P.T. Barnum's 200th Birthday

It was 1835 when a young Barnum got a taste of his budding powers of publicity with Heth. She was completely blind, had no teeth, weighed under 50 pounds and moved very little. Yet she was very sociable around visitors and enjoyed recounting anecdotes of the young president-to-be and his family. (George Washington)


Joice Heth Barnum's "161" year old caretaker of George Washington, was a hit. Both the public and the press generally accepted the claim of her age. Although the truth didn't necessarily matter, the prospect was fascinating and entertaining. In fact, when a newspaper printed a letter from a visitor claiming Heth was nothing more than a cleverly crafted automaton with a ventriloquist operator, her popularity grew. People had to see for themselves.

A post-mortem report eventually determined Heth was a mere 80 years old, though some refused to believe it.

This Monday, there will be no 200-year-old body to parade before curious crowds. Instead, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey will commemorate his birthday with an entire weekend of Barnum-esque events around New York City. Ongoing shows around the nation, including Barnum's FUNundrum, will continue the merriment throughout the year.

"In order to celebrate the greatest showman that ever lived, we're going to bring him back to life, and we're going to create an ultimate extravaganza," said Nicole Feld, executive vice president of Feld Entertainment and a producer with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey.

That extravaganza kicks off Friday morning at Ringling's Coney Island http://www.ringling.com/TopLanding.aspx?id=35906 tent, where a Barnum look-alike will preside over Nathan's Hot Dog Bun Eating Contest. Three Asian elephants will battle three competitive Major League Eaters in a thrilling chow-down.

Later that afternoon, while the competitors digest their carbs, Barnum will tour Manhattan, including a stop at Nasdaq to close the market. He'll promote his numerous appearances in true 21st-century style through Facebook and Twitter.

Such new technologies would surely be embraced and used in creative ways if Barnum were alive today. "He was the greatest marketing genius of his time," Feld told AOL News. "He has a famous quote: 'Without promotion, something terrible happens: Nothing.'"

Consider Tom Thumb, for example. Barnum first met 4-year-old Charles S. Stratton in 1842. He stood 25 inches tall at the time. Barnum bumped up his age to 11 and molded the young boy into General Tom Thumb: singer, dancer and all-around entertainer.

The two toured the world for years, performing in front of European royalty, and returned to America in 1847 as millionaires. Tom Thumb remains a household name nearly 170 years later.

Friday's travels around New York City will include a visit to the site of Tom Thumb's highly publicized wedding, Grace Episcopal Church. The Brooklyn Bridge is also on the itinerary, where the showman walked Jumbo, the legendary elephant, across the East River in 1883. The word "jumbo" actually got its meaning from the giant elephant.

Appearances will continue at Coney Island on Saturday, throughout the boardwalk and amusement park areas.

On Monday morning, in celebration of his big day, a medium will attempt to contact and interview the showman. Barnum historian and Coney Island USA's director, Dick Zigun, will be in attendance to validate the authenticity of any information that may result from the session.

"I couldn't imagine what he would be accomplishing today," said Kathy Maher, executive director and curator of the Barnum Museum. "People say, 'What would he be like today?' He'd be like Disney. He would've been involved in everything from movies to theme parks around the world. Every sort of media, every sort of entertainment -- for children as well as adults."

Festivities will continue in Barnum's hometown of Bridgeport, Conn., with a live family show and birthday cake at the Barnum Museum -- despite the fact that a freak tornado hit the building last week, damaging several exhibits.

Oddly enough, Barnum suffered several such catastrophes during his lifetime, including devastating fires at his museums and his Bridgeport home. Yet he always came back.

While the upcoming celebrations capture Barnum's spirit, they only begin to touch on his many spectacular exploits. The showman was also famous for the FeJee Mermaid phenomenon in the early 1840s. The unusual creature -- which was simply a monkey's head and torso fused to a fish's tail -- evoked much public debate over its authenticity.

In the mid-1860s, the sight to see was the Cardiff Giant -- a 10-foot petrified man. A New York tobacconist named George Hull had the giant carved out of gypsum as a hoax to see if people would believe that giants once roamed earth. The public bought it.

Capitalizing on the success of the hoax, Hull sold the giant to a Syracuse, N.Y., banker, David Hannum, who believed it was real. With its popularity soaring, Barnum offered $50,000 for the attraction. Hannum rejected the bid, so the impresario had his own Cardiff Giant carved and exhibited. Barnum claimed that he'd purchased the authentic giant and that Hannum was now displaying a fake.

When the banker read this news, he said, "There's a sucker born every minute." History has since erroneously attributed the quote to Barnum.

Hannum later sued but lost when Hull admitted the hoax, meaning Barnum had simply spoken the truth about his phony giant.

"The funny thing is, the original Cardiff Giant is still on display in a Cooperstown, New York, museum," Maher said. "So it still works. Now, Barnum would've found joy in that."

Over the years, Barnum also exhibited Chang and Eng Bunker, the original Siamese twins; numerous bearded ladies; giants; little people; armless wonders; fat people; and other oddities and exotic peoples at his American Museum and New American Museum in lower Manhattan and his traveling circuses.

But for Barnum, showmanship was much more than just putting freaks in front of paying customers. "His exhibits were very staged -- they had interactions with the public, they were much more vaudevillian in a sense," Maher explained.

"Human curiosities could've been as simple as people from Germany or China wearing their traditional clothing, speaking in their language, singing their songs," she said. "What exposure did Americans in the mid-19th century have to these other cultures?"

In 1888, Barnum merged his circus with a fellow named James Bailey. And the "Greatest Show on Earth" was born, just three years before his death in 1891. Ringling Bros. eventually purchased the Barnum & Bailey show in 1907.

That show is, of course, still going strong. "It's been able to survive through many different eras, economic highs and lows, every sort of experience in the last 140 years," Feld said. "It's been able to change and adapt and stay relevant, and that's really at the heart of what Barnum was about."



Happy birthday, P.T. Barnum.

Filed under: Weird News By, Marc Hartzman

Tagged: american museum, barnum, barnum and bailey, barnum bailey, barnum museum, brooklyn bridge, cardiff giant, chang and eng, chang and eng bunker, charles s. stratton, circus, coney island, dick zigun, fejee mermaid, feld entertainment, freaks, george hull, george washington, grace episcopal church, joice heth