Sarah Powell
Mr. Bolin
Economics
03_01 American Entrepreneur Research
Phineas Taylor Barnum, better known as P.T. Barnum, was born on July 10, 1810 in Bethel, Connecticut to Philo Barnum by his second wife, Irene Taylor. He was the oldest of five children and early on learned the business of haggling and deception while he worked as a store-keeper in his father's store. Even when he was only twelve years old, he showed a knack for sales as he sold lottery tickets. He met early success in life and ran a general store, book auctioning trade, real estate speculation, and state-wide lottery network, along with being involved in liberal politics, all before he was thirty. After speaking against certain Calvinist church leaders in a newspaper that he produced himself, he met his first setback and spent two months in prison; however, when he was released he was heralded as a champion of the liberal movement. Barnum entered the show business after the lottery was banned in Connecticut in 1834 because the lottery had been his main source of income. With his purchase of the services of Joice Heth, he began his journey toward fame.
Joice Heth was just one of many of Barnum's hoaxes that he used to entertain the American public throughout his show business career. She claimed to be 161 years old and the former caretaker of George Washington. Barnum showed her to curious crowds all over the United States until her death when he conducted a public autopsy. At that point it was discovered that she could not have been more than 80 years old; however, Barnum claimed that it was he who had been deceived and that he had never sought to deceive his audiences. From there he went on to add to his repertoire such people as “General Tom Thumb” – a five-year-old midget who Barnum claimed was really eleven years old – and William Henry Johnson – a slightly retarded African-American microcephalic dwarf who Barnum paraded as Darwin's missing link (just after Darwin's release of The Origin of Species). Some of Barnum's non-human hoaxes included the Feejee Mermaid – a mummified creature with the body of a fish and the head of a monkey – and the Cardiff Giant – supposedly a fossilized giant from the biblical Old Testament times (but really a giant carved statue made by Barnum's hires). Barnum believed that it was okay to use hoaxes as long as the public got valuable entertainment for their money. He once said, “I don't believe in duping the public, but I believe in first attracting and then pleasing them.”
And that he did. However, it was not until Barnum was sixty years old that he started his first circus. He called it “P.T. Barnum's Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan, and Circus.” By 1872, “P.T. Barnum's Traveling World's Fair, Great Roman Hippodrome, and Greatest show on Earth” covered five acres and began traveling by train across the United States to reach more people. In 1881, Barnum joined James A. Bailey and James L. Hutchinson for promotional purposes, causing his circus to eventually be known as “Barnum and London Circus.” In 1885, Barnum and Bailey ended their business connections, but only three years later, they were united again. That year, the “Barnum and Bailey Greatest Show on Earth” toured America. Only after Barnum's death did his circus join with the Ringling Bros. Circus to begin the relationships that led to the “Ringling Bros. And Barnum & Bailey Circus” of today.
P.T. Barnum died on April 17, 1891; however, he was able to read his obituary in The New York Sun newspaper weeks before his death. The newspaper made his obituary front page news in response to a comment from Barnum about the press always writing nice things about people after they are dead. He went down in history as one of the most innovative men in the advertising world – because he could get the public to believe (and buy) anything – and the father of the modern circus as we know it. He was the man that made circus entertainment a respectable and loved form of entertainment for millions of Americans.
Barnum followed the entrepreneurial “HUNT” as he climbed the ladder of success in the entertainment world. He “harnessed his vision” when he decided to create a full circus instead of only displaying whatever oddities he had on hand at the time. He “underestimated the roadblocks” in his way when he pursued his dream of creating a circus even at a time when that type of entertainment was not considered respectable for typical middle-class American families. He “networked” by acquiring the services of such people as “General Tom Thumb” and William Henry Johnson for his shows and by partnering with people such as James A. Bailey early on in his circus career. Finally, Barnum “took the first step” when he purchased the five-acre property for his first circus. Barnum's diligence in pursuing his vision is something to be admired, and I am inspired by that diligence. He is the perfect example of what people can accomplish if they choose to commit their lives to a single vision.
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| Phineas Taylor Barnum |
Works Cited
Feld Entertainment Inc. Accessed October 5, 2012. http://www.ringling.com/ContentPage.aspx?id=45831§ion=45825.
Brown, R. J. "P.T. Barnum Never Did Say "There's A Sucker Born Every Minute"." HistoryBuff.com. Accessed October 5, 2012. http://www.historybuff.com/library/refbarnum.html.
Wikimedia Foundation Inc. "P.T. Barnum." Accessed October 5, 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._T._Barnum.
Benton, Joel. "A Unique Story of a Marvelous Career. Life of Hon. Phineas T. Barnum." Project Gutenberg. Accessed October 5, 2012. http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1576/pg1576.html.
PTBarnum.org. Accessed October 5, 2012. http://www.ptbarnum.org/humbugs.html.
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