![]() ![]() ![]() He suffered economic reversals in the 1850s due to bad investments, as well as years of litigation and public humiliation, but he used a lecture tour as a temperance speaker to emerge from debt. ![]() In 1850, he promoted the American tour of Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind, paying her an unprecedented $1,000 a night for 150 nights. He used the museum as a platform to promote hoaxes and human curiosities such as the Fiji mermaid and General Tom Thumb. 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. ![]() He is widely credited with coining the adage " There's a sucker born every minute", although no evidence has been collected of him saying this.īarnum became a small business owner in his early twenties and founded a weekly newspaper before moving to New York City in 1834. and all the gilding shall make nothing else of me." According to his critics, his personal aim was "to put money in his own coffers". He was also an author, publisher, and philanthropist, though he said of himself: "I am a showman by profession . Phineas Taylor Barnum ( / ˈ b ɑːr n ə m/ J– April 7, 1891) was an American showman, businessman, and politician, remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and founding the Barnum & Bailey Circus (1871–2017) with James Anthony Bailey. ![]()
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