By Eric D. Lehman
When P. T. Barnum met twenty-five-inch-tall Charles Stratton at a Bridgeport, Connecticut inn in 1843, essentially the most vital partnerships in leisure background used to be born. With Barnum’s promotional talents and the miniature Stratton’s comedic abilities, they charmed a Who’s Who of the nineteenth century, from Queen Victoria to Charles Dickens to Abraham Lincoln. loved around the globe as “General Tom Thumb,” Stratton performed to sold-out exhibits for nearly 40 years. From his days as a precocious baby celebrity to his tragic early loss of life, Becoming Tom Thumb tells the entire tale of this iconic determine for the 1st time. It info his triumphs at the big apple level, his epic big name marriage ceremony, and his around-the-world journey, drawing on newly on hand fundamental resources and interviews. From the mansions of Paris to the deserts of Australia, Stratton’s exact model of yank comedy not just earned him the accolades of thousands of fanatics, it helped flow little humans out of the aspect exhibit and into the lime light.
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Extra info for Becoming Tom Thumb: Charles Stratton, P. T. Barnum, and the Dawn of American Celebrity
Example text
8 Barnum had already become a master of creating these questions for a curious public, and was simultaneously creating the market for them. He also knew how to promote the unusual and the bizarre. So, when the Hudson River froze over in November 1842, and he was forced to take the rattling Housatonic Railroad down to Bridgeport, he was very interested to meet the miniature boy everyone was talking about. In later years, various people claimed to have a part in this historic meeting. The wife of the tavern-keeper at the Daniel Sterling House, Theodosia Fairchild, professed to have known Charles and Cynthia well, and been instrumental in bringing them to the world’s atten- The Boy from Bridgeport tion.
Barnum American Museum New York 1844” around the edges. A. At his birth he weighed 9lbs 2oz And was a handsome, hearty, and promis- Prince Charles the First ing boy. ”4 In America, Charles had been “English,” but here he was proudly a “Yankee,” since Bridgeport was now the exotic locale. What is more interesting is that Barnum included Charles’s real name. 5 Also for sale were game counters with his image on one side and “Liberty” on the other, glass paperweights with his visage embedded in it, and more.
As the decade of the 1840s passed, visitors would find glassblowers demonstrating their art and selling their baubles, or fortune-tellers and phrenologists predicting fates. A downstairs oyster saloon brought in fresh bivalves, while on the roof a picnic garden allowed guests to bring their own lunch or purchase ice cream and cake. 7 Horace Greeley’s new daily paper, The Tribune, reviewed this premier exhibition, saying, “General Tom Thumb, Junior, the Dwarf, exhibiting at the American Museum, is by far the most wonderful specimen of a man that ever astonished the world.