Jumbo by Paul Chambers

Author:Paul Chambers
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781586421533
Publisher: Steerforth Press
Published: 2008-06-15T16:00:00+00:00

THE JUMBO CRAZE

Piteous Scenes at the Zoo

Phineas Taylor Barnum was one of the most flamboyant, colourful and controversial figures in America. From an early age he had proved himself to be a natural extrovert and entrepreneur who was happy to turn his hand to almost any venture, provided that it would make money. Born in 1810 in Connecticut, Barnum already had a string of business failures behind him when, in 1835, he purchased an aged and disabled African-American woman named Joice Heth, whom he exhibited as a 160-year-old wonder in a touring show (she was in fact in her eighties). This experience led Barnum to buy a museum in New York from which he built up a touring circus that included many human “freaks” such as the Bearded Lady, the diminutive General Tom Thumb and the Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker.

Fire and bankruptcy dogged Barnum’s career but in 1871 the showman established P.T. Barnum’s Grand Travelling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan and Hippodrome, a vast touring circus which boasted animal and human performers, a Zoo and, of course, his “freaks.” The venture used the recently constructed railway network to move about the eastern United States, stopping in sizeable towns and cities; the circus was advertised as “The Greatest Show on Earth” and was wildly popular. In February 1881 Barnum merged his company with three others belonging to James Bailey and James L. Hutchinson; the result was P.T. Barnum’s Greatest Show On Earth, and the Great London Circus, Sanger’s Royal British Menagerie and The Grand International Allied Shows United. It was not the catchiest of titles and so the company was quickly renamed the Barnum and London Circus, with the resultant show, which retained Barnum’s format of a gigantic travelling circus, still popularly referred to as the Greatest Show on Earth.

Barnum’s merger with Bailey and Hutchinson freed up a good deal of capital and it was agreed that the money should be used to seek out and buy some bigger and better exhibits that would attract the punters for the 1882 touring season. Accordingly, several agents were dispatched across America and Europe with instructions to “secure some great attraction” for the show, be it an animal, person or inanimate object. One of these agents was Joseph Lee Warner, an ex-mayor from Michigan, who was packed off to Europe in search of suitable exhibits; once there he travelled widely through England, France, Germany and Russia. While in St Petersburg Warner was enchanted with a boy named Jo-Jo whose face looked exactly like a dog’s, but the young lad did not fancy a life in Barnum’s circus. The agent returned to America empty-handed and somewhat dejected.

On 12 December 1881 Warner was summoned to the New York headquarters of the Barnum and London Circus, where he was interviewed by James Bailey.

“Find anything?” asked Bailey.

“No,” replied Warner.

Bailey was disappointed to hear this but decided to pursue the matter. “What’s the biggest thing you saw over there?”

“Biggest thing I saw was an elephant in London Zoo.”

“How big?”

“Well,

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