Column: Could P.T. Barnum make it in today's world?

We recently watched "The Greatest Showman" movie (2017) starring Hugh Jackman as P.T. Barnum (1810-1891), an American icon famous for his circus "The Greatest Show on Earth."

Now, the movie itself is considered a true story based on Barnum's amazing ability to rise to international fame from basically nothing. However, like Hollywood is so known for, there are fictional parts, like the characters of Phillip Carlyle (Zac Effon) and Anne Wheeler (Zendaya), who have lead roles but never existed in real life. And, there is the premise in the movie that P.T. Barnum and Jenny Lind, a singing act he promoted like a present-day Taylor Swift, were infatuated with one another when in reality she was simply a person he marketed to his advantage.

And, at the end of the movie, P.T. Barnum was painted like a heroic figure of his time who took people with disfigurements (like dog boy and the bearded lady) and gave them acceptability and tolerance and a home at his museum and later circus when he was most likely seeing dollar signs.

Yet, the movie made me start to question that time versus this age. And I wondered if a P.T. Barnum could ever rise to power and fame in our current society. I don't think so. Before I relate why I came to this conclusion, let me share what I found out about his life in my research.

P.T. stands for Phineas Taylor, by the way. He was born in Bethel, Connecticut, and his parents were rather simple people. His father was an innkeeper, tailor and store owner, according to Wikipedia. In other words, he didn't come from money but he was a dreamer — a big dreamer. Like the movie, he purchased a museum in New York City in 1841 when he was 31 years old and renamed it Barnum's American Museum. It was then that his life of being a showman took off.

Yes, he lied but he considered it marketing. He attracted people to the museum with the Fiji Mermaid, which was nothing more than a sewed version of a stuffed monkey and a fish but visitors thought it was some sort of human creature from the deep. He promoted General Tom Thumb, an American dwarf who rose to fame as part of Barnum's troup. He did, in fact, just like the movie, tour Europe and he and Tom and the other performers met Queen Victoria.

By late 1846, Barnum's Museum was drawing 400,000 visitors a year, according to Wikipedia. Cha-ching! P.T. Barnum made it big time! And, when he promoted Jenny Lind, considered the Swedish Nightingale, he made moocho bucks. Lind gave 93 concerts in America for Barnum, earning her about $350,000, while Barnum netted at least $500,000 (equivalent to $15,554,000 in 2020), says Wikipedia. All that hysteria over Jenny Lind came from Barnum's advertising, by the way. Barnum became known as the "Shakespeare of Advertising" due to his innovative and impressive ideas, says Wikipedia.

And, of course, Barnum went on to develop the first circus that ever displayed three rings at the ripe old age of 60. He was one of the first circus owners to travel by train. The Barnum and Bailey Circus toured the world as the Greatest Show on Earth for decades and unfortunately, his legacy of circus entertainment closed in 2017 because of pressures from animal rights protestors.

So, in the modern world of today, could P.T. Barnum ever exist? Impossible. This is why. We have become so accustomed to government mandates, corporate takeovers and greed that we don't even notice anymore this economic climate is stealing our dreams. Barnum could have never gotten through the red tape of it all no matter how big of a dreamer he was!

Small towns once flourished with booming businesses, people could find good jobs locally and families only needed one income to survive. Small town Barnums existed everywhere 100 years ago and while each generation had its share of setbacks, Americans still became strong locally in commerce, agriculture and of course, entertainment until now. Look around. There are abandoned buildings everywhere and experts call it the economic collapse. Barnum rode a very different economic wave in his time!

Nowadays, I suppose Barnums exist everywhere on YouTube — trying to go viral and get millions of views for money. And, you know what, a few of those YouTubers are making millions. So could they be considered modern-day Barnums? No way. P.T. Barnum was one of a kind rising to fame in a society where dreamers and entrepreneurs (and of course, marketeers like Barnum) had at least an opportunity to shine. P.T. Barnum shined indeed!

This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Sandra Lepley column about P.T. Barnum