The Freak Show

Okay so there's this movie that came out recently and it's...

It's got Hugh Jackman playing the role of P T Barnum (Phineas Taylor Barnum) and while I loved the movie for many reasons, I was kind of annoyed by it.

As a lover of weird and curious things, I know a bit about Mr. Barnum and the movie got a few things off about him. That's what I'm here to talk about!

SO GRAB SOME POPCORN AND CHILL OUT AS THIS IS...

 THE GREATEST... not quite review but sort of looking at the history of the SHOWMAN! 

So here's our main man. P T Barnum, himself!

 Not QUITE as good looking as Jackman. 

I'll start this by saying I don't care about that. I think Hugh (we're on a first name basis) was a great choice in the role of this fast-talking man. Especially since it's a musical and an over-the-top production! 

Mr. Jackman (we're no longer on a first name basis) was a lot of fun to watch and played the part really well! He sang and danced and it was super entertaining! 

The Problem:

The movie never address that P T Barnum was a conman before anything else.

See, Phineas (we're on a first name basis) is attributed to the quote: 

"There's a sucker born every minute."

Though we can't prove he said this, it makes a lot of sense for him! Phineas made a career with weird little things to basically trick people out of their money. Around the 1840's, this guy took a monkey and a fish and made this:

The infamous "FIJI MERMAID" or "FEEJEE MERMAID."

Yeah. It's gross and he did some fast talking to get people to pay to see this nasty thing because he sold it as a beautiful and intriguing mermaid. 

The guy made claims like this all the time. 

At one point he had a black woman (Joice Heth) pretend to be a 161 year old nurse to George Washington so people would pay to hear her talk about the former President.

He charged people money to see a buffalo herd and real cowboys, but turns out he had a single, malnourished buffalo who got scared by the crowd and ran away. 

Another man found what appeared to be the evidence of a 10 foot man and Phineas basically said no, that's not real. MY 10 foot man is real! And law suits happened. 

Charles Stratton (a man around 2 feet tall) was a part of the freak show and Phineas wanted more to show so when Stratton married another dwarf named Lavinia Warren, PT pretended they had a baby even though Warren couldn't physically have one. The crowds went wild over how small the baby would be! Turns out Phineas just kept having them hold new-borns so it looked super tiny. 

See what I'm saying? Phineas Taylor Barnum was a conman. 

Now, as far as I know he did care for the people in his shows but it always came down to how he could make a few dollars. This wasn't addressed in the movie at all! 

Alright. That's it for him. I love how creative and dedicated to his craft he was, but he was in the business of tricking people and it bothered me that the movie never really touched on it. 

Moving forward, I want to throw out some facts about the "freaks" in the movie. 

Don't worry, I won't write too much. I get tired of reading, too.

The Bearded Lady in the movie is supposed to represent Annie Jones, a woman who actually started touring with Phineas Taylor Barnum when she was only 9 months old and already had a bit of a moustache and side burns. Hardcore. 

This actor, Sam Humphrey, plays Tom Thumb. Humphrey is just over 4 feet tall in real life while Tom Thumb was only 2 feet tall. 

Zac Efron and Zendaya's characters... never existed. 

Which is fine, Hollywood gotta Hollywood. 

But... it's kinda irksome since there were so many AMAZING people who worked with Mr. Barnum! (We're no longer on a first name basis.)

That's about it for me. 

I realize there is SO MUCH history surrounding Phineas Taylor Barnum and is circus and there's no way to throw it all (accurately) into a movie like this. That's fine! 

But I do recommend looking into some of it. As we've heard before...

 the truth may be stranger than fiction.

LAST THING:

While you're perusing all this side-show stuff and wind up with these two: 

Maybe try and find this one:

If you think you can handle it.

Sources: 

• http://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-p-t-barnum 
• http://www.legacy.com/news/culture-and-trends/article/pt-barnums-greatest-hoaxes
• https://barnum-museum.org/about/about-p-t-barnum/
• http://all-that-is-interesting.com/freak-show-members
• http://viralpursuit.com/36-most-famous-circus-freaks/