19. P. T. Barnum Gets In on the Hoax
Hull, who had spent the equivalent of about $50,000 in today’s dollars, sold his share in the Cardiff Giant to a syndicate for the equivalent of about half a million. The Giant was then moved to Syracuse, where it drew ever-larger crowds. Eventually, huckster P. T. Barnum offered the equivalent of a million dollars for the find. When the owners refused to sell, Barnum commissioned his own plaster copy and exhibited it in New York City, declaring it to be the authentic Cardiff Giant, and that the one in Syracuse was a fake.
Barnum’s brazenness worked, giving rise to the phrase, coined in reference to those paying to see his copy, that “there’s a sucker born every minute“. Lawsuits about authenticity followed, and in the subsequent litigation, Hull finally confessed to the hoax. The court declared both Giants’ fakes and ruled that Barnum could not be sued for calling a fake giant a fake.
