April 15, 2025 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, in a big and memorable way, P.T. Barnum changed how all Americans lived. He gave them something to talk about—and dream about. Our movies, television, and entertainment-saturated culture are what they are today because of what he started. He seems almost like a fable now—but then again, he did in his own time as well. Here to tell the story is Kathy Maher, Executive Director of the P.T. Barnum Museum.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
from the arts to sports, and from business to history
and everything in between, including your story. Send them to
our Americanstories dot com. They're some of our favorites. Phineas
Taylor Barnum was to the show business what Andrew Jackson
(00:30):
had been to politics, And like Andrew Jackson, he became
one of the representative Americans of his time, an expanse
of entrepreneur in the Great Age of entrepreneurs. In a
big and memorable way. He changed how we all lived.
He gave us something to talk about, something to dream about.
Our movies, television, our entire entertainment saturated culture is what
(00:52):
it is today because of what P. T. Barnum started.
He seems almost a fable now, but then he did
in his own day two. For you to tell this
story is an expert among pt Barnum experts. Let's take
a listen.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Good night.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
We welcome America's Famuli shrman veneas Pala Barnam.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
My name is Kathleen Maher. I am the director of
the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It's about barely an
hour outside of New York City, and it was the
home of P. T. Barnum, And the museum that I
worked for was actually incepted by P. T. Barnum before
he passed away, But sadly it took two years to
(01:41):
build and he did not survive to see it completed.
But what I typically loved doing on a regular basis
is talking about Barnum and how he's impacted our lives today,
how he has completely designed popular culture, the way we
moved through the world, through theater, through gaming. Everything that
(02:01):
you could possibly think of actually has some form or
some fingerprint of Barnum on it, because he was a
brilliant and genius promoter. Most people go back and they
think today because of the success of The Greatest Showman
movie that you Jackman did a couple of years ago,
so people immediately think of Barnum in that context. The
(02:24):
fascinating thing is the movie absolutely captured his spirit. But
Barnum himself actually is born in eighteen ten in Bethel, Connecticut,
a farming community. When you think about eighteen ten in
the context of American history, Napoleon is still a current event.
You know, King George is still alive, founding fathers are
(02:46):
still alive. So America is really a very new nation
and struggling with what the Constitution means in their lives.
This is something very very new, and Barnum is born
into that. And we all think about Barnum, we think
of the circus. The fact of the matter is the
greatest show on Earth was Barnum's retirement project. He was
(03:10):
sixty one years old before he really embarked on what
we think of the circus today. He had decades of
struggles and triumphs to really come to this pinnacle of
his life, which lingered as the Ringling Brothers Barnum and
Balley Circus until a few years ago. So his legacy
really began. Barnum's brand began long before his circus endeavor. So,
(03:36):
like I said, he was born in a small town
in Connecticut called Bethel on July fifth. We did not
celebrate fourth of July the way we do today, but
he was born on July fifth. But the truth of
the matter is that Barnum's maternal grandfather was actually well
to do. The family owned much of the town, the
shops in the town, and Barnum's mother and father own
(03:59):
owned shop so they were working class people most certainly,
but they were not destitute. And interestingly, Barnum was one
of ten children, so he had siblings and half siblings,
so it was quite a robust family that worked the farms.
He did not like farm work. He liked headwork. He
(04:21):
was always calculating, even as a very very young boy.
So they realized he was not the kind of kid
that was going to help in the fields with his family.
He was going to work in the general store, and
that's where he learns the art of barter in trade.
It was Yankee ingenuity at that moment in time, and
it was all everything was a negotiation in New England,
(04:42):
so it was really the moment where he learns the
art of a deal. He learns ingenuity. He's witty and
he's humor and he was charming as young as he
was to people in the community. His schooling only went
till he was about eight years old when he had
to go and work in his family's general store. He
(05:03):
did grow up. It was a very religious community, Protestant beliefs.
Barnum didn't push against that necessarily. He was a staunch
Christian believer. He believed that all of the challenging things
that happened to him through the course of his life
was divine providence that he learned and he could be better.
(05:23):
When he lost all of his money in the eighteen fifties,
he felt that that was the lesson he needed to
have to learn humility. Now what he wound up doing
in Bethel, he realized shopkeeping was not going to make
him the amount of money that he wanted, and he
embarked on the lotteries. They were sanctioned by the church
at that time, they were sanctioned by the state, and
(05:44):
he was making quite a bit of money for his
family conducting lottery operations. It's not until the very calvinistic
ideologies of the church wanted to really ban through legislation
lotteries in Connecticut that Barnum recognized he was not going
to make enough money living in Bethel anymore. And that's
(06:05):
really when he brings his family to New York City
to start a whole new life. But what he does
do in Bethel, which is remarkable. He's a young man,
he's in his early twenties, and he recognizes that the
idea of a democratic community, if you had a voice,
(06:26):
you had an opinion. You had an obligation and most
certainly a right to speak your voice. And he started
writing letters to the Danbury newspapers and nobody would print
any editorials, nothing that he would write. So he decided
to embark on his own newspaper at twenty one years old,
and he produces a paper called the Herald of Freedom
(06:49):
and Gospel Witness, and newspapers at that time were huge,
just loaded with words. It winds up that and he
even refers to it as his arrogant youth. He's sued
three times for libel and the last time it landed
him in jail.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
And you're listening to Kathy Mayer, executive director of the P. T.
Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut, more of this remarkable story.
A guy who grows up in a small farm community
and ends up in the big city, New York City.
His life story continues. P. T. Barnums here on Our
American Stories Lie Hibib here, the host of our American Stories.
(07:35):
Every day on this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from
across this great country, stories from our big cities and
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Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not
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to Alamerican Stories dot com and click the donate button.
Give a little, give a lot. Go to Alamerican Stories
(07:57):
dot com. And we continue here with our American stories
and with Kathy Mayer, executive director of the PT. Barnum
Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut, telling the story of P. T. Barnum.
(08:22):
Let's continue and pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
He sued three times for libel, and the last time
it landed him in jail. He made a comment about
usury by a reverend in town and he was thrown
in jail for libel for two months. People were outraged.
They felt it was freedom of the press. He had
the right to say what he said, so they had
(08:48):
his jail cell decorated. There was a parade for him
when he got out of jail. He continued to print
the newspaper while he was jailed. So then if you
have to talk about a shift in a moment in time,
there it is. And he really finds that's the moment
in time where there's power in understanding what's happening in
(09:10):
the political world. And later on in life. It shows
out that he feels that if you have a voice
and you're living, you know, with the freedoms that we
have today, that it is your obligation to have a voice.
And that's really how he conducted the rest of his life.
So back to New York City. It's you know, the
(09:31):
late eighteen thirties, early eighteen forties, and New York doesn't
develop like a colonial city the way we think of
Boston and Philadelphia. It's really an industrial city and the
harbors are you know, extremely active with commerce. Barnum finds
this to be an extraordinary moment in time. He doesn't
(09:51):
quite fit into the He never works in an office.
He's always working in some type of retail or trade.
He tries at hands at promoting different kind of technologies.
It just doesn't work until he discovers scutters American Museum
Lower Broadway in New York and late eighteen thirties in
(10:11):
New York, remember there is a financial crash. You know,
businesses were just going under left and right, and the
Scutterer's Museum, which had been around since eighteen ten, was
dramatically failing. You know, the idea of it being an
institute of science and scientific advancement was falling out of favor.
(10:33):
People didn't have the money. It was old, it was tired.
Barnham saw opportunity in it, and because the price had
been dropped fifteen thousand dollars, he devised a way to
actually acquire it. He as a child, he was told
he owned property in Bethel, Connecticut. It was called Ivy Island.
He was all excited about it. When he realizes that
(10:55):
it was nothing but swampland and virtually useless, he feels
by his own community and family. However, going back to
his ingenious ability to think of how you can negotiate this.
During the negotiation for Scudder's museum, didn't have enough money
and he literally told the bankers, I have property in
(11:18):
Connecticut Ivy Island, and this is December, you know in
New England, you know, in eighteen forty one, nobody was
going to take the day's long journey up to Bethel,
Connecticut to evaluate the property. So they accepted the collateral.
So he was able to seal the deal for the
American Museum using his charm, using his wit, and using
(11:40):
his ingenuity extraordinary by today's standards. But when he purchases
the American Museum. He opens it on New Year's Day
in eighteen forty two, and again it was it was
a tired institution. There was nothing alive, nothing charming, nothing
innovative that would attract people in. So he realized three things.
(12:00):
It needed a major renovation, it needed a massive publicity campaign,
and literally an injection of sheer personality, Barnum's personality. So
he did everything that you could possibly think of to
clean it up and make it something that you couldn't
walk by. They put huge banners of different types of
(12:23):
animals outside. Literally they put a calcide drum on the roof.
It becomes the first what are they called those big
spotlights in the sky that would attract people. It opened
early in the morning, it didn't close till ten o'clock
at night, and it was available to everyone. The institution
was not for just the wealthy and the educated and
(12:46):
the traveled. It was open to anybody and everybody who
could pay their twenty five cents. Because when you think
about New York City in the eighteen forties, it's a
tough place. There's, you know, intense immigration coming into the city.
It's the Irish immigration, where Irish were not allowed into
many establishments. That was not the case with the American Museum,
(13:09):
so it became quickly became a vibrant part of the
developing metropolis. It was an enormous attraction where people could
go and feel safe and have entertainment. Another thing that's
interesting to think about. At this time, any kind of
theater going was not really deemed as moral and wholesome
(13:30):
ways of spending your time. Predominantly theaters were attended by
mail audiences. There was drinking, there was prostitution, even violence.
Barnum would have none of that in the American Museum.
It was a place for family entertainment and any kind
of missa. He had security guards serving all of the
(13:50):
floors and if there was any questionable activity or language,
you were escorted out. Now Barnum actually was buying up
the New York Peels Museum. He operated the Baltimore Peel Museum,
later integrating the scientific specimens and objects into the American Museum,
(14:11):
so it really became our first science, major public science institution. Interestingly,
there was everything from whale tanks in the basement. They
were pumping water in from the East River. That's America's
first aquarium. Barnum knew about the National Aquarium in London
and wanted to bring one back to his homeland. And
(14:35):
also there were living animals inside the museum as well,
so it's the first zoo. Now, some of the things
he exhibited were truly curiosities and wonders. And again, in
a democratic America, you had your freedom of your voice.
You could decide if it was real, if it wasn't real.
It almost didn't matter. At the American Museum. If there
(14:58):
was truth in anything, the opportunity was you could make
up your own mind. So Barnum actually has a friend
and colleague, and at one point Barnum borrowed Moses Kimball's
Fiji Mermaid, you know, exotic mermaid. But he didn't bring
it to the American Museum right away. He actually devised
(15:21):
a method to get people excited about it, sent letters
to newspapers, publishing a story about a naturalist from London
coming over with this extraordinary specimen. After weeks of Barnum
peppering cities across the East Coast, he ultimately brings the
Fiji Mermaid to the American Museum. Hipes it all up.
(15:45):
People pay, They don't pay extra sy people pay to
come into the museum, and they come to find out
that it's just this hideous tale of a fish body
of an orangutang and it's just detestable. It's horrible. People
were like, oh, really, you know and believe it or not.
The Fiji Mermaid is Barnum's line in the sand. He
(16:08):
felt that that's the place throughout the course of his life.
That's the place where he went too far. People were
expecting something from him at this point, and the Fiji
Mermaid took advantage. So he said never again. And that
is literally where Barnum sees the line can be drawn,
and absolutely would not embark on something that he felt
(16:30):
would betray the trust of his public. Now people use
the word humbug today, probably differently, and Barnum's definition of
the word humbug is, in my opinion, the true meaning
of humbug is management tact to take an old truth
(16:50):
and put it into an attractive form. So we don't
really think about humbug and modern contexts that way. But
Barnum didn't see it as necessarily duping the people. It
was about bringing people in on a story, on an
object to take the journey of what this is together,
(17:12):
but making it understandable by today, by that moment's list
of expectations. Now, interestingly, when you think about the greatest
Showman movie that came out, that is precisely what they did.
They took Barnum's old story and they put it into
a form that would be relatable by modern standards. So
(17:36):
it's a brilliant humbug.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
And you've been listening to Kathy Mayer, executive director of
the PT. Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut. When we come
back more of this remarkable story, the story of P. T. Barnum,
and so much more here on our American stories, and
(18:08):
we continue with our American stories and more of the
remarkable life story of P. T. Barnum, the rest of
the story in case you've seen the movie. As we
like to say, and as the great Paul Harvey used
to say, each and every day, let's return to Kathy Mayer,
executive director of the P. T. Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
So a lot of people often ask if Tom Thumb
was a humbug, And interestingly, Tom Thumb was most certainly
not a humbug at all. He was a real person
born by the name Charles Sherwood Stratton here in Bridgeport.
Now Barnum kind of discovered him. A lot of things
(18:49):
that Barnum actually showcased throughout his life was not discovered
by him. He didn't invent it, but he found it,
and he was brilliant at promoting it. So what they
did working to gather by the eighteen fifties, Americans were
in pursuit of refinement and cultural engagement. We did not
have Americans did not have any kind of definable, you know,
(19:11):
fashionable culture at that time. We were looking back to
England and France to create our own perceived sophistication. And
Barnum knew he needed something that was going to sort
of elevate his standing. When he was in Europe with
Tom Thumb, he attended classical performances and opera, and he
(19:32):
liked that. He felt that he did himself prefer a
higher grade of entertainment than what the American Museum was
offering to the masses. So with that, he had heard
of the cultura soprano Jenny Lynd the Swedish Nightingale while
he was traveling with Tom and never heard her sing
(19:54):
and He decided that her kind of entertainment would not
just to be a wonderful, you know, type of performance
for just the higher classes in America, because we have
always had different levels of classes, but she would actually
(20:15):
be a blessing to America. But the trick was he
had to prepare the public mind. So what Barnam had
to do is flood saturate American newspapers with wonderful stories
about Jenny Lynn, not about what a brilliant musician she is,
but what her you know, extraordinary character is. Like, she
(20:40):
was so kind, benevolent, she was enormously generous. She too,
struggled with the fact that that she had such a
remarkable God given talent that it was her obligation to
share that with people. So she would give thousands of
dollars away to everything from orphanages to establishment of fire
departments all over Europe. And Barnum knew that Americans would
(21:02):
love that more so than Ah she sings. So I
mean that's real again, it was really the traveled who
had experienced her type of entertainment. But there were over
thirty thousand people waiting for Jenny Lynn to get off
the Atlantic when it sailed into New York Harbor. It
was a frenzy of people, and that's based on what
(21:25):
Barnum did with his ingenious marketing abilities. He got people excited.
Barnum actually sailed out to the ship so he could
disembark with her. The first concert was actually on September
eleventh in eighteen fifty and probably some listeners might have
even been there. She performed at Castle Garden. It's the
building where you would get, under normal circumstances a boat
(21:48):
to Ellis Island, so that's literally where the concert was.
It really made Barnum the first American opresario. They actually
opened Jenny Lynd Hall was later re named New York
Metropolitan Opera Houses. So, I mean, he even brings the
operatic artistry to all people. But it absolutely transformed entertainment
(22:13):
in this country. Now, Barnum, during all of this, he remains,
you know, very in tune with politics. He was a
Democrat at that time, and he refused candidacy for the
governor of Connecticut in eighteen fifty two because he was
completely opposed to the expansion of slavery west. But it's
not until the later part of that decade where Barnum
(22:37):
does become one of the first Republicans with Horace Greeley
and Lincoln. But Barnum also at this moment in time,
decides that he cannot perform the way he wants to
run his businesses, keep things moving, keep things growing, if
alcohol was involved. He was horrified to see prominent New
(22:57):
York businessman out of sorts from drinking at an event
they were at, and he goes, my god, if I
look like that, I cannot accomplish what I want to
in my life. He signs the Teetoldler's Pledge. He comes
back home to Bridgeport, he literally cuts the heads off
of all of his wine and champagne bottles and never
(23:19):
again allows any kind of drinking in any of his establishments.
So again, my favorite scene in the movie is that
fantastic bar scene where they're banging down shots. Barnom just
rolling over in his grave, because at his American Museum
he enforced if you wanted a drink or if you
wanted to smoke, you had to leave, go outside, do
(23:42):
your own business, and then pay full price to get
back in. So he walked the walk. What Barnum actually
uses as a mission statement for the American Museum is
instructive entertainment. Today we came up with the term edutainment,
whatever it might be. But the Barnum Museum today, my
(24:04):
Barnum Museum readopted that mission statement because it is so
relevant to his time and so relevant to us as
a society. Now. We want to be enthralled and educated
at the same time, and Barnum was doing that one
hundred and fifty years ago. The American Museum was a
place for family entertainment. There were all types of wonderful
(24:26):
exhibits and dioramas that you could walk through, including the
Last Summer. There were a wax figures and a wax
figure department that would create these vignettes that you could
look at. I mean, you know, think about it. This
is a lot what Disney is doing today when you
see these animatronics. Now, there absolutely were human performers. It
(24:48):
wasn't just the idea, you know, freaks. The idea of
freaks actually happens much later in the century. Barnum does
not refer to the people in his American Museum as freaks,
natural wonders. They're marvels of nature. So it's the language
and the words that we use have to reflect the
moment in time or else they fall out of context.
(25:10):
For that the marvels of nature. There were bearded ladies,
missus Myers, and there was more than one. There was
the Irish Giant, the Chinese giant. There were people, you know,
associating them to the country they were from. Made it
even more exotic because not many people could travel beyond
American shores at that time. But even the Civil War
(25:32):
spy Miss Major Pauline Cushman would come. She was captured
by the Southern Army and was saved. Right before she
was going to be hanged, Union troops swooped in and
saved her life. So she would tell that story at
the American Museum. But Barnem would bring families from all
over the world, whether it's China or Germany or Japan,
to where their traditional clothing and their costumes, their music,
(25:54):
their sounds. That's EPCOT. When you look at the World Showcase,
you have to be from one of those countries to
work in that pavilion. And we love going and experiencing
different cultures, even today when the world is so much smaller.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
And you're listening to Kathy Mayer tell the story the
life story of P. T. Barnerman, Well, we do a
little bit of what Barnum was trying to do, and
that is inform and entertain at the same time. And
if we can enthrall you, oh my goodness, we're even happier.
And when we come back more of this remarkable story.
And what a promoter with worlds in the end, the
(26:29):
world's at least America's first impresario, and not just to
Showman himself, but a promoter in the end. And to
get thirty thousand people to come to a ship coming
into port in New York. Thirty thousand people, that's a
feat still today, it's like the Beatles had just derived.
(26:49):
So what an entrepreneur and in the end, no small
talent to be able to get people together and rally
around something and understanding the technology of his day and
at the time, particularly communications of the day. The newspaper
was central to American life. It was the social media
of its time. When we come back more of Phineas
(27:10):
Taylor Barnum's life story here on our American Stories, and
(27:37):
we continue with our American stories and with Kathy Mayer,
executive director of the PT. Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Now,
let's pick up where Kathy last left off.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
At any one given time, there were over eight hundred
thousand exhibits at the American Museum. It's staggering, from relics
to animals. It's estimate. In the American Museum's twenty three
year lifespan, over thirty eight million people visited the American Museum.
And this isn't a time when the population of America
(28:12):
was about thirty two million at that time. So what
Barnum did with the American Museum, he stretched people's ideas
and imaginations to the furthest limits he could possibly do.
You know, he pushed the boundaries of curiosity, and in
doing so, he discovered the curious and people loved it.
(28:33):
It was that successful at the time. Now when the
American Museum burns down, because it does. In eighteen sixty five,
the New York Herald reported that it was burned by
Southern sympathizers. And that's a strong possibility because Barnum was
so vocal and such a proponent of the Union cause
(28:53):
during the Civil War. He quickly regroups and creates a
second American Museum just up the road, and sadly, only
three years, a boiler failure happens and that museum burns
down too, And as sad as it is, you know,
Barnum always seemed to rebound back, but his friend has
(29:13):
really basically said, you know, take this as a sign,
my friend, and go a fishing. It's time take a
trip west. Grilly was a huge proponent of westward expansion,
and Barnum does. He decides, okay, I'm not going to
open it. I'll take a little time. He leases his
name to another museum proprietor in New York City. He
goes west and he meets a couple of Midwestern circus promoters,
(29:36):
Dan Costello and W. C. Coop, and that's in Delavan, Wisconsin,
and they really approach him because they want to use
his name. They have a circus of menagerie, and they
knew at this time, before you know, the idea of
the circus even comes, Barnum is already an established brand
and his name could sell anything. And Barnum said, you
(29:59):
know what, that revive my love of my museums and
my attractions. So he signs with Casselo and Coop and
they open the greatest show on Earth. Now they don't
open it back in Manhattan, where Barnum had been performing
all the time. They opened in Brooklyn because Barnum had
leased his name to a museum proprietor in Manhattan and
(30:19):
there was a no compete clause so he couldn't compete
with his own name. But it opens with ten thousand seats,
multiple tents. There was everything from a museum tent to
eating saloons, dressing rooms, hippodromes, and then the big Top. Now,
it was enormously successful under the tents, but Barnum wanted
(30:40):
a permanent home and creating, certainly winter quarters for all
the props and the costumes and animals. So the Hippothon
was being established right on fourteenth Street. Because New York
City has moven up and sadly barely before it's even opened,
the Hippothoron burns as well, so Barnum is really seen
a lot of fires and a lot of devastation in
(31:01):
his life. It's another loss, but again, the show was
successful enough that he goes back to his idea of
finding a permanent home for the shows, and he leases
a plot of land right out of the corner of
Madison in twenty sixth Street, and they reopen it, so
it is the Roman Hippodrome, Barnum's Roman Hippodrome. Later it's
(31:25):
named renamed Madison Square Garden, so that's where Madison Square
Garden comes from. Originally Barnum's Hippodrome. He does meet James
Bailey and James Hutchinson, also incredible circus promoters that had
the Great London Show. But Barnum finally sees two enterprising
(31:48):
management promoters that had steel of his own. He called
this the Great Alliance and they combined forces. By the
time the eighteen eighties come around and they start traveling
to show on Earth and Great London Circus combined to
enormous success. Beautiful carriages pulled these shows into many towns.
Now the idea of the shows getting on the rails
(32:11):
starts happening too, where they could just traverse the entire
country with hundreds of carriages and hundreds of train cars.
So it was an extraordinary enterprise that needed meticulous management.
And that's truly where Bay and Hutchinson come in at
this time. You know, in the eighteen seventies, Barnum is
elected the mayor of the city of Bridgeport. There were
(32:33):
only one year terms. In eighteen eighty seven he's re
elected to the General Assembly, and it was all about
temperance and civil obedience and making sure all communities had
accessibility to the amenities that were coming in gas lines water.
Everybody had clean water, not just the wealthy. So it's
(32:53):
right around this time too where the first time you
hear the idea of Jumbo. Jumbo was an enormous attraction
in life London and Barnum tried to purchase Jumbo to
bring Jumbo to America many times, and they refused, and
there was a huge public outcry when the deal was
finally established that Barnum would bring Jumbo to America. The
(33:16):
elephant was eleven and a half feet tall of six
and a half tons, So truly the word Jumbo comes
into our modern vernacular based on this extraordinary animal coming
in Barnum's remarkable genius at promoting him. Jumbo was really
(33:37):
probably the single most impactful economic venture for Barnum and
his partners at that time. In six weeks, Jumbo's appearances
grossed three hundred and thirty six thousand dollars, and Jumbo
would travel with the shows as well on the train
and sadly, sadly, on September fifteenth, eighteen eighty, the show
(34:01):
was up in Saint Thomas, Ontario, traveling back to the
trains and Jumbo is hit by a train and dies.
Now common to late nineteenth century, the idea of having
this incredible animal become a specimen was very typical, and
Barnum actually had Jumbo's hide stuffed and had the skeleton
(34:22):
assembled into it and then literally traveled Jumbo in two
different directions, so they were actually doubling the gate because
people still had the opportunity to see Jumbo now. Ultimately,
Barnum donated the skeletal assembly to the American Museum of
Natural History in New York City, and that's where Jumbo
still is. But Barnum was also a founder of Tufts
(34:45):
University in Massachusetts in eighteen fifty two, and Barnum literally
donates Barnum Hall the Natural Science Museum two toughs and
if anybody is an alum or a student of Tufts University,
this is why you are the Jumbos. Barnum donated the
Jumbo hide to Tufts University and their Jumbo was you know,
(35:08):
as as heralded mascot until nineteen seventy eight when sadly
that building burned down to nineteen seventy eight, So all
that really remains of Jumbo is just ashes in a
peanut butter jar that they have in their collection now.
So he doesn't share name. You don't see you know
(35:28):
Barnum and Ballely Greatest Show on Earth until barely three
years before he passes away. It's really in eighteen eighty
seven where he sees Bally as his peer. He was
the person that could carry this legacy forward. And really
in eighteen eighty seven is the first time you see
the Barnum and Bailey Greatest Show on Earth. It's not
(35:49):
until nineteen nineteen that you see Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bally.
And I'll tell you why. Bally passes away in nineteen
oh seven and the Ringling Brothers World's Greatest Show decided
they wanted to buy the Barnum and Balley show, and
they traveled them separately for years, and it wasn't until
nineteen nineteen where they decide to combine the shows. And
(36:13):
for economic reasons at the time, it's World War One
at the time. Remarkably it's the Spanish flu. They combined
the shows to create the bubble. But that's why twenty
eight years after Barnum is dead, is the first time
you see Ringling Brothers Barnman Balley greatest show on Earth.
I contend if Barnum was alive, he would not have
(36:35):
taken second billing. But the show his name lives on,
and he finally barely decided to retire by the time
he was eighty. He always had an office in Madison
Square Garden until the end, but literally on his dying
bed here in Bridgeport, he is intrigued. It's like, I've
(36:56):
done all of this, I've written my life. I'm going
to be the one to sum it up. And he
convinced newspapers to print his obituary before he died. I
don't think it was never done before. I don't think
it's ever been done since. But the newspapers did write
Barnum's own words, and it's reported that Nancy Fish read
(37:20):
his obituary to him. He wanted to be a part
of the very final chapter of his life, and he
was so with that. The Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut continues.
It's his final legacy. It's the last museum that he
creates for the Bridgeport community, the state of Connecticut, and
(37:42):
we are thrilled that we have so many of the
objects that Barnum himself donated, and we welcome people to
either go online these days and explore the Barnum Museum.
We're going to be putting up a virtual tour soon
and when the day comes again, please come. We'd love
to have you.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
And we'd love to visit. And especial thanks to Kathy Mayer,
executive director of the P. T. Barnum Museum in Bridgepark.
Great job as always to Greg Hanglip for the work
he does putting these pieces together. America's first impresario. The
story of P. T. Barnum Here on our American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
from the arts to sports, and from business to history
and everything in between, including your story. Send them to
our Americanstories dot com. They're some of our favorites. Phineas
Taylor Barnum was to the show business what Andrew Jackson
(00:30):
had been to politics, And like Andrew Jackson, he became
one of the representative Americans of his time, an expanse
of entrepreneur in the Great Age of entrepreneurs. In a
big and memorable way. He changed how we all lived.
He gave us something to talk about, something to dream about.
Our movies, television, our entire entertainment saturated culture is what
(00:52):
it is today because of what P. T. Barnum started.
He seems almost a fable now, but then he did
in his own day two. For you to tell this
story is an expert among pt Barnum experts. Let's take
a listen.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Good night.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
We welcome America's Famuli shrman veneas Pala Barnam.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
My name is Kathleen Maher. I am the director of
the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It's about barely an
hour outside of New York City, and it was the
home of P. T. Barnum, And the museum that I
worked for was actually incepted by P. T. Barnum before
he passed away, But sadly it took two years to
(01:41):
build and he did not survive to see it completed.
But what I typically loved doing on a regular basis
is talking about Barnum and how he's impacted our lives today,
how he has completely designed popular culture, the way we
moved through the world, through theater, through gaming. Everything that
(02:01):
you could possibly think of actually has some form or
some fingerprint of Barnum on it, because he was a
brilliant and genius promoter. Most people go back and they
think today because of the success of The Greatest Showman
movie that you Jackman did a couple of years ago,
so people immediately think of Barnum in that context. The
(02:24):
fascinating thing is the movie absolutely captured his spirit. But
Barnum himself actually is born in eighteen ten in Bethel, Connecticut,
a farming community. When you think about eighteen ten in
the context of American history, Napoleon is still a current event.
You know, King George is still alive, founding fathers are
(02:46):
still alive. So America is really a very new nation
and struggling with what the Constitution means in their lives.
This is something very very new, and Barnum is born
into that. And we all think about Barnum, we think
of the circus. The fact of the matter is the
greatest show on Earth was Barnum's retirement project. He was
(03:10):
sixty one years old before he really embarked on what
we think of the circus today. He had decades of
struggles and triumphs to really come to this pinnacle of
his life, which lingered as the Ringling Brothers Barnum and
Balley Circus until a few years ago. So his legacy
really began. Barnum's brand began long before his circus endeavor. So,
(03:36):
like I said, he was born in a small town
in Connecticut called Bethel on July fifth. We did not
celebrate fourth of July the way we do today, but
he was born on July fifth. But the truth of
the matter is that Barnum's maternal grandfather was actually well
to do. The family owned much of the town, the
shops in the town, and Barnum's mother and father own
(03:59):
owned shop so they were working class people most certainly,
but they were not destitute. And interestingly, Barnum was one
of ten children, so he had siblings and half siblings,
so it was quite a robust family that worked the farms.
He did not like farm work. He liked headwork. He
(04:21):
was always calculating, even as a very very young boy.
So they realized he was not the kind of kid
that was going to help in the fields with his family.
He was going to work in the general store, and
that's where he learns the art of barter in trade.
It was Yankee ingenuity at that moment in time, and
it was all everything was a negotiation in New England,
(04:42):
so it was really the moment where he learns the
art of a deal. He learns ingenuity. He's witty and
he's humor and he was charming as young as he
was to people in the community. His schooling only went
till he was about eight years old when he had
to go and work in his family's general store. He
(05:03):
did grow up. It was a very religious community, Protestant beliefs.
Barnum didn't push against that necessarily. He was a staunch
Christian believer. He believed that all of the challenging things
that happened to him through the course of his life
was divine providence that he learned and he could be better.
(05:23):
When he lost all of his money in the eighteen fifties,
he felt that that was the lesson he needed to
have to learn humility. Now what he wound up doing
in Bethel, he realized shopkeeping was not going to make
him the amount of money that he wanted, and he
embarked on the lotteries. They were sanctioned by the church
at that time, they were sanctioned by the state, and
(05:44):
he was making quite a bit of money for his
family conducting lottery operations. It's not until the very calvinistic
ideologies of the church wanted to really ban through legislation
lotteries in Connecticut that Barnum recognized he was not going
to make enough money living in Bethel anymore. And that's
(06:05):
really when he brings his family to New York City
to start a whole new life. But what he does
do in Bethel, which is remarkable. He's a young man,
he's in his early twenties, and he recognizes that the
idea of a democratic community, if you had a voice,
(06:26):
you had an opinion. You had an obligation and most
certainly a right to speak your voice. And he started
writing letters to the Danbury newspapers and nobody would print
any editorials, nothing that he would write. So he decided
to embark on his own newspaper at twenty one years old,
and he produces a paper called the Herald of Freedom
(06:49):
and Gospel Witness, and newspapers at that time were huge,
just loaded with words. It winds up that and he
even refers to it as his arrogant youth. He's sued
three times for libel and the last time it landed
him in jail.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
And you're listening to Kathy Mayer, executive director of the P. T.
Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut, more of this remarkable story.
A guy who grows up in a small farm community
and ends up in the big city, New York City.
His life story continues. P. T. Barnums here on Our
American Stories Lie Hibib here, the host of our American Stories.
(07:35):
Every day on this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from
across this great country, stories from our big cities and
small towns. But we truly can't do the show without you.
Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not
free to make. If you love what you hear, go
to Alamerican Stories dot com and click the donate button.
Give a little, give a lot. Go to Alamerican Stories
(07:57):
dot com. And we continue here with our American stories
and with Kathy Mayer, executive director of the PT. Barnum
Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut, telling the story of P. T. Barnum.
(08:22):
Let's continue and pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
He sued three times for libel, and the last time
it landed him in jail. He made a comment about
usury by a reverend in town and he was thrown
in jail for libel for two months. People were outraged.
They felt it was freedom of the press. He had
the right to say what he said, so they had
(08:48):
his jail cell decorated. There was a parade for him
when he got out of jail. He continued to print
the newspaper while he was jailed. So then if you
have to talk about a shift in a moment in time,
there it is. And he really finds that's the moment
in time where there's power in understanding what's happening in
(09:10):
the political world. And later on in life. It shows
out that he feels that if you have a voice
and you're living, you know, with the freedoms that we
have today, that it is your obligation to have a voice.
And that's really how he conducted the rest of his life.
So back to New York City. It's you know, the
(09:31):
late eighteen thirties, early eighteen forties, and New York doesn't
develop like a colonial city the way we think of
Boston and Philadelphia. It's really an industrial city and the
harbors are you know, extremely active with commerce. Barnum finds
this to be an extraordinary moment in time. He doesn't
(09:51):
quite fit into the He never works in an office.
He's always working in some type of retail or trade.
He tries at hands at promoting different kind of technologies.
It just doesn't work until he discovers scutters American Museum
Lower Broadway in New York and late eighteen thirties in
(10:11):
New York, remember there is a financial crash. You know,
businesses were just going under left and right, and the
Scutterer's Museum, which had been around since eighteen ten, was
dramatically failing. You know, the idea of it being an
institute of science and scientific advancement was falling out of favor.
(10:33):
People didn't have the money. It was old, it was tired.
Barnham saw opportunity in it, and because the price had
been dropped fifteen thousand dollars, he devised a way to
actually acquire it. He as a child, he was told
he owned property in Bethel, Connecticut. It was called Ivy Island.
He was all excited about it. When he realizes that
(10:55):
it was nothing but swampland and virtually useless, he feels
by his own community and family. However, going back to
his ingenious ability to think of how you can negotiate this.
During the negotiation for Scudder's museum, didn't have enough money
and he literally told the bankers, I have property in
(11:18):
Connecticut Ivy Island, and this is December, you know in
New England, you know, in eighteen forty one, nobody was
going to take the day's long journey up to Bethel,
Connecticut to evaluate the property. So they accepted the collateral.
So he was able to seal the deal for the
American Museum using his charm, using his wit, and using
(11:40):
his ingenuity extraordinary by today's standards. But when he purchases
the American Museum. He opens it on New Year's Day
in eighteen forty two, and again it was it was
a tired institution. There was nothing alive, nothing charming, nothing
innovative that would attract people in. So he realized three things.
(12:00):
It needed a major renovation, it needed a massive publicity campaign,
and literally an injection of sheer personality, Barnum's personality. So
he did everything that you could possibly think of to
clean it up and make it something that you couldn't
walk by. They put huge banners of different types of
(12:23):
animals outside. Literally they put a calcide drum on the roof.
It becomes the first what are they called those big
spotlights in the sky that would attract people. It opened
early in the morning, it didn't close till ten o'clock
at night, and it was available to everyone. The institution
was not for just the wealthy and the educated and
(12:46):
the traveled. It was open to anybody and everybody who
could pay their twenty five cents. Because when you think
about New York City in the eighteen forties, it's a
tough place. There's, you know, intense immigration coming into the city.
It's the Irish immigration, where Irish were not allowed into
many establishments. That was not the case with the American Museum,
(13:09):
so it became quickly became a vibrant part of the
developing metropolis. It was an enormous attraction where people could
go and feel safe and have entertainment. Another thing that's
interesting to think about. At this time, any kind of
theater going was not really deemed as moral and wholesome
(13:30):
ways of spending your time. Predominantly theaters were attended by
mail audiences. There was drinking, there was prostitution, even violence.
Barnum would have none of that in the American Museum.
It was a place for family entertainment and any kind
of missa. He had security guards serving all of the
(13:50):
floors and if there was any questionable activity or language,
you were escorted out. Now Barnum actually was buying up
the New York Peels Museum. He operated the Baltimore Peel Museum,
later integrating the scientific specimens and objects into the American Museum,
(14:11):
so it really became our first science, major public science institution. Interestingly,
there was everything from whale tanks in the basement. They
were pumping water in from the East River. That's America's
first aquarium. Barnum knew about the National Aquarium in London
and wanted to bring one back to his homeland. And
(14:35):
also there were living animals inside the museum as well,
so it's the first zoo. Now, some of the things
he exhibited were truly curiosities and wonders. And again, in
a democratic America, you had your freedom of your voice.
You could decide if it was real, if it wasn't real.
It almost didn't matter. At the American Museum. If there
(14:58):
was truth in anything, the opportunity was you could make
up your own mind. So Barnum actually has a friend
and colleague, and at one point Barnum borrowed Moses Kimball's
Fiji Mermaid, you know, exotic mermaid. But he didn't bring
it to the American Museum right away. He actually devised
(15:21):
a method to get people excited about it, sent letters
to newspapers, publishing a story about a naturalist from London
coming over with this extraordinary specimen. After weeks of Barnum
peppering cities across the East Coast, he ultimately brings the
Fiji Mermaid to the American Museum. Hipes it all up.
(15:45):
People pay, They don't pay extra sy people pay to
come into the museum, and they come to find out
that it's just this hideous tale of a fish body
of an orangutang and it's just detestable. It's horrible. People
were like, oh, really, you know and believe it or not.
The Fiji Mermaid is Barnum's line in the sand. He
(16:08):
felt that that's the place throughout the course of his life.
That's the place where he went too far. People were
expecting something from him at this point, and the Fiji
Mermaid took advantage. So he said never again. And that
is literally where Barnum sees the line can be drawn,
and absolutely would not embark on something that he felt
(16:30):
would betray the trust of his public. Now people use
the word humbug today, probably differently, and Barnum's definition of
the word humbug is, in my opinion, the true meaning
of humbug is management tact to take an old truth
(16:50):
and put it into an attractive form. So we don't
really think about humbug and modern contexts that way. But
Barnum didn't see it as necessarily duping the people. It
was about bringing people in on a story, on an
object to take the journey of what this is together,
(17:12):
but making it understandable by today, by that moment's list
of expectations. Now, interestingly, when you think about the greatest
Showman movie that came out, that is precisely what they did.
They took Barnum's old story and they put it into
a form that would be relatable by modern standards. So
(17:36):
it's a brilliant humbug.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
And you've been listening to Kathy Mayer, executive director of
the PT. Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut. When we come
back more of this remarkable story, the story of P. T. Barnum,
and so much more here on our American stories, and
(18:08):
we continue with our American stories and more of the
remarkable life story of P. T. Barnum, the rest of
the story in case you've seen the movie. As we
like to say, and as the great Paul Harvey used
to say, each and every day, let's return to Kathy Mayer,
executive director of the P. T. Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
So a lot of people often ask if Tom Thumb
was a humbug, And interestingly, Tom Thumb was most certainly
not a humbug at all. He was a real person
born by the name Charles Sherwood Stratton here in Bridgeport.
Now Barnum kind of discovered him. A lot of things
(18:49):
that Barnum actually showcased throughout his life was not discovered
by him. He didn't invent it, but he found it,
and he was brilliant at promoting it. So what they
did working to gather by the eighteen fifties, Americans were
in pursuit of refinement and cultural engagement. We did not
have Americans did not have any kind of definable, you know,
(19:11):
fashionable culture at that time. We were looking back to
England and France to create our own perceived sophistication. And
Barnum knew he needed something that was going to sort
of elevate his standing. When he was in Europe with
Tom Thumb, he attended classical performances and opera, and he
(19:32):
liked that. He felt that he did himself prefer a
higher grade of entertainment than what the American Museum was
offering to the masses. So with that, he had heard
of the cultura soprano Jenny Lynd the Swedish Nightingale while
he was traveling with Tom and never heard her sing
(19:54):
and He decided that her kind of entertainment would not
just to be a wonderful, you know, type of performance
for just the higher classes in America, because we have
always had different levels of classes, but she would actually
(20:15):
be a blessing to America. But the trick was he
had to prepare the public mind. So what Barnam had
to do is flood saturate American newspapers with wonderful stories
about Jenny Lynn, not about what a brilliant musician she is,
but what her you know, extraordinary character is. Like, she
(20:40):
was so kind, benevolent, she was enormously generous. She too,
struggled with the fact that that she had such a
remarkable God given talent that it was her obligation to
share that with people. So she would give thousands of
dollars away to everything from orphanages to establishment of fire
departments all over Europe. And Barnum knew that Americans would
(21:02):
love that more so than Ah she sings. So I
mean that's real again, it was really the traveled who
had experienced her type of entertainment. But there were over
thirty thousand people waiting for Jenny Lynn to get off
the Atlantic when it sailed into New York Harbor. It
was a frenzy of people, and that's based on what
(21:25):
Barnum did with his ingenious marketing abilities. He got people excited.
Barnum actually sailed out to the ship so he could
disembark with her. The first concert was actually on September
eleventh in eighteen fifty and probably some listeners might have
even been there. She performed at Castle Garden. It's the
building where you would get, under normal circumstances a boat
(21:48):
to Ellis Island, so that's literally where the concert was.
It really made Barnum the first American opresario. They actually
opened Jenny Lynd Hall was later re named New York
Metropolitan Opera Houses. So, I mean, he even brings the
operatic artistry to all people. But it absolutely transformed entertainment
(22:13):
in this country. Now, Barnum, during all of this, he remains,
you know, very in tune with politics. He was a
Democrat at that time, and he refused candidacy for the
governor of Connecticut in eighteen fifty two because he was
completely opposed to the expansion of slavery west. But it's
not until the later part of that decade where Barnum
(22:37):
does become one of the first Republicans with Horace Greeley
and Lincoln. But Barnum also at this moment in time,
decides that he cannot perform the way he wants to
run his businesses, keep things moving, keep things growing, if
alcohol was involved. He was horrified to see prominent New
(22:57):
York businessman out of sorts from drinking at an event
they were at, and he goes, my god, if I
look like that, I cannot accomplish what I want to
in my life. He signs the Teetoldler's Pledge. He comes
back home to Bridgeport, he literally cuts the heads off
of all of his wine and champagne bottles and never
(23:19):
again allows any kind of drinking in any of his establishments.
So again, my favorite scene in the movie is that
fantastic bar scene where they're banging down shots. Barnom just
rolling over in his grave, because at his American Museum
he enforced if you wanted a drink or if you
wanted to smoke, you had to leave, go outside, do
(23:42):
your own business, and then pay full price to get
back in. So he walked the walk. What Barnum actually
uses as a mission statement for the American Museum is
instructive entertainment. Today we came up with the term edutainment,
whatever it might be. But the Barnum Museum today, my
(24:04):
Barnum Museum readopted that mission statement because it is so
relevant to his time and so relevant to us as
a society. Now. We want to be enthralled and educated
at the same time, and Barnum was doing that one
hundred and fifty years ago. The American Museum was a
place for family entertainment. There were all types of wonderful
(24:26):
exhibits and dioramas that you could walk through, including the
Last Summer. There were a wax figures and a wax
figure department that would create these vignettes that you could
look at. I mean, you know, think about it. This
is a lot what Disney is doing today when you
see these animatronics. Now, there absolutely were human performers. It
(24:48):
wasn't just the idea, you know, freaks. The idea of
freaks actually happens much later in the century. Barnum does
not refer to the people in his American Museum as freaks,
natural wonders. They're marvels of nature. So it's the language
and the words that we use have to reflect the
moment in time or else they fall out of context.
(25:10):
For that the marvels of nature. There were bearded ladies,
missus Myers, and there was more than one. There was
the Irish Giant, the Chinese giant. There were people, you know,
associating them to the country they were from. Made it
even more exotic because not many people could travel beyond
American shores at that time. But even the Civil War
(25:32):
spy Miss Major Pauline Cushman would come. She was captured
by the Southern Army and was saved. Right before she
was going to be hanged, Union troops swooped in and
saved her life. So she would tell that story at
the American Museum. But Barnem would bring families from all
over the world, whether it's China or Germany or Japan,
to where their traditional clothing and their costumes, their music,
(25:54):
their sounds. That's EPCOT. When you look at the World Showcase,
you have to be from one of those countries to
work in that pavilion. And we love going and experiencing
different cultures, even today when the world is so much smaller.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
And you're listening to Kathy Mayer tell the story the
life story of P. T. Barnerman, Well, we do a
little bit of what Barnum was trying to do, and
that is inform and entertain at the same time. And
if we can enthrall you, oh my goodness, we're even happier.
And when we come back more of this remarkable story.
And what a promoter with worlds in the end, the
(26:29):
world's at least America's first impresario, and not just to
Showman himself, but a promoter in the end. And to
get thirty thousand people to come to a ship coming
into port in New York. Thirty thousand people, that's a
feat still today, it's like the Beatles had just derived.
(26:49):
So what an entrepreneur and in the end, no small
talent to be able to get people together and rally
around something and understanding the technology of his day and
at the time, particularly communications of the day. The newspaper
was central to American life. It was the social media
of its time. When we come back more of Phineas
(27:10):
Taylor Barnum's life story here on our American Stories, and
(27:37):
we continue with our American stories and with Kathy Mayer,
executive director of the PT. Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Now,
let's pick up where Kathy last left off.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
At any one given time, there were over eight hundred
thousand exhibits at the American Museum. It's staggering, from relics
to animals. It's estimate. In the American Museum's twenty three
year lifespan, over thirty eight million people visited the American Museum.
And this isn't a time when the population of America
(28:12):
was about thirty two million at that time. So what
Barnum did with the American Museum, he stretched people's ideas
and imaginations to the furthest limits he could possibly do.
You know, he pushed the boundaries of curiosity, and in
doing so, he discovered the curious and people loved it.
(28:33):
It was that successful at the time. Now when the
American Museum burns down, because it does. In eighteen sixty five,
the New York Herald reported that it was burned by
Southern sympathizers. And that's a strong possibility because Barnum was
so vocal and such a proponent of the Union cause
(28:53):
during the Civil War. He quickly regroups and creates a
second American Museum just up the road, and sadly, only
three years, a boiler failure happens and that museum burns
down too, And as sad as it is, you know,
Barnum always seemed to rebound back, but his friend has
(29:13):
really basically said, you know, take this as a sign,
my friend, and go a fishing. It's time take a
trip west. Grilly was a huge proponent of westward expansion,
and Barnum does. He decides, okay, I'm not going to
open it. I'll take a little time. He leases his
name to another museum proprietor in New York City. He
goes west and he meets a couple of Midwestern circus promoters,
(29:36):
Dan Costello and W. C. Coop, and that's in Delavan, Wisconsin,
and they really approach him because they want to use
his name. They have a circus of menagerie, and they
knew at this time, before you know, the idea of
the circus even comes, Barnum is already an established brand
and his name could sell anything. And Barnum said, you
(29:59):
know what, that revive my love of my museums and
my attractions. So he signs with Casselo and Coop and
they open the greatest show on Earth. Now they don't
open it back in Manhattan, where Barnum had been performing
all the time. They opened in Brooklyn because Barnum had
leased his name to a museum proprietor in Manhattan and
(30:19):
there was a no compete clause so he couldn't compete
with his own name. But it opens with ten thousand seats,
multiple tents. There was everything from a museum tent to
eating saloons, dressing rooms, hippodromes, and then the big Top. Now,
it was enormously successful under the tents, but Barnum wanted
(30:40):
a permanent home and creating, certainly winter quarters for all
the props and the costumes and animals. So the Hippothon
was being established right on fourteenth Street. Because New York
City has moven up and sadly barely before it's even opened,
the Hippothoron burns as well, so Barnum is really seen
a lot of fires and a lot of devastation in
(31:01):
his life. It's another loss, but again, the show was
successful enough that he goes back to his idea of
finding a permanent home for the shows, and he leases
a plot of land right out of the corner of
Madison in twenty sixth Street, and they reopen it, so
it is the Roman Hippodrome, Barnum's Roman Hippodrome. Later it's
(31:25):
named renamed Madison Square Garden, so that's where Madison Square
Garden comes from. Originally Barnum's Hippodrome. He does meet James
Bailey and James Hutchinson, also incredible circus promoters that had
the Great London Show. But Barnum finally sees two enterprising
(31:48):
management promoters that had steel of his own. He called
this the Great Alliance and they combined forces. By the
time the eighteen eighties come around and they start traveling
to show on Earth and Great London Circus combined to
enormous success. Beautiful carriages pulled these shows into many towns.
Now the idea of the shows getting on the rails
(32:11):
starts happening too, where they could just traverse the entire
country with hundreds of carriages and hundreds of train cars.
So it was an extraordinary enterprise that needed meticulous management.
And that's truly where Bay and Hutchinson come in at
this time. You know, in the eighteen seventies, Barnum is
elected the mayor of the city of Bridgeport. There were
(32:33):
only one year terms. In eighteen eighty seven he's re
elected to the General Assembly, and it was all about
temperance and civil obedience and making sure all communities had
accessibility to the amenities that were coming in gas lines water.
Everybody had clean water, not just the wealthy. So it's
(32:53):
right around this time too where the first time you
hear the idea of Jumbo. Jumbo was an enormous attraction
in life London and Barnum tried to purchase Jumbo to
bring Jumbo to America many times, and they refused, and
there was a huge public outcry when the deal was
finally established that Barnum would bring Jumbo to America. The
(33:16):
elephant was eleven and a half feet tall of six
and a half tons, So truly the word Jumbo comes
into our modern vernacular based on this extraordinary animal coming
in Barnum's remarkable genius at promoting him. Jumbo was really
(33:37):
probably the single most impactful economic venture for Barnum and
his partners at that time. In six weeks, Jumbo's appearances
grossed three hundred and thirty six thousand dollars, and Jumbo
would travel with the shows as well on the train
and sadly, sadly, on September fifteenth, eighteen eighty, the show
(34:01):
was up in Saint Thomas, Ontario, traveling back to the
trains and Jumbo is hit by a train and dies.
Now common to late nineteenth century, the idea of having
this incredible animal become a specimen was very typical, and
Barnum actually had Jumbo's hide stuffed and had the skeleton
(34:22):
assembled into it and then literally traveled Jumbo in two
different directions, so they were actually doubling the gate because
people still had the opportunity to see Jumbo now. Ultimately,
Barnum donated the skeletal assembly to the American Museum of
Natural History in New York City, and that's where Jumbo
still is. But Barnum was also a founder of Tufts
(34:45):
University in Massachusetts in eighteen fifty two, and Barnum literally
donates Barnum Hall the Natural Science Museum two toughs and
if anybody is an alum or a student of Tufts University,
this is why you are the Jumbos. Barnum donated the
Jumbo hide to Tufts University and their Jumbo was you know,
(35:08):
as as heralded mascot until nineteen seventy eight when sadly
that building burned down to nineteen seventy eight, So all
that really remains of Jumbo is just ashes in a
peanut butter jar that they have in their collection now.
So he doesn't share name. You don't see you know
(35:28):
Barnum and Ballely Greatest Show on Earth until barely three
years before he passes away. It's really in eighteen eighty
seven where he sees Bally as his peer. He was
the person that could carry this legacy forward. And really
in eighteen eighty seven is the first time you see
the Barnum and Bailey Greatest Show on Earth. It's not
(35:49):
until nineteen nineteen that you see Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bally.
And I'll tell you why. Bally passes away in nineteen
oh seven and the Ringling Brothers World's Greatest Show decided
they wanted to buy the Barnum and Balley show, and
they traveled them separately for years, and it wasn't until
nineteen nineteen where they decide to combine the shows. And
(36:13):
for economic reasons at the time, it's World War One
at the time. Remarkably it's the Spanish flu. They combined
the shows to create the bubble. But that's why twenty
eight years after Barnum is dead, is the first time
you see Ringling Brothers Barnman Balley greatest show on Earth.
I contend if Barnum was alive, he would not have
(36:35):
taken second billing. But the show his name lives on,
and he finally barely decided to retire by the time
he was eighty. He always had an office in Madison
Square Garden until the end, but literally on his dying
bed here in Bridgeport, he is intrigued. It's like, I've
(36:56):
done all of this, I've written my life. I'm going
to be the one to sum it up. And he
convinced newspapers to print his obituary before he died. I
don't think it was never done before. I don't think
it's ever been done since. But the newspapers did write
Barnum's own words, and it's reported that Nancy Fish read
(37:20):
his obituary to him. He wanted to be a part
of the very final chapter of his life, and he
was so with that. The Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut continues.
It's his final legacy. It's the last museum that he
creates for the Bridgeport community, the state of Connecticut, and
(37:42):
we are thrilled that we have so many of the
objects that Barnum himself donated, and we welcome people to
either go online these days and explore the Barnum Museum.
We're going to be putting up a virtual tour soon
and when the day comes again, please come. We'd love
to have you.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
And we'd love to visit. And especial thanks to Kathy Mayer,
executive director of the P. T. Barnum Museum in Bridgepark.
Great job as always to Greg Hanglip for the work
he does putting these pieces together. America's first impresario. The
story of P. T. Barnum Here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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