P.T. Barnum, master showman, huckster, and marketing guru is credited with the old saw, "There's a sucker born every minute." Those who claim to know insist that he is falsely accused; he never said it.
It really doesn't matter if he ever said it. Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-1891) based his life and checkered career on this proposition.
Barnum had acquired various "museums" and created freak shows and curiosities including mermaids and Tom Thumb, the child who for amusement of fans was drinking wine and smoking cigars at age 10, although marketed as age 6. Although best known for running circuses, he didn't get into that line of work until he was age 60.
Barnum's most profitable and legitimate venture to that time was his sponsorship of the American tour of Jenny Lind, the Swedish Nightingale. In Europe, Lind had achieved great popularity and was admired by Queen Victoria and by her would-be lover, Felix Mendelssohn, the great German composer and performer.
The motive of the American tour for both Lind and Barnum was money. Lind had a history of giving to charitable causes and wished to raise as much money as possible for charities, including endowing schools for poor children in her native Sweden. Barnum's motive was for profits, pure and simple.
Lind insisted on hefty fees, paid up front. Barnum considered this a risky venture, having to borrow money to meet Lind's upfront fees. He borrowed the remaining $5,000 from a Philadelphia minister who believed Lind to be a good influence on American morals.
Barnum's gamble paid off. Thanks to her European popularity and Barnum's marketing, Lind was a celebrity even before arriving in America. Her tour was a major success for Lind who wanted to raise as much as possible for her charities. It was a success for Barnum who reportedly recouped several times his initial investment.
In 1841 Lind severed ties with Barnum. After 93 American concerts Lind had earned about $350,000 and Barnum about $500,000.
Barnum saw his next challenge as to change public attitudes of theater from "dens of evil" to places of "edification and delight." He had become a teetotaler upon his return from Europe. He started the first matinees, opening with "The Drunkard," a thinly disguised temperance lecture. He followed with melodramas, farces, and historical plays.
Barnum organized flower shows, beauty contests, dog shows, poultry contests and baby contests, including "the fattest baby."
Financial disaster followed when some of his real estate loans went bad. Four years of litigation and humiliation proved to his detractors that "Gods were visible again."
Barnum's friends came to his rescue. Tom Thumb, who had been touring on his own, offered his services. Siamese twins, Chang and Eng, came out of retirement. Barnum introduced the "man-monkey," a black dwarf who spoke a unique language created by Barnum.
He introduced new curiosities, giantess Anna Swan and Commodore Nutt, and a new Tom Thumb. Barnum's museum drew large audiences during the Civil War. He added pro-Union lectures and dramas. He hired an actress who served as a Union spy to lecture about her time behind Confederate lines.
His pro-Union sympathies incited a Confederate sympathizer to burn his museum to the ground. He re-established it at another location, only to have it burned down again. This ended his museum ventures, only to usher in his next.
Delavan, Wisconsin, 1870 - at age 60, Barnum linked up with one William Cameron Coup to establish "P.T. Barnum's Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan, and Hippodrome." The show went through numerous names including the cumbersome "P.T, Barnum's Greatest Show on Earth, and the Great London Circus, Sanger's Royal Menagerie and the Grand National Allied Shows United."
After several more iterations he settled on the more manageable "Barnum and Bailey Circus." As a kid I remember it as "Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey."
His was the first circus to use three rings. His show was the first to travel by train. It endured fires, train disasters, and other setbacks. Barnum was astute enough to rely on the advice of Coup, Bailey, and other business partners to navigate through these troubles.
Barnum insisted that using hype, or "humbug" as a sales tactic was legitimate, as long as the public was getting value for their money. He was contemptuous of those who "made money through fraudulent deception," such as through "spiritual madness."
Barnum claimed that politics were distasteful. He was elected to the Connecticut legislature in 1865 and served several terms. His opposition to the pro-slavery Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 led him to leave the Democratic Party to become a member of the new anti-slavery Republican Party.
He was a sponsor in 1879 of an anti-contraception law that prohibited "any drug, medical article or instrument for the purpose of preventing conception," a law that remained in effect in Connecticut until overturned in 1965 by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Barnum promoted "profitable philanthropy," asserting that if by improving the beauty of Bridgeport, Connecticut, he could do it at a profit, the incentive would be twice as strong. He made generous gifts to Tufts University.
Showman, marketing guru, huckster, teetotaler, circus king, philanthropist, politician, author of books on making money, frequent involvement in litigation, suede show artist - take your pick. How about all of the above?
If Donald Trump had been born a century and a half earlier, would you ever have heard of P.T. Barnum?
Fate works in strange ways. The country may not have been big enough to hold both of them.
- John Waelti of Monroe can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears Fridays in The Monroe Times.
It really doesn't matter if he ever said it. Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-1891) based his life and checkered career on this proposition.
Barnum had acquired various "museums" and created freak shows and curiosities including mermaids and Tom Thumb, the child who for amusement of fans was drinking wine and smoking cigars at age 10, although marketed as age 6. Although best known for running circuses, he didn't get into that line of work until he was age 60.
Barnum's most profitable and legitimate venture to that time was his sponsorship of the American tour of Jenny Lind, the Swedish Nightingale. In Europe, Lind had achieved great popularity and was admired by Queen Victoria and by her would-be lover, Felix Mendelssohn, the great German composer and performer.
The motive of the American tour for both Lind and Barnum was money. Lind had a history of giving to charitable causes and wished to raise as much money as possible for charities, including endowing schools for poor children in her native Sweden. Barnum's motive was for profits, pure and simple.
Lind insisted on hefty fees, paid up front. Barnum considered this a risky venture, having to borrow money to meet Lind's upfront fees. He borrowed the remaining $5,000 from a Philadelphia minister who believed Lind to be a good influence on American morals.
Barnum's gamble paid off. Thanks to her European popularity and Barnum's marketing, Lind was a celebrity even before arriving in America. Her tour was a major success for Lind who wanted to raise as much as possible for her charities. It was a success for Barnum who reportedly recouped several times his initial investment.
In 1841 Lind severed ties with Barnum. After 93 American concerts Lind had earned about $350,000 and Barnum about $500,000.
Barnum saw his next challenge as to change public attitudes of theater from "dens of evil" to places of "edification and delight." He had become a teetotaler upon his return from Europe. He started the first matinees, opening with "The Drunkard," a thinly disguised temperance lecture. He followed with melodramas, farces, and historical plays.
Barnum organized flower shows, beauty contests, dog shows, poultry contests and baby contests, including "the fattest baby."
Financial disaster followed when some of his real estate loans went bad. Four years of litigation and humiliation proved to his detractors that "Gods were visible again."
Barnum's friends came to his rescue. Tom Thumb, who had been touring on his own, offered his services. Siamese twins, Chang and Eng, came out of retirement. Barnum introduced the "man-monkey," a black dwarf who spoke a unique language created by Barnum.
He introduced new curiosities, giantess Anna Swan and Commodore Nutt, and a new Tom Thumb. Barnum's museum drew large audiences during the Civil War. He added pro-Union lectures and dramas. He hired an actress who served as a Union spy to lecture about her time behind Confederate lines.
His pro-Union sympathies incited a Confederate sympathizer to burn his museum to the ground. He re-established it at another location, only to have it burned down again. This ended his museum ventures, only to usher in his next.
Delavan, Wisconsin, 1870 - at age 60, Barnum linked up with one William Cameron Coup to establish "P.T. Barnum's Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan, and Hippodrome." The show went through numerous names including the cumbersome "P.T, Barnum's Greatest Show on Earth, and the Great London Circus, Sanger's Royal Menagerie and the Grand National Allied Shows United."
After several more iterations he settled on the more manageable "Barnum and Bailey Circus." As a kid I remember it as "Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey."
His was the first circus to use three rings. His show was the first to travel by train. It endured fires, train disasters, and other setbacks. Barnum was astute enough to rely on the advice of Coup, Bailey, and other business partners to navigate through these troubles.
Barnum insisted that using hype, or "humbug" as a sales tactic was legitimate, as long as the public was getting value for their money. He was contemptuous of those who "made money through fraudulent deception," such as through "spiritual madness."
Barnum claimed that politics were distasteful. He was elected to the Connecticut legislature in 1865 and served several terms. His opposition to the pro-slavery Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 led him to leave the Democratic Party to become a member of the new anti-slavery Republican Party.
He was a sponsor in 1879 of an anti-contraception law that prohibited "any drug, medical article or instrument for the purpose of preventing conception," a law that remained in effect in Connecticut until overturned in 1965 by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Barnum promoted "profitable philanthropy," asserting that if by improving the beauty of Bridgeport, Connecticut, he could do it at a profit, the incentive would be twice as strong. He made generous gifts to Tufts University.
Showman, marketing guru, huckster, teetotaler, circus king, philanthropist, politician, author of books on making money, frequent involvement in litigation, suede show artist - take your pick. How about all of the above?
If Donald Trump had been born a century and a half earlier, would you ever have heard of P.T. Barnum?
Fate works in strange ways. The country may not have been big enough to hold both of them.
- John Waelti of Monroe can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears Fridays in The Monroe Times.
