My father was a clown. No, I’m not saying he was just funny –– he really was a clown. A member of the Clowns of America, there are pictures tucked away in my basement of him clowning with Washington dignitaries: George Bush senior, George McGovern, and Walter Cronkite just to name a few (see end). Circus posters were a big part of his studio that included props and puppets of all kinds. No wonder my love for Barnum and Bailey Circus paraphernalia continues to this day.
Behind
all of those beautiful lithographic posters he collected was the genius of P.T. Barnum. If
one can view American literature starting with Mark Twain (and Huckleberry
Finn) then it could also be argued that American advertising starts with P.T.
Barnum’s extravagant promotions.
Looking
at some of these outrageous Victorian circus posters, I think we can all agree
that Barnum was the Shakespeare of early advertising. His slogans and
imagery are still capturing the attention of modern consumers in our current
media. Whether on the Internet, junk mail, radio or magazines –– the spirit of
P.T. Barnum still exists.
Barnum
understood that to publicize an event a little story was needed to get the
public convincingly under the big top. And that story was all Barnum. He well
understood it was what you said about an event that made it valuable. The "word's most
terrifying living creature!" (below) or "The strongest woman that ever lived!" (above). These are all part of the masterful deceptions brought forward for the
first time in American advertising by Barnum.
Out
of the circus came the sideshow and this sideshow was where Barnum blossomed.
In
1841 he purchased a five-story factory on Broadway just north of the battery in
New York. Here he
crafted his stories for the selling of oddities from the strange to
questionable. The sophisticated Victorian consumer of
New York bought into it big. Barnum’s rhinoceros was advertised as a "unicorn" and the “Beaumouth of the
Scriptures” was the first hippopotamus seen in the States. The public ate it
up.
The
posters here demonstrate how Barnum & Bailey left us with a legacy of colorful phrases
that still are major part of commercial advertising. If you use the word "jumbo"
to describe size, you can thank Barnum’s genius behind his "Jumbo" the elephant.
If
you’ve seen enough late-night television commercials you've heard the catch phrases the he created:
We are closing our doors forever!
Don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!
All items must go!
These
are the masterful deceptions of P.T. Barnum which eventually branched out overseas with his Greatest Show on Earth (below).
How did it all start? As
a young man Barnum clerked in the local merchandise store in the small town of
Bethel Connecticut. It was here that he discovered his best success ––
lottery tickets. As Barnum stated,
“you don’t sell the ticket, you sell the dream.” His lottery business became the
largest supplier of lottery sales in New England.
The traveling circus at the turn of the 20th century was an anticipated event across all of America, and the Barnum & Bailey circus parade was big. So big that towns closed their schools and businesses declaring a local holiday to celebrate their arrival. More to come on these fantastic shows, and how posters announcing these enormous events played a big part in their success.
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| Dad (left) with Walter Cronkite at the Circus Saints & Sinners Club |
