There is no evidence that it was Phineas Taylor Barnum who coined the phrase “there’s a sucker born every minute”. But for a man who promoted celebrated hoaxes such as the Fijian mermaid and General Tom Thumb, it is a phrase that would not be out of place on his tombstone. For that he gets the credit.
A complex man, Barnum was essentially a snake oil salesman who operated at the high end establishing “PT Barnum’s Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan & Hippodrome” in 1870, a travelling circus, menagerie and museum of freaks.
The Tom Thumb exhibit was an interesting and lucrative enterprise. Charles Stratton was the bite-sized human attraction, an American-born lad with dwarfism, who reached global celebrity status because of it in the 1850s.
Strat …
- April 29, 2022
