Word: barnumism
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Died. Che Mah, 88, self-styled "smallest man in the world; in Chicago. He was 28 inches in height with a queue 13 feet long. Imported from Choo Sang (island) by P. T. Barnum in 1881, he became wealthy from self-exhibition, retired in 1890, was twice married to U. S. women, by the first of whom he had a son of normal size...
...Grant helped him shinny a post to see a horse race; when a supercilious, teasable "Oyster Bay runt" called Teddy Roosevelt told him he was shortsighted and gave him one of his own thick eye-lenses; when he gouged "Bound to rise!" on a shingled steeple, counterfeited tickets to Barnum's circus, made cigar-box labels for Oscar Hammerstein and an aluminum fan for Mrs. Astor...
...Entertainment Committee consists of Joseph Delano Hitch of Denver, Col., chairman; Ernest Francis Camache of Everett and John Fonda Ward Whitbeck of Bronxville N. Y., vice-chairmen; Dwight Barnum of Boston; Alexander Donald of Milton; Edwin Farnham of Belmont; Lewis Henderson Gordon of Flushing, N. Y.; Gerard William Govan of Allston; Carl Melville Lindner of Medford; Alfred Henry Miller of Dorchester; Bayard Livingston Kilgour of Cincinnati, O.; Geoffrey Platt of New York City; Henry Longfellow deRham of Cold Spring, N. Y.; James Edward Tobin of Boston; and Henry Russell Wood of New Bedford...
...Reichenbach concludes that Barnum was right, perhaps Hamilton also. He couches his sentiment in the following plebeian idioms: "This and my other experiences as an engineer of publicity have convinced me that the axis of the earth is lubricated with banana oil and that the world thrives on applesauce...
...first performance was given on May 16, 1920, after a prolonged and extensive period of experimentation. Thus the organization now assembled at the Al Jolson Theatre, Manhattan, is perhaps the youngest of the great theatrical and musical troupes of the world. Puffed to the limit and beloved by "Barnum" Gest, it has pardonably fallen just a trifle short of expectations. The production of La Perichole, with the Offenbach score and with what amounted to an entire re-writing of the Meilhac-Halevy libretto by Director Dantchenko himself, proved to be an unadulterated source of enjoyment to all except strict operatic...