Barnum

Flying acrobats, trained animals, strange oddities: all attributes of an astounding circus, yet where did these acts begin and what dark truths hide behind the breathtaking circus acts? Phineas Taylor Barnum spent his life remaking himself from a poor country boy into the city’s showman (Mansky). After moving to New York City, P.T. Barnum successfully opened the Barnum American Museum (“P.T. Barnum Biography”). He worked during a time where blue laws were prominent in the United States, regulating the ways people could provide entertainment to others. Despite the tight restrictions, he still found a way to amuse the public eye (Mangan). His knack of finding curiosities, authentic or fabricated, expanded his fortune (Wallace). However, hidden by his fame was a dark side more shocking than his shows (Manger).…

Phineas Taylor Barnum was Born on July 5, 1810, in Bethel, Connecticut and was a natural salesman, peddling lottery tickets and Cherry rum to Soldiers as a young boy around the age of 12. As a young man Barnum moved to New York City and got into a variety of businesses including newspaper publishing and running a boarding house and much more.. Barnum hated working with his hands so instead he made his fortune using his mind and using the gullibility of the public in his favor by almost tricking…

Phineas Taylor Barnum is one of the most famous showmen in America. He was born July 5, 1810 and died April 7, 1891. During his lifetime, P.T Barnum invented the circus and he was the reason we have the three-ring circles in the circus. The movie The Greatest Showman tries to portray P.T Barnum’s life. There is a lot of similarities and differences between the movie The Greatest Showman and real life on P.T Barnum life. Some similarities are what he did before the circus and who he worked with.…

Discussion In this study, researchers were trying to identify how pragmatic police utilization of offender profiles is. Police profiling has been proven to be limited practice due to the fact that it is ambiguous, police are finding personal meaning in statements that could apply to many people, this is known as the “Barnum-type effect”. Offender profiling tends to use statements that are ambiguous, leaving these generic statements open to reinterpretation, meaning the statement could be…

In her article “From Barnum to “Bling”,” Amy Henderson describes the transition in the definition of celebrity. Thanks to TV, cable, and 24/7 coverage, celebrities are frequently in the spotlight of American entertainment, news, and life. When the idea of a celebrity began, the earlier celebrities focussed on encompassing all people and encouraging peace and agreements. The contemporary celebrity, on the other hand, focuses more on using their fame to promote politics and does not appeal to a…

A Compare and Contrast of the Life of P.T .Barnum and the Movie, The Greatest Showman by Shelby Butler The movie, The Greatest Showman, came out in December of 2017. The movie was about Phineas Taylor Barnum, who most people know as P.T. Barnum. P.T. Barnum was famous for starting the Barnum & Bailey Circus. After watching The Greatest Showman, it was clear that many parts of the movie were about true events in P.T. Barnum’s life, but some were false. Differences in his family life, his…

Barnum made his first investment in what he called, Barnum’s American Museum. He had everything a typical museum would have, from paintings to sculptures to mummified bodies. Arguably, the most popular installment at P.T. Barnum’s museum was the Feejee Mermaid. Barnum claimed that he had found a mermaid and was exhibiting it at his museum. Evidently, this brought hundreds of people to the Barnum American Museum eager to see what this mermaid looked like. They could hardly believe that such a…

“I am a showman by profession...and all the gilding shall make nothing else of me." Phineas Taylor Barnum is arguably one of the most ingenious businessman of American history. P.T. Barnum is best known for his creation with James Bailey of the Greatest Show on Earth, a traveling circus featuring elephants, acrobats, and people with birth defects (whom he called “freaks”). Barnum was a firm believer in the concept of any kind of publicity is good publicity. In fact, if rumors were spread about…

father confronts him about it, he contemplates lying; however, his guilt gets the best of him, and he decides to come clean and confess that he did, in fact, cut down the tree. Washington’s father appreciated his son’s honesty and was no longer angry. While this is an inspiring story and a great lesson for young children, Lengel brings to light the realization that this is a fabricated story created by money-hungry author, Parson Weems. Lengel writes about him, “Weems was the father of popular…

Phineas Taylor Barnum, or better known as "P. T." Barnum, described as a “jack of all trades” is an understatement. As a self-made businessman (or scammer), showman (or humbug), newspaper editor (or libeler), he lived a life of exhausted passion and success. He tells his own story in his autobiography, The Life of P.T. Barnum of living in 19th century America. P.T. Barnum’s optimistic and exuberant charisma certainly helped him make a profit, yet that alone did not gain him the title of a…