The creator for the first circus in the world
By: Reham Essam
The Greatest Showman
is a 2017 American musical drama film directed by Michael Gracey in his
directorial debut, written by Jenny Bicks and Bill Condon and starring Hugh
Jackman, Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson, and Zendaya. The film
is inspired by the story of P. T. Barnum's creation of the Barnum & Bailey
Circus and the lives of its star attractions.
The Greatest Showman received mixed reviews,
with praise for the cast (particularly Jackman), music and production value but
criticism for the artistic license taken, with some reviewers calling it
"faux-inspiring and shallow". At the 75th Golden Globe Awards, the
film received three nominations: Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best
Actor – Musical or Comedy (Jackman), and Best Original Song
("This Is
Me"), winning the latter.
Phineas Taylor Barnum (July 5, 1810 – April 7,
1891) was an American showman, politician and businessman remembered for
promoting celebrated hoaxes and for founding the Barnum & Bailey Circus
(1871-2017).Although Barnum was also an author, publisher, philanthropist, and
for some time a politician, he said of himself, "I am a showman by
profession...and all the gilding shall make nothing else of me, and his
personal aim was to put money in his own coffers. Barnum is widely, but erroneously,
credited with
coining the phrase "There's a sucker born every minute".
Born in Bethel,
Connecticut, Barnum became a small-business owner in his early twenties, and
founded a weekly newspaper, before moving to New York City in 1834. He embarked
on an entertainment career, first with a variety troupe called "Barnum's
Grand Scientific and Musical Theater", and soon after by purchasing
Scudder's American Museum, which he renamed after himself. Barnum used the
museum as a platform to promote hoaxes and human curiosities such as the Feejee
mermaid and General Tom Thumb. In 1850 he promoted the American tour of singer
Jenny Lind, paying her an unprecedented $1,000 a night for 150 nights.
After economic
reversals due to bad investments in the 1850s, and years of litigation and
public humiliation, he used a lecture tour, mostly as a temperance speaker, to
emerge from debt. His museum added America's first aquarium and expanded the
wax-figure department. While in New York, he converted to Universalism and was
a member of the Church of the Divine Paternity, now the Fourth Universalist
Society in the City of New York.
Barnum did not enter the circus business until
he was 60 years old. In Delavan, Wisconsin in 1870 with William Cameron Coup,
he established "P. T. Barnum's Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan
& Hippodrome, a traveling circus, menagerie and museum of
"freaks." It went through various names: "P.T. Barnum's
Travelling World's Fair, Great Roman Hippodrome and Greatest Show On Earth,"
and after an 1881 merger with James Bailey and James L. Hutchinson, "P.T.
Barnum's Greatest Show On Earth, And The Great London Circus, Sanger's Royal
British Menagerie and The Grand International Allied Shows United," soon
shortened to "Barnum & Bailey's." This entertainment phenomenon
was the first circus to display three rings, which made it the largest circus
the world had ever seen.
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| Barnum with the real dwarf man |
No matter what was the real reason behind this
great idea, but this man will always be a legend for creating fantasy dreamy world from
extraordinary people who thought that they had to hide for the rest of their
lives, he gave them a magical life to hug their techni - color world.
 |
| Annie Jones was born in 1865. Her chin was covered in hair, which caused her parents some concern the most famous of all the bearded ladies from the Victorian era,Not only did she sport a heavy, full beard, but she also had exceptionally long hair, more than 1.8 meters (6 ft) in length. She was a good singer with exceptional etiquette. Jones continued to tour as a bearded lady for 36 years in Barnum circus. |
