Tidbits Hits the Road with P.T. Barnum

by Janet Spencer

He was a showman, politician, businessman and hoaxter who had a passion for anything shockworthy and spectacular enough to draw a big crowd. Hop on the circus wagon with Tidbits as we look this week at the celebrated life of P.T. Barnum, a man who believed that “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

• Phineas Taylor Barnum was born in 1810 in Bethel, Connecticut. As a young man, following a series of business failures, Barnum joined up with Aaron Turner, the owner of a traveling circus. One night Turner announced to a crowd of townfolk that Barnum was a preacher who had just been acquitted of murder. The crowd was aghast at such shocking news, and word about it spread quickly.

• The people were ready to ride him out of town on a rail until Turner later stepped up and revealed that he had only been joking. When Barnum questioned why he had pulled such an outrageous hoax, Turner replied, “Remember, all we need to insure success is notoriety. Our pavilion will be crammed tomorrow night.” And it was. Taylor's clever tactic gave Barnum a lesson that became the foundation of his life as a showman.

P.T. Barnum

• Barnum later bought an old run-down museum in New York City and transformed it into a flashy, attention-getting showplace. To gather crowds outside the building Barnum hired a band of musicians to play lively music. To make sure the crowd came into the museum instead of hanging around outside, Barnum had hired only the worst musicians and made sure they played annoyingly off-key.

FAKES, FREAKS & FRAUDS

• Barnum observed that the world loves to ogle human freaks, so he made a tradition out of exhibiting the bearded lady, the fat boy, giants and midgets. He featured Siamese twins, albinos, and the Wild Men of Borneo (who were really Hiram and Barney Davis from Long Island, New York). The tattooed man was advertised as having been given them over his entire body in China as punishment for his rebellion against the king. The man had actually been inked up in New York City tattoo parlors. Barnum was not at all above

• Once, Final Changes a customer DUE: sued Fri., Barnum 8/24/18 claiming 5:00 fraud, p.m.. insisting the bearded lady was really a man.

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The trial was a public spectacle as the bearded

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Jenny Lind. Barnum offered her $150,000 for 150 American concerts. In today's dollars this is equal to about $30,000 for each performance. She was a world-famous star, and Barnum knew he could pack every performance with her billed as the leading attraction. But she insisted on being paid in advance, so Barnum had to sell or mortgage everything he owned as well as secure loans from friends to raise the money.

• In a ploy to maximize his revenues from the Jenny Lind performances, he decided to auction off the tickets to her first concert. He convinced a friend of his to buy the first ticket at a high price, no matter how high it was. His friend was a highend hat maker, and Barnum assured him that the publicity he would get in the papers would make him famous and more than triple his hatmaking business. Thousands paid a quarter apiece just to attend the highly publicized auction. The hat maker bought the first ticket for an astonishing $225 ($6,500 today), and the newspapers had a sensational story. As Barnum predicted, the publicity brought hundreds of new customers flocking to the hat shop.

• Jenny Lind’s first concert alone raised nearly Delaney Construction Co.

$18,000 ($500,000). By the time the tour was BZ BW ADVERTISING Open rate PROOF

HOAXES & HUMBUG

• In 1842 Barnum purchased a so-called mermaid. It was actually a taxidermied rendition of a monkey and a large fish skillfully sewn together and preserved. Barnum deliberately set out to stage a hoax. First he sent press releases to newspapers all over the country stating that British naturalist Dr. Griffin had discovered a new species of animal in the Fiji Islands. Next he hired a friend of his to pose as the British Dr. Griffin and give lectures about the mermaid. Barnum invited members of the press to examine the mermaid, resulting in more articles, photos and free publicity in papers nationwide. Officiallooking pamphlets about the strange new animal (written by Barnum) were circulated.

• Then Barnum announced that Dr. Griffin was refusing to allow any further viewing of the creature. ADVERTISING With public attention PROOF now aroused, Barnum Final Changes then announced DUE: Thurs. one 10/4/18 week later 5:00 p.m.. that Dr. Griffin had decided instead to exhibit the

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Contact your Tidbits representative immediately with changes or corrections. mermaid, but only at Barnum’s Museum. Public

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Office: 760-320-0997 email: valleybits@msn.com Fax: 760-320-1630 curiosity was now piqued, and attendance at the exhibit brought hoards of ticket holders lined at the doors for months.

• The result of this elaborate hoax caused people all over the country to believe that a species of mermaid actually existed in the Fiji Islands. But when the The claim Screen was eventually Guy exposed as a fraud, • 1/16th Barnum page, was barraged 4c, 26x with discount media rate criticism accusing • October him 14, of going 28, Nov. too 11, far in & 25 deceiving 2018 the American • Vol. 14: public. Issues This #42, time, 44, Barnum 46 & 48seemed to realize that he had indeed gone over the line, and refused to discuss the mermaid episode ever again.

• When the founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals complained about making horses jump through flaming hoops, Barnum responded by jumping through a flaming hoop himself, followed by half of the circus crew. Then the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children stepped up to

P.T. Barnum

complain about the use of six acrobatic children in the bicycle-riding act. Barnum walked up to the superintendent of the organization and offered him $200 a week to exhibit himself to his audiences as the man who wanted to take the bread out of the mouths of children.

• Barnum discovered that elephants were a big draw so he bought several, including the famous Jumbo. When Barnum paid a fortune sightunseen for an elephant billed as a rare white elephant, he found upon receiving it that it was light grey instead of white. So Barnum had it whitewashed before each show. One aging elephant was retired from the circus and sent to live on a farm. Barnum hired the farmer to dress in Oriental garb and keep the elephant busy plowing fields. The farmer was given a railroad schedule so the elephant was hard at work in the fields whenever a train went by. Passengers would wave and snap photos of the colorful scene, resulting in much national publicity.

BARNUM MEETS BAILEY

• It was an elephant that led to Barnum teaming up with Bailey. Businessman James Bailey also owned a circus, and one of his elephants became the mother of the first baby elephant ever born in captivity. Barnum couldn’t stand to see someone else get more publicity than himself, so he offered to buy the two elephants for an exorbitant sum. But Bailey used Barnum's own technique for getting free publicity by simply leaking Barnum’s offer to the press to gain more attention for himself.

• Impressed by that clever move, Barnum recognized that Baily was a person who, like himself, was a shrewd businessman and master of publicity. “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” thought Barnum, and a deal was struck teaming up the two to launch the largest event show to ever go on the road: the Barnum & Bailey Circus.

• When their first show was scheduled to open in New York's Madison Square Garden, Barnum paid for 100 top newspaper reporters from all over the country to attend and review the extravaganza. The wide publicity that resulted ensured the success of the newly formed team.

• By the mid 1880s, the Barnum and Bailey Circus was earning over a million dollars a year. Barnum invented the concept of the three-ring circus, setting a high standard for the professional circus industry.

• P.T. Barnum died in 1891 at the age of 82. Several years later, the Ringling Brothers bought the rights to the Barnum & Bailey circus. The combined conglomerate of resources and equipment immediately became the largest traveling circus show ever assembled on the planet. As Barnum had coined it, truly it was “The Greatest Show On Earth.” ‪