WEBVTT - Selects: PT Barnum: More Complicated Than You've Heard 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:04.440 Hi, everybody, check here with the Greatest Show on Earth 0:00:05.519 --> 0:00:09.000 wrangling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus. You say, no, stuff 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:11.040 you should know the podcast. That's right. It's Saturday, and 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:13.119 that means it's time for another SELECX and this one 0:00:13.160 --> 0:00:16.160 is from May twenty eighteen. P T. Barnum Colon More 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:18.799 Complicated than You've Heard. And I picked this one, you 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:22.000 guys for two reasons. One because I believe in this episode, 0:00:22.400 --> 0:00:25.040 I predicted that Hugh Jackman would play the man in 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:27.840 a movie one day, one of my two predictions, along 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:31.480 with Jared from Subway being a creep. And the other 0:00:31.520 --> 0:00:33.280 reason I picked it out is because I finally saw 0:00:33.320 --> 0:00:35.560 the movie The Greatest Show on Earth recently with my daughter, 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:38.080 and I didn't like it so much. I didn't think 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:41.720 it was that good, so I'm sorry to anyone who 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:44.120 had a part in that movie. My daughter loved it, 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:46.560 my wife loved it. I just thought it was okay. 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:49.800 But this episode is great, so I hope you enjoy. P. T. 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:57.120 Barnum Colon More Complicated than You've heard. Welcome to Stuff 0:00:57.160 --> 0:00:59.640 You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:08.920 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:15.679 Charles W. Chuck Bright, There's Jerry Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello. 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:18.200 Jerry's got a top hat on. 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:22.760 I know, I don't know why she's trying to be 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:26.640 all mister monopoly or P. T. 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:28.080 Barnum. 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:31.760 Oh yeah, I forgot he wore a top hat allegedly. 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:34.280 Oh no, he did. I saw a picture of it. 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:39.959 Yeah, Hugh Grant certainly did. Hugh Grant, Hugh Jackman, Hugh Laurie. 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:43.039 I think it's h l No, it's Clive Owens you're 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:46.640 thinking of. Yeah, Hugh Jackman Man, where's that top hat? 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:47.240 Like a champ? 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:51.760 He does. I don't know how much you went on 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:53.639 the internet for this one, because this is a pretty 0:01:53.640 --> 0:02:00.040 comprehensive article actually, but The Greatest Showman really set the 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:03.280 Internet on fire Man and a lot of like it 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:06.400 really brought out a lot of people saying like, whoa, whoa, whoa, 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:12.440 whoa whoa whoa whoa Yeah, whoa Yeah, this is the 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:15.960 the very definition of the word fantasy. 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:19.280 Yeah, it seemed like that movie was can be best 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:22.680 described as a musical whitewashing. 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:25.440 Mm hmm in every sense of that word. 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:31.200 Yeah, so let's destroy it. Yeah, I mean, after reading this, 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:35.120 I didn't think, like man P. T. Barnum, what a 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:36.120 complete a hole. 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:39.720 No, he was just a lot more complicated than that, 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:43.120 and get a lot of stuff that you just shouldn't 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:46.079 just pass over because you can't figure out lyrics to 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:51.280 what rhymes with racism. 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:54.240 Yeah, I mean he was. He was definitely an enigma 0:02:55.040 --> 0:03:00.120 and seems like he did some good. But also I 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:01.440 mean he was a hustler man. 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:05.600 For sure. So this is what I didn't fully understand 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:09.160 until researching this. Chuck. He was. He's known as the 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:13.079 greatest showman, right, m But there were plenty of other 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:16.760 showmen out there at the time, which makes sense because 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:20.160 you have to have something to compare be compared to 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:23.800 to be the greatest, right. But I guess I just 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:26.200 assumed he was like the first or the originator. No, 0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:29.120 he was not the first showman. He was a great showman. 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:29.960 Yeah. 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:34.000 What he really left his mark on was introducing America 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:40.480 to pure unadulterated hucksterism, sure, and using it for marketing. 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:42.840 Humbug that's what he called it. 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:44.640 And he had he had a lot of quotes, some 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:48.800 were some were definitely something he said like every crowd 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:51.960 has a silver lining, which means you can shake it 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:53.880 out of him and get some money from a bunch 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:57.160 of people. Right, Yeah, the one about a sucker born 0:03:57.200 --> 0:04:00.560 every minute that's never been successfully attributed to him one 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:01.160 hundred percent. 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:05.520 Well yeah, and one thing is for sure, and is 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:09.040 that his autobiography is I think if you order it, 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:12.760 it comes with a salt lick, so you can just 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:14.480 lick on that salt while you're reading it. 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:17.679 Right. I don't know what that means, but that seems 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:18.880 like something that they would do. 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:23.160 Yeah, I mean he I think when the man is 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:25.720 writing about himself, it's like, you know what, you may 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:28.880 just want to believe a third of this. 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:31.320 Oh take it with a grain of salt, but so 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:33.560 much so that you need an actual salt lick. 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:37.479 Oh yeah, I got it, now, I got it. 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:39.520 So So there is one quote that I think kind 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:42.240 of describes this guy best, or at least his philosophy, 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:45.680 and it also kind of reveals like you can't call 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:50.960 him harmless, but also the intentions were not entirely evil, 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:55.599 right Right. He had a quote that said that people 0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:59.400 don't mind being deceived so long as they're being amused 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:00.600 at the same time. 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:01.839 Which is kind of true. 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:04.320 It does, and it largely lets him off the hook 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:07.719 as far as being a huckster. Right, But the thing 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:12.719 that The Greatest Showman really glossed over, just outright ignored, 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:16.440 was that a lot of the the amusements that he 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:21.359 was presenting to the public were extraordinarily degrading to people 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:26.800 at the time. They were super racists. There were just 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:30.120 a lot of There was just a lot of exploitation. 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:33.280 He made his money not just by hustling Americans, but 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:38.159 by exploiting other Americans too. Right, Yeah, and again, like this, 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:40.920 a lot of this is contextual. It's not necessarily fair 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:45.040 for later generations to judge previous generations, although it's really 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:49.359 fun to do. But yes, you could say, like this 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:53.400 guy was exploited of even even in compared even compared 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:56.760 to like his contemporaries. Right, perhaps, so he is just 0:05:56.800 --> 0:05:59.479 this very complex character who I think you and I 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:03.080 can agree he was not an evil person. He just 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:05.520 did some horrible things here or there. 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:08.880 Should we go back in time? Yes, all right, let's 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:10.360 go back to the beginning. Let's hop in the way 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:15.560 back machine, which is appropriately steampunky right now, Yeah, it 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:17.560 takes many forms. I don't know if people realize that. 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:21.480 It has a clock without the glass and you can 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:24.280 see the parts inside, but it doesn't actually function. It 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:25.720 so strictly for decoration. 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:37.080 So let's go back to eighteen ten, back to Bethel, Connecticut, 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:41.159 where this man was born, mister Phineas Taylor Barnum. He 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:42.960 had sort of a mixed family life. I mean, he 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:46.040 was they point out in this article. He was firmly American. 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:49.840 His great great great grandfather came over from England as 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:56.360 an indentured servant in the seventeenth century. Eventually became a landowner. 0:06:57.080 --> 0:06:59.200 But they didn't It's not like they had a ton 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:01.440 of money. His dad, Filo great. 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:04.320 Name, yeah, all these are great names, was he was. 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:07.320 Not super successful, so it was kind of up to 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:11.480 young pt to make his own way in life. 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:15.920 Right. Yeah. His father was a farmer, which introduced Phineas 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:21.120 to the idea that he really hated like manual, mindless work. 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:23.040 Now, he didn't like doing that farm work. 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:26.480 But that's not to say he didn't like work. He 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:29.600 just liked very specific kinds of work where his energies 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:31.280 were appropriately chanting. 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:32.360 Builking people out of money. 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:34.760 Sure, yeah, I mean that that was kind of it. 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:35.200 He liked. 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:38.560 He was the definition of the word enterprising, right, she 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:41.560 could figure out a way. He could look at something literally, 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:44.320 look at something that you couldn't you could almost not 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:47.680 give away, you certainly couldn't sell, and turn it into 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:51.400 pure profits. Like he got into lotteries for a little 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:52.440 while once, right. 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:54.640 Yeah, I mean he went to work. He left the farm, 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:57.240 went to work at a country store and realized quickly, like, 0:07:57.840 --> 0:08:00.560 just because you're in the country doesn't mean there aren't 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:03.320 like swindlers and cheaters out here. So he kind of 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:05.800 learned some of the tricks of the trade there. His 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:09.120 old man died when he was fifteen, and he was 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:11.200 kind of his mom had his mom had to get 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:13.880 a job, but he was basically like, all right, it's 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:16.400 kind of up to me now to provide for my family. 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:20.120 So he moved got that another job as a store clerk, 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:22.440 and as you said, got into lotteries. 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:26.240 Yeah, and he was early on pursuing a career at clerkship, 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:29.760 which I guess is a thing, but yeah, so there 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:32.920 was this he saw easy money and lottery, so he 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:35.640 set up on himself. Apparently when he was working for 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:40.280 these owners of the store, they were away at one point, 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:44.400 and he got his eyes on some tin kitchen ware 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:47.800 that just would not sell. So he took some other 0:08:47.840 --> 0:08:50.360 stuff that wouldn't sell at that store. These things weren't his, 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:53.920 by the way, and he traded them for a bottle collection, 0:08:54.480 --> 0:08:56.480 which I guess was the thing that people wanted at 0:08:56.480 --> 0:09:00.760 the time. Yeah, and he put those things up as prizes, right, 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:03.040 and he started a lottery and these were the prizes, 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:06.240 and there were cash prizes. But he ended up selling 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:09.600 like a thousand tickets or something like that in this 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:14.000 little town store based on these prizes and some cash prizes, 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:17.000 saying like half of all tickets were going to be winners, 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:19.560 and you might win a bottle or you might win 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:22.200 like a tin muffin pan, but you could also win 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:24.200 this cash. And so these things that had just been 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:27.319 sitting on these shelves forever were suddenly turned into something 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:30.800 valuable thanks to his marketing expertise. And this is while 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:31.880 he's still a teenager. 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:35.959 Yeah, we've covered this in something before that lotteries were 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:38.000 a thing back then that someone could just cook up. 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:41.760 You know, it's not like the lotteries we have today, 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:46.800 Like these sanctioned, sanctioned ways of stealing people's money. Right, 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:49.120 But back then you could just cook up a lottery 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:50.440 in a small town and be like, you know what 0:09:50.520 --> 0:09:53.600 I've got. It was almost like a Ponzi thing, like 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:56.240 I can raise money, give away some of that money 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:58.199 and prizes, and then keep the. 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:01.080 Rest, right. I think that was in our lotteries episode. 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:02.760 Oh really yeah? 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:04.720 Okay, Well, in order to do that, though, you have 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:08.800 to be a natural born salesperson, which is what he was. 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:11.360 You really do and like lotteries would played like a 0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:14.320 theme throughout his early career, like that's how he ended 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:17.920 up making his initial I don't know fortune's the right word, 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:20.960 but that's how he staked himself and his family was 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:24.640 through lotteries and working in stores and then eventually owning 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:27.400 stores like general stores, grocery stores, that kind of thing. 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:29.559 But the lotteries are where he made his money. And 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:33.079 he actually figured out that you could make more money 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:36.280 with less work than having to go to the trouble 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:39.080 of setting up a lottery. Like you said, anybody could 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:43.880 just set up a lottery by taking tickets from somebody 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:48.400 else's lottery and selling them further out at an increased price. 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:51.080 But then he figured out one more thing, Chuck. You 0:10:51.080 --> 0:10:53.680 didn't even have to go out and sell these things yourself. 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:56.840 You could hire other people to sell them even further out. 0:10:56.920 --> 0:10:58.640 All you had to do was give them the tickets 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:01.080 and collect the money that they brought. So he ended 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:06.200 up making money by basically expanding other people's lotteries for 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:06.960 a while. 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:09.040 That's right. And in the middle of this, and he 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:11.760 had moved to Brooklyn at this point, he's kind of 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:13.800 hopping all over the place there in the northeast. 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:17.080 But uh, and and to be fair, we're hopping kind 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:21.000 of all over his early life right now. Yeah, chronologically. 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:24.600 Yeah. Yeah. So in this time period, he met who 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:28.320 would become his wife, a woman named Charity Hallett, who 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:32.120 he described in his autobiography as a fair, rosy cheeked, 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:36.520 buxom girl with beautiful white teeth. Did I mention she 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:37.199 had big. 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:40.040 Boobs, right, but those teeth. 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:44.240 Man. So they would get married, and I think they 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:49.840 had four daughters. But during all this time he did 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:54.160 he had a little Josh Clark in him, because you mean, well, 0:11:54.600 --> 0:11:58.800 he was writing letters to local papers that weren't getting published. 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:00.280 So he said, you know what, I'm going to start 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:03.840 my own paper. Yeah, he clarked himself a paper. 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:06.319 I'll see you all in Hell media. 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:09.560 Yeah, and much like yourself, you started your own paper, 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:10.439 which was kind of cool. 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:14.199 Sure. I mean like, if people won't print your crank ideas, yeah, 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:16.080 go start your own paper. 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:17.880 It's like if you want to get your manifesto out 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:18.360 there and. 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:22.440 Either yeah, either become you and Obama esque, which we 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:24.080 don't recommend, or start your own paper. 0:12:24.160 --> 0:12:27.200 That's right. And his was called Herald of Freedom, which 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:29.560 is terrible. And this is where it gets a little 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:34.680 weird because he kind of went after people, was eventually 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:37.480 hit with a libel suit and spent sixty days in jail. 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:40.360 But that sold a lot of papers, and he was 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:44.400 also hailed as a hero because apparently he was legitimately 0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:45.400 exposing corruption. 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:48.160 Right, So to me, Chuck, that one really stood out 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:55.600 because it shows just how huge this guy's life story is. Yeah, 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:58.760 that even if you make a movie out of it, all, 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:00.920 the best you can hope for is to pick like 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:03.280 five or six or ten different things and try to 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:06.360 find a thread throughout him. Right, Whether that's an accurate 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:10.560 portrailer or not, it can't possibly be, because this guy's 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:13.720 life was just so enormous and he did so many things, 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:16.520 and he was such an outsize character that a lot 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:21.480 of times you either vilify him or glorify him, and 0:13:21.640 --> 0:13:23.839 it was much more a combination of both of those things. 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:25.920 And I think that example really says it all. Like 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:29.360 he had his notions, and he started his own paper 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:32.320 and ended up going to jail and subscription boosted, so 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:34.800 ended up making money from it. But at the same time, 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:37.920 he was legitimately trying to call out corruption in this 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:42.080 town that he cared about. So his character was much 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:46.760 more complex than you get just from just about any 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:49.400 source unless you read biographies about him. 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:54.920 Yeah, agreed. So finally he says, I'm sorry, Connecticut said 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:58.920 no more lotteries in Connecticut. So he's like, all right, 0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:01.600 what am I doing here if I can't do this 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:02.360 little scam? 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:04.640 He's like, I love this town, but not that much. 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:07.559 So in eighteen thirty four he left the paper, shut 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:10.480 that down, moved his family to New York City and 0:14:11.200 --> 0:14:14.240 should we take a break? Perfect, All right, we're in 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:16.160 New York City and we'll be back right after this. 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:19.880 If you want to know, then you're in luck. Just 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:27.479 listen to josh selfus. 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:31.080 No stuff you sho. 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:43.120 No, I got a falafel. 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:44.400 Is it good? 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:45.400 It's pretty good? 0:14:45.840 --> 0:14:47.560 Is it from the halal guys? Uh? 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:49.640 Huh of course, man, who else are you going to 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:50.680 get a falaffel from? 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:54.520 That's good stuff? Yeah? Uh so, Man, this guy really 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:58.359 just reading through this thing. He did so many. 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:02.680 Jobs, right, he was a factotem. 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:05.080 Dozens and dozens of jobs through his lifetime. 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:09.120 Yeah, and I'm glad he didn't just stick to clerking, right, 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:12.840 or even lottery. He had this thing like something about 0:15:13.880 --> 0:15:17.840 show business attracted this guy. Oh yeah, I don't know 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:20.760 what it was. Maybe nobody but him knows what it was. 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:22.600 Maybe he doesn't even know what it was. But he 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:27.440 was attracted to the idea of like wowing and amusing 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:33.120 and amazing crowds. And he did that pretty early on. 0:15:33.720 --> 0:15:37.360 I think he was twenty five when he got into 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:42.280 exhibiting a human being who he purchased and owned for 0:15:42.320 --> 0:15:44.680 a while, which, by the way, does not show up 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:45.600 in the Greatest Showman. 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:49.280 Right, And this is after in New York he started 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:51.840 a boarding house for a while. Yeah, and co owned 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:53.160 a grocery store for a while. 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:53.600 Right. 0:15:54.280 --> 0:15:57.480 And so like his life is full of him just 0:15:57.520 --> 0:15:59.960 trying to do these kind of regular things and then 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.600 being like Nope, gotta go buy a lady and put 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:03.360 her on display. 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:06.360 Right, this is after Chuck. By the way, he had 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:08.120 come down with smallpox for a while. 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:10.840 Oh did we miss a smallpox? 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:13.640 Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, this guy had a 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:17.200 huge life. Let's get to Joyce Heath right, Yeah, because 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:22.400 she is a very controversial part of P. T. Barnum's life. 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:25.800 She was the first, his first foray into show business. 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:27.880 And there's no other way to put it. Like he 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:33.119 purchased her. She was a slave and elderly slave who 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:36.720 he purchased from another promoter who had been touting her 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:41.880 as General George Washington's nurse maid. Yes, from when George 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:45.480 Washington was a child. This is eighteen thirty five, right, 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:48.760 you did as she was supposedly one hundred and sixty 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:49.880 one years old. 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:53.960 Yeah, so he negotiates a price. He went and saw her, 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:57.800 and she was blind, she had no teeth, she was 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:01.560 partially paralyzed, but she could talk and tell her story. 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:04.879 Yeah, she told stories about young George as a boy. 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:09.840 Oh yeah, and to be fair, she was already being exploited. 0:17:09.880 --> 0:17:13.520 It's not like he which is not great. But it's 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:16.000 not like Barnum introduced this into her life. 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:19.280 No, he just purchased her and took it over. Yeah, 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:22.040 it took over the exploitation money. 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:26.160 For a thousand dollars, and he toured with her until 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:29.480 she died, not that long later, just like a year later, 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:32.840 not even in eighteen thirty six. He made a lot 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:36.159 of dough and it was it was sort of a 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:38.679 watershed moment for him where I think he was like, 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:41.959 wait a minute, I've realized that I can get people 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:48.520 in a room by cooking up these stories and getting 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:53.440 things in the newspaper and printing these posters, and even if, 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:57.560 like if business was down, he would do these crazy things, 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:01.680 like one of them when business was down, appearing with Heath. 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:05.240 At one point he accused her of being a robot 0:18:05.320 --> 0:18:08.160 what they called at the time an automaton. 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:10.679 In an anonymous letter to the editor in a newspaper. 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:14.320 Yeah, a robot made of whalebone, rubber and springs. So 0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:17.199 everyone was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Not only is she 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:21.240 George Washington's nurse maid, but she's really a robot. 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:24.600 Right. What that did was it got the people who 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:28.280 had been avoiding going to see her, because even at 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:32.040 the time, people were like, this is pure exploitation. This 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:35.679 woman is being exhibited like a giraffe would be or 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:38.560 something like that. She's an old lady's working her ten 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:41.280 to twelve hours a day. Some people think that he 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:45.359 worked her to death, literally, And so there was part 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:48.919 of the press that was saying a reporting on this 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:51.959 with great distaste. So there's a segment of American society 0:18:52.000 --> 0:18:55.800 who would not be caught dead seeing George Washington's one 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:59.840 hundred and sixty year old nursemaid, but they would conceive 0:18:59.880 --> 0:19:03.000 a go see an autonomaton if that's really what was 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:08.560 going on. So he managed to dupe the very people 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:12.280 who were critical of this exploitation that he was undertaking. 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:14.200 He got everybody in that one. 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:16.919 Well, yeah, and it gets even worse. Finally, when she 0:19:17.000 --> 0:19:20.600 passed away, he actually sold tickets to a public autopsy 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:24.719 in a saloon so people could come look at this 0:19:24.920 --> 0:19:29.119 poor woman's insides. And this is where it was finally revealed. 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:33.520 Doctor said, she's maybe like eighty eighty one years old at. 0:19:33.359 --> 0:19:37.879 Most, right, And this was so Jane McGrath kind of 0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:42.320 walks past, like what a controversy this was, Like this 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:45.840 guy had been like very much touting that she was 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:49.200 the nurse maid, like he supposedly had the bill of 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:52.960 sale to George Washington's father for her, so like he 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:55.240 was saying, like, this is legitimately one hundred and six 0:19:55.280 --> 0:19:58.280 year old woman. So in this autopsy that he charged for. 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:02.920 When it was exposed that she was actually half that age, 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:06.000 it was there was a bit of disgrace there, and 0:20:06.040 --> 0:20:08.399 he had to learn to roll with the punches. And 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:11.720 it was about this time that that he basically said 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:15.919 to himself, you can you can take this as a 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:18.480 lesson and go on the straight and narrow, maybe get 0:20:18.520 --> 0:20:23.320 back into clerking. Yeah, or you can double maybe triple 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:27.520 and quadruple down on this and and see where that goes. 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:29.960 And he chose the ladder of the two for sure. 0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:33.600 That's right. He sure did. The next thing that he did, 0:20:33.680 --> 0:20:35.959 the next person that he kind of took under his 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:45.680 wing was his greasy greasy wing, was someone called yea, 0:20:46.480 --> 0:20:47.480 why is it spelled that way? 0:20:48.840 --> 0:20:51.200 That is the Italian spelling of signor. 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:59.000 Oh, well, let me turn it on then nice antonio antonio, 0:20:59.680 --> 0:21:00.960 And an extra bit in. 0:21:00.920 --> 0:21:03.439 There, signor antonio is another way to say. 0:21:03.960 --> 0:21:07.439 Well, sure if you're a dullard. 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:09.720 I'm a bit of a dullard, chuck. I think you 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:11.080 know that after ten years. 0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:14.119 So this guy, we're really milking that ten year thing. 0:21:14.200 --> 0:21:18.800 Hum. I've got my SYSK ten year Army shirt on. 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:20.400 I see that. It's really nice. 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:22.760 Thank you. I've been working on my bucksomeness. 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:28.880 You're quite buxom. So Senior Antonio was a balancer. He's 0:21:28.920 --> 0:21:32.800 one of these guys like a plate spinner, walked on stilts, juggles. 0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:35.880 He could throw things in the air and catch them 0:21:36.200 --> 0:21:36.800 very fast. 0:21:37.400 --> 0:21:38.680 Yeah, he's like a hippie. 0:21:39.200 --> 0:21:41.800 Yeah, exactly. He would be on tour with he'd have 0:21:41.880 --> 0:21:44.360 those little sticks what are those called, devil sticks? 0:21:44.640 --> 0:21:47.560 Devil sticks or a hackey sack, any of those things. 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:49.280 Yeah, he pull a hacky sack out of his ear 0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:52.000 at any moment. So this guy, he said, all right, 0:21:52.000 --> 0:21:54.760 you need to be my newest client. I will make 0:21:54.760 --> 0:22:00.159 you famous. Change your stage name from Signor Antonio to 0:22:00.240 --> 0:22:05.200