At 6, his grandfather explained that his coins amounted to $1.

Barnum felt rich.

"He knew it was a dog-eat-dog world," said biographer Neil Harris. The independence that wealth provided was already his goal.

Born two years before the start of the War of 1812, Barnum — barely out of diapers — hawked candy, gingerbread and rum to troops training on the town parade grounds.

He saved so much, his father said he had to buy his own clothes.

So wrote Philip Kunhardt Jr., Philip Kunhardt III and Peter Kunhardt in their biography, "P.T. Barnum: America's Greatest Showman."

Barnum was hardly the only Yankee trader in his native Bethel, Conn. But from an early age he showed a knack for turning a buck.

He had two keys to success.

"He was frugal," Kathleen Maher, executive director and curator of the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Conn., told IBD. That focus helped him save cash, which he plowed into projects.

Second, he was a born communicator. "He knew it wasn't enough to build a better mousetrap," said Harris, a history professor at the University of Chicago. "You had to make sure people knew about it."

Barnum (1810-91) became one of the greatest American showmen, founding the circus that became Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Man Of Letters

Barnum also was an author, newspaper publisher, museum operator, philanthropist and public official.

He was renowned for displays of exotic fish and mammals.

Humans too. Giants, midgets, thin men and bearded ladies careened across his stages, the Kunhardts wrote. His presentations of blacks and mentally handicapped people offend our modern sensibilities. But in his own day few challenged him.

And he pushed for the freeing of slaves, black voting rights and education.

As the mayor of Bridgeport, he fought for clean water and gaslit streets. He battled prostitution and liquor. He helped found Bridgeport Hospital.

"He helped create today's world," Maher said, "especially in marketing and promotion."

Barnum put lights into signs on buildings. He paid for advertisements on the sides of public carriages — the buses of his day. He promoted upcoming shows ceaselessly. He transformed theater into entertainment fit for women and children.

He introduced the rhinoceros to America. He imported the first herd of elephants. He put the circus on train rails.

Barnum manufactured stars: Jumbo the elephant, Swedish singer Jenny Lind, midget Tom Thumb — who performed a hugely popular one-man variety show.

Source: Investor's Business Daily