The Creation of Modern Popular Culture amp Americas 1 st Star Background Main Themes Urbanization Industrialization Immigration Popular Entertainment Urbanization e 19 th c explosive growth in cities of the NE ID: 309773
Download Presentation The PPT/PDF document "Barnum, Humbug & Jenny Lind" is the property of its rightful owner. Permission is granted to download and print the materials on this web site for personal, non-commercial use only, and to display it on your personal computer provided you do not modify the materials and that you retain all copyright notices contained in the materials. By downloading content from our website, you accept the terms of this agreement.
Slide1
Barnum, Humbug & Jenny Lind
The Creation of Modern Popular Culture & America’s 1
st
StarSlide2
Background: Main Themes
Urbanization
Industrialization
Immigration
Popular EntertainmentSlide3
Urbanization
e
.19
th
c. explosive growth in cities of the NE
NYC population:
1820-123,000
1830-202,000
1840-312,000
1850-515,000Slide4
Industrialization
Industrial Revolution
Northeastern states early adopters
Began in earnest in 1820s in MA
1
st
in rural areas near rivers for power
Then in cities
A gradual process
Took place over several generationSlide5
Immigration
Explosive growth
Rates of immigration
1820-8000+
1830-23,000+
1840-84,000+
1850-114,000+Slide6
Popular Entertainment
Theater
Trompe l’oeil
panorama paintings
Magicians
Attractions & curiosities
Minstrel Shows
MelodramaSlide7
Signor Antonio BlitzSlide8
Minstrel ShowsSlide9
P.T. Barnum
b. Bethel, CT 1810
3
rd
generation American
Born salesman
Had many jobs before showman
Involved in 1
st
US lottery
Lotteries banned in CT in 1834
Sells store & moves to NYCSlide10
Young BarnumSlide11
Joice
Heth
: Background
African American woman
A slave
A “curiosity” when Barnum learns of her
Blind
Paralyzed in both legs & one arm
Toothless
Long curving fingernailsSlide12
Barnum & Joice
Heth
Contract bought for $1000 August 1835
Barnum books her for 10 months
Broadway & Prince Streets, NYC,
An entertainment district
Remained enslaved Slide13
Joice
Heth
: Exhibition
George Washington’s “mammy”
Told stories with a patriotic bent
161 years old
Sang Baptist hymns in the 18
th
c. style
Pseudo scientific language used by MC
Racist gawking
12 hour exhibition daysSlide14Slide15
“JOICE HETH is unquestionably the most astonishing and interesting curiosity in the World! She was the slave of Augustine Washington, (the father of Gen. Washington,) and was the first person who put clothes on the unconscious infant, who, in after days, led our heroic fathers on to glory, to victory, and freedom. To use her own language when speaking of the illustrious Father of his Country, 'she raised him.' JOICE HETH was born in the year 1674, and has, consequently, now arrived at the astonishing AGE OF 161 YEARS." ( December 1835Slide16
Joice
Heth
: Tour
Providence, RI-Proceeds to free 5 great-grandchildren
Boston-competes with an automaton chess-player for customers
Heth’s
humanity questioned
Perhaps she’s an automaton?
Ends with
Heth’s
death in February 1836Slide17
Heth’s Autopsy
Barnum says he’ll prove she’s 161
Sells tickets for 50 cents
Physicians, students, clergymen, editors
Barnum confesses later that she’s 80
At the time, convinces one editor she’s not deadSlide18
Racist Elements
Heth
pictures as physically “strange” “exotic”
A faithful slave
Nurturing black nursemaid
Deeply pious
Musical
Unique only in its comprehensiveness
Flexible & changeable based on audienceSlide19
Conclusions
Heth
created her persona
She had no hand in controlling it
Humbug & artful deception popular
Overlapping modes of trickery
Plausibility isn’t certainty
“The public appears to be disposed even amused when they are conscious of being deceived” (Barnum)Slide20
Main Themes in Adams
Separate Spheres
Cult of Domesticity
Rise of the American middle class
Change in Barnum’s public persona
LindomaniaSlide21
Separate Spheres
Began in US in 1820s
Tied to demise of the apprentice system
And the advent of industrialization
Men’s sphere-public
Women’s sphere-home
Rigidly divided worlds
A middle class ideologySlide22Slide23
Cult of Domesticity
4
c
ardinal virtues: piety, purity, submissiveness, & domesticity
Women endowed children with morality
Delineated in women’s magazines
Encouraged by churches & religious literature
Middle class & largely white & Protestant
In practice, acceptance & challengeSlide24Slide25Slide26Slide27
Rise of the Middle Class
Tied to industrialization & urbanization
Fortunes precarious in antebellum US
Separate spheres
Visible display & possessions essential
Happened unevenly in US
Different regions happened later
Entertainment also becomes classedSlide28
Barnum
Known for humbug & journalistic puffery
Lind tour marks a change
Offers his reputation as a foil to True Womanhood
Barnum’s greed contrast with Lind’s altruism
A far cry from
Joice
Heth
& the American Museum exhibitsSlide29Slide30
Jenny Lind
Born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1820
An opera star in Europe, a soprano, retires 1849 before US tour
Had a pure vocal style
Stage persona a humble woman
Queen Victoria a fan, due to Lind’s humility
Barnum reaches out in 1849
Contracts for 150 dates for $187,000Slide31Slide32
Lindomania
Invokes True Womanhood on US tour
Becomes the 1
st
American entertainment sensation
Has near universal approval
Tour dates reveal rifts between classes
Reveals the nascent US middle class & its tastesSlide33Slide34
US Tour
Lind arrives in US September 1, 1850
Barnums
’ promotion machine in high gear
30,000 greet her arrival
Barnum positions Lind as humble woman with
G
od-given talent
Barnum plays up that she’s singing for charity
Gives
$50,000
to “worthy” charitiesSlide35Slide36
Tour Facts
Tour lasts from 1850-1852
Lind & Barnum part after 93 dates
Barnum grosses over $700,000
In 1852, while on US tour, Lind marries
Husband Otto
Golschmidt
, her
accompaniest
Takes his name, tour ends 1852
Seldom sings publicly after US tourSlide37
Class Divisions
Tickets too expensive for most
$5 a week’s wage for many
Public space contested
Commercial entertainment becoming classed
Working class women have to work
Cult of domesticity unavailable to them
Opera seen as too high culture (middle class)
Folk songs seen as too low culture (upper class