IGNORANCE, INNOCENCE AND LOST OPPORTUNITY

Tags

Barnum, film, Hollywood, Hugh Jackman, Jenny Lind, movie review, movies, musical, opera, oratorio, soprano, stage, The Greatest Showman

In some ways it’s understandable that the film producers of the LA studios thought that a flick about the best hype man who ever lived would make a good movie. Perhaps it would have been, if done with accuracy, class, and a modicum of understanding of what is entailed in the musical genre. The Greatest Showman has too many glaring problems.

I suspect that the creators of this fiasco hoped to appeal to a younger crowd, and probably sold the treatment as High School Musical- goes-to-the-circus. Uh, check out the aging cast, which means they missed their targeted demographic and are left with baby boomers weaned in the glory daze of Broadway musicals. If asked their opinion, the post-war babies would most likely say with a pained smile that it was merely entertaining. Ow, the dreaded E-word.

Glaring problems are overwhelming in this silly film, especially the cramped choreography better served on a proscenium stage. Costuming was a mess. The gowns from no era in particular. Then there was the alarming shock of no chest and armpit hair for the neatly hirsute bearded lady. (Apologies to Miss Keala Settle, who other than Jackman, did the best singing.)

That’s another thing. These are recording artists, not true vocalists, and there is a huge difference. Other than Settle and Jackman, they have voices ill-equipped for the stage unless a mic is taped to their heads. Many recording artists today share the annoying asthmatic style made popular by Michael Jackson. The problem with that has to do with Jackson being a genius in the industry and others trying to use a style he (IMHO) had to fall back on when his voice started to give out. I learned the inside story about that when I studied with Mia Phoebus in LA in the 70s. Jackson took lessons from her competitor, Seth Riggs, whom Jackson went to see about singing the pharyngeal style. (It’s the reason babies can scream for hours and not get hoarse.) It must not have worked for him because he went on to a breathy style and used a mic.

Then we have my biggest gripe, the bashing of Jenny Lind, who during her time was the most famed and respected singer in the world. Think on that. Engaging the entire world without any form of today’s technology and media coverage. Famous composers and performers drooled over her but she never veered from asserting her prim reputation. There was no reason to smear her legacy and too much delight in the doing of it on the screen. This is another example of Hollywood’s cultural ignorance and lost opportunity. Lind had listeners in tears and swooning in their seats. Tickets to hear her scalped for huge prices. Entire portions of cities needed to be blocked off when she came to town.

I’m not sure if the writers can be faulted. Often what they put on the page is different when producers meddle. Take the otherwise perfection of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing. The opening song is The Last Rose of Summer, one of Lind’s signature pieces, which was sung by Fleming’s heavy dramatic soprano style. It’s a song meant for a lyric or coloratura, to be light and haunting. The song is supposed to evoke the pain of grief and isolation, which would have set up the film perfectly, but Fleming’s rendition had all the light, airiness of sludge.

Coming back to the original point. There is a reason the High School Musical films work. They aren’t movies that hold my attention but they are perfect for their targeted audience and great fun for them. Watching the brilliant Hugh Jackman in The Greatest Showman slog through and do his very best with material that is mediocre at best was painful, but it proves that he is a great showman.

For some info about Lind:

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=jenny+lind&view=detail&mid=3A6D4BF115313B7F863D3A6D4BF115313B7F863D&FORM=VIRE

M.L Rigdon (aka Julia Donner)
Follow on Twitter @RigdonML
Blog: https://historyfanforever.wordpress.com/
Website http://www.MLRigdon.com
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/julia-donner
https://www.facebook.com/Julia-Donner-697165363688218/timeline

 

 

 

 

Advertisement

The Elephant in the Room

Tags

Barnum, circus, elephant, Jumbo, lexicon, London Zoo, Matthew Scott, Tufts

The word Jumbo entered the American lexicon with another of P. T Barnum’s publicity successes. It’s supposedly the combination of two Swahili words mashed together. Captured young in the French Sudan in 1861 and sold to a menagerie in Paris, the calf was exhibited there before being purchased and sent to the London Zoo. He arrived filthy and in poor health. Matthew “Scotty” Scott, a self-made expert in animal husbandry, nursed the calf back to health.

Jumbo came to trust and love his trainer. He grew on a diet of many bales of hay, barrels of potatoes, loaves of bread, all sorts of goodies, and became partial to gallons of whiskey. Booze might seem the wrong thing to give an African elephant, not known to be docile, if that’s a word that can be used in conjunction with elephants. The Asian elephant is more domesticated than the African, but there’s nothing recorded about Jumbo hurting a human. Jumbo did have his spells; he broke off his tusks on walls, and smashed his up his housing. The reason for these fits became understandable after his death, a short lifespan for an elephant, only 24 years. He suffered from a severely impacted wisdom tooth.

Barnum bought Jumbo to add to his Greatest Show on Earth circus over the protests of English children. The queen was bombarded with thousands of letters from kiddies who had ridden him at the zoo and fed the fellow muffins. Nevertheless, Jumbo was sold for $10,000. From all I’ve read, I have the suspicion that the zoo’s management disliked Scott’s power over Jumbo, who had a “lie-down” in the street and refused to enter his loading crate. Barnum heard this and was delighted. That kind of publicity couldn’t be bought. Barnum was savvy enough to hire Scott and Jumbo immediately got up and entered the shipping crate.

Trainer and elephant arrived in New York, greeted by a huge crowd. Barnum always did his PR work the right way. The shipping costs were $20,000. (It was said Jumbo had a crossing made easier with beer and champagne.) His initial viewings in New York brought in $30,000. In one year, Jumbo made Barnum and the circus $1.5 million, and during that time, became the most famous animal in the world.

http://www.elephant.se/database2.php?elephant_id=2109

Jumbo got the royal treatment with his own train car and a mascot but only had a few years of fame. The accounts of Jumbo’s death are varied, but one thing is true—he died when struck by a train. Scott, friend and handler, stayed with Jumbo as he expired beside the railroad track.

Jumbo lived a short and extraordinary life. In death, Barnum had his hide mounted and his skeleton assembled, making more money by taking the two displays on tour. A letter to the taxidermist prior to Jumbo’s tragic death suggests that the elephant was not well, perhaps slowly dying.

The mounted hide eventually went to Tufts University in MA, where Jumbo became their mascot. (Barnum was a university trustee and generous donor.) His remains were lost in a fire but the picture of Jumbo displayed, his mass crowding the space in a room made smaller by his mass, as large in death as he was in life, has never left my memory.

http://www.tufts.edu/alumni/magazine/spring2002/jumbo.html

Is this where the term “an elephant in the room” came from? Doesn’t matter. That Jumbo remained so gentle while suffering from dental agony is eulogy enough.

Fame and Fortune, Times Two

Tags

Barnum, Bunker twins, Chang and Eng, conjoined, oddities, Siamese, Thailand, twins

In 1824, merchant Robert Hunter came across an unusual set of twin boys while in Thailand, then known as Siam. We’ve all heard of Anna and the King of Siam, but that’s another story. From that book, musical, and film, we learned a bit about the culture. The twins, conjoined at the chest, were condemned to die, but kept at the king’s court. The death decree was lifted when they turned sixteen.

So began the tale of Chang and Eng, who visited countries all over the world, made masses of money, and from whom we got the label of Siamese twins. It helped that they were attractive boys and let little stand in their way

The twins left Thailand when Robert Hunter petitioned the government to allow him to take the boys on tour, touting them as oddities. The twins traveled the world, became famous, made a fortune. A parting of the ways came when an issue with money arose, and the young men went their own way. Later, they joined up with P.T. Barnum.

Chang and Eng retired young and invested their money in North Carolina farmland. They found wives—sisters Adelaide and Sarah Yates—and married in a double ceremony in 1843. It’s been written that the marriage issue evoked a great deal of controversy due to conubial relations, but as usual, that never stopped the brothers. The quartet lived together for a few years until the sisters had a falling out. After that, the brothers stayed in three-day cycles at one of the two houses. They became American citizens, took the name Bunker, and proceeded to beget twenty-one children. Two of their grandsons fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War.

The Bunkers lost a great deal due to the war and became embittered. Chang took to drinking and Eng to gambling. By 1870, they needed money and agreed to another tour with Barnum. Onboard ship, Chang had a stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed on the right side. Eng had to physically support his brother. There had been discussion about surgery to separate in the past. The brothers were still not in favor. Their wives supported their decision. In 1874, Chang developed bronchitis. Eng woke to find his brother dead. The physician urged Eng to be separated from his brother. He refused. A few hours later, Eng died. So great was the fascination and furor over the twins for most of their lives that a death cast was made.

I’ve listed a few websites. Widely illustrated and photographed, their resilience and determination glares out of every picture. It’s said that we all have our crosses to bear. These two men took their disability to its most practical lengths and made lives for themselves. They were known to argue with each other but never wanted to be separated, even at the end. They left behind many descendants, a respected legacy, and me with no reason to gripe about my difficulties. The Bunkers were never oddities. They were pioneers.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=1250

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Chang+and+Eng+Bunker+Descendants&FORM=RESTAB

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/morbid-monday-the-demise-of-chang-and-eng

 

Before Ripley’s Believe It or Not

Tags

Barnum, circus, coloratura, hoax, hype, Jenny Lind, Manuel Garcia, oddites, opera, promotion, twins

Many things are attributed to Phineas T. Barnum, some true, some not. Aunt Marie had a fascination for the bizarre as well as history and introduced me to him. Barnum’s collections gave me the creeps, made me sad, or filled me with wonder. He was known for his hoaxes as well as spotlighting remarkable people. He brought the Swedish soprano, Jenny Lind, to the US, and his gift with publicity gave her Beatles-type, rock star popularity. The hype he created meant her arrival in New York City was met by over thirty thousand. She hadn’t sung a note and tickets to her concerts were being auctioned for incredible prices.

I felt an affinity with Lind because she sang in an era when the dramatic or lush mezzo-soprano was most popular and nearly lost her voice from poor instructors, as I did. In Paris, the famous Manuel Garcia gave it back to her. (My voice teacher used some of his techniques to restore mine.) When I was younger, had lessons, and vocalized regularly, I sang the same coloratura material as Jenny Lind, but certainly not with her vocal gift. My voice is better suited to musical comedy, but I always got placed with the altos when I knew I should be signing the high e flats and lightning fast trills. Like Lind, my early teachers had no idea what to do with a coloratura and taught me to sing incorrectly.

Lind mesmerized listeners everywhere. In an age when female performers were known for their loose morals, Lind was reserved and morally uncompromised. When she finished her concerts in the US, Barnum came out and sent the crowds into a frenzy by telling them that she planned to donate part of her payment to charity. Wherever she was booked to sing, the halls were packed, and people were said to have swooned when she sang. It might be because they’d never heard the high notes of the bel canto when it was sung with such sweetness. The eighteen hundreds were know for their mushy romanticism and that’s what she performed.

I’m also astounded by Barnum’s ability to drum up business. He had a gift for publicity, whipping up crowds, and creating a frenzy. Before he joined Bailey and touted “The Greatest Show on Earth” he’d made a lot of money with oddities, like the FeeJee mermaid and the Cardiff Giant. He made living people, who were different and considered socially unacceptable, famous. General Tom Thumb, who stood less than two and a half feet tall, became known all over the world and introduced to royalty. Although Chang and Eng were older when he took them on tour, the famous twins made him more money. Born in Thailand (then known as Siam), Chang and Eng, are the reason we call conjoined twins Siamese. They’d already been seen all over the world. Barnum added the spin of bringing along two of their children.

I wish I had the tiniest bit of P.T. Barnum’s ability to promote. Like many writers, I couldn’t sell a bucket of water in the Mojave. He also had a knack for the turn of phrase. The saying about a sucker being born every minute is attributed to him, but corrections have been made about the source. Not Barnum. He wasn’t quite that cynical. Like Lind, he was an active philanthropist and was said to have a fondness for children and strong wish to make people happy. If nothing else, he certainly kept the world amazed.

“Every crowd has a silver lining.” P.T Barnum and “Without promotion, something terrible happens…nothing!”

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Jenny_Lind.aspx

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/P_T_Barnum.aspx

Next time, Chang and Eng, who were successful farmers, married, and had twenty-one children.