Barnum, P. T.

Public relations played a substantial role in the growth of America's entertainment industry—so concluded Doug Newsom, Judy Vanslyke Turk, and Dean Kruckeberg in 2000. They wrote that the tactic of press agentry, defined as “a function of public relations that involves creating news events of a transient, often flighty sort” (Newsom, Turk, & Kruckeberg, 2000, p. 533), grew up with the entertainment business in the 19th century. Perhaps no one is more completely identified with that tradition than P. T. Barnum.

Newsom, Turk, and Kruckeberg (2000) described Phineas T. Barnum (1810–1891) as one of many “circus showmen” who practiced press agentry (p. 37). If 20th-century public relations grew out of 19th-century press agentry, then public relations practitioners should be familiar both with what press agentry was, especially as practiced by Barnum, and with the effects that Barnum's actions had on the way that public relations is viewed today.

In The Fabulous Showman: The Life and Times of P.T. Barnum, Irving Wallace (1959) wrote that Barnum considered himself more of a promoter and a “museum man” than a “circus man” (p. 226). According to Wallace, Barnum did not become a full-time circus proprietor until after his s60th birthday, and even though he “gave the circus its size, its most memorable attractions and its widest popularity,” the misconception persists that he invented the circus. In fact, the modern circus was created in England by Philip Astley in 1768.

According to the Web site http://www.ringling.com, Barnum joined promotional forces with James A. Bailey and James L. Hutchinson in 1881, and in 1888 the “Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth” first toured America. Barnum died in 1891, and Bailey followed him in the spring of 1906. In 1907, the Ringling brothers of Baraboo, Wisconsin, purchased Barnum & Bailey Circus, their largest competitor. In 1919, the two entities merged, forming Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey®, The Greatest Show on Earth®, as it is still known in the 21st century.

A closer look is needed to explore the years of Barnum's life that led up to his circus days.

In the year 2000, Barnum's autobiography, The Life of P.T. Barnum, Written by Himself, was reprinted (it was first printed in 1855). In the introduction, Terence Whalen (2000) wrote

Whalen (2000) also observed that Barnum “desired and deliberately fostered this ambiguous public image” and that it was through his use of the new publishing industry and being a notable author that he made this happen (p. vi). In the 2001 update of Introduction to Mass Communication, Stanley J. Baran confirmed that “mass circulation newspapers [Page 63]and the first successful consumer magazines appeared in the 1830s, expanding the ability of people and organizations to communicate with the public” (p. 251).

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