P.T. Barnum became the ‘Greatest Showman.’ But his first show was a congregation in NC
P.T. Barnum opened the American Museum of curiosities, introduced the world to General Tom Thumb and created “The Greatest Show on Earth,” according to historical record and a box office hit starring Hugh Jackman.
But before his rise to stardom, the earliest iteration of Barnum’s traveling circus made its first stop in Nash County, North Carolina, on this day in 1836.
It was there he reportedly gave one of his earliest performances for a Baptist congregation — with a sermon.
“Approximately 300 people stayed to listen to Barnum preach,” according to the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. “While not yet known as the Greatest Showman on Earth — it is reported that the crowd was certainly pleased with his performance.”
Barnum’s colorful life spawned the 2017 film “The Greatest Showman,” which in-turn stirred some backlash about the true history of his success in the entertainment industry.
His early days in North Carolina, however, rarely made the spotlight.
According to the state’s cultural resources department, Barnum had just split from another circus run by Aaron Turner when he arrived in what is now Rocky Mount on Nov. 12.
As the former manager of sideshow acts and ticket bookie, he reportedly scraped together a few acts from Turner to start his own show.
“To form his own circus troupe he took with him Signor Vivalli, an Italian juggler and tight rope walker, James Sanford, a black singer and dancer, several musicians, horses, wagons, and a small canvas tent,” thelink added North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Program says of the endeavor.
Barnum reportedly recorded the events of that day in his autobiography.
He stayed the night at the Stage Coach Inn, and the landlord there took him to the local Baptist church the following morning, historians said.
While there, the cultural resources department reported Barnum noticed “a grove with a stand and benches” and asked the preacher for permission to address the congregation. He was granted half an hour to speak after the service.
“I told them I was not a preacher and had very little experience in public speaking; but I felt a deep interest in matters of morality and religion and would attempt, in a plain way, to set before them the duties and privileges of man,” Barnum wrote in his autobiography, according to the historical marker program.
The sermon included “a warning that ‘diamonds may glitter on a vicious breast,’” the Winston-Salem Journal reported in 2016 on the 180th anniversary of Barnum’s first circus.
Half a mile southeast of that historic grove, a placard now regales passersby of Barnum’s early claim to fame in the sleepy south.
“No show is recorded, but Barnum preached a sermon,” the marker states.
His fame as a showman followed shortly thereafter, beginning with the American Museum in New York City — a historic enterprise of “850,000 exhibits and curiosities” that opened in 1842, according to the Barnum Museum.
Barnum later lost his fortune, the museum states, then gained it back before embarking on his final chapter in the entertainment industry: “The Greatest Show On Earth.”
According to the museum, the show was a “Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan, and Circus” that opened in 1871.
After merging the show with fellow showman James Bailey, it became the “Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth” — which persisted even after Barnum’s death in 1891.
This story was originally published November 12, 2019 at 7:06 PM.
