P.T. Barnum perfected the art of showmanship, a reputation burnished by the spectacular fame of the traveling circus and that bore his name: the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Baily Circus. Barnum grew a series of small but well-marketed performances of human oddities into a full-blown traveling circus/freak show extravaganza for 146 years before the “big top” folded forever in 2017.
FYI, his first show in 1841 featured a woman who was then reportedly 161 years old and George Washington’s nurse.
Lesser-known about Barnum are his many business and financial ups and downs, including his from bankruptcy in the mid-1800s. In 1880, he published a book titled “The Art Of Money Getting” to share what he had learned as an entrepreneur and local politician in the town of Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he and his family lived.