“My funeral will be the Greatest Show on Earth. This is what I want”.
Michael Jackson So,
PROLOGUE…
BARNUM CIRCUS
Since the beginning of the investigation, the name of Barnum has been appearing here and there. Several sources have been constantly reminding us that
“The autography of P.T. Barnum is Michael’s Bible”.
It was first mentioned by a secret informer on Larry King blog on the 17th of August. Michael’s make-up assistant Karen Faye confirms it as well. The re-direction of Thisisalsoit sends us to Barnum. Finally rabbi Shmuley’s interview with Michael is released and we can read the following words:
Shmuley Boteach: And your career is built on that and I’m not just saying it to flatter you. It’s true, I am amazed at it. So talk to me about mystery. How do you know this, where did it come to you, that power of that which is concealed?
Michael Jackson: Wow, you are so observant. It’s amazing how you notice details. Um, I studied… I love psychology, I love magic, I love… I love real beauty. I love real talent. I love when something’s miraculous; when something’s so beautiful you shouldn’t get it. What I like about Halley’s Comet, and I always say it to my lawyer, Halley’s Comet is no more of a miracle than the moon or the sun. But we make a big deal out of it because you see it once in a lifetime and everybody’s out there to see it. You know astronomers and fans and people and it’s this thing that circles around the solar system but you see it once in a lifetime. If it happened every night nobody would care, but to me the moon is just as miraculous. I always talk about deer and dogs and cats. A lot of people go, “There is a deer! There’s a…” ‘cause they are shy, they’re always hidden. It’s a big deal to see a deer, I mean, and I appreciate that, how people should appreciate the real ability and I always say that I don’t care if you are the most talented person in the world, if you come on the television every day people will regurgitate you. You have to know how to play your audience. You have to know that and it’s true, Shmuley. And it’s not just a game. But it’s real for me, it’s real for me. It really is.
SB: How do you know that? For example, I had to be taught this. I write about it a lot in my books but I began to develop a lot of my ideas on it from insights from other writers, thinkers, philosophers, etc.
MJ: If you remain mysterious, people will be more interested, yeah.
MJ: I just love, I do love the power of mystery, I really do. I think it’s very powerful.
SB: Is it spiritual? What is it?
MJ: It’s spiritual, it’s, it’s people conjure up all these ideas, people create them themselves. I mean they used to say, you know, Howard Hughes is up there and he owns the hotel but he stays on that floor, he doesn’t come down. He’s in the dark, he’s in the corner in the bed with long nails and hair down to here and he’s hooked to an IV. So the brain would just go crazy conjuring up all kinds of crazy stories, and I love that. I love Howard Hughes ‘cause he played this big thing. I mean, to me he’s like one of my masters. But, I don’t know, this is the first time I’ve ever said this, Shmuley, I love Howard, he is a genius.
SB: Because what? Because he knew the power of mystery?
MJ: How to play people, yeah. He knew how to make the public interested. P.T. Barnum was pretty good at it himself.
SB: But with you, when you say it’s become about playing the public, is it as simple as withdrawal and they want more? And more ways how to reveal yourself?
MJ: It’s rhythm and timing. You have to know what you’re doing. Like you never see me on award show saying, “The nominees are… ” And I get asked to do every show. Now they don’t even ask. They know I don’t do it. Or to host the show or to come out and say like, “Coming up next, Michael Jackson to present the record of the year.” You never see me coming out and doing the nominees. I don’t do it. They know not to even ask me. It’s not what I do.
(This part of the interview was remarked by Klara Zakharovna on forum
http://jacksonlive.mybb.ru/viewtopic.php?id=620)
According to the media, Michael read the book of Barnum in 1980, but it is obvious that Michael has been inspired by Barnum since his childhood.
La Estrella, “It turned out that Michael wrote a very beautiful song when a child, what do you think the name of the song is???” The name of the song is
Greatest Show on Earth!
[youtube]W3k4VawXnqQ[/youtube]
Michael Jackson – Greatest Show on Earth
Love is like a circus and a carnival is beautiful to see
Love can turn your mind around like ferris wheels and spinning carosels
Youll be a part of the world of
make believe
Flying high like a man on a trapeze
Oh, everyday is a holiday
Get your tickets right away
Love, love, love
Is the greatest show on earth
The fantasy you see is like a child again through rainbow colored eyes
Step right up its circus time and get your moneys worth of love today
Youll be a part of the world of
make believe
Flying high like a man on a trapeze
Everyday is a holiday
Get your tickets right away
Love, love, yea
Is the greatest show on earth
Everyday is a holiday
Get your tickets right away
Love, love, love
Is the greatest show on earth
Love, love, love
Is the greatest show on earth (yea e yea)
Love, love, yea
Is the greatest show on earth
Love, love, yea
Most probably, Barnum has played a significant role in Michael’s life. Like, he had hit his fancy!
Michael has always admired talented and vivid people. That’s why he paid attention to the historic personality of Barnum.
Later on Michael would even use the portrait of Barnum on the cover for his “Dangerous” album.
PHINEAS TAYLOR BARNUM’s files
He was an American showman, businessman, and entertainer, remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and for founding the circus that became the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Born in Bethel, Connecticut, Barnum became a small-business owner in his early twenties, and founded a weekly paper,
The Herald of Freedom, in Danbury in 1829. He moved to New York City in 1834 and embarked on an entertainment career, first with a variety troupe called “Barnum’s Grand Scientific and Musical Theater”, and soon after by purchasing Scudder’s American Museum, which he renamed after himself. Barnum used the museum as a platform to promote hoaxes and human curiosities such as the “”Feejee” mermaid” and “General Tom Thumb.” A much-cited experience of Barnum as a legitimate impresario was his engagement of Jenny Lind. The tour began with the concert at Castle Garden on September 11, 1850 and turned out a success, recouping Barnum four times his investment.
Barnum did not enter the circus business until late in his career (he was 61). In Delavan, Wisconsin in 1871 with William Cameron Coup, he established “P. T. Barnum’s Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan & Hippodrome”, a traveling circus, menagerie and museum of “freaks”, which by 1872 was billing itself as “
The Greatest Show on Earth“. It went through various names: “P.T. Barnum’s Travelling World’s Fair, Great Roman Hippodrome and Greatest Show On Earth”, and after an 1881 merger with James Bailey. He and Bailey split up again in 1885, but came back together in 1888 with the “Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show On Earth”, later “
Barnum & Bailey Circus“, which toured the world. The show’s primary attraction was Jumbo, an African elephant he purchased in 1882 from the London Zoo and who died in a train wreck. Jumbo eventually became the mascot of Tufts University, in honor of a donation from Barnum in 1882.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._T._Barnum
The Forer effect (also called
the Barnum Effect after
P. T. Barnum‘s observation that “we’ve got something for everyone”) is the observation that individuals will give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically for them, but are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people.
These statements later became known as Barnum statements after P.T. Barnum, who used them in his performances, allegedly stating “
There’s a Sucker Born Every Minute.” This, if he had said it, would be reference to the fact that Barnum statements can gull people into thinking they have been accurately assessed by the speaker or test when in fact the outcome could apply to anyone.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forer_effect
EXAMPLES
The Brick Man
Barnum knew the power of mystery. An unemployed man came to his museum and asked Barnum for a job. Barnum handed the man five bricks and instructed him to solemnly place the bricks in various places around the outside of the museum. As he went from spot to spot, he was to replace the brick at each spot with another one that he was carrying. He was to answer no questions, speak to no one, and seem to be deaf and dumb. Once an hour, he was to enter the museum, walk right next to the ticket taker, seem to pay the fee, and then proceed through the museum and out the door. A crowd began to form, watching the man and wondering what he was doing. Many of the crowds followed him into the museum just to see what was going on. In fact, the police had to ask Barnum to stop the man, because the crowds that he was creating were stopping traffic.
Joice Heth, 161 year old slave and Nanny to George Washington
Read the supposed autobiography of Joice Heth
Joice Heth archive at the Lost Museum
In 1835, Barnum displayed Joice Heth, a 161 year old slave woman who was (supposedly) the nanny to George Washington. This was a big hit for quite a while, and Barnum took Joice Heth on tour. When sales began to flag in Boston, he wrote an anonymous letter to the newspaper, claiming that Heth wasn’t a person at all, but a whale bone and India rubber automaton. This caused a Joice Heth furor again, as the people who had seen her previously wanted to see if they’d been taken in, and the people who missed her needed to see for themselves what the hubbub was all about. Heth died of natural causes in 1836. Barnum staged a public autopsy, and it was discovered that Heth could not have been more than 80 years old. Barnum went one further, and then suggested that Heth was still alive, that the woman that died was not the real Joice Heth. This was Barnum’s first foray into show business, and he proved to be a natural promoter. In his autobiography, Barnum claimed that he believed Joice Heth to be exactly what he said, and that it was he who was deceived.
http://www.ptbarnum.org/humbugs.html
Barnum knew every important person of his time, from presidents and queens to celebrities and inventors. He went buffalo hunting with General Custer. He was friends with Mark Twain and Abe Lincoln. He took unknowns and made them international stars. He built the most unusual mansion in the country, watched it burn to the ground, and built yet another. A total of five huge fires wiped him out—temporarily. Yet he got back on his feet almost instantly. He was a famous speaker, a bestselling author, a politician, a showman, an investor, an entrepreneur, and a marketing genius. He was also the father of advertising.
He also lost his wife, and two children. Yet Barnum never seemed to bat an eye. He quickly recovered, and even remarried a woman forty years younger than himself. His inner strength came from an unshakable faith that everything happened for a good reason. The simple marker over his grave says, “Not my will, but thine, be done.” His faith helped him survive and prosper in business.
http://www.ltbn.com/hall_of_fame/Barnum.html
