Biography of PT Barnum - The Prince of Humbugs America’s Master Showman and the Prince of Humbugs The art of spectacle reached it’s zenith during the Gilded Age in America and PT Barnum was it’s greatest protagonist. Who said there’s a sucker born every minute? Well it wasn’t Phineas Taylor (aka PT) Barnum, though that phrase has often been attributed to him. Actually it was said to a reporter by one of Barnum’s competitors to explain how Barnum had managed to steal his idea and his audience. Barnum greatly respected his customers and would have been more likely to say there’s a "customer" born every minute. He did say "Every crowd has a silver lining," and he spent his entire adult life bringing crowds together so that he could separate them from their silver. PT Barnum was the most famous and colorful master showman of 19th century America. In an age when hucksterism and spectacle were the norm, Barnum raised it to a high art.

He was often called "The Shakespeare of Advertising" because he believed in the power of advertising and publicity and used it to profit from the public's taste for what he called "Humbug." Barnum called himself the "Prince of Humbugs" because he could deceive people in such a way that they were greatly entertained, even though most of the attractions he promoted didn’t even come close to the tremendous buildup he gave them. The master showman was born in Bethel, Connecticut in 1810. His father died when he was fifteen years old and he was left alone to make his own way in the world. Through hard work and pluck he had saved enough by 1829 to start a weekly abolitionist newspaper called The Herald of Freedom. Unfortunately he was soon put out of business after several libel suits and a prosecution which resulted in a short jail term. He moved to New York in 1834, and began his career in show business when he discovered Joice Heth, a woman who claimed to be 161 years old and had once been a slave and a nurse to George Washington.

Heth entertained audiences with stories and songs about the young George Washington and drew very large crowds because, as one of Barnum’s handbills proclaimed, she "…was the first person who put clothes on the unconscious infant, who, in after days, led our heroic fathers on to glory, to victory, and freedom." Eventually the public's interest in her waned, so Barnum—ever resourceful— started spreading rumors that Heth was actually not a person at all, but instead was a mechanical automaton. One of Barnum’s anonymous letters to the newspaper said, "Joice Heth is not a human being. What purports to be a remarkably old woman, is simply a curiously constructed automaton, made up of whalebone, India-rubber, and numbers springs that ingeniously put together, and made to move at the slightest touch according to the will of the operator." As a result of Barnum’s campaign to discredit Heth, many people revisited the exhibit to determine for themselves whether they had been duped the first time.—all the while Barnum continued to rake in the cash. Eventually Heth died and Barnum cashed in on her again when he had a public autopsy performed to determine her actual age.

It turned out that Heth couldn’t have been much more than 80 years old. Barnum declared that he was "shocked" to find out he had been duped. In 1841, Barnum opened the American Museum, located on Broadway in the heart of New York City. It became one of the most famous places of amusement in the entire world, where "500,000 natural and artificial curiosities from every corner of the globe" were on exhibit. The collection included minerals, fossils, animals, natural wonders, minor deceptions and elaborate hoaxes. Also on display were a wide range of physical "freaks," including people he claimed were the world's tallest, shortest, heaviest, thinnest and hairiest, along with albinos, bearded ladies and other oddities. Barnum’s Human Menagerie Charles Stratton was a dwarf who was only 5 years old when Barnum began exhibiting him as General Tom Thumb. He was dressed in costumes imitating Napoleon, Hercules, Samson and many other characters such as a gladiator and a highlander, while he sang, danced, and told jokes.

In 1844 Barnum took Tom on the first of two European tours where he was presented to Queen Victoria of England, Queen Isabella of Spain and King Leopold of Belgium. In France, he was invited by King Louis-Philippe I to ride in a procession of royalty in a miniature carriage drawn by a matched set of four Shetland ponies. In 1863, Tom married another dwarf named Lavinia Warren in a grand ceremony and a few days later they were guests of honor at a reception hosted by President Lincoln. After their marriage, Barnum often exhibited them with a normal-sized baby for dramatic effect, though they never actually had a child of their own. Barnum liked to exhibit giants and dwarfs together in order to accentuate their differences. Anna Swan was 8 feet tall and said to be "the tallest women in the world." She was often paired with George Washington Morrison "Commodore" Nutt, who at 29 inches tall was even smaller than Tom Thumb and billed as "the shortest man in the world." Barnum built carriages for both Anna and Commodore Nutt so they could travel around New York City attracting large crowds that would follow them to the American Museum.

Anna’s huge carriage was pulled by two Clydesdales, while Commodore Nutt’s was shaped like a walnut and pulled by two Shetland ponies. "The Missing Link" and "Zip the Pinhead" was William Henry Johnson, a black dwarf with a very small head. Though he was born in the US, Barnum claimed he was a member of a previously undiscovered African tribe. He wore a fur-covered ape suit and cavorted about as people threw him coins, which to their great amusement, he threw right back at them. After Barnum’s death, Johnson managed his own very lucrative career and continued to exhibit himself well into the 1920s. He lived to be 84, finally passing away in his large and comfortable home in Connecticut in 1929. He was reported to have said on his deathbed, "I sure fooled 'em a long time." Feodor Jeftichew was born in St. Petersburg, Russia and suffered from a genetic disorder which caused him to have thick, long hair that covered his entire body.

Barnum promoted him as "Jo-Jo, the Dog-Faced Boy" who "looks like a man, barks like a dog and crawls on his belly like a snake." Advertising posters proclaimed him "The most prodigious paragon of all prodigies secured by P.T. Barnum in 50 years. The human-skye terrier. The crowning mystery of nature's contradictions." Josephine "Madame" Clofullia became the most famous bearded lady of the 19th century, thanks to Barnum’s talent for promotion. Josephine greatly admired Napoleon III and styled her beard after his. Napoleon was so flattered when he learned of it that he sent Madame Clofullia a large diamond, which she wore in her beard whenever she was on exhibit. Constentenus, the Tattooed Man was covered with 388 oriental designs. Barnum always made up exotic stories about his attractions and claimed that Constentenus was captured by the Khan of Kashagar and forcibly tattooed as an alternative to death. Jonathan Bass was a famous ossified man exhibited by Barnum for many years.

He suffered from a disease that caused bone to develop in his muscles, tendons and ligaments and which eventually immobilized him to the extent that he had to be fed a liquid diet. He died when he was dropped by an attendant who was carrying him. Jenny Lind was a Swedish opera singer that Barnum hired to come to the United States in 1850 to give 150 concerts for what was then a princely sum of $1,000 per concert. When she asked Barnum why he hired her before he had even heard her sing, Barnum replied "I have more faith in your reputation than in my musical judgment." Barnum did such a fine job of promoting the tour that when Jenny Lind’s ship arrived in New York there were 30,000 people there to greet her even though no one in the US had yet heard her sing. Barnum retired from show business in 1855, but it wasn’t long before financial difficulties forced him to go back to work.

In 1871, he created the "Greatest Show on Earth" a circus, menagerie and collection of side shows that traveled around the world and exists today as Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey’s Greatest Show on Earth. In 1882, Barnum bought a huge elephant by the name of Jumbo from the London Zoo. Jumbo was a sensation when he arrived in New York and later toured around the country in his own custom-made railroad car. Three years later, after Jumbo was accidentally killed in a train yard, Barnum had Jumbo reconstructed by building a wooden frame and covering it with the elephant's skin so that he could continue to exhibit him. Barnum was 81 when he died in 1891 from heart disease. A couple of weeks prior to his death, he said to reporters that the press never had anything nice to say about someone till after they were dead, so the next day The New York Sun ran his obituary on the front page under the banner "Great And Only Barnum — He Wanted To Read His Obituary — Here It Is." P.T.

Barnum wrote in his autobiography titled Struggles and Triumphs, "To me there is no picture so beautiful as smiling, bright-eyed, happy children; no music so sweet as their clear and ringing laughter. That I have had power to provide innocent amusement for the little ones, to create such pictures, to evoke such music, is my proudest reflection." PT Barnum, The Shakespeare of Advertising Joice Heth archive at the Lost Museum In 1835, Barnum displayed Joice Heth, a 161 year old slave woman who was (supposedly) the nanny to George Washington. This was a big hit for quite a while, and Barnum took Joice Heth on tour. When sales began to flag in Boston, he wrote an anonymous letter to the newspaper, claiming that Heth wasn't a person at all, but a whale bone and India rubber automaton. This caused a Joice Heth furor again, as the people who had seen her previously wanted to see if they'd been taken in, and the people who missed her needed to see for themselves what the hubbub was all about. Heth died of natural causes in 1836.

Barnum staged a public autopsy, and it was discovered that Heth could not have been more than 80 years old. Barnum went one further, and then suggested that Heth was still alive, that the woman that died was not the real Joice Heth. This was Barnum's first foray into show business, and he proved to be a natural promoter. In his autobiography, Barnum claimed that he believed Joice Heth to be exactly what he said, and that it was he who was deceived. The Fejee Mermaid Read more about the Fejee Mermaid The Fejee Mermaid was brought to Barnum's attention by Moses Kimball, fellow showman from the Boston Museum. A clever fabrication of a creature that had a fish's body and tail with the breasts of an orangutan and the head of a baboon, the Fejee Mermaid seemed like an astonishing curiosity. Barnum leased the attraction from Kimball, and then proceeded to put on some "novel expedients." He hired Levi Lyman (who had helped Barnum exhibit Joice Heth) to pose as a Dr. J. Griffin of the London Lyceum of Natural History.

"Griffin" gave a series of lectures, which resulted in phenomenal box office business. Mermaid fever swept over New York, and the mermaid was displayed at Barnum's museum for over a month. The mermaid continued to bring in crowds as it toured around the United States until it arrived in South Carolina, where the crowds were incensed by the obvious falseness of the mermaid and its display partner, an actual duck-billed platypus. The mermaid was shipped back to Barnum's museum, to sit on a high shelf in Barnum's office. In later years, Barnum admitted that he was "not proud" of his Mermaid antics. Despite his regrets, it made his fortune. By the end of Mermaid fever, Barnum was the most famous showman in America. The Peabody Museum (at Harvard) owns a mermaid, but it is unclear as to whether it is Barnum's, or one of a number of replicas exhibited by rival showmen. The Museum Gets a Facelift When Barnum became proprietor of the American Museum, the building was rather plain. Barnum aimed to change all that.

One night, after the museum had closed, Barnum had a series of oval paintings installed in between the windows of the museums upper floors. Ostriches, bears, eagles, kangaroos, peacocks-- the paintings all promised amazing sights on the inside. Barnum also added a large revolving light (New York's first spotlight) that lit the streets below, as well as fireworks, a rooftop garden and fountain, and giant illuminated balloons. By transforming the building from drab to droll, Barnum helped sales enormously-- Barnum estimated that it added close to 20% in sales per day. The Brick Man Barnum knew the power of mystery. An unemployed man came to his museum and asked Barnum for a job. Barnum handed the man five bricks and instructed him to solemnly place the bricks in various places around the outside of the museum. As he went from spot to spot, he was to replace the brick at each spot with another one that he was carrying. He was to answer no questions, speak to no one, and seem to be deaf and dumb.

Once an hour, he was to enter the museum, walk right next to the ticket taker, seem to pay the fee, and then proceed through the museum and out the door. A crowd began to form, watching the man and wondering what he was doing. Many of the crowds followed him into the museum just to see what was going on. In fact, the police had to ask Barnum to stop the man, because the crowds that he was creating were stopping traffic. Niagara Falls Barnum's Museum was known for its wonders. So when Barnum advertised that he had imported at great expense a working model of Niagara Falls, people rushed to see the amazing spectacle. They were a little disappointed when they discovered that the model they had been looking for was 18 inches tall! However, all of the other interesting wonders at the museum made up for this temporary setback. Free Music Barnum offered free music from the Balcony of his museum. But he purposely hired bad musicians. He wanted people to move into the Museum, where they could take refuge from the awful music. This philosophy is continued to this day at fast food franchise places like McDonald's, which keeps the interior restaurants artificially bright so that people will be less inclined to dawdle.

Barnum invented it! The Grand Buffalo Hunt of Hoboken (FREE!) In 1843, Barnum bought a herd of scrawny buffalo, and arranged for a FREE display of Buffalo hunting in Hoboken NJ on August 31, Over 24,000 people from New York came to see the fearsome buffalo, and were a little surprised to see some underfed docile animals milling about. The laughter and jeering of the crowds frightened the uncooperative buffalo, who broke through the protective fence and escaped into New Jersey's swamplands. Barnum had kept his name off all the advertisements, but had made secret deals with the ferry companies and the concession stands. He ended up clearing over $3000 for the single day. The Wooley Horse Read more about one of Fremont's expeditions Noted explorer John C. Fremont had captured the public's attention with his Sierra expeditions. Barnum wanted to capitalize on Fremont's success. He had bought a small maneless horse with wooly hair. Barnum displayed the creature as an extraordinary nondescript (or new species) that seemed to be part deer, camel, horse, buffalo, and sheep.

People flocked to see this new specimen which was supposedly direct from California. Barnum later said "The public appetite was craving something brought from Col. Fremont. The community was absolutely famishing. They were ravenous. They could have swallowed anything, and like a good genius, I threw them, not a 'bone', but a bon-bon, and they swallowed it in a single gulp." General Tom Thumb Read a Sketch of the Life of Tom Thumb Online General Tom Thumb (born Charles Stratton) was a midget who literally increased Barnum's fortune immensely. Barnum met Stratton when he was five years old, and came upon the idea of displaying him as General Tom Thumb. Barnum billed the boy as a prodigy of the age of 11 (when he was only 5) and taught the boy to dance and jig and recite poetry and snippets of plays. Stratton did such a great job that he wowed the throngs at Barnum's Museum, then on tour around the United States, and even all of Europe. He performed several times before President Lincoln, Queen Victoria of England, Queen Isabella of Spain, King Leopold of Belgium, and many other royal and important personages.

In 1863, Stratton married another midget (Lavinia Warren) at Barnum's mansion in Bridgeport. Their wedding was celebrated throughout the United States (they were guests of honor at a reception hosted by President and Mrs. Lincoln.) Jenny Lind "The Swedish Nightingale" Jenny Lind Exhibition at the New York Historical Society Smarting from his reputation as a Humbug man, Barnum had the idea to bring some high culture to the United States. In 1849, Barnum contracted with Swedish opera singer to come to the United States and give 150 concerts for the amazing sum of $1000 per concert (an unheard of sum in those days.) And Barnum had never heard her sing! When Jenny Lind asked him how he could hire her without hearing her, Barnum replied "I have more faith in your reputation than in my musical judgement." Barnum's uncanny ability to gain publicity paid off, and when Jenny's ship arrived in New York harbor (September 1850), she was already a superstar. 30,000 people came to meet her boat, and not one of them had heard her sing!.

Rather than selling seats in the usual manner, Barnum auctioned off the first few seats. Jenny-mania was so extreme that the first man to purchase the Jenny Lind tickets in New York (hat maker Genin) ended up making a national name for himself and garnishing huge amounts of publicity. In Providence, RI, one man paid $650 for the pleasure of hearing Jenny sing. Jenny gave a total of 93 concerts in the states. Barnum paid her double the contracted salary, plus all the expenses, and still cleared over $700,000 in profits. He had convinced Americans that they needed to hear opera. What Is It-- The Birth of the Pin Head Read About the What Is It Exhibit Just months after Charles Darwin published "The Origin of Species" (1860) Barnum began to exhibit William Henry Johnson, a New Jersey native who was a mildly retarded black microcephalic dwarf. The public had a great interest in evolution, and Barnum touted Johnson as "The Missing LInk." "Is it a lower order of man? Or a higher order of monkey?

None can tell" Johnson, who became known as Zip the Pinhead, started out at $1.00 per day, but was so popular with audiences that Barnum was soon paying him more. Barnum and Johnson became good friends. Johnson became one of the most famous freaks in the world, and displayed himself up until his death in the 1920's. The Cardiff Giant - "America's Greatest Hoax" Find out what Barnum DIDN'T say The Cardiff Giant was not originally a Barnum humbug. George Hull of Binghamton, NY, a cigar-maker, was the original perpetrator. In 1869, workmen dug up a petrified giant in Cardiff, NY that appeared to be from the biblical race of giants. The body was over 10 feet tall and weighed nearly 3000 lbs. Hull and conspirator/brother-in-law Stub Newell displayed the body before an amazed public. Sales were phenomenal. The hoax worked so well that Barnum attempted to buy the Cardiff Giant from Hull and Newell for $60,000.

When they wouldn't sell, Barnum created his own Cardiff Giant (made of wood) and declaimed Hull's as a hoax. Hull took him to court, where the judge found for Barnum (after all, it turned out it was a hoax-- and there were no monetary damages to be had for telling the truth.) Paradoxically, this whole incident resulted in one of Barnum's most enduring claims to fame. Read the above links to find out what! Jumbo The Elephant America's Prince of Humbug : P.T. BARNUM The Legend and the Man by A. H. Saxon (Columbia University Press: $32.50; 488 pp., illustrated; 0-231-05686-9) - latimes YOU ARE HERE: LAT Home → Collections → Amusement America's Prince of Humbug : P.T. BARNUM The Legend and the Man by A. H.

Saxon (Columbia University Press: $32.50; 488 pp., illustrated; 0-231-05686-9) September 17, 1989 |Ricky Jay | Jay is the author of "Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women" and the host of a forthcoming CBS-TV special of the same name. He is the curator of the Mulholland Library of Conjuring and the Allied Arts in Los Angeles Welcome to the world of Mysterious Aztecs, Ferocious Zulus, Annamite Dwarfs, Invincible Afghans, Pagan Burmese Priests, the Fejee Mermaid, the Wooly Horse, Tom Thumb, Jenny Lind and the Three Ring Circus. Welcome to the world of a man who counted as his friends or acquaintances Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Joaquin Muller, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry Ward Beecher, Abraham Lincoln, Queen Victoria and Brigham Young. Welcome to the world of Phineas Taylor Barnum. If you are unfamiliar with the life of this great American showman, I envy you a reading of Arthur Saxon's new biography.

If, like myself, you are already his enthusiastic student, there is new material to explore the intricacies, deflate the rumors and exhume the skeletons in his complex life. Saxon uses Barnum's own autobiography--one of the showman's most enduring passions--as a counterpoint to this study. The book, first published in December, 1854 and still a wonderful read, largely molded the public's image of P. T. Although lambasted by some as an example of unmitigated hubris and self-aggrandizement (in Europe it almost single-handedly defined the image of American-as-swindler), the book is worthy of far more praise than it has ever received. Barnum worked on numerous new or amended editions throughout his life.

Saxon's objective, after examining ledgers, notebooks, diaries, press accounts and more than 3,000 Barnum letters, is to show the "antagonism between the Barnum of popular imagination and Barnum as he really was or wished to be." Focusing on Barnum's profound mid-life change, where a battle back from bankruptcy transformed him from the "Prince of Humbug" to a more charitable, "genial showman," Saxon attempts to reveal a private Barnum never before seen. And if it is a more benign Barnum whom we follow in the latter half of his life, it is a Barnum who has surely not lost his "grift sense," as con men and card cheats are wont to say. Barnum still knows how to "get the edge"--and does. It is difficult to believe that a reformed and tempered man would agree to a poster of himself with the following copy: "The sum of the amusement world from which all lesser luminaries borrow light. Born in the town of Bethel, Conn., July 5, 1810. Started as a showman in 1835.

He has conceived and exhibited more gigantic amusements and enterprises than any other showman that ever lived. (He) is the wealthiest manager on the face of the Earth and projector and builder of a great city, (he) has been the frequent guest of emperors, kings and queens. Once mayor of Bridgeport, Conn., 4 times member of state legislature, an editor, an able writer and a popular lecturer in Europe and America." Rodomontade and modesty aside, there is a serious Barnum worthy of our attention, a staunch campaigner for social issues such as women's rights whose convictions and loyalties would almost seem misplaced today. The Barnum who does good, as he expressed, in "profitable philanthropy," the Barnum who battled back from adversity, and the Barnum able to change his mind about tolerating liquor and slavery. Ironically, it was the exhibition of a famous slave that launched Barnum's career as a showman.

While working as a partner in a small Connecticut grocery store in 1835, Barnum heard about Joice Heth, "a blind, decrepit, hymn-singing black slave." Heth, it was said, was 161 years old and had raised the infant George Washington. Barnum examined a contract in which Augustine Washington, father of George, had bought a 54-year-old black woman named Joice Heth in 1727. With this authentication Barnum purchased the rights to exhibit her for one year. In the wonderfully crazy and convoluted Joice Heth affair, with its many sidebars and subplots, one almost senses a microcosm of Barnum's life. As this toothless, 46-pound woman related intimate anecdotes about young "Georgie" and British redcoats, sang old hymns and laughed "heartily at her own jokes," Barnum collected the considerable receipts. When her popularity began to wane, Barnum shrewdly spread the rumor that Heth was an automaton and the exhibitor a ventriloquist who answered questions posed to her. Spectators often returned to determine if they had been deceived.

Indeed, they were, but in another way, as it was proven, when Heth died on Feb. 19, 1836. An autopsy was scheduled before a group of "physicians, medical students, clergymen, editors," Saxon writes, "each of whom was assessed fifty cents for this extraordinary privilege" (twice what it cost to see her alive). The presiding doctor, David Rogers, determined that Heth was no more than 80 years old. Insulted by Barnum's representative, Levi Lyman, Rogers and his friend, Richard Locke, a New York Sun reporter, stormed out of the room. Locke then wrote an article exposing the Joice Heth affair as "one of the most precious humbugs that was ever imposed upon a credulous community." 10 Things You May Not Know About P.T. Barnum - History in the Headlines 10 Things You May Not Know About P.T. Barnum July 2, 2015 By Evan Andrews P.T. Barnum 10 Things You May Not Know About P.T. Barnum Author 10 Things You May Not Know About P.T.

Barnum URL Google The celebrated circus owner and entertainment impresario Phineas Taylor Barnum was born in Connecticut on July 5, 1810. During a more than 50-year career, the self-described “Prince of Humbugs” established himself as the world’s premier purveyor of spectacle and hucksterism. He wowed the masses with larger than life hoaxes and shamelessly promoted everything from freak shows and zoos to alcohol prohibition. Check out 10 surprising facts about the 19th century’s most legendary showman. 1. Barnum was an entrepreneur from an early age. Barnum’s knack for moneymaking first manifested during his youth in Bethel, Connecticut. The future showman sold snacks and homemade cherry rum during local gatherings, and by age 12, he had made enough money to purchase his own livestock. By 21, his holdings also included a general store, a small lottery and even his own newspaper called the “Herald of Freedom.” 2. He first rose to prominence by engineering a famous hoax.

In 1835, Barnum launched his career in entertainment by purchasing Joice Heth, a blind slave touted as being the 161-year-old former nurse of George Washington. After billing Heth as “the most astonishing and interesting curiosity in the world,” Barnum put her on display in New York and took her on a small tour of New England. Visitors lined up to gawk at her withered body and hear her tales of “dear little George,” and Barnum helped fuel popular interest by spreading a rumor that she was actually an automaton controlled by a ventriloquist. The truth about Heth didn’t emerge until after her death in February 1836. During a public autopsy—staged by Barnum at the price of 50 cents for admission—it was revealed that she was most likely no older than 80. 3. Barnum didn’t go into the circus business until relatively late in life. Barnum is best known for his traveling three-ring circuses, but he didn’t make his first forays under the big top until he was 60 years old.

Before then, he was better known as the owner of the Manhattan-based American Museum, a sprawling collection of historical artifacts, aquariums, animal menageries, zoological curiosities and freak shows. Some of the museum’s most notable exhibits included General Tom Thumb, a child dwarf who Barnum famously brought to audience with Queen Victoria of Britain; and the “Fejee Mermaid,” which was actually the upper half of a monkey sewn to the bottom of a fish. Barnum only launched his traveling circus after his museum was twice destroyed by fire. He later teamed with his famed partner James Bailey in 1881, and the two went on to make a fortune running their “Greatest Show on Earth.” 4. He helped popularize opera in the United States. Despite his association with sideshow acts like the Nova Scotia Giantess and Zip the Pinhead, Barnum was also responsible for introducing many Americans to high culture. In 1850, he inked a deal that brought the European opera singer Jenny Lind to the United States on a multi-city tour.

Lind was largely unknown before her arrival—Barnum himself had never heard the soprano—but he cultivated her celebrity with a media blitz and a nationwide contest to write a song for her to sing onstage. With his help, the “Swedish Nightingale” became an overnight sensation. Barnum reportedly netted a staggering $500,000 on the tour, and Lind’s popularity helped make opera a mainstay in American theaters. 5. Barnum never said “there’s a sucker born every minute.” Barnum is often credited with having coined the phrase “there’s a sucker born every minute” in reference to his gullible customers, yet there is no proof of him ever using it. The quip’s precise origins are unclear, though some claim one of Barnum’s rivals may have first said it after seeing crowds queued up for one of his exhibits. For his part, Barnum always maintained that his patrons were not “suckers” but willing participants in his lighthearted pranks and hoaxes. “The people like to be humbugged,” he once said. 6. His famous elephant “Jumbo” is the mascot of Tufts University.

In 1882, Barnum purchased a gargantuan 6-ton African elephant named “Jumbo” from the London Zoological Society. The sale proved controversial in Britain, where the animal was a cherished national treasure, but it marked the start of “Jumbomania” in the United States. People turned out to Barnum’s circus in droves and bought Jumbo postcards, hats and other souvenirs. The elephant’s fame even helped popularize the word “jumbo” as a synonym for “large.” Jumbo’s reign came to an abrupt end in 1885, when he was accidentally struck by a freight train and killed during a performance in Ontario. Barnum had Jumbo’s hide stuffed and later donated it to Massachusetts’ Tufts University, a school where he served as a trustee. The pachyderm was a popular campus monument until it burned in a fire in 1975, but it remains both the school’s mascot and the inspiration for its nickname, the “Jumbos.” 7. Barnum once used his circus animals to test the strength of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Shortly after the Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883, rumors that it was structurally unsound sparked a human stampede that left a dozen people dead. The bridge’s owners had previously turned down a $5,000 offer from Barnum to let him parade his circus animals across it as a publicity stunt, but they changed their minds after the accident. On the night of May 17, 1884, he marched 21 elephants and 17 camels over the bridge from Manhattan to Brooklyn. The famous Jumbo was part of the procession, as was “Toung Taloung,” a white elephant Barnum had recently acquired from Thailand. The parade was a priceless piece of advertising for Barnum’s circus, and the combined weight of the elephants—many of which tipped the scales at over 10,000 pounds—helped put to rest any worries about the bridge’s stability. 8. He was a famous supporter of the temperance movement. While Barnum enjoyed the occasional tipple of wine or scotch in his younger days, he swore off alcohol entirely after attending a lecture by a pro-temperance reverend in the late-1840s.

He would remain an avid teetotaler and prohibition advocate for the rest of his life, and regularly gave speeches on the evils of liquor. Drinking was forbidden in his American Museum, and visitors to its lecture room were treated to performances of “The Drunkard,” a cautionary play about alcoholism. Barnum liked to say that both he and his circus animals drank “nothing stronger than water,” but his famed elephant Jumbo reportedly loved beer and was known for his ability to down a full keg in a single sitting. 9. Barnum also served as a politician. Barnum first dipped his toes in the political waters in 1865, when he won a seat in the Connecticut General Assembly as a Republican. Despite his past ownership of the slave Joice Heth, he quickly distinguished himself as one of the legislature’s most impassioned advocates of African American equality and voting rights. He later tried to run for the U.S. Congress—ironically, against a distant relative also named Barnum—but lost in a heated campaign.

Following a stint as mayor of his adopted hometown of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Barnum later returned to the Connecticut Legislator in the late 1870s and became a leading advocate for pro-temperance reforms and the abolition of the death penalty. 10. He spent years writing and updating his autobiography. Along with his reputation as the “Prince of Humbugs,” Barnum owed much of his fame to the runaway success of his autobiography. “The Life of P.T. Barnum, Written by Himself” was first released in 1854 and was then continuously re-edited and re-issued over the following decades. New editions and appendices appeared on a near-annual basis, and Barnum helped increase sales by putting the book in the public domain and allowing anyone to publish it. He even instructed his widow to write a new chapter that chronicled the events of his 1891 death. All told, the book sold more than 1 million copies during Barnum’s lifetime. Tags P T Barnum facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about P T Barnum COPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc.

Phineas Taylor Barnum Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-1891), America's greatest showman of the 19th century, instructed and amused a nation with his museum and later his circus. Speaking of his youth, P. T. Barnum said, "I was always ready to concoct fun, or lay plans for moneymaking, but hard work was decidedly not in my line." Indeed, he succeeded in making a great deal of money by working hard at having fun. His love of a joke came to him naturally. When he was born in Bethel, Conn., in 1810, his grandfather deeded him a parcel of land known as lvy Island. The growing boy was constantly reminded of his property. When he was 10 years old, he went to visit his estate and discovered it to be "a worthless piece of barren land." Early Occupations and Joice Heth When Phineas was 15, his father died, leaving his widow and five children penniless. Phineas immediately became clerk in a country store, where he learned the fine art of Yankee trading.

During the next 10 years he was a shop owner, director of lotteries, and newspaper publisher. When he was 19 he eloped with a local seamstress, Charity Hallett (who would remain his wife for 44 years and give him four daughters). At 22, as publisher of the Herald of Freedom, he was jailed for libelously accusing a deacon of usury; upon his release 60 days later, Barnum was met by a band and "a coach drawn by six horses" for a parade back to town. The embryo showman was developing, but it was not until 1835, when he encountered Joice Heth, that the Prince of Humbugs was born. Joice Heth was a disabled African American woman who, her sponsors claimed, was 160 years old and had been the infant George Washington's nurse. Seeing her possibilities as a human curiosity, Barnum purchased the right to exhibit her, along with the documents validating her age, and set her upon her couch in Niblo's Garden in New York City.

She was extremely popular, but when interest began to flag, a newspaper item appeared suggesting that Joice was not human at all but an "automaton" made of whalebone, indian rubber, and springs. The exhibition hall was full once more, for Barnum always knew how to use the news as well as the advertising sections of newspapers. Finally, upon her death in 1836, when an autopsy proved that Joice had been no more than 80 years old, Barnum was as surprised and indignant as anyone else. He had learned, however, that "the public appears disposed to be amused even when they are conscious of being deceived." American Museum For the next four years Barnum was an itinerant showman in the West and South. By 1840 he was back in New York, poor, weary of travel, and without prospects. When he heard that the struggling Scudder's American Museum (with its collection of curiosities) was for sale, Barnum determined to buy it. "With what?" asked a friend.

"Brass, " Barnum replied, "for silver and gold I have none." He mortgaged himself to the building's owner, proposing for collateral good references, a determination to succeed, and a "valuable and sentimental" piece of property known as Ivy Island. By the end of 1842 the museum was his, and a year later he was out of debt. Barnum's American Museum was to become the most famous showplace of the century. Here, in constantly changing and elaborately advertised parade, the public could see educated dogs and fleas, automatons, jugglers, ventriloquists, living statuary, albinos, obese men, bearded women, a great variety of singing and dancing acts, models of Paris and Jerusalem, dioramas of the Creation and the Deluge, glassblowing, knitting machines, African Americans performing a war dance, conjoined twins, flower and bird shows, whales, mermaids, virtuous melodramas such as The Drunkard, a menagerie of rare animals, and an aquarium—"all for twenty-five cents, children half price." His showman's delight in seeking out the splendid and the curious knew no bounds.

"The one end aimed at, " he said, "was to make people think, and talk, and wonder, and … go to the Museum." His Great Model of Niagara Falls with Real Water was actually 18 inches high; the Feejee Mermaid was really a monkey's head and torso fused to a fish's tail; the Woolly Horse of the Frozen Rockies had in truth been foaled in Indiana. Only half in jest did Barnum seek to buy Shakespeare's birthplace, hire the Zulu leader who had recently ambushed a British force, and tow an iceberg into New York harbor. Altogether, the museum showed over 600, 000 exhibits during its existence. Tom Thumb and Jenny Lind General Tom Thumb was Barnum's greatest attraction. Charles S. Stratton, a native of Bridgeport, Conn., was 25 inches tall and weighed 15 pounds when he entered Barnum's employ in 1842. When he died in 1883, at the age of 45, he had made millions of dollars and delighted international audiences.

In the first of Barnum's many European junkets the General entertained Queen Victoria, King Louis Philippe, and other royalty with his songs, dances, and impersonations in miniature. Of the 82 million tickets Barnum sold during his lifetime for various attractions, Tom Thumb sold over 20 million. In 1850 Barnum turned impresario, introducing the most renowned singer of her time, Jenny Lind, to the American public. The immensely profitable tour of this gracious "Swedish Nightingale" was prepared with ingenious public relations but conducted with dignity and generosity by Barnum. Its success initiated the vogue of European concert artists visiting the United States. Fires and Bankruptcy Barnum's irrepressibility helped him overcome numerous professional misfortunes. Five times he was almost ruined by fire, but each time he recouped. In 1857 his famous house, Iranistan, fashioned after George IV's Pavilion at Brighton, burned to the ground. The original museum burned in 1865, and new museums burned in 1868 and again in 1872.

Finally, in 1887, the great circus in its winter quarters, with most of its menagerie, was lost. But the showman's greatest financial catastrophe had nothing to do with show business. For years he had cherished the dream of building a city out of the farmland of East Bridgeport—a benevolent endeavor, he thought. In order to attract business, he signed some notes guaranteeing the debts of the Jerome Clock Company. As a result, he lost all he owned. Thus, in 1855, at the age of 46, the great Barnum was bankrupt. But he worked his way back, in part from successful lectures on "The Art of Money Getting, " and by 1860 he was free of debt once more. Throughout his life Barnum was a political liberal, serving in the Connecticut Legislature in the late 1860s, where he diligently fought the railroad interests, and as mayor of Bridgeport in 1875-1876. A year after the death of his first wife, Charity, in 1873, Barnum married Nancy Fish, an English woman 40 years his junior.

"The Greatest Show on Earth" In April 1874 Barnum opened his Roman Hippodrome in New York; this was to grow into the great circus. He did not invent the circus, an ancient form of entertainment, but along with his enterprising young partner, James A. Bailey, whose circus merged with Barnum's in 1881, he made it a three-ring extravaganza the likes of which had never been seen before. Barnum's last great coup was his 1881 purchase from the London Zoo of the largest elephant in captivity, Jumbo. Violent objections by the English only made Jumbo and the circus that much more appealing. The variety and splendor of the show delighted the American audiences that Barnum had trained, over the years, to be delighted. In 1882 the circus opened its season in Madison Square Garden, where it was to become an American institution; and everywhere the "big top" traveled, a "Barnum Day" was declared. Circling the arena in an open carriage as leader of the parade always brought roars of approval (and great satisfaction) to the aging genius.

By 1891 Barnum's body began to fail, though not his spirit. His child's delight in the joke, the curious, and the splendid had set an entire nation to wondering and laughing and buying. A few weeks before his death, Barnum gave permission to the Evening Sun to print his obituary, so that he might have a chance to read it. On April 7 he asked about the box office receipts for the day; a few hours later, he was dead. Further Reading Barnum's autobiography, Struggles and Triumphs of P.T. Barnum (1871; rev. ed. 1967), was frequently revised by Barnum until 1888. It is detailed, though somewhat self-righteous and therefore less appealing than Waldo Brown, ed., Barnum's Own Story: The Autobiography of P. T. Barnum … (1927; rev. ed. 1961). This work combines Barnum's first autobiographical venture of 1855, which offended some readers for its frank confession of humbugs, and the more staid book of 1871.

Irving Wallace, The Fabulous Showman: The Life and Times of P. T. Barnum (1959), is one of the most interesting treatments, providing not only a history of Barnum's career but sketches of his most famous associates and an analysis of Barnum's happy effect upon American society of the 19th century. For a history of the circus see Earl C. May, The Circus from Rome to Ringling (1932), and Fred Bradna, Big Top: My Forty Years with the Greatest Show on Earth (1952). □ Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. MLA Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History COPYRIGHT 2000 The Gale Group Inc. BARNUM, PHINEAS TAYLOR P. T. Barnum (1810–1891) portrayed himself as the "Prince of Humbugs" to characterize many outrageous stunts and exhibits that were part of his exploits as a showman.

His tours, lectures, museum, and autobiography made him famous and a millionaire long before he entered the circus business and formed the innovative Barnum and Bailey Circus in the 1880s. Although he probably never said, "There's a sucker born every minute," as is widely believed, he did act as if his audiences hoped to be fooled or, as he said, "humbugged." Barnum was only 15 years old when his father died. He was forced to find the means to support his mother and five brothers and sisters. After trying his hand at various jobs he bought a weekly newspaper in his hometown of Bethel, Connecticut, called the Herald of Freedom. Over the course of several years he was arrested three times for libel and once spent 60 days in jail. In 1834 Barnum moved to New York City and became a shopkeeper. Shortly afterward, Barnum was transformed from shopkeeper to showman when he discovered an elderly black woman, Joice Heth, who claimed to be George Washington 's (1789–1797) nurse. A showman in Philadelphia had promoted Heth as the first president's 161-year-old nurse without much financial success.

Under Barnum's management and sensational advertising, Heth toured the country telling her fabricated memories of the president's childhood. After her death, an autopsy showed her to be only 80 years old. A canny Barnum played to the public and claimed that he himself was also the victim of a hoax. The Heth experience convinced Barnum that there was a market for satisfying the public's taste for the outrageous and improbable on a much larger scale. He bought John Scudder's American Museum in New York City which, at the time, housed conventional exhibits of stuffed animals and wax figures. Barnum transformed the museum into a place of lively entertainment and bizarre attractions, open to the public for 25 cents admission. The five–story museum, which he operated for more than twenty–five years, housed some 50,000 curiosities including strange objects, unusual animals, and assorted people. Some of his most popular attractions were "freaks," such as the Siamese twins Chang and Eng; Anna Swan, the tallest girl in the world; Annie Jones, the bearded lady; and 26-inch-tall Charles S.

Stratton, who became internationally famous as "General Tom Thumb." Equally important to the success of the museum were advertising and the imaginative stunts Barnum created to publicize his exhibits. Although his policy of exhibiting humans as freaks may dismay current sensibilities, Barnum's exhibits were not intended solely for the masses. With Tom Thumb acting as his calling card, the showman was received by many heads of state, including President Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) and England 's Queen Victoria (1819–1901). His European tours were tremendously successful, as were his lectures on such topics as "The Science of Money Making and the Philosophy of Humbug." In the 1850s he staked his entire fortune on his most legitimate endeavor: importing Swedish soprano Jenny Lind, "the Swedish Nightingale," for a tour of the United States . After a publicity campaign that topped all the great showman's previous efforts, he made immense profits for himself and the singer. Barnum was well past 60 when he entered the circus business. With a partner, James A.

Bailey (1847–1906), he transformed a small, poorly-run, often fraudulent, wagon-based circus show into a railroad-travelling, three-ring, electrically-lit giant extravaganza that was fun for the entire family. Typically, he made the show a success with his relentless promotion of the Barnum and Bailey Circus as "the greatest show on earth." Barnum also publicized his own life and career in an autobiography. It was designed to entertain as much as inform. The Life of P. T. Barnum, Written by Himself was published in 1855 and was repeatedly revised and supplemented by the showman. Barnum claimed sales of a million copies for the work and, presumably with the hope of even greater exposure, he eventually placed the book in the public domain. Barnum's obsession with publicity was so strong that when he became seriously ill at the age of 80 he asked a New York newspaper to run his obituary in advance so that he could read it himself. Two weeks later he died at his home in Connecticut. See also: Entertainment Industry The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright The Columbia University Press P. T.

Barnum: (Phineas Taylor Barnum) (fĬn´ēəs, bär´nəm), 1810–91, American showman, b. Bethel, Conn. As a youth Barnum worked at diverse sales jobs and managed a boardinghouse. He made his first sensation in 1835 when he bought and exhibited Joice Heth, a slave who claimed she was 161 years old (she was about 80) and had been the nurse of George Washington. In 1842 he opened the American Museum in New York City and immediately became famous for his extravagant advertising and his exhibits of freaks. Among his great attractions were the Fiji Mermaid (formed by joining the upper half of a monkey to the stuffed lower half of a fish), "General Tom Thumb," who was viewed by over 20 million people, and the original Siamese Twins, Chang and Eng (see conjoined twins ). In 1850, Barnum managed the American tour of the Swedish singer Jenny Lind and, with his talent for publicity, made it a huge financial success for her and for himself.

In 1855 he retired from show business; he served as mayor of Bridgeport, Conn., and in the Connecticut legislature. Driven into bankruptcy by unwise business ventures, he reopened the American Museum and then organized his famous circus, "The Greatest Show on Earth," which opened in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1871. In 1881 he merged with his most successful competitor, James A. Bailey, and under the name Barnum and Bailey the circus continued for a generation after Barnum's death. The stellar attraction of the circus was Jumbo, the 61/2-ton African elephant that Barnum purchased from the London Zoo despite the furious protests of English elephant fanciers, including Queen Victoria. His autobiography was published in 1855 and went through many editions. He also wrote Humbugs of the World (1865), Struggles and Triumphs (1869), and Money Getting (1883). See his autobiography, ed. by W. R. Browne (1927, repr. 1961); biography by C. Fleming (2009); N. Harris, Humbug: The Art of P.

T. Barnum (1981); A. Tompert, The Greatest Show on Earth (1987). Cite this article The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable © The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable 2006, originally published by Oxford University Press 2006. Barnum, Phineas Taylor (1810–91), American showman. He billed his circus, opened in 1871, as ‘The Greatest Show on Earth ’; ten years later he founded the Barnum and Bailey circus with his former rival Anthony Bailey (1847–1906). Barnum was in use from the mid 19th century as a noun in the sense ‘nonsense, humbug’. Barnum effect in psychology, the tendency to accept as true types of information such as character assessments or horoscopes, even when the information is so vague as to be worthless. Cite this article No humbug: Striking similarities between Trump and P.T. Barnum No humbug: Striking similarities between Trump and P.T.

Barnum April 3, 2016 Donald Trump (REUTERS) ; P.T. Barnum (Library of Congress) Donald Trump is a phenomenon. What kind? He seems to think that he is “The Greatest Show on Earth.” And many of his supporters likely agree. That slogan, long identified with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, rings true. Trump may be the P.T. Barnum of current U.S. politics. A century and a half separates these men, but they are equally big personalities for their times. Barnum and Trump both skillfully leveraged their audacious business methods to become “celebrities.” Barnum, a master showman, also went into politics and even tried his hand at land development. Barnum and Trump each developed reputations as sharp dealers. They assume a world of caveat emptor, or buyer beware, and are boastful yet skillful debaters. They avoid outright lies — but structured misunderstandings stand as their métier. Donald Trump arrives to address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee general session in Washington, March 21, 2016.

REUTERS/Joshua Roberts They both dealt in landmark curiosities: Barnum in his famous American Museum on Broadway, just south of City Hall in New York City; Trump, farther uptown, at his lavish Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, as well as many other exuberant buildings and developments around the globe. Just as Trump Tower is a tourist destination, so was Barnum’s museum and, later, circus. He played to the common folk. Trump’s establishments cater to the rich, yet also evoke the fascination of those without money. Barnum prided himself in never directly lying. In fact, he made money with ambiguous claims about the truth of his exhibits. He relished controversy about his claims to truth — much as Trump thrives on controversy surrounding his truth claims and verbal abusiveness. (Though a recent Politico report counted five dozen statements deemed “ mischaracterizations, exaggerations, or simply false ” in one week.) Both achieved celebrity as masters of “humbug.” Humbug is not a word we hear often today. But “humbugging” was a way of life for Barnum — who thrived on exaggeration and misinformation. It typically fell short of lying, however.

People by the thousands patronized his museum, delighting in being tricked. Barnum, for example, achieved notoriety — and ticket sales — with his widely advertised presentation of a 161 year-old slave named Joice Heth. He claimed she had been George Washington’s nurse. Neil Harris, in his book, Humbug: The Art of P.T. Barnum, captured Barnum’s genius: The showman realized with Heth that “an exhibitor did not have to guarantee truthfulness; all he had to do was possess probability and invite doubt. The public would be more excited by controversy than conclusiveness.” With that foundational idea and a great deal of advertising, Barnum invited the public to judge for itself. This is similar to the logic of Trump’s appeal. If Barnum used this technique to gather in considerable sums of money, Trump has used it to gather up a variety of partners for his projects. Now he is seeking to gather up many supporters and their votes — just as Barnum drew huge numbers of paying visitors to his museum.

George Templeton Strong, the remarkable 19th century New York City diarist, might as well have been describing Trump when he wrote about Barnum: It is “a pleasure to see humbug so consistently, extensively and cleverly applied.” Poster advertizing The Barnum and Bailey Circus. Library of Congress Barnum later became a celebrated promoter of talent. As a theatrical impresario, his most successful production was bringing Jenny Lind, “the Swedish Nightingale,” to the United States, where she performed 95 concerts across the nation. Only later did Barnum create his circus, “The Greatest Show on Earth.” Trump, however, rather than making other stars, has built a successful career making himself a star with his reality-TV show, The Apprentice. Both men had their financial ups and downs. Barnum, for example, moved his base of operations to Bridgeport, Conn., at one point, and went into land development. Thirty trains stopped at Bridgeport every day, guaranteeing ready access either south to New York and north to Boston. Alas, the project drove him into bankruptcy and a series of court fights.

It turned out that the master deceiver had been deceived — somewhat like Trump’s checkered career in Atlantic City and several other places. Barnum also built a lavish home in Bridgeport that he called “Iranistan.” It epitomized his views of oriental magnificence. He spent the then-enormous sum of $150,000 building it, but Iranistan burned down and the financial whiz had only $28,000 of insurance coverage. But he then tried capitalizing on his failure, proposing a lecture tour on “The Art of Money-Losing.” Like Trump, Barnum recovered financially — and some years later linked up with James Bailey to create the Barnum and Bailey Circus that would long outlive him. More to the point, in the 1860s and 1870s he went into politics, and served two terms in the Connecticut legislature as an anti-slavery Republican. He was also elected mayor of Bridgeport, where he proved adept at urban management as well as continuing his promotion of temperance and religion. Of course, Barnum continued to promote amusements.

One of his most spectacular events was the 1863 wedding of Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren (both “midgets”) in fashionable Grace Church on Broadway and 10th Street. Five years later, though, his American Museum burned down. Its collections were banished to Coney Island as “curiosities,” just as the meaning of museum was transformed in New York City with the opening of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History. Though Barnum did well in local elections, the national political stage eluded him. He ran for a seat in the U.S. Congress on the Republican ticket in 1867. His candidacy was widely ridiculed, however, and he lost that race. Strong, the New York diarist, was pleased. He thought the Republicans erred in nominating the “prince of humbugs.” He asked: What is happening to the party of Lincoln?

« Previous Post Biography of Phineas Taylor Barnum | nitum Biography of Phineas Taylor Barnum Standard Leave a comment biography Phineas Taylor Barnum, born in Bethel, Connecticut, USA, July 5, 1810, was America’s most famous showman and a self-proclaimed “Prince of Humbugs.” After starting out as a merchant and lottery ticket salesman, he fell into the occupation of showman in 1835 with the purchase of a decrepit hymn-singing black woman, Joice Heth, said to be 161 years old, whom he brazenly exhibited as the nurse of George Washington. Graduating to the equally sensational “Feejee Mermaid” (in reality the upper half of a monkey sewn to the body of a fish), he later madefortunes out of the midget TOM THUMB and the Swedish singer Jenny LIND. In these, as in all his enterprises, Barnum was one of the first impresarios to realize the value of massive, carefully planned publicity campaigns, by which he ensured notoriety for his exhibits and maximum profits for himself.

Between 1841 and 1868, Barnum was the proprietor of the AmericanMuseum in New York City, where thousands of curiosities, freaks, and wild animals were displayed, and he produced edifying melodramas such as The Drunkard in a large, well-equipped theater known as the “lecture room.” Stressing education and innocent amusement, the museum became one of New York’s most popular places of entertainment, with over 41 million tickets being sold during Barnum’s management. In 1871 he launched a mammoth traveling CIRCUS, museum, and menagerie. A merger with James A. Bailey’s London Circus ten years later led to the concern that eventually became known as the Barnum & Bailey Show, which in turn was acquired by the Ringling Brothers in 1907. During thewinter of 1889-90, Barnum climaxed his career by taking this “Greatest Show on Earth” to London, where he himself, driven around the hippodrome track in an open carriage, was one of the chief attractions.

Besides an active life as a showman, Barnum was a journalist, real estate speculator, and a popular lecturer. He served four terms in the Connecticut state legislature and one term as mayor of Bridgeport, where the Barnum Museum exists today. There he died on Apr. 7, 1891, a few days after reading his own obituary in the New York Evening Sun. Share this: Humbug definition Humbug definition A Word Made Immortal By Two Geniuses of the 1800s Phineas T. Barnum. Getty Images By Robert McNamara Updated October 30, 2015. Humbug was a word used the 19th century to mean a trick played upon unsuspecting people. The word lives on in the English language today thanks largely to two notable figures, Charles Dickens and Phineas T. Barnum . Dickens famously made “Bah, humbug!” the trademark phrase of an unforgettable character, Ebenezer Scrooge. And the great showman Barnum took delight in being known as the “Prince of Humbugs.” Barnum’s fondness for the word indicates an important characteristic of humbug.

It isn’t just that a humbug is something false or deceptive, it is also, in its purest form, highly entertaining. The numerous hoaxes and exaggerations which Barnum exhibited during his long career were termed humbugs, but calling them that indicated a sense of playfulness. Origin of Humbug as a Word The word humbug seems to have been coined sometime in the 1700s. Its roots are obscure, but it caught on as slang among students. The word began appearing in dictionaries, such as in the 1798 edition of A Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue edited by Francis Grose: continue reading below our video What are the Seven Wonders of the World To Hum, or Humbug. To deceive, to impose on one by some story or device. A humbug; a jocular imposition, or deception. When Noah Webster published his landmark dictionary in 1828, humbug was again defined as an imposition. Humbug as Used by Barnum The popular use of the word in America was largely due to Phineas T. Barnum.

Early in his career, when he exhibited obvious frauds such as Joice Heth , a woman said to be 161 years old, he was denounced for perpetrating humbugs. Barnum essentially adopted the term and defiantly chose to consider it a term of affection. He began to call some of his own attractions humbugs, and the public took it as good-natured kidding. It should be noted that Barnum despised people like con men or snake oil salesmen who actively cheated the public. He eventually wrote a book titled The Humbugs of the World which criticized them. But in his own usage of the term, a humbug was a playful hoax that was highly entertaining. And the public seemed to agree, returning time and again to view whatever humbug Barnum might be exhibiting. Humbug as Used by Dickens In the classic novella A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, the miserly character Ebenezer Scrooge uttered “Bah, humbug!” when reminded of Christmas. To Scrooge, the word meant a folly, something too silly for him to spend time on.

In the course of the story, however, Scrooge receives visits from the ghosts of Christmas, learns the true meaning of the holiday, and ceases to regard celebrations of Christmas as humbug.

Question: Which famous showman styled himself the "Prince of Humbugs"?
Answer: Phineas T Barnum