Wednesday, August 07, 2013

P.T. Barnum



(OUR FOUNDER)

9 comments:

Chic Silber said...


If you think it was easy for
Michael Stewart to come up with
something to rhyme with Phineas

"While crossing railroad tracks
to pick some zinnias
Who eats farina through a hose
And wears pink tights instead
of clothes
If that ain’t worth a buck my
name ain’t Phineas"

From the song "There is a sucker
born every minute"

Sung by Jim Dale who starred in
the Broadway Musical "Barnum"

John Shepherd said...

Would Barnum ever have been thought of as a great circus man had it not been for his association with W. C. Coup and James A. Bailey? Barnum was 61 when he joined forces with Coup and Dan Castello to found what later became the GSOE. Nine years later (at 70), he combined with Cooper and Bailey and - as I understand it - only then did his show reach its greatest prominence.

Bob Momyer said...

According to my research, Barnum's partners invited him in for his name and money but always got a lot more. P.T. alwaays whought of the show more as a traveling museum than a circus. He only visited the show when it was in the major towns and then rode around the track in an open-air carriage stpping several times to call out' "I suppose you came to see P,T. Barnum, well I am Barnum".
He added to Bailey's mental problems causing him to take 2 years off. In spite of all this he made contributions to the American circus.
Bob Momyer

Ole Whitey said...

John: You should have been at the CHS the year Judy Griffin read from the letters from Barnum to J L Hutchinson. Ole Pee Tee was one sharp circus man.

Chic Silber said...


Well he certainly was thought of

highly enough to name the boxed

animal crackers Barnum's Animals

Nuf said

Chic Silber said...


Although I've never given much

thought to him I'd guess in my

youth (so long ago) more folks

new the name "Barnum" than now

"Ringling" is likely to be more

well known in recent years

How about a show of hands

Chic Silber said...


Was it indeed Barnum that coined

the title of TGSOE

Buckles said...

As soon as Kenny bought the Diano elephants Lee Keener brought them into Baraboo where we squeezed them in under the shed with ours.
It seems they had one more contract to honor, a movie about P.T. Barnum to be filmed up in Canada.
"Tommy" being depicted as "Jumbo" was all they needed so I was asked to take care of the other four while Lee had him up there, which I did.
I later heard they used Tommy Hanneford's tent and Barnum was portrayed by Burt Lancaster.
A strange choice.

Ole Whitey said...

Chic: Speaking of which name (Ringling or Barnum) is better known, I worked for a old billposter who had been on the Ringling advance and then the combined show advance. He said after the shows combined the billers would call it the "Barnum show" in the East and the "Ringling show" in the West when they were squaring hits for paper.

And I worked with another biller who would tell people in the South that he was billing the "Robinson show" regardless of what the paper said. It seemed to work.

Of course you D Yankees think we can't read down here anyway. For the record I spent four of the happiest years of my life in the sixth grade.