Word: barnumism
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...Barnum and Tex Rickard would have stared in envy. They had staged many a flamboyant spectacle during Madison Square Garden's 70-year history. But last week, in his red-carpeted, walnut-paneled president's office, John Reed Kilpatrick, 58, beamed happily over the biggest thing yet to come the Garden...
Humbug & Hullabaloo. That was a far cry from the "Monster Classical and Geological Hippodrome" which Barnum had christened the first Garden, an abandoned depot of the New York Central & Harlem River Steam Railroad at Madison Avenue. The Barnum spectacles and others went so well that in 1889, Garden Owner William H. Vanderbilt got together with Barnum, J. Pierpont Morgan, and other Manhattan tycoons, tore down the old building and built a new $3,000,000 one. On opening night, Edward Strauss played waltzes to the audience of "old dowagers, ancient bucks, fresh brides, dewy buds, young blades and sprigging braves...
...Manly Art. Promoter Tex Rickard, the Barnum of boxing, came on the scene just when the Garden's owners were getting ready to raze it. They were so impressed by his money-making shows that, when the Garden was torn down, they raised $5,000,000 to build a new & bigger one on Eighth Avenue, later listed its shares on the New York Stock Exchange...
Died. Irving Joseph Fox, 58, who ran a single fur coat into a $12-million annual business (I. J. Fox, Inc.) by some of the loudest publicity since Barnum; of a heart ailment; in Manhattan. London-born son of a furrier, Fox pioneered in sky writing and singing commercials ("All Girls Are Beautiful"), introduced commercially some fabulous luxury furs (silverblu, platina), but did most of his business in installment sales of cheaper goods...
...little unnerving to 65-year-old Composer Stravinsky, and when he saw the papers, he denied that he had written the arrangement: he had only okayed it. Stravinsky once wrote an elephant's polka for Ringling Bros, and Barnum & Bailey, and a jazz concerto for Woody Herman (neither had the common touch). He will get double the going Tin Pan Alley rates for Summer Moon, and a 50-50 split on movie rights. Said he: "According to the newspapers, the only reason I wrote this arrangement was to make money. I am very glad if I do make money...