P.T.
Barnum wasn't above bending the truth or straight-up lying to make money.
He would have approved of his portrayal in The Greatest Showman, because the film leaves
out or gets wrong many aspects of his life and career, all in the name of entertainment.
Here are times The Greatest Showman lied to you.
Phineas Taylor Barnum was born in Bethel, Connecticut in 1810.
His father, Philo, left nothing to his wife or five children when he died, but rather
than becoming a street urchin and being forced to steal food as depicted in the film, young
Phineas went out looking for a job.
When he was 15, Phineas found a job as a store clerk in a nearby town for $1.50 a week, and
a room with the Wheeler family across the street.
The Greatest Showman shows young Barnum falling in love with the daughter of one of Philo's
wealthy clients while accompanying his father on a professional consultation to the home.
In reality, Barnum met his eventual bride through his landlord.
A young lady from Bethel named Charity Hallett had ridden her horse into town one Saturday
to purchase a bonnet from Mrs. Wheeler's daughter, who worked as a hat maker.
When a violent thunderstorm erupted, Charity was afraid to ride home alone, and wondered
if the milliner knew a gentleman who could escort her safely.
She nominated her mother's lodger, who was already intending to head to Bethel that evening
to visit his mother, and it was nearly love at first sight.
Barnum and Charity were married four years later.
P.T. Barnum's career as a showman didn't start with a family-friendly museum, as the movie
portrays, nor was he the champion of marginalized people that the film made him out to be.
In 1834, Barnum discovered an African-American slave named Joice Heth, alleged to be 161
years old and George Washington's old nursemaid.
Barnum got around the fact that slavery had been outlawed in New York by "leasing" Ms.
Heth from her owner for $1,000.
To make Heth look even older, Barnum restricted her diet until she was nearly skin and bones,
then made her perform for up to 14 hours a day.
Reports differ on whether Heth earned any wages, but there's no question Barnum took
the lion's share of the profits for himself.
Eventually, when Heth died, Barnum sold tickets to her autopsy, saying it was of scientific
interest to discover how she'd lived so long.
The autopsy revealed that Heth had really only been about 80 years old.
P.T. Barnum's treatment of Joice Heth was typical of how people of color fared in his employ.
Far from hiring African-Americans as performers in their own right as seen in The Greatest
Showman, Barnum played on their differences in order to make better displays of them.
One of Barnum's later exhibits was a former cook named William Henry Johnson.
According to Benjamin Reiss' book The Showman and the Slave, playbills invited the public
to guess "What is It?" and implied that Johnson was a missing link between man and monkey.
He wore a fur suit and capered about on stage as a white trainer "taught" him to walk and
use utensils properly.
Barnum wasn't above putting on a little blackface himself, either.
During his later touring days, when his black minstrel had jumped ship, he took it upon
himself to perform the songs that had been advertised.
This wasn't a one-time deal either; he did it repeatedly.
Barnum's poor treatment of people of color should come as no surprise, considering he
also confessed to owning slaves when he'd lived in the South.
While running for public office, he was quoted as saying,
"I ought to have been whipped a thousand times for [mistreating slaves] myself."
However, given Barnum's track record, we wouldn't blame you for doubting the sincerity of his
regret.
The movie shows Barnum pocketing worthless shipping manifests from a fleet of sunken
ships as his employers go bankrupt, then using them as collateral to get a bank loan to purchase
his museum.
"The deed and title to my entire flotilla of trading vessels."
However, Barnum actually acquired his museum through far different methods.
Barnum was keen to acquire the Scudder American Museum collection, which had been losing money
since the founder's death.
Francis Olmstead owned the building, and Barnum made a gentleman's agreement with him: Olmstead
would buy the collection for $12,000 in seven payments, and Barnum would repay Olmstead
$30,000 over 10 years.
But despite agreeing to these terms, the estate manager sold the collection to Peale's Museum
Company instead.
Barnum was infuriated.
He began a letter-writing campaign to all the local newspapers, where he ridiculed Peale's
investors and mocked their prospective enterprise.
By the time he was done, nobody would touch their stock.
Meanwhile, Barnum got it in writing that his original deal would go through if the Peale
group failed to pony up, which is exactly what happened.
The Greatest Showman is a musical, so naturally it has song-and-dance numbers, several of
which are shown to be part of Barnum's show.
But the actual Museum wasn't set up like that at all.
Instead, visitors were meant to wander around and visit each of the attractions and displays
in turn, then leave.
There are only so many people you can safely cram into a wooden building, and it frustrated
Barnum to see the crowds at a standstill outside, instead of moving in a steady stream in and
out.
Barnum even opened a door in the back of the building, so the exiting customers wouldn't
interfere with the ones coming in, but it didn't help.
On holidays in particular, people started bringing their lunches in with them, with
intentions of staying all day.
To keep crowds moving, Barnum instructed his scenery painter to make a large banner and
some signs that read "This Way To The Egress," and hang them up leading to the rear exit.
Curious people saw these signs and, not understanding that "egress" is simply another word for "exit,"
followed the signs right out of the building.
The Greatest Showman shows P.T.
Barnum meeting 22-year-old Charles Sherwood Stratton by chance, then persuading him to
become his star.
"I am putting together a show, and I need a star."
In reality, Barnum and Stratton were distantly related.
To enhance Stratton's natural wit and charm, Barnum taught him how to do impressions of
famous people and sing and dance when Stratton was no older than five.
Billed as "General Tom Thumb," Stratton soon became nearly as famous as Barnum himself.
He began touring with Barnum as a young child and by all accounts was lively, clever, and
an excellent improviser, never at a loss for a quick comeback.
Stratton was even given a private audience with Queen Victoria and her children.
"Well, you're not exactly reaching the top shelf yourself, sweetheart."
During this tour, Stratton was billed as being 12 years-old when he was really six.
As for the rest of Barnum's performers, they didn't get a chance to impress the queen at
all, since Barnum and Stratton were touring Europe alone.
The movie lied about that, too.
In the movie, Barnum discovers his star performer when he hears her singing while working as
a laundress.
The reality is that in 1853, P.T.
Barnum met and employed a Swiss woman named Josephine Clofullia, who was happy to come
to work for Barnum.
A scandal later erupted when claims were made that she was really a man, thanks to rumors
which were likely started by Barnum himself.
There was a courtroom hearing to determine the truth, her husband was called to testify
and she was examined by doctors.
About 12 years later, Barnum met Annie Jones as a toddler and almost immediately arranged
for her to join his Museum.
He paid her mother $150 a week and allowed her to chaperone her daughter personally,
until the day she was called home for an emergency.
The public was shocked when they learned that Annie had been kidnapped from under the vigilant
eye of the nurse whom Barnum had hired to safeguard her.
Fortunately, she was soon discovered while performing at a church fair, making money
for a phrenologist who claimed she was his own daughter.
This matter was also settled with an extremely public courtroom hearing.
The Greatest Showman depicts a set of conjoined twins as being part of P.T.
Barnum's troupe, and he has the reputation of having made the "Siamese Twins" famous.
In reality, Chang and Eng Bunker were only a year younger than Barnum, and were already
famous long before he found them.
When they were young, they toured extensively, performing acrobatics and other feats of athleticism.
As they grew older, learned English, and took charge of their own affairs, their shows became
more dignified and less like spectacles.
They were adept at speaking about politics and stayed up to date on current events.
Eventually they settled down, marrying sisters and raising families on adjacent plantations.
They were quite wealthy but as their families grew in size so did their financial needs.
They found retirement confining and occasionally went back on the road, often taking some of
their children with them.
While touring in 1860, they made arrangements with Barnum to stay in New York for a month
as an exhibit in his Museum, and this is the only time they worked together.
While the movie depicts her as being in the height of her career when she met Barnum,
the real Jenny Lind had actually been retired from opera for a year when she agreed to perform
between 80 and 150 shows for Barnum in North America.
Barnum's contract with Lind included an "escape clause," by which she could end their association
early by paying him the minimum the remaining shows would have earned.
When Lind agreed to tour with Barnum, there were no recordings of her voice and she had
never visited America, so Barnum had to drum up publicity for the tour from scratch.
He wrote letters to newspapers and advertised to such an extent that 30,000 people were
in attendance to meet her ship in New York.
It was actually Barnum's flair for publicity that eventually ended their association, not
a romance.
Lind preferred to keep a low profile when not actually performing, but word would get
out about her movements and she would be mobbed by fans everywhere she went.
By the 93rd show she'd had enough.
Lind and Barnum had a friendly parting of the ways and Lind toured on her own, with
none of the drama that the film depicts.
"It will ruin me."
"When you're careless with other people, Mr. Barnum, you bring ruin upon yourself."
Despite what he claimed in the film, Lind's departure didn't come close to ruining Barnum.
Her total fee had been calculated at $187,500, while Barnum himself reportedly netted half
a million bucks.
While the movie makes him out to be integral to Barnum's operation, Barnum's business partner
Phillip Carlyle is a fictional character, created to serve The Greatest Showman's B-plot
love story.
Barnum got by on his own reputation just fine throughout most of his career.
But eventually, after years spent touring with various attractions and experiencing
several serious setbacks, including the Museum burning down in 1865 and the new location
burning down three years later, Barnum got out of show business and into politics.
However, in 1870, Barnum was persuaded to come out of "retirement" by Dan Castello and
W.C.
Coup in order to run "Dan Castello's Great Circus & Egyptian Caravan," which Barnum swiftly
turned into "P.T.
Barnum's Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan and Hippodrome."
Meanwhile, there was a rival show which was originally called "Cooper, Bailey and Company's
Great International Circus," and later the "Great London Circus And Sanger's Royal British
Menagerie."
Run by James A. Bailey in partnership at various times with either James E. Cooper or James
L. Hutchinson, this circus was stiff competition for Barnum.
They eventually agreed to form one colossal circus, pooling their resources so that they
both benefitted.
It was known as "P.T.
Barnum's Greatest Show On Earth & The Great London Circus Combined With Sanger's Royal
British Menagerie & Grand International Allied Shows," commonly referred to as the Barnum
& Bailey Circus.
The Ringling Brothers eventually bought Barnum & Bailey in 1909, 20 years after Barnum's
death.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Grunge videos about your favorite stuff are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.