There's a sucker born every minute
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"There's a sucker born every minute" is a phrase often credited to P.T. Barnum (1810 – 1891), an American showman.
However, when Barnum's biographer tried to track down when Barnum had uttered this phrase, all of Barnum's friends and acquaintances told him it was out of character. Barnum's credo was more along the lines of "there's a customer born every minute" – he wanted to find ways to draw new customers in all the time because competition was fierce and people bored easily.
The entire quote is "There's a sucker born every minute...and two to take 'em." The source of the quote is most likely famous con-man Joseph ("Paper Collar Joe") Bessimer. Barnum's fellow circus owner and arch-rival Adam Forepaugh attributed the quote to Barnum in a newspaper interview in an attempt to discredit him. However, Barnum never denied making the quote. It is said that he thanked Forepaugh for the free publicity he had given him.
Another story credits David Hannum with saying "there's a sucker born every minute", referring to people who were taken in by the Cardiff Giant Hoax. In turn, it was erroneously attributed to Barnum.
However, yet another source credits late 1860s Chicago "bounty broker, saloon and gambling-house keeper, eminent politician, and dispenser of cheating privileges..." Michael Cassius McDonald as the originator of the aphorism. According to the book Gem of the Prairie: Chicago Underworld (1940) by Herbert Asbury, when McDonald was equipping his gambling house known as The Store (at Clark and Monroe Streets in Chicago) his partner Harry Lawrence expressed concern over the large number of roulette wheels and faro tables being installed and their ability to get enough players to play the games. McDonald then allegedly said, "Don't worry about that, there's a sucker born every minute."
In the John Dos Passos novel The 42nd Parallel, the quotation is attributed to Mark Twain.
The phrase is also the opening song in the broadway musical Barnum, about P.T. Barnum's life.
The quote is featured on the original 1973 movie posters of Paper Moon, where it is attributed to Barnum [1].
External links
- "All English Usage" explanation of the phrase
- P. T. Barnum Never Did Say "There's a sucker born every minute", HistoryBuff.com
- There's a sucker born every minute, everything2
- REVIEW: There's A Customer Born Every Minute: P.T. Barnum's Secrets to Business Success, reprint from Mark Twain Forum, February 27, 1998
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