“There’s a sucker born every minute,” declared Phineas Taylor Barnum, and the greatest born schemer spent his life proving it. As a child he ran his own lottery in Connecticut. He began making his real fortune in 1835, when he latched onto a slave whom he claimed was 161 years old and had been George Washington’s nurse, drawing huge crowds and $1,500 a week. Many didn’t believe the woman was that old once they saw her. But Barnum didn’t care what they thought as they left his American Museum in New York City because by then he already had their money. And they paid again and again to see his mermaid, his bearded lady, and the midget his named General Tom Thumb.
The master promoter, who didn’t create his legendary circus until he was 60 years old, remained active until he suffered a stroke at the age of 80 in November 1890. Only then did he write a will. But what nagged Barnum was not the fate of his own affairs, but the fate of his name. The man who professed he didn’t care what the newspapers said about him as long as they spelled his name right, Barnum now had a strong hankering to know exactly what people would say about him after he died. The word got out, and the New York Evening Sun paper published his obituary. Above four columns chronicling his life, the headline read, “Great and Only Barnum. He Wanted to Read His Obituary; Here It is.”
Several days later Barnum told his secretary, “I’m going to die this time.” He went on to talk about plans to build houses on some property he owned on Long Island. “Why, Mr. Barnum,” said Ben, his secretary, “you just said you were going to die!” “Yes, Ben, yes,” replied the 80-year-old showman. “But I ain’t dead yet, Ben, am I?”
Three days after that Barnum died. In an obituary he didn’t get to see, The Times of London wrote, “He early realized that essential feature of a modern democracy, its readiness to be led to what will amuse and instruct it. He knew that ‘the people’ mean crowds–paying crowds.”
For more stories behind the deaths of some of the most notorious characters read Tales Behind the Tombstones.
