Word: showman
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With the publication of P.T. Barnum's autobiography in 1855, says Lindberg, the con man in America went public. The rush to grab land, swindle immigrants and kite stock gathered momentum. As a great showman, Barnum hoodwinked the suckers and made them like it. Who could hate a man able to move crowds by changing the exit sign to one that read, "This way to the Grand Egress." His book ratified cynicism as entertainment, if not instruction...
...someone with his head in the clouds, Astronomer Carl Sagan's latest spaced-out undertaking seemed astonishingly down to earth. Having conquered the cosmos, the Johnny Carson Tonight show and the New York Times bestseller list, the flamboyant scientist-cum -showman figured that the only Big Bang left to make was in the world of business. Thus, twelve months ago, Sagan and B. Gentry Lee, a space program manager from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif, began scraping together a $700,000 line of credit from California's Security Pacific National Bank and went into business...
From the beginning of the tournament, fans and promoters alike had been drooling over the prospects of a Khan-Desaulniers final. Seven of the last 12 WPSA tournament finals have pitted Khan, eternal champion cum showman, and Desaulniers, brash challenger become champion, against each other...
...strong, wild form in concert, but no one has ever disputed his status as rock's shrewdest showman. On Tattoo You, the Stones' new No. 1 album, Jagger's voice has the rough resilience of a scouring pad, and Keith Richards keeps on playing what is, in all senses, the meanest guitar around. The new record sounds like their best in years-many years-but a little attention to the lyrics shows that the Stones are still stuck in the same territory without a passport. The album is supposed to be a return to their strong, singed...
...inspired showman, Barr masterminded hundreds of exhibitions that rarely failed to create an uproar. The avant-garde sculpture he imported for a 1936 show so bewildered U.S. Customs officials that they refused to recognize it as art and tried to levy heavy duties. His decision to display such objects as an oval wheel and a fur-lined teacup irked the museum's trustees, and one show devoted entirely to an elaborate shoeshine stand crafted by little-known Primitive Artist Joe Milone nearly got him fired. But he also presented landmark shows on surrealism, Dada, Bauhaus architecture, machine design...