as an exploratory journey through that old party question: if you could have a drink with anyone in history, who would it be? History is full of people you’d love to have a drink with. Let’s meet a few.
as an exploratory journey through that old party question: if you could have a drink with anyone in history, who would it be? History is full of people you’d love to have a drink with. Let’s meet a few.
Have a drink with: Carl Hagenbeck Ask him: But do you sing country ballads? Like many other people, I spent the first chunk of my home confinement (thanks, coronavirus) plowing through Netflix’s hot documentary series “Tiger King” whilst eating an inordinate number of Girl Scout cookies. And the show is so relentlessly bananapants that it’s…
Have a drink with: P.G. Lowery The best under canvas. Ask him about: Hustle. If I say the words “circus music,” you probably have a certain type of music in your mind straight away – something loud, fast and slightly drunk – like this 1902 Sousa band recording of a typical “galop.” And that’s certainly…
Have a drink with: Claire Heliot “Sentimentalist and lion tamer.” Ask her about: herding cats In 1905, the New York Hippodrome opened its doors with a banner performance of A Yankee Circus on Mars, a freewheeling half-circus, half-opera in which the King of Mars, acting as an intergalactic talent scout of sorts, comes to Earth…
Have a drink with: Jumbo The Children’s Giant Friend Ask him about: bath time in the Thames There’s one conspicuous problem with the 1941 Disney movie Dumbo and Tim Burton’s remake, released last week: the elephant’s name is not, in fact, Dumbo. The little elephant with the big ears is, in fact, given a family…
Have a drink with: Presidential Hats Come at me, bro. Ask them about: how buff was Teddy Roosevelt? With the collective American mind very much on upcoming midterm elections, and with a host of new and nontraditional contenders running for office, one phrase pops up perhaps a little more than usual: the announcement that one…
Have a drink with: James O’Connell & Captain Costentenus Over 7 million blood-producing punctures! Ask them about: The many uses of coconut oil The Greatest Showman, the recent Hugh Jackman movie musical about impresario (and frequent blog subject) P.T. Barnum, centers in large part on the “Oddities,” a troupe of human curiosities Barnum brings from…
Have a drink with: P.T. Barnum The Greatest Showman on Earth Ask him about: elephant agriculture Barnum month continues! With the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus performing its last shows yesterday in New York, and first-look pictures of Hugh Jackman’s Barnum musical The Greatest Showman breaking this week, it’s a good day to…
Have a drink with: Henry Bergh The Great Meddler, mustache aficionado, friend to animals Ask him about: Aquatic rhinoceros* Today I’m over at The Atlantic writing about Henry Bergh, America’s first animal rights activist and a relentless crusader for the early animal rights movement. Through an unlikely and yet genuine friendship with entertainment icon P.T….
Have a drink with: P.T. Barnum Ask him to bring Jumbo. That elephant could drink. Ask him about: Picking your Powerball numbers Last week I gave in to the siren song of Powerball and joined millions of other people in the giddy exercise of mentally spending the billion-plus dollars of my inevitable destiny (what would…
