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Dr Thaddeus Bombay, the
sole survivor of the great Bombay Family tragedy was a great impresario in nineteenth century England, and alarmed by the
thought that the building had nearly fallen into the hands of an American, he resolved to create an attraction to rival that
of PT Barnum himself. The Imagiscarium today is a recreation of some of what was exhibited in the original
museum. With the sudden disappearance of the Bombay Family and with them
the secret of the lost Bombay Family treasure, Thaddeus had to resort to making his own way in the world. In
addition to the creation of the Imagiscarium he drew on his knowledge of “Olde World Wytchery” to create a range
of potions and lotions that are still made to this day. PT Barnum
was born in Bethel, Connecticut, the son of inn keeper, tailor and store-keeper Philo Barnum (1778-1826) and his second wife
Irene Taylor. He was the third great grandson of Thomas Barnum (1625-1695), the immigrant ancestor of the Barnum family in
North America. Barnum started his career as a store-keeper, and he learned haggling, striking a bargain, and using deception
to make a sale. He was involved with the lottery mania in the United States. He married
Charity Hallett when he was 19 and she remained his companion for the next 44 years. The young Barnum had several businesses:
a general store, a book auctioning trade, real estate speculation, and a state-wide lottery network. He became active in local
politics and advocated against blue laws promulgated by Calvinists who sought to restrict gambling and travel. He
started a weekly paper in 1829, The Herald of Freedom. His editorials against church elders led to libel suits and a prosecution
which resulted in imprisonment for two months, but he became a champion of the liberal movement upon his release. In 1834, when lotteries were banned in Connecticut, cutting off his main income, Barnum sold
his store and moved to New York City where he started his career as a showman with the exhibition of a blind and almost completely
paralyzed slave woman, Joice Heth, claimed by Barnum to have been the nurse of George Washington, and to be over 160. After a year of mixed success with his first variety troupe called "Barnum's
Grand Scientific and Musical Theater", followed by the Panic of 1837 and three years of difficult circumstances, he purchased
Scudder's American Museum, at Broadway and Ann Street, New York City, in 1841. Renamed "Barnum's American Museum"
with the addition of exhibits and improvements in the building, it became a popular showplace. To
the static exhibits of stuffed animals he added a changing series of live acts and "curiosities", including albinos,
giants, midgets, "fat boys", jugglers, magicians, "exotic women" and eventually a menagerie of animals.
In 1842, Barnum introduced his first major hoax, the "Feejee" mermaid. It was a tail of a fish and the head of a
monkey. Barnum followed that with the exhibition of Charles Stratton, the dwarf "General Tom Thumb" ("the Smallest
Person that ever Walked Alone") who was then four years of age but was stated to be 11. With heavy coaching and natural
talent, the boy was taught to imitate people from Hercules to Napoleon. By five, he was drinking wine and by seven smoking
cigars for the public's amusement. During 1844-45, Barnum toured with Tom Thumb
in Europe and met Queen Victoria, who was amused and saddened by the little man, and the event was a major publicity coup.
It opened the door to visits from royalty across Europe including the Czar of Russia and let him acquire dozens of attractions,
including automatons and other mechanical marvels. He tried to buy the birth home of William Shakespeare and almost got away
with it. Often referred to as the "Prince of Humbugs", Barnum saw nothing
wrong in entertainers or vendors using hype (or "humbug", as he termed it) in promotional material, as long as the
public was getting value for money. However, he was contemptuous of those who made money through fraudulent deceptions, especially
the spiritualist mediums popular in his day, testifying against noted spirit photographer William H. Mumler in his trial for
fraud. Prefiguring illusionists Harry Houdini and James Randi, Barnum exposed "the tricks of the trade" used by
mediums to cheat the bereaved. In The Humbugs of the World, he offered $500 to any medium who
could prove power to communicate with the dead. |
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