The Creation of the Barnum, Bailey & Hutchinson Show
. . . in the words of P.T. BarnumThe final chapter in Barnum’s compendious and extended personal history was inserted at the last minute, in 1883. Entitled “The Great Alliance”, the chapter tells the story of the merger of his show with another great circus, in Barnum’s characteristic style:
“My strongest competitors were the so-called “Great London Circus, Sanger’s Royal British Menagerie and Grand International Allied Shows.” Its managers, Cooper, Bailey and Hutchinson, had adopted my manner of dealing with the public, and consequently their great show grew in popularity.
On the tenth of March, 1880, while in Philadelphia, one of their large elephants, Hebe, became a mother. This was the first elephant born in captivity, and the managers so effectively advertised the fact that the public became wild with excitement over the “Baby Elephant”. Naturalists and men of science rushed in numbers to Philadelphia, examined the wonderful “little stranger” and gave glowing reports to the papers of this country and of Europe. Illustrated papers and magazines of this and foreign lands described the Baby Elephant with pen and pencil, and before it was two months old I offered the lucky proprietors one hundred thousand dollars cash for mother and baby. they gleefully rejected my offer, pleasantly told me to look to my laurels, and wisely held on to their treasure.
I found that I had at last met foemen “worthy of my steel,” and pleased to find comparatively young men with a business talent and energy approximating to my own, I met them in friendly council, and after days of negotiation we decided to join our two shows in one mammoth combination, and, sink or swim, to exhibit them for, at least, one season for one price of admission. The public were astonished at our audacity, and old showmen declared that we could never take in enough money to cover our expenses, which would be fully forty-five hundred dollars per day. My new partners, James a. Bailey and James L. Hutchinson, sagacious and practical managers, agreed with me that the experiment involved great risk, but from the time of the Jenny Lind concerts, the Great Roman Hippodrome and other expensive enterprises, I have always found the great American public appreciative and ready to respond in proportion to the sums expended for their gratification and amusement.”
Note: A copy of Barnum’s book remains in Hutchinson family hands. It is inscribed on the flyleaf: “To my former partner & friend J.L. Hutchinson Esq with best wishes, P.T.Barnum, Nov 2d. 1888”
Source: P.T. Barnum, Struggles and Triumphs; or Forty Years’ Recollections of P.T. Barnum. Written by Himself. Author’s Edition. Revised, Enlarged, Newly Illustrated and Written up to December 1881, by the Author. (Buffalo, NY: The Courier Company, 1882, although the quoted chapter, which does not appear in the book’s list of contents, is subscripted with “Waldemere, Bridgeport, Conn., 1883”), p.779.
