Fact and Fiction in The Greatest Showman
I know when the movie musical The Greatest Showman was released there was some controversy surrounding the fact that Barnum is made to look like a nice family guy who helped those who didn’t fit into the mainstream. While that’s not true, I was a fan of the movie and I thought it portrayed a great message and had amazing music. However, I thought it would be interesting to share some of the facts and fiction included in The Greatest Showman film, so here are 10 bits of information you might not have known about Barnum:
Fact and Fiction in The Greatest Showman #ontheblog Click To TweetBarnum’s start in entertainment was very racist. He rented Joice Heth, a blind slave, who he took around New York telling people she was the 161 year old former nurse of George Washington. When she died, Barnum charged people 50 cents to go to her public autopsy which is when people finally found out she could not have been much older than 80 years old. As for the circus, Barnum didn’t get into that until he was 60 years old. The traveling circus came about when his museum burned down…twice (source).
Two of the The Greatest Showman’s characters, Philip Carlyle (Barnum’s eventual business partner) and Anne Wheeler (the trapeze artist), are not based on real people (source).
Barnum DID bring Jenny Lind to America but there was no romance or hint of romance between the two. Lind didn’t like Barnum’s over-promotion so she did the rest of the tour with different managers, instead of quitting altogether as she does in the film (source).
Barnum’s actual partner was James A. Bailey (hence, Barnum and Bailey), and not Philip Carlyle (source).
Barnum’s father did pass away when he was 15, but he had a mother and five siblings, which are not included in the film (source).
Barnum did marry Charity Hallett – they had four daughters and not just two though (source).
Charles Sherwood Stratton (“Tom Thumb”) is in his twenties in The Greatest Showman, but in real life, he was four years old when he started playing “General Tom Thumb” (source).
Barnum did meet Queen Victoria (source).
The bearded lady – Annie Jones – was used by Barnum at the age of 9 months, as “The Infant Esau”(source).
The critic in The Greatest Showman is a real person – James Gordon Bennett- but his connection to Barnum, however, is that he tried to tell people that the Joice Heth/George Washington story wasn’t real (source).
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The Greatest Showman is now available on DVD, and you can also purchase the soundtrack (which I own and love). There is also a new release called The Greatest Showman Reimagined, where popular artists of today like Kelly Clarkson and Panic! at the Disco cover all the songs from the movie. I own this as well, but I still need to listen to it, but what a cool idea, right? Feel free to buy any of these items today and if you’re ordering online, use Ebates to find the best deals and get money back (feel free to use my affiliate link)!
This is awesome!! I loved this movie. It’s really nice to learn the facts!
I haven’t seen the movie but all this is really interesting. I do love them everyone wants Hugh Jackman to be Wolverine forever, and he just wants to sing showtunes.
I actually still need to see this film. Thanks for sharing all of these great facts. I didn’t really know much about Barnum so it’s good to educate myself a bit before watching.
After I saw this movie, I too wanted to research what was fact and fiction. It is interesting what was made up for the movie.
Haven’t seen this yet but I’m very curious about it. Great post.
This is so interesting. I haven’t seen it yet, but I feel as though I vaguely remember some overlap with the book Water for Elephants. If I’m not mistaken, some of the circuses at the time (perhaps even Barnum) profited when lesser-known circuses disbanded and animals were left to fend for themselves. Since most of the travel was via rail, they would add cars to trains to accommodate all the animals/acts. Anyway, this is all fascinating stuff and thanks for sharing!
After we saw the movie I looked up this same question, what was true and what wasn’t? I know Barnum wasn’t actually a very good guy!
This is really interesting! I knew that there were definitely a lot of things about Barnum that were not made known in the film. But I also find it interesting the things they did use in the film too. I love this movie and the music!
I still haven’t seen The Greatest Showman, even though I like some of the songs from it, and I’ve heard great things about it. I had heard about the controversy though, about Barnum not actually being such a good guy, and it had kind of put me off, but I may still watch it at some point. Too many people have recommended it to me now, and at least I now know what’s fact and what’s fiction!
Great post! 🙂
I loved the movie, but knew it wasn’t entirely based on truth. I’m glad they added Hollywood magic to it! 😉
Huhhh…I haven’t seen the movie but I feel like I need to and then a lot of this will make more sense to me! ha!
I was looking some of this up after watching the movie and it is all so interesting! You really can’t ever base a movie on being real facts! I didn’t know he had 4 daughters instead of 2! GOSH, I love this movie and the soundtrack tho!
Carrie
curlycraftymom.com
Interesting facts. I am kind of sad and disappointed that they glamorized the story and made it something it was not. I am in the minority, but I wasn’t a big fan of the film.
I loved the movie and figured it was not all that accurate. Thanks for setting the facts straight.
Thanks for all the tidbits and facts Lauren!
This is an awesome post!! I really enjoyed the movie and now I want to go watch it again.
Tori @ In Tori Lex
I knew the real Barnum was not a great guy but sheesh! At least they portrayed in the movie that he had flaws – major ones. The Bearded Lady information is so interesting! I’m curious to where her parents were.
This is so interesting! Barnum sounds like kind of a creep in real life!
This is super interesting! I haven’t seen The Greatest Showman yet, but I plan to!! And I feel like your post doesn’t reveal any true spoilers at all. Great job!
I haven’t seen this movie, but my sister was talking about some of the fiction they put into this film.
I have tried to watch these on a few occasions but ended up doing something else. After reading this post, I am tempted to go see it again!
How cool are these facts! The circus life is a crazy one, Id be shocked if many of the stories told over the years really were all real LOL . I loved the movie and the music was so refreshing to this year!
I haven’t seen this movie, but the circus freaks me out. I don’t like the way the animals are used and the way people were/are exploited. It is interesting to hear all the differences from the film version to the real-life. Sounds like Barnum was a real focused businessman.
Wow I didn’t know this was based on actual events! I love the soundtrack but haven’t gotten around to watching it.
Oh Hollywood! I still enjoyed the movie, but the differences are sooo confronting too! I like the music as well — Kesha’s on that sound track just breaks my heart.
I really want to see this movie! My friend went to the theater about five times to see it, so I know it must be good!
I haven’t see this movie yet, but now I want to!
Whoa! I had no idea that the film was so different from his real life. It was a great film, but I can see how they would twist details to suit the screen. It almost always happens, right?! Thanks for enlightening me. 🙂
I loved the movie and the music and it was because of the messages it portrays. I knew that there was a lot of historical inaccuracies but I didn’t care. To me, The Greatest Showman is a story. It’s not a biopic even though it’s based on a real person. It was interesting to see some of the facts laid out here. 🙂
I really enjoyed the movie and loved the music! These are interesting facts! Thanks for sharing these!
Jill – Doused in Pink
I enjoyed the movie, but one did have to really put aside the whole fact thing didn’t they 🙂
This is so interesting. I loved the movie but some of the true facts are so sad and disheartening.
I do want to see that movie at some point. I wondered about how they made him out to be, knowing what we know now. I wonder why they had to use a different person to be his partner instead of going with the correct name at least? Maybe Bailey didn’t want to be part of it? Or his descendants? Thanks for sharing all these facts. I will get around to watching this one of these days.
After I saw this movie, I immediately went and did a little research to see how much was true because I was curious. I was disappointed that so much was changed—this is historical fiction that’s very heavy on the fiction.
Yeah, I was very disappointed in the inaccuracy because they didn’t necessarily need to say it was based on PT Barnum and could’ve chosen a different name if they were going to do it so inaccurately? It could be just a fun story if more fictional. I thought the movie was going to be more about the ‘freaks’ and their story, instead of the business showman side of things even though it is in the title. Which is my bad, but it did mean I didn’t love it as much as everyone else. It was just okay to me…
Very interesting ! I love this movie !