promoted her as “the Swedish Nightingale” and made sure thousands of Americans knew who she was before her arrival. Barnum took a huge gamble on Lind. He sold many of his possessions to pay her, all without even hearing her sing. Once Lind discovered how much Barnum stood to gain from her, she demanded he increase her fee. In fact, over the nine-month tour, they took in the modern equivalent of $21 million. In spite of this, things were not as good as they seemed. Lind did a large amount of charity work and she hoped to use the tour to raise money for various causes. However, she grew to dislike Barnum and his showmanship. She didn’t like him duping the public and therefore activated the clause in her contract which allowed her to leave after nine months.
As you can see, P.T. Barnum had an interesting life that did not completely revolve around freak shows. I have barely scratched the surface and could go on and on and on. However, if I did that, I would never make in on to my next post.
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Next week I will be discussing the life of Charles Stratton A.K.A. General Tom Thumb.
The Wheelchair Historian
Further Reading
Andrews, Evan, ‘10 Things You May Not Know About P.T. Barnum’, Published: 2 July, 2015, Updated: 22 August, 2018 https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-p-t-barnum Accessed: 6 November, 2020.
Biography.com Editors, ‘P.T. Barnum Biography’, Published: April 2, 2014, Updated: June 23, 2020 https://www.biography.com/business-figure/pt-barnum Accessed: October 20, 2020.
Golden Kellem, Betsy, ‘The Greatest Showman: The True Story of P.T. Barnum and Jenny Lind’, December 22, 2017 https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/12/greatest-showman-hugh-jackman-p-t-barnum-jenny-lind Accessed: 6 November, 2020.
Mangan, Gregg, ‘P. T. Barnum: An Entertaining Life’, July 5, 2019 https://connecticuthistory.org/p-t-barnum-an-entertaining-life/ Accessed: 6 November, 2020.
Mansky, Jackie, ‘P.T. Barnum Isn’t the Hero the “Greatest Showman” Wants You to Think’, smithsonianmag.com, December 22, 2017 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-pt-barnum-greatest-humbug-them-all-180967634/ Accessed: 6 November, 2020.
Wallace, Irving, ‘P.T. Barnum American showman’, Last Updated: Oct 18, 2020 https://www.britannica.com/biography/P-T-Barnum Accessed: 6 November, 2020.
