People love the circus. They love the thrills, the big animals, the acrobatics, the smell of sweet cotton candy that is almost overwhelmingly masked by the enticing salty scent of popcorn. The Barnum and Bailey Circus is known as “the greatest show on earth,” but do you know where the show’s “freakish” origins stem from?

Before P.T. Barnum was considered the father of the circus, he was in fact the father of the freak show. The Industrial Revolution in the 1830s and '40s had given people some free time for family, leisurely activities, and just plan enjoyment. P.T. Barnum decided to capitalize on this extra time and opened Barnum's "American Museum" in New York City, which as it turned out, was a big draw. His first star attraction was "Joice Heth," the supposed nursemaid to George Washington and advertised to be 161 years old. “Unquestionably the most astonishing and interesting curiosity in the world!” read one of Barnum's handbills. Barnum exhibited her in New York and New England, raking in about $1,500 per week. When she died a few years later, it was discovered she was only 80 but the public didn't care as they were just happy to be entertained.

Barnum was all business, and he was darn good at it too. He learned early on that no matter what you are selling, you had to keep "them coming back for more," over and over again. He enjoyed allowing people to “gawk,” which was at the time considered family fun and entertainment. So, Barnum gave them something to “gawk” at, like a seven foot “giant” and a two-foot “midget,” the bearded lady, the snake charmer, the fire swallower, siamese twins, and so many more people with a taste to make an actually good living by exploiting their differences, weird deformities, or feux pas behavior to the public. 

Barnum became very popular quickly and by 1872, he was already referring to his enterprise as “The Greatest Show On Earth,” and it most certainly was for its time! “P.T. Barnum's Traveling World's Fair, Great Roman Hippodrome and Greatest Show On Earth” covered five acres and accommodated 10,000 seated patrons at a time and, to reach more people, took to the rails.

In 1881, Barnum joined promotional forces with James A. Bailey and James L. Hutchinson. The result was “P.T. Barnum's Greatest Show On Earth, And The Great London Circus, Sanger's Royal British Menagerie and The Grand International Allied Shows United.” It soon became known as the “Barnum & London Circus.”

Literally, one of Barnum's biggest successes came in 1882 with his attainment of Jumbo the elephant. Dubbed “The Towering Monarch of His Mighty Race, Whose Like the World Will Never See Again,” Jumbo arrived in New York on April 9, 1882, and attracted mammoth-sized crowds on his way to his name becoming a household name.

Barnum and Bailey went their separate ways in 1885, but rekindled their business relationship once again in 1888. That year, the “Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show On Earth” first toured America.