Old Print Ad: P.T. Barnum’s Greatest Show On Earth (1876)

April 11, 2010 in Misc. | Permalink

"Wonderful tattooed Greek noblemen."

It cost folks just 50 cents (25 cents for children) in 1872 to see what that braggart P.T. Barnum called the “Greatest Show on Earth.” It probably was the best of all shows of its time, but still! This was the first time that Barnum began billing his circus as such. He had only entered the full-fledged circus business a year earlier.

In addition to his late-career circus greatness, Barnum was a newspaper publisher, museum owner and curator, politician, hoaxer, philanthropist, concert and theater promoter, temperance speaker, abolitionist and the proprietor of America’s first aquarium. He also made some ridiculously bad business investments and drove himself into financial disrepair in the 1850s.

By the time he entered the circus business at age 61 his financial well-being had been restored and all his myriad of experiences served him incredibly well. He became America’s preeminent showman, though he never really uttered the phrase “there’s a sucker born very minute.” An excerpt from the ad copy:

“Occupies many acres with its vast tents and possesses more New and Imported Features, more Marine Monsters, more and rarer Wild Beasts, Birds and Reptiles, more marvelous Human Phenomena–including Huge Giants, Tiny Dwarfs and the wonderful Tattooed Greek Noblemen, more Curious and Costly Mechanical Wonders, more Distinguished Equestrians and Athletes, more Funny Clowns and more Educated Animals and Magnificent Trick Horses, than were ever before presented at any one time in any age or place and More than Ten Times the Price of Admission Returned to Everybody.

I will give $10,000 to anybody who can show that, during the past five years, the daily expenses of my vast establishment have not been larger than the entire gross receipts of any traveling show in this or any other country.”

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