PT Barnum: Circus Pioneer and his Modern Equivalent

The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is one of the most popular shows in the United States. One of the founders of the circus, Phineas Taylor, or PT Barnum, did start running shows with a circus. Instead, he began with the famous American Museum in New York. He also became well known for forming a group of “freaks” who he would take on tour around the world. The American Museum became an incredibly popular entertainment venue in New York until it burned down in 1865 (Maher). A very popular modern equivalent of Barnum’s freak shows is the Venice Beach Freakshow. One major difference between Barnum’s freak show and the Venice Beach Freakshow was the goal of the owners. PT Barnum focused solely on making money and used people for money, while the Venice Beach Freakshow is focused on providing entertainment for visitors and treating the performers

with respect.
PT Barnum opened the American Museum in January 1842. The American Museum was advertised as a way to break free from the boring professionalism of life, and as a place for families to learn about topics like art and nature. The popularity quickly escalated and the number of pieces in the museum grew as well (Maher).
Barnum began his show of strange and odd performers by hiring a child named Charles Sherwood Stratton. He was 4 years old and weighed only 25 lbs. He was brought to the museum and advertised as an 11-year old boy from England named Tom Thumb. Charles’s popularity took off and Barnum planned a tour of Europe with Charles. When they returned to the United States, Barnum began to attract crowds of thousands of people to see Charles perform.
As the popularity of the Tom Thumb show increased, so did the curiosity and demand for more odd acts. After his success with a one-person freak show, he began to assemble a large group of “freaks” and “monsters” who he knew people would pay to take their families to see. Some were willing to be a part of the group, and even got paid extremely well, for example Charles Stratton (Maher). But others were forced to be a part of the freak show as children. One way Barnum attracted more and more people to his shows was by tricking them with false stories about how they were “created” and how he found them. He even went as far as to forge newspaper article to back up his false claims. Barnum’s performers included conjoined twins, a man with 338 tattoos, a “dog-faced boy”, and Charles Stratton, the 2-foot tall celebrity impersonator from England (Asma 136-137).
Barnum’s goal was simply to make money. He didn’t care about the ethics of taking advantage of people for personal gain as long as he was paid properly. He didn’t care if he had to make up false stories in newspapers to get people to come to his shows. All he cared about was making money off his performers. He continued to find new ways to make money and was well-known for his brilliant and sometimes fraudulent advertising. He became one of the wealthiest men in New York by the time he stopped running freakshows and began focusing on running a circus.
A modern equivalent to Barnum’s American Museum and freak shows from the late 1800s is the Venice Beach Freakshow in Santa Monica, California.

It was started in 2006 by music producer Todd Ray. He used PT Barnum as inspiration when he first thought of opening a freak show. One similarity to Barnum’s shows was how Ray started his show. He began with a small show and museum. His museum has small, odd attractions, and the only performer was his daughter who would lay on a bed of nails. As more and more people heard about the show, Ray began to hire more performers. Today, his freak show is one of the most popular in the United States, and even has a TV show on AMC called Freakshow. The museum currently has many odd exhibits, such as a collection of disfigured animals. Some of the new performers Ray has hired throughout the years include a bearded lady, a sword swallower, and the “Hairiest Man Alive”. The Venice Beach Freakshow attracts thousands of visitors per year. Similarly to PT Barnum, Ray knows how to bring people through the doors, by appealing to their curiosity and amazement at “freaks” who are different to

us.
Ray’s Freakshow does not focus only on making money. Ray’s main goal is excite people and show them some amazing artifacts they might not have had the chance to see without coming to the museum. Ray makes sure all his performers are happy and makes sure they are able to communicate any issues they may have with him. He wants his performers to have a place where they can feel free to perform without being judged for being different. Ray and his performers are a team who work well together.
When Ray was pitching the idea of his show to different networks, they wanted to make his somebody he’s not. They wanted to portray Ray as the stereotypical freak show owner, similarly to PT Barnum. They wanted to make Ray seem like he was making a fortune by using other people. But Ray didn’t want this, because it doesn’t represent him and his performers. This is one of the major differences between Ray’s Venice Beach Freakshow and other freak shows like the ones ran by PT Barnum. It may seem like all people who run freak shows don’t care about the performers and only care about making money. But that is not true in Ray’s case. Ray focuses on a show that anyone of any age can enjoy instead of capitalizing on other people’s misfortunes, like PT Barnum did. Ray’s show promotes a positive way of thinking about people who are different than we are and helps to show that they aren’t “monsters”. He wants to open people’s eyes to the fact that somebody being different from what society views as normal does not make them a monster.
PT Barnum was a leader in New York’s entertainment business. He knew how to attract people to his shows by exciting their curiosity about strange objects and performances. His focus, however, was only on making money. He wanted to capitalize off of his performers who were often underpaid and not treated well. Todd Ray and the Venice Beach Freakshow changed the way freak shows are viewed. His show challenges the thought that all performers in freak shows are “monsters”. Ray does not focus on using his performers and taking all the money from their performances. The Venice Beach Freakshow is continuing to prove that not all freak show owners fit the stereotype established in the 1800s by PT Barnum.