P.T. Barnum: Fiction vs Fact

hi my name is Kathy Moore I am the executive director of the Barnum Museum here in Bridgeport Connecticut and I'd like to set the record straight about the real story of PT Barnum [Music] when people hear the name PT Barnum they automatically think of the circus and yes that's absolutely true but believe it or not the greatest show on earth the circus was Brian's retirement project he was already well established in New York City in the world with his American Museum in New York City in the 1840s so when people often think about Phil Carlisle in the greatest showman movie they wonder always he a real character and interestingly yes and no he was kind of a combination of a lot of people that work with Barnum James Bailey one of his best friends Horace Greeley so when you mash up all of these wonderful characters that were part of morons life you kind of come up with as a cup front my favorite scene is the bar scene where Barnum and Philip Carlyle are negotiating leads to each other and they're banging down shots and the choreography is great early on when they were making the movie we got a phone call because they wanted to set producer wanted to know some information about Barnum or miss Barnum's bar across the street from the American Museum well across the street from the American Museum was st. Paul's Church which is still there today and boring didn't own a bar Barnum was one of the country's greatest temperance champions of the time and he would not allow drinking or smoking at all in any of his establishments or any of his venues if you wanted to drink or smoke you had to leave the museum and pay full price to come back in [Music] there are a lot of people that do know that Barnum's American museums burned down which is absolutely true but in the film you're taken on this journey of you know Barnum running into the burning building to save you know filled Carlyle the truth is actually Barnum was a general of some women for the state of Connecticut and he was in Hartford Connecticut on the floor of the Capitol taking down Vanderbilt and the railroad schemes when a note was handed to him that the American museum was completely in flames it actually did burn to the ground but it did take Barnum a full day to get down to New York to actually see the museum in ruins bringing genteel into America at that moment in time was perhaps one of the riskiest business ventures ever taken in entertainment there was no such thing as opera in America at that time so Barnum had to prepare the public mind introduce people to what was going to be one of the most fascinating you know experiences they could possibly have in the theatre but nobody here knew what opera was so Barnum ingeniously promoted Jenny Lind by her character as being you know wonderfully gracious and generous a blessing to America and that's what captivated Americans at that moment in time not so much her singing until they heard her so when they ended the relationship they basically ended their business agreement in their contract there was no kiss there was no flash photography there was nothing that really suggested something scandalous all made up really in the 20th century my favorite character in the film would have to be James Gordon Bennett Bennett was actually an adversary of Barnum's early on in his life going back into the 1830s where he and Barnum we constantly go at each other to one-up you know each other's ideas and publicity and what can I do better than you always back and forth so in the film that character is actually more real than people think they had probably a friendly rivalry they needed each other varta was also known for humbug it's a word that actually means something really different today than it did during varnum's time but Barnum's definition of humbug is management tact to take an old truth and put it in an attractive form and wonderfully that's precisely what the greatest showmen did it took Barnum's story but made it interesting and exciting and relevant for audiences today that is precisely what PT Barnum would have done they took 50 years or more of PT Barnum's life life is messy life is complicated and they compress it into a wonderful two hours of joyful music and singing and dancing that everybody could enjoy today and that's precisely what PT Barnum would have loved about it he would have loved to see that people are still in theaters singing you know all of these great songs and keeping his memory alive the show will go on so my name is Kathy mark it was great talking to you please if you want more information about PT Barnum go to our website Barnum - Museum dot org follow us on Facebook and Twitter or come to the museum you know and see us see some of the wonderful artifacts that we have that PT Barnum really owned and the carriages that Tom Thumb really drove around in we'd love to see you thanks so much for watching

Channel: Firelight Media LLC

Views: 222,505

Rating: 4.8805971 out of 5

Keywords: Pt barnum, barnum, circus, history, bridgeport, connecticut, the barnum museum, phineas taylor barnum, the greatest showman, zack effron, high jackman musical, hugh jackman, barnum and bailey, p.t barnum, greatest showman, p t barnum, pt barnum documentary, the greatest showman real story, barnum circus, everything wrong with the greatest showman, is the greatest showman a true story, phillip carlyle, hugh jackman the greatest show

Id: 8_4fljgEp_c

Length: 5min 35sec (335 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 17 2018