1. Exploring the Life of P.T. Barnum
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Phineas Taylor Barnum, the name of the father of mass entertainment in the United States who well understood how to turn what people want to see into profit and own benefit. He saw himself as a public benefactor who gave people what they wanted and satisfied their necessities, but honesty was never his strong suit. P.T. Barnum was born on July 5, 1810, in Bethel, Connecticut. It is widely believed that some skills are born, and was not going to be acquired over time and effort. If so, P.T. Barnum was born as a salesman. He was peddling lottery tickets and cherry-rum to soldiers by age 12, and as a smalltown grocer in Connecticut, he regularly cheated his customers on the dubious premise that they were trying to cheat him. Barnum, in short, was an American hustler and idealist rolled into one. After moving to New York City in 1834, Barnum tried his hand at a variety of businesses, including newspaper publishing and running a boarding house. Later, he launched his career as an entertainment entrepreneur. In 1835, P.T. Barnum's got his start exhibiting a black woman; she bought this elderly slave named Joice Heth, who claimed to be 161 years old and a former nurse for George Washington. Barnum exhibited her throughout the northeast region. In fact, she was probably around eighty, but Barnum neither knew nor cared, so long as people paid to see her. He was playing a game with the public, and the public played right back.
A new chapter in the history of popular entertainment was opened when Barnum purchased in 1841 a run-down museum in New York City , reopened it as Barnum's American Museum. Boyer et al. (2011) suggest that Barnum's goal, by contrast of earlier museums, was "to draw paying customers by stimulating public curiosity". This museum concentrates among others, ventriloquists, magicians, albinos, a 25-inch-tall five-year-old whom Barnum named General Tom Thumb, and the "Feejee Mermaid," probably the star of the place.
Burrows and Wallace's rigid application of the word "race" fails to account for the evolution of P.T. Barnum's subject matter. ... However, Burrows and Wallace emphasize race, "blackness" in particular, as "central to Barnum's formula." ... Rather, "blackness" was synonymous with the grotesque, the latter of which was imperative to Barnum's formula. Barnum's eagerness to distort was by no means limited to race. ...
Barnum Phineas Taylor Barnum was possibly the greatest showman of the world. He had shows in Europe and America. ... His mother was Irena Barnum and his father was Phino Barnum. ... His show didn't last for long He disbanded the show in 1837. ... They show was welcomed and had a spectacular show. ...
Is everybody ready for the Freak Show! ... This is the kind of humor that you can come to love when see the Freak Show. ... All three are essential for the success of the show. ... My ears have never hurt for that long after a show before. ... The Freak Show would be best described as "Saturday Night Live on crack", it is wacky, crazy, and you won't stop laughing until you have left the place. ...
Frank Baum's, "The Wizard of Oz,"" has often been referred to as the first American fairytale. ... The story helped relieve Americans of their sense of absence that a shortened work day and increased leisure time had helped to produce. ... Oz creates a city in which it appears good can come to all, much in the same way tricksters like P.T. Barnum created a false sense of reality. ... The past is always available in Baum's eyes, and this idea created a sense of relief to American's scared of the rapid progress toward industrial society. ...
in awe or horror, whom Ricki Lake and Jenny Jones frequently have makeover shows for. ... Hebdige examines punk culture, but his theory also illuminates freak culture, since punk is a realm of freak culture. ... Freak style is chosen. ... Freaks follow these subculture ideologies. ... For the average teenager in America there is a lot of pressure to "fit in" with the latest fashion trends. ...
An example of how press agentry has been used in the past is the story of P.T Barnum; he was a circus promoter who wanted to gain as much publicity as possible for the circus, his primary goal was to achieve as high an attendance as he could. ... The sole purpose of the publicity stunt is primarily to get attention; this type of practise also dates back to P.T Barnum who announced his circus' arrival by hitching an elephant to a plow beside the train tracks (M.Yudkin, 2000). ... Barnum's "There's a sucker born every minute- quote regarding Press Agentry, Goldman (1949) described...
P.T. Barnum had his beginnings on the Bowery, with a cheap dime museum where he showed off an alleged 161-year-old women who he claimed was in fact George Washington's nurse. ... After Barnum moved, other people imitated his idea on Bowery, bringing the circus back to its beginning's . ... Although racism has always been prevalent where African-Americans were concerned, black bands played in most Bowery dives. The Bowery suffered more from anti-English hatred, than it did from resentment towards African Americans. ...
FREAK By Lukas Kuhlman Many times have I been called a freak and never knew what it really meant. ... It may cause the person to "freak out." ... These are the ones that we call freaks. ... This seems to be exactly what Corporate America and Uncle Sam would like to achieve. These, my friends, are the real freaks....