Percival Stein, this week’s Son of Barnum find, courtesy of his great great grandson, Nicholas Leonard, took to the road with the “world’s fattest man”. Stein had come across Joseph Eierling, a circus talent-spotter who had “acquired” John Webb in a circus freak show. John, a mere 19 year old who weighed over 680lbs was being “exhibited” by Eierling as the “world’s fattest man”.

Percival Stein’s archive, now in the hands of his great great grandson, Nicholas Leonard, tells the story of Stein’s involvement with the New York Mafia. The mob had decided to help Stein, and so his fears of being bumped off were soon forgotten aided by one Ignazio Lupo. The mob was interested in entertainment as a way of generating money through racketeering, and they thought they could use strong arm tactics to make Stein’s clients famous, thus bringing them a healthy revenue.

The material on Percival Stein continues to throw up some interesting material. It seems that Stein established himself as a theatre publicist and by 1895 was much in demand. One of his shows involved a visiting Italian opera singer, Paulo Frazzoni, a small but vocally powerful man of humble birth from a peasant village in Southern Italy. Stein decided, with Barnum-style flair, to have Paulo Frazzoni make his entrance at the New York Theatre, in a horse and cart, dressed as a peasant, with various members of the orchestra following on. The themed cart would parade up from the Lower…

I received an email from a man in Mill Hill called Nicholas Leonard who has been reading my blog and had heard about the book. He believes his great great grandfather is truly one of the son’s of Barnum. From a family archive, he came across some extraordinary facts about his great great grandfather, Percival Stein, who started out as an early vaudeville press agent in the U.S.

I received an email from a Mrs Ponsford from Chipping Onger who told me an interesting story about her grandfather who worked for a travelling group of players who toured British seaside resorts with his Whodunnit, Cludoesque show. Giles Ponsford was not only stager manager and actor but also a madcap schemer in generating audiences for his show. As a publicity stunt, Giles encouraged local vicars from the towns he was touring to appear in each show. The vicars would of course plug the show on the preceeding Sunday at their church service.

It seems unbelievable in our current climate that the Hollywood Studios used to have so much power and hold over their actors and actresses, practically controlling their whole lives. Greer Garson, MGM’s first lady for many years, was one such actress who felt the reins of the studio system. Greer Garson was in love again, this time with Buddy Fogelson. The couple were spotted together shopping for Christmas presents at the silver shop next to Romanoff’s. Greer’s behaviour was described as “an undefinable, kind of cocky, assured look a woman gets who’s in love…”

I have had a lot of enquiries as to why we don’t allow people to post comments. The reason is the amount of poker and porn sites that spam the blog with URLs for their sites to generate traffic and search engine listings. If people would genuinely like to post comments, please send them to nourish@borkowski.co.uk One email has just come in inspired by the blog, informing me about Billie McDougal, a disciple of Thomas Lipton, the great retail pioneer. McDougal, who excelled in producing legendary ideas, was in fact the person who came up with the apocryphal story which…

The fledgling U.S. Poultry & Egg Association embarked on an awareness drive in the 1930’s. It was originally called The Poultry Breeders of America and its motto was to serve the mutual interests of poultry breeders by promoting the virtues of the chicken. It sought to establish its presence in the life of Egg eating Americans’ promoting of U.S. poultry and egg products. One of its great wheezes was to create chicken generated entertainment at all the great State fairs. coast to coast. Way before the invention of Chicken costumes, KFC and McNuggets, the forward thinking chicken producers demonstrated a…

Do those blokes holding Golf sale signs drive you nuts? The golden age of street stunts was in the 1920’s, when the publicity-hungry were dafter and more creative. The age saw flagpole sitting, public goldfish swallowing and other outdoor marathons to generate ballyhoo. The prohibition era in the States initiated an entire underground economy of peddlers coming up with wheezes to generate attention.

After a week away holed up in a dusty library slaving away at more research I am pleased to report the blog is back. Last week’s research delved into the work of the studio teams who developed sophisticated methods of damage limitation. Homosexuality was one of the peccadilloes that every major Hollywood publicist had to keep out of the public eye. It still is. In the early 1930’s it was vital to promote gay or bisexual stars in one of two ways – as family men or womanizing bachelors. Countless stars, of whom Rock Hudson is merely the most famous,…