Word: barnumism
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Died. Frank Wilson Braden. 76. cigar-puffing circus press agent, a walking, talking thesaurus of big-top ballyhoo to whom clowns were not clowns but rather "red-nosed, chalk-faced worshipers of the bluebird of happiness." who variously trumpeted the thrills of the Gentry. Sells-Floto, Ringling Brothers-Barnum & Bailey, and Clyde Beatty-Cole Brothers circuses for half a century; of pneumonia; in Providence...
Last week, just as sure as daffodils, the circus opened in Manhattan's Madison Square Garden. It was Ringling Bros, and Barnum & Bailey's 92nd spring. The ringmaster's "Children of all ages . . ." invocation was the same, but it was obvious that things had changed...
This one-cylinder Barnum, this tower of sneers in tasseled shoes, this Shubert Alley Catiline, this mustachioed thane of the sceptered aisle, this Greek god, this other Edam, this papier-mãché genius, this blessed plotter, this doozer producer, this publicity addict who would send his cocker spaniel to Cape Canaveral if he thought it would get into space, this man, this David Merrick has done it again...
...Barnum (1810-91): "How were the circus receipts today at Madison Square Garden...
Niles cast his spell as much with his introductions and manner as with his singing. There is a bit of Barnum in him; no, a big hunk of Barnum. Woven in with this is a strain of the hillbilly preacher. And over these basic characteristics floats the unmistakable, delightful smell...