It was while on tour with her when he observed a public hungry for spectacle. As the newspaper the Courier wrote cuttingly:. Still, with Heth, Barnum proved himself capable of being nimble enough to dip and swerve, playing up different stories of her to appeal to different audiences across the northeast. When she died in February , rather than let her go in peace, Barnum had one more act up his sleeve: he drummed up a final public spectacle, hosting a live autopsy in a New York Saloon.
As James W. During his successful run for the Connecticut General Assembly in something changed, however. I ought to have been whipped a thousand times for this myself.
But by then I was a Democrat—one of those nondescript Democrats, who are Northern men with Southern principles. In , Barnum met 4-year-old Charles Sherwood Stratton, who stood 25 inches tall and weighed 15 pounds. Sensing another potential windfall, Barnum trained the boy to sing and dance and revealed him to the public as "General Tom Thumb. Although he became famous for championing the weird and wacky, one of Barnum's most successful ventures came with the promotion of Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind in the early s.
He reportedly hoped to improve his public image as the owner of a dime-store museum. It was risky, since Barnum had never actually heard Lind sing. He launched a public relations blitz, including newspaper coverage and competitions. Over the years, Lind and Barnum were suspected of having a romantic relationship. In , Lind married pianist and accompanist Otto Goldschmidt, staying together until her death in Barnum remained focused on his career.
Barnum married his childhood friend Charity Hallett in , when the pair was 21 and 19, respectively. They were married for 44 years and had four daughters; their youngest daughter died during childhood.
In July , Barnum's American Museum burned to the ground in a massive fire. The promoter soon opened another museum at a nearby location, but this one also was demolished by a fire, in March Barnum retired from the museum business and teamed up with circus owners Dan Castello and William C.
Referring to the traveling spectacle as "The Greatest Show on Earth," Barnum took full ownership of the successful venture by In , Barnum joined forces with fellow circus managers James A. Bailey and James L. 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 , 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.
Barnum once used his circus animals to test the strength of the Brooklyn Bridge. Shortly after the Brooklyn Bridge opened in , rumors that it was structurally unsound sparked a human stampede that left a dozen people dead. On the night of May 17, , he marched 21 elephants and 17 camels over the bridge from Manhattan to Brooklyn.
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 lates. He would remain an avid teetotaler and prohibition advocate for the rest of his life, and regularly gave speeches on the evils of liquor.
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