WEBVTT - Sideshow 1: Gaff Daddy 0:00:10.480 --> 0:00:13.760 All eyes were turned towards the sky. It was coming soon, 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:17.119 you see, and the people were excited. Holley's comment was 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:20.239 due to pass by the Earth with a tale twenty 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:24.680 four million miles long and careening over three million miles overhead. 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:27.639 The residents of New York City marveled at the heavens 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:31.920 and wondered what it could all mean. Richard Locke certainly 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:34.960 had an idea. For him, it meant dollars if he 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:38.920 played his cards right. He was in the business of newspapers, 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:42.280 a ruthless, cutthroat game in Old New York, one that 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:46.920 pitted titans and penny press publishers against each other. He 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:49.559 knew you had to give the people what they wanted, 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:53.239 and in this moment, people wanted the stars. But he 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:56.160 would do them one better. He would also give them 0:00:56.200 --> 0:01:00.720 the moon. On August thirty five, Lock published the first 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:03.960 installment of a new otherworldly story. It would run in 0:01:04.040 --> 0:01:07.280 six parts, with each ending luring its readers to come 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:11.440 back for more. He titled it Celestial Discoveries and hid 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:15.040 behind the identity of a very real and very famous astronomer, 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:18.960 John Herschel. But beyond that, the story was what he 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:23.640 would call today fake news. Over the course of six issues, 0:01:23.760 --> 0:01:27.160 lock I mean, Herschel told readers about what he was 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:33.199 seeing through his superpowered telescope aimed at the moon, plant life, rocks, animals. 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:38.080 He told of lunar forests, herds of brown bison like creatures, 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:41.600 even bluish unicorns, in a voice that echoed the same 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:46.600 travelog sensibilities of America's Age of New imperialism. His dispatches 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:49.800 read like field notes, and then came the big reveal. 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:54.240 He had discovered intelligent life on the Moon. They had 0:01:54.320 --> 0:01:58.640 darkish yellow skin, beards and protruding lower jaws. They had 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:01.960 wings and a striking resemblance to beavers, but lived in 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:06.520 homes with smokestacks. There was a crystalline temple and another taller, 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:12.240 lighter skinned population. The social hierarchy here, unfortunately, is pretty implicit, 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:15.760 and just as external pressure to provide any and all 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:20.399 evidence mounted, the paper reports that Herschel's lab very conveniently 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:23.680 burned down. That was the end of that, or was 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:27.240 it The real Herschel was sought out by many readers. 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:29.800 One group of missionaries even asked how they could go 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:33.400 about sending Bibles to the Moon. Herschel's wife Margaret didn't 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:36.760 even blame readers for believing the hooks. The ruse had 0:02:36.800 --> 0:02:39.120 gone on for weeks, but the public talked about it 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:42.400 for much longer. It turns out that Locke's readership didn't 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:45.480 care if the story was completely true or not. They 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:48.840 wanted to know how true it potentially could be. It 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:51.280 was a good tale, whether it was real or not. 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:56.040 The story had done its job, though it certainly sold papers. 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:58.880 This blurry line between fact and fiction, the world of 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:02.160 hoaxes and humbugs would go on to be a defining 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:05.399 cornerstone of the rest of the century. At that very 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:08.400 same moment, an intrepid young man arrived in the city. 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:10.920 We can imagine that for those few weeks in the 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:14.240 fall of eighteen thirty five, he cracked open his issues 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:17.560 of The Sun and followed along with rapt attention. We 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:22.480 can picture him making notes and seeing opportunity ahead. The 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:25.800 world was changing and he was going to be a 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:31.280 part of it. I'm Aaron Manky and welcome to the 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:43.520 side show. Taylor had always believed that he was destined 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:46.360 for greatness. As a young boy in the tiny village 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:49.800 of Bethel, Connecticut, he felt like a king, a shrewd 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:53.480 pint sized sales clerk at his father's general store. He 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:56.120 drove a mean bargain with a mix of Yankee wit 0:03:56.280 --> 0:03:59.160 and thrift. He had big shoes to fill, after all. 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:03.360 He was named after his grandfather, Phineas Taylor, who was 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:07.400 an old sage and loved by all. Phineas so pleased 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:10.400 to have a small protege of his own, purchased Taylor 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:14.559 and I quote the greatest farmland in all of Connecticut, 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:18.039 which made him the richest kid in town, and everyone 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:20.960 else knew it. Not a week went by without Uncle 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:25.120 Finn waxing poetic to Taylor of this grand inheritance, a 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:29.160 place by the name of Ivy Island. In Taylor's mind, 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:32.280 it must have looked something like El Dorado. Minds of gold, 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:36.640 outcroppings of emerald diamonds, all aglow, a place where you 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:40.400 could pluck rubies from trees and silver from streams. His 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:43.599 autobiography talks about visions of milk and honey, and on 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:46.440 a practical level, we can think this picture included some 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:49.960 cows and chickens. Being New England in eighteen twenty two, 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:52.919 after all, so when the time came to finally visit 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:56.760 the land, his land. Taylor was ready. He was twelve 0:04:57.040 --> 0:04:59.799 and all grown up. He left town early that morning 0:04:59.839 --> 0:05:02.960 with the family friend. They trekked for hours. And we're 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:06.160 not talking about rolling hills of grassland. No, they mucked 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:09.839 through swamp. This couldn't be right, though. We can imagine Taylor, 0:05:10.000 --> 0:05:14.120 like any other kid, asking are we there yet? But 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:17.320 then they stopped. And where they stopped did it turn 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:20.120 out to be the island of his wildest dreams? Not 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:23.560 at all. In front of him was a slice of squishy, 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:28.240 boggy ground. It was muddy, ugly, dotted with scraggly trees 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:32.640 and mosquitoes, and filled with stink and snakes. And then 0:05:32.720 --> 0:05:36.120 it hit him. This was one of his grandfather's infamous 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:39.800 practical jokes. And worse, the whole town had been in 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:44.159 on it for years. Taylor had left his home that morning, 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:47.960 ready for retirement, and returned a laughing stock. We can 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:49.760 imagine that he went back to his job at the 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:53.440 Register of feeling a bit miffed and also scheming, because 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:58.039 Taylor never forgot that lesson the years went on. He 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:01.599 worked hard and loved the barter and banter of country life. 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:05.239 He was a quick talker, jovial, a teller of tall tales, 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:09.240 A charmer, he traded in commodities and gossip, but he 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:12.080 eventually took a job in Brooklyn and developed a taste 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:16.159 for the spectacle of city life. Still home had a 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:18.880 hold on him. His granddad implored him to come back, 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:21.640 so he did. It was back in Connecticut that he 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:24.760 met Charity Hallett. Soon the two were married, and then 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:28.039 Taylor set up a new shop with a co conspirator, 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:30.800 or at least company along for the ride. It was 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:33.200 here that he kept dreaming of riches and how to 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:37.839 get them. Taylor's magic was people. His emotional radar was 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:41.520 finally tuned to the desires, wants, and secrets of his customers, 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:45.680 catering to their whims and imaginations. At his newly minted store, 0:06:45.720 --> 0:06:49.479 he sold everything from bibles to brandy to lottery tickets, 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:52.719 a little something for everyone. He had a natural sense 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:55.760 for psychology, and he was going to capitalize on it. 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:59.640 America in the mid eighteen hundreds, you see, was quickly changing. 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:04.360 Religious revivals were in full swing, the nation was quickly industrializing, 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:07.280 Immigration was on the rise, and the young country was 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:10.760 beginning to look west to far flung places, the word 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:14.160 scientist entered the vocabulary for the first time, and a 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:17.520 war that would fracture the country loomed ahead, and Taylor 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:20.200 wanted to ride these new waves, so he bought a 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:23.560 printing press. He believed that words had power and that 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:25.880 they would take him further than his horse could run. 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:29.120 He wanted to reach people in the world beyond Bethel. 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:33.080 On October nineteenth of eighteen thirty one, he began printing 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:36.280 his weekly Herald of Freedom. It fit right in with 0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:39.440 the trend of independent newspapers being sold on street corners 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:42.560 in major cities across the nation, and Taylor wanted a 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:45.200 slice of that pie. He wanted the freedom to share 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:49.720 his ideas, to advertise, to call people to action. He 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:52.840 saw an opportunity to wrestle control of the narrative, to 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:55.920 spin yarns in his own fashion, much like his grandfather 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:59.000 Phineas had done all those years before. It was his 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:03.520 turn to become a bona fide, widely respected storyteller. Well 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:06.680 most of the time, you see, Taylor did like to 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:09.760 get mouths wagging. He loved to stir up controversy with 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:13.000 his paper, and it wasn't long before his affinity landed 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:16.440 him in a Connecticut jail for libel. While in this jail, 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:20.160 Cell one, he decorated with carpets and other cozy furnishings. 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:23.680 From home, he had an idea. He gathered his friends 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:27.360 and created what he called the Committee of Arrangements. They 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:30.440 spread the word of his imprisonment and impending release far 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:33.560 and wide, both through word of mouth and through his 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:37.000 printing press. We can imagine that on the day of 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:39.840 his release, he put on his best suit, threw his 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:43.080 shoulders back, and marched out of his cell and into 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:48.240 a throng of thousands his audience and their applause. Picture 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:52.559 this will you horse drawn carriages astride dusty town roads, 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:56.400 a marching band, blaring brass cannon, fire on the green, 0:08:56.840 --> 0:09:01.520 sticky champagne, toasts and revelry airing on deep into the night, 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:06.040 all for him. At twenty two and back in the world, 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:10.120 he had made a statement. The show business career of 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:29.520 Phineas Taylor Barnum had arrived. The Mermaid was a game changer. 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:33.079 It was a decrepit specimen sewn together with the bottom 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:35.520 half of a fish and the top half of a monkey, 0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:39.520 and holy dead p t. Barnum held it in his hands. 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:42.320 He was on the hunt for artifacts with star factor. 0:09:42.800 --> 0:09:45.320 He went about these things with an open mind. You see, 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:48.520 they didn't have to be perfect, No, they didn't even 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:51.000 have to be real. What they did need was a 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:53.439 thread of a yarn that he could spin up into 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:57.120 a fantastic tale. And he immediately saw potential in this 0:09:57.280 --> 0:10:01.920 scaly specimen, and had did a few years before. Like 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:04.640 many people at the time, he had transplanted his growing 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:07.800 family to New York City. It was a bustling, bursting 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:11.720 metropolis dressed up like a promise. The city was teeming 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:16.120 with life, a riot of foreign tongues, unrelenting construction, and 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:19.440 air thick with the smells of smoke, cooking and the 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:23.400 perfume of bodies. There was death and there was life, 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:26.480 and a lot of each. For some time he worked 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:29.120 in the throes of this at another dry goods shop, 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:31.960 and then one day, in eighteen thirty five, a customer 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:34.720 came in with the story to tell and an offer 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:38.920 to make Barnum was all ears. This customer was in 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:42.160 show business, but he was tired. He happened to manage 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:46.640 a very particular, very interesting charge. The purportedly one hundred 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:49.920 sixty one year old black nanny of George Washington, a 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:52.880 woman by the name of Joyce Heth. What he wanted 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:56.160 to know was this, would Barnum be interested in taking 0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:59.880 his show on the road. Now, I can't overstate what 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:04.360 transpired that day. By saying yes, Barnum effectively purchased Joyce 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:06.960 and then paraded her in front of a pain audience. 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:09.800 We'll get to Joyce's whole story in her own episode 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:12.200 later this season, but for now, what you need to 0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:15.480 know is this. Her life and her death made Barnum 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:18.920 a huge success, so successful, in fact, that he decided 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:21.880 to give up his mercantile life and get into full 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:26.000 time show business. He wanted to become a proper showman. 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:29.800 In eighteen forty one, he purchased New York City's American Museum, 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:32.559 two blocks from where the Twin Towers would later stand. 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:35.720 It was a grand brick building smack at the corner 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:39.200 of Broadway and Ann Streets. Visitors could see wax figures, 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:44.160 taxidermy art, and even hear lectures. But Barnum's version would 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:47.000 be a little different. They would be grand, they would 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:49.800 expand it would be his very own brick and mortar 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:53.960 world to fill with a menagerie of magical and living curiosities. 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:57.040 It would be open seven days a week, sunrise till 0:11:57.080 --> 0:12:00.679 way past sunset. Doors flung open for any one who 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:05.520 could pay, and people paid. Interest in science and exploration 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:09.920 in medicine was booming. Yes, he wanted to have legitimate specimens, 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:13.280 but he wasn't above exploiting the ignorance of the masses 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:16.679 in order to serve their fantasies. He acquired objects from 0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:21.040 around the world, animals from the ocean, and notably, individuals 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:26.319 with bodies that the Victorian era public saw as abnormal dwarves, giantesses, 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:30.320 people with dark skin, and he attached stories to each 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:32.480 of them, just as he had done with Joyce. Heth 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:37.720 capitalizing on this young country's expanding leisure time and burgeoning imagination. 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:41.719 He mixed fact and fiction and it was a smash hit. 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:45.080 But to understand how all of this came to be, 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:47.720 we first have to understand what was going on with 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:50.520 the mermaid that Barnum was holding, because it was this 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:54.280 very mermaid that helped put this museum, his museum, on 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:58.800 the map. Moses Kimball appeared on Barnum's doorstep in eighteen 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:02.839 forty two saw the specimen into as the young proprietor 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:05.520 of the Boston Museum. He had something that might be 0:13:05.559 --> 0:13:09.200 of interest and offering, one might say, He presented Barnum 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:12.200 with an ugly, withered body roughly three ft long, with 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:15.800 its mouth a gape in a scream. Barnum took a 0:13:15.840 --> 0:13:20.320 closer look. It was weird, but it was believable too. 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:23.240 Even at a time when only presidents and war heroes 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:26.959 count themselves in the ranks of American celebrities. Barnum knew 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:31.640 he could make this mermaid famous. Then Kimball unspoiled the 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:34.840 Mummy's story. It involved the tale of a ship captain 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:39.120 out of Calcutta, bill, gotten gains and lost fortune. Now, 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:42.560 while you might bring back snow globes or refrigerator magnets 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:45.320 from trips these days, this guy brought home a mermaid. 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:48.720 If he was duped into believing its authenticity, we don't know. 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:51.800 But what we do know is that these fabricated Franken 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:55.000 creatures were fairly common in East Asia at the time. 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:58.360 Barnum knew that too, but he didn't think the general 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:02.840 public would. He christened it the Fiji Mermaid, implying an 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:06.479 exotic origin story far from the reaches of Lower Manhattan. 0:14:06.840 --> 0:14:10.120 Folklore across the world has long told stories of mermaids. 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:12.920 Who was to say that this wasn't a bona fide corpse. 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:16.280 So he decided to do something clever. Let the public 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:21.320 decide for themselves. Barnum got to work. He blitzed small 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:24.760 town newspapers with fake news. He took pseudonyms and sang 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:28.440 the mermaids praises. He had them postmarked from Alabama and 0:14:28.560 --> 0:14:33.440 South Carolina and Washington, d C. And the papers ran them. 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:37.560 His trusted friend Levi Lyman posed as the esteemed Dr Griffin. 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:40.720 His backstory was as fake as the mermaids, but it 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:44.960 landed him an exclusive interview in Philadelphia. The Eastern seaboard 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:52.160 was entranced, credulous, curious. Within a few weeks, Barnum produced woodcuts, engravings, 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:56.400 and banners of busty, fair life size women with fish tails, 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:59.960 advertising a fleeting one week opportunity to see this merm 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:04.000 made in the flesh. The city was electrified, it clamored. 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:08.480 Barnum promised three different city papers exclusive access to his exhibit, 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:12.120 which was a surprise to each editor. When Barnum's exhibit opened, 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:17.120 each of them ran the story anyway. Opening nights arrived, 0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:20.920 the Mermaid packed the hall. Thousands came, paying a quarter 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:24.480 and sweltering in the summer heat, surely shocked at what 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:29.320 stood on stage before them. The discrepancy was very, very obvious, 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:33.680 but some wondered, could there be some truth here? Maybe 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:35.880 it wasn't the Mermaid in the picture, but it certainly 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:40.080 didn't disqualify it from mirror status. And that is exactly 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:43.640 what Barnum had hoped for. And the numbers spoke. The 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:47.360 show was a resounding success, so successful, in fact, that 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:50.200 the Mermaid hit the road on a Southern tour, passing 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:52.920 through the Bible Belt. It was only when the Mermaid's 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:56.720 veracity was attacked in the Charleston papers that Barnum grew concerned. 0:15:57.120 --> 0:15:59.720 You see, at Charleston Minister had a bone to pick. 0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:03.640 This man's daughters had married sons of the famed naturalist 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:07.680 John Ottobon, and he smelled a fraud. Barnum, to his credit, 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:10.880 countered his accusations. If it was so easy to craft 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:13.280 a fake, he would give any person who could show 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:16.040 him another example of a fish sewn to a monkey 0:16:16.320 --> 0:16:20.160 five hundred dollars. No one came forward, but a group 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:23.560 of local scientists and naturalists piled on. They thought this 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:27.320 lie was a dangerous one, exploiting the public's trust as 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:30.040 they so desperately tried to move the legitimacy of their 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:33.840 work forward. The mermaid was evacuated and put on a 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:37.760 slow ship back to New York. Back in the city, 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:40.920 it sat dusty and dejected in a box on the 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:44.640 top shelf of Barnum's office, and there it rested a spell. 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:47.920 Barnum thought about what to do next, and of course 0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:51.080 he came to the natural conclusion he had eventually put 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:54.200 the mermaid back out for a display. He had learned 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:57.800 something important through his experiment. Though by and large the 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:01.680 public wasn't upset about his dis option. On the contrary, 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:05.159 they seem to have actually enjoyed it, reveled in it, 0:17:05.680 --> 0:17:10.240 even wanted more. The show he decided must go on. 0:17:20.160 --> 0:17:22.840 The show went on for a good long while. To 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:25.480 be in Barnum's orbit was to have front row seats 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:28.199 to the spectacle of his life. He was known to 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:31.160 be more attentive to his exhibits than his family, often 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:35.399 gallivanting on tour meeting presidents, having audiences with the Queen. 0:17:35.920 --> 0:17:37.760 But he had an idea that would bring him back 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:40.680 closer to home, an idea that proved, when all was 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:44.440 said and done, to be disastrous. He thought he knew 0:17:44.480 --> 0:17:47.159 what he was getting into, But when Barnum invested in 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:50.159 the Jerome Clock Company with designs on moving it to 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:53.639 his beloved east Bridgeport, Connecticut, he didn't realize he was 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:56.800 buying into a sour deal, one that bankrupted him and 0:17:56.880 --> 0:18:00.080 forced his family out of their palatial estate. They to 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:02.840 a house by the sea on Long Island, where charities, 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:06.720 health declined. We can imagine that depression loomed large, but 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:10.720 the gears kept turning. His time there offered him space 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:14.000 that the big city did not. It was a pastoral place, 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:16.320 and we can imagine that it reminded him of Bethel. 0:18:16.760 --> 0:18:19.959 It was in this quiet that Barnum incubated, hoping for 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:24.879 a rebirth, ideally spurred on by divine intervention. The newspapers 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:29.200 celebrated his downfall with headlines such as the deceiver has 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:33.920 been duped. People cheered, But Barnum never meant to hurt 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:36.879 anyone in his line of work. There was no mal intent, 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:40.679 no malice. He merely meant to charm, to entertain, to 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:44.720 open the world to people beyond the confines of their geography. 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:48.399 This stroke of bad luck, this clock swindle, was something 0:18:48.560 --> 0:18:52.720 entirely different. Never one to be alone much, he made 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:55.879 a friend, a local farmer. While walking the shore. One day, 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:58.880 they came across a commotion. Just ahead were some men 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:03.199 and a twelve ft black whale, dead but hard and fresh. 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:06.440 He said, never want to turn down a carcass. Barnum 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:10.000 fished around in his pocket. While it's true that he 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:12.520 could have spent the last few dollars on milk and bread, 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:16.360 he instead spent it on this big, hulking corpse, And 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:18.639 because its shelf life was short, he had to make 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:21.520 quick work of it. He shipped it to his museum 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:25.760 and exhibited it in a refrigerator. It was a success, too, 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:28.520 He was able to pay his rent. He took this 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:31.600 as a sign. It all felt pretty providential After all. 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:35.680 The papers, though, continued to predict his end, but Barnum 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:38.679 wasn't one to stay down or stay put. In the 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:41.520 winter of eighteen fifty six he went out on more tours, 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:45.520 again with a few trusted sidekicks, including General Tom Thumb, 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:49.240 a fellow who would become a lifelong friend. It's seeing 0:19:49.240 --> 0:19:52.080 that Barnum was making a comeback without missing a beat 0:19:52.280 --> 0:19:54.959 and with no sense of irony. He began a lecture 0:19:55.000 --> 0:19:59.280 series called The Art of Money Getting or Success in Life, 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:02.080 and the allowing string of sold out shows sent a 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:06.080 loud and clear message. He was back, and he was 0:20:06.119 --> 0:20:09.440 going to do those newspapers and naysayers won better. He 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:12.000 was going to run for public office and was going 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:15.399 to do it well. In eighteen sixty five, he was 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:18.760 elected to the Connecticut State Legislature. It was not lost 0:20:18.800 --> 0:20:21.760 on him that Americans needed a reprieve from the Civil War. 0:20:22.200 --> 0:20:26.320 To his museum, he added pro unionist exhibits, lectures, and plays, 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:30.000 and he also enlisted Pauline Kushman, an actress who had 0:20:30.000 --> 0:20:33.040 been a spy for the Union, who regaled audiences with 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:38.359 her tales behind enemy lines. Barnum had become a staunch abolitionist, 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:42.600 running squarely on the antislavery platform. In later years, he 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:45.240 would amend his story about his time with Joyce. Heth 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:49.320 again and again and again his guilt was clear, even 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:53.960 if his conscience was not. On July thirteenth, eighteen sixty five, 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:56.960 Barnum was at the podium speaking to the legislature when 0:20:56.960 --> 0:21:00.080 he was slipped a note, casting his eyes downward and 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:03.080 barely missing a beat. He continued on about the state's 0:21:03.119 --> 0:21:06.520 train system. But that piece of paper, well, it held 0:21:06.640 --> 0:21:11.320 some devastating news. At that very moment, it seems Barnum's 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:23.600 Great American Museum was burning to the ground. Was it 0:21:23.720 --> 0:21:28.000 a furnace failure, Was it set by Confederate sympathizers. Will 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:30.600 never truly know. But what we do know is this 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:34.399 around noon and employee came running from the basement yelling fire. 0:21:34.840 --> 0:21:38.280 There were no sprinkler systems or fire extinguishers. There wasn't 0:21:38.280 --> 0:21:40.879 even a fire code at the time. This place was 0:21:40.920 --> 0:21:44.720 a labyrinth of Barnum's own design and a veritable tinder box. 0:21:45.560 --> 0:21:49.480 Window panes exploded, flames licked up the walls, and smoke 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:52.879 poured out as thick as oil. The most famous building 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:55.720 in New York City was choking. The air was gone, 0:21:55.800 --> 0:21:59.200 gobbled up by the fire birds flew from the building's belly. 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:03.720 Snakes evacuated down Broadway. There are even reports of firefighters 0:22:03.800 --> 0:22:06.840 saving a seal named Ned and rumors of a lion 0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:11.280 that escaped to roam the streets. Any movable artifacts were 0:22:11.359 --> 0:22:14.680 launched from the windows, including a wax likeness of Jefferson 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:18.399 Davis wearing a dress. The roof was collapsing, the walls 0:22:18.440 --> 0:22:21.960 were caving in. Two whales recently kidnapped from the coast 0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:25.240 of Labrador boiled in their own salt water tanks before 0:22:25.280 --> 0:22:28.800 firefighters broke their glass. They collapsed through the building and 0:22:28.920 --> 0:22:32.000 landed on Broadway, where they spent weeks rotting there in 0:22:32.040 --> 0:22:34.720 the summer heat because no one could figure out how 0:22:34.760 --> 0:22:39.119 to move them. Upon reading the note, Barnum, true to 0:22:39.280 --> 0:22:42.840 his unruffled form, finished his speech, folded it back into 0:22:42.880 --> 0:22:45.679 his pocket, and went home to Bridgeport. He left for 0:22:45.720 --> 0:22:48.840 New York City the following day. Once there, he assessed 0:22:48.880 --> 0:22:51.879 the carnage, and wouldn't you know it, he decided to 0:22:51.920 --> 0:22:55.399 begin again. Mere months after the tragic fire, he opened 0:22:55.440 --> 0:22:58.360 a new version of his museum about a mile uptown. 0:22:58.840 --> 0:23:02.000 He found more artifact x and more guests. This was 0:23:02.040 --> 0:23:06.200 all fine until it wasn't. Because this new museum eventually 0:23:06.240 --> 0:23:10.119 burned down as well. We can only imagine the tenacity 0:23:10.200 --> 0:23:12.600 and blind faith it would require to believe that this 0:23:12.640 --> 0:23:15.679 would all eventually work out. After all, he had sold 0:23:15.840 --> 0:23:18.720 thirty eight million admission tickets at the time when the 0:23:18.720 --> 0:23:22.000 population of his country was only thirty five million. He 0:23:22.119 --> 0:23:26.359 knew he was onto something. At sixty, this master of 0:23:26.400 --> 0:23:30.000 reinvention was now free to embark on his next act, 0:23:30.840 --> 0:23:49.639 the creation of the American side show. P. T. Barnum 0:23:49.680 --> 0:23:52.880 was the ultimate showman and he could sell just about anything, 0:23:53.280 --> 0:23:55.160 So it should come as no surprise that there are 0:23:55.200 --> 0:23:58.400 countless stories about his business dealings, more than we could 0:23:58.400 --> 0:24:01.440 ever fit into a single epiodode. But if you stick 0:24:01.480 --> 0:24:04.199 around through this brief sponsor break, my friend and co 0:24:04.320 --> 0:24:19.760 producer Robin Miniter, will share one more golden tail. Jenny 0:24:19.880 --> 0:24:22.800 Lynde wasn't going to be played for a fool. She 0:24:23.240 --> 0:24:26.840 was a woman self possessed, the lady Gaga of the 0:24:26.920 --> 0:24:30.600 Victorian age. Jenny counted the Queen and her cronies among 0:24:30.640 --> 0:24:34.879 her most rabid fans. In fact, Jenny believed her voice 0:24:34.880 --> 0:24:38.040 to be divinely gifted, and for this reason she never 0:24:38.080 --> 0:24:42.199 took it for granted. She dressed plainly, lived modestly, and 0:24:42.280 --> 0:24:45.399 curated a private life according to her deep seated faith, 0:24:46.240 --> 0:24:49.280 and she did this stunningly well. By the way, for 0:24:49.400 --> 0:24:52.720 a very long while. But by the time she neared 0:24:52.720 --> 0:24:56.480 her seven performance, she found herself about to turn thirty 0:24:57.040 --> 0:25:02.479 and totally exhausted. Marriage betrothals had been broken, and a 0:25:02.520 --> 0:25:05.720 dear friend of hers had passed away. So she retreated 0:25:05.760 --> 0:25:09.280