P.T. Barnum

The beggar moved off with his five bricks, and began his idiot's play. Within half an hour, more than five hundred curious people were following him. In an hour, the crowd had doubled. When the brick-toting pied piper entered the Museum, dozens bought tickets to follow him. This continued throughout the day for several days, and Barnum's business showed a satisfying increase."

It became the subject of huge interest and debate, with some saying it was an ancient statue and others saying it was a petrified human giant from days of old. Eventually it turned out that the Giant was the creation of a New York tobacconist named George Hull who spent $2,600 having the Giant carved and buried but who sold the creation for $37,500 to a syndicate of five men headed by David Hannum. It was moved to Syracuse, New York for exhibition.

It drew such crowds that showman P.T. Barnum offered $60,000 for a three-month lease of it. When he was turned down he made a plaster replica and put it on display, claiming that his was the real giant and the Cardiff Giant was a fake. As the newspapers reported Barnum's version of the story, David Hannum was quoted as saying, "There's a sucker born every minute." This was in reference to the suckers paying to see Barnum's giant. Over time, the quotation has been misattributed to P.T. Barnum himself.

Hannum sued Barnum and it was revealed that both giants were fake on February 2, 1870. The judge ruled that Barnum could not be sued for calling a fake giant a fake.

The Cardiff Giant is still on display at the Farmer's Museum in Cooperstown, New York.

The gypsum used to create the Cardiff Giant was mined at Fort Dodge, Iowa.

Fedor Jeftichew, (1868-January 31st, 1904) better known as Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Boy, (later Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Man) was a famous sideshow performer. He was born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1868. He suffered from the medical condition hypertrichosis. He toured with his father, Adrian, who suffered from the same ailment and had performed in French circuses. He continued to tour with his son before his death. Fedor eventually signed a contract with P.T. Barnum, who brought him to the United States in 1884, when he was sixteen.

Barnum created a story that involved a hunter in Kostroma who tracked Fedor and his father to their cave and captured them. Barnum described Adrian as a savage who could not be civilized. Barnum made a point of stressing Fedor's resemblance to a dog, and explained that when he was upset he would bark and growl. In the show, Fedor obliged by doing so.

Fedor spoke Russian, German, and English, and toured Europe and the United States extensively.

He died in Salonica, Turkey (now part of Greece), from pneumonia on January 31st, 1904.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedor_Jeftichew"

In August, 1842 an English gentleman named "Dr. J. Griffin" arrived in New York bearing a spectacular curiosity, a real mermaid. He explained that he had acquired the mermaid in South America, though it had been caught near the Feejee Islands, and that he was on his way to England where the mermaid would become part of the collections of the "Lyceum of Natural History." However, because of the enormous interest the creature aroused in the New York public, Dr. Griffin agreed to exhibit it for a week along with other creatures that appeared to be hybrids of different species, such as the duck-billed platypus and flying fish.

Enormous crowds turned out to see the exhibit and to hear Dr. Griffin lecture on natural history. After a week-long engagement, the mermaid was then moved to the American Museum, which had recently come under the proprietorship of P.T. Barnum. The mermaid was displayed there for another month.

The creature's introduction and exhibit had, of course, been the brainchild of Barnum all along. Dr. Griffin was a fraud. His real name was Levi Lyman, and he was no English gentleman. Instead, he was Barnum's long-time acquaintance and collaborator. They had worked together during their exhibition of Joice Heth in 1835.

To stir up more public interest, Barnum placed advertisements in the major New York newspapers that showed the mermaid to have the body of a young, beautiful woman. The actual exhibit, however, had the withered body of a monkey, and the dried tail of a fish. One critic described it as the "incarnation of ugliness."

After Barnum had exhibited the mermaid for a month at the American Museum, he then sent it on a tour of the country, during which it managed to stir up even more controversy in South Carolina where its authenticity was angrily challenged by an amateur naturalist, the Rev. John Bachman.

The original Feejee Mermaid was probably lost when Barnum's museum burned down during the 1860s. However a similar mermaid is owned by Harvard University, and is located in the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

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Here are some remarks about the Feejee mermaid from 1840s newspapers:

"We've seen it! What? Why that Mermaid! The mischief you have! Where? What is it? It's twin sister to the deucedest looking thing imaginable—half fish, half flesh; and 'taken by and large,' the most odd of all oddities earth or sea has ever produced."
The New York Sun, August 5, 1842

"The natural curiosities too are well worthy a visit from the curious and scientific—and most curious among them is the Feejee beauty—the mermaid, hitherto believed to be of fabulous existence. We, of course, cannot undertake to say whether this seeming wonder of nature be real or not, it not being in our power to apply to it any scientific test of truth; but this we deem it but just to say, that we were permitted to handle and examine it as closely as could be effected by touch and sight, and that if there be any deception, it is beyond the discovery of both those senses. The appearance is in every respect that of a natural and not an artificial object—it is certainly no compound or combination, as has been supposed, of ape and fish—but is either altogether nature's handiwork, or altogether the production of art—and if it be indeed artificial, it is the very perfection of art, imitating nature in the closest similitude. We are rather inclined to have faith on the occasion, for the connection, which this curious object establishes between fish and women, is only in analogy with that which every body knows to exist between monkey and man. Of one allusion, however, the sight of the wonder has forever robbed us—we shall never again discourse, even in poesy of mermaid beauty, nor woo a mermaid even in our dreams—for the Feejee lady is the very incarnation of ugliness."
The Charleston Courier, January 21, 1843

"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.

For example:

Jumbo - This was the name of the world's largest elephant. Now we have jumbo shrimp. (Note: Jumbo was already named when Barnum purchased him from the London Zoo in 1882 for $10,000). However, the fame that Barnum created for the elephant allowed for the term to become part of our language.)

Throwing your hat in the ring was coined when a local politician actually threw his hat into Barnum's circus ring after declaring his candidacy.

Grandstanding referred to prominent people who would sit in the best stands at the circus to be noticed.

Let's get the show on the road was P. T.'s declaration when it was time to load the animals on the train.

The Greatest Show on Earth - what else would you call a large circus?

Siamese Twins - he made his living showing off freaks (clearly not a politically correct term today). He had two called Chang and Eng from (where else?) Siam.

Rain or Shine - by using the famous big top, the show always went on, no matter how bad the weather was.

By the way, the only phrase that he is currently famous for is A sucker is born every minute. Strangely enough, he never said this. It was actually stated by his competitor - a banker named David Hannum, owner of the Cardiff Giant (which later turned out to be a hoax).

As a side note, Humphrey Bogart never said Play it again, Sam. Woody Allen said it in the movie of the same name.

The original circus was called simply the P. T. Barnum Circus. He then merged with his competitor and formed the Barnum & Bailey Circus. When Barnum died, Bailey ran the circus. When Bailey died, the Ringling Brothers bought them out. That's how we get the incredibly long Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Barnum was also a somewhat successful politician, serving several terms as a Connecticut State legislator. He is credited as casting the deciding factor in the senate vote for the abolition of slavery after the Civil War.