Fraud, Deception And Lies: How Discovery's Shark Week Became The Greatest Show On Earth

P.T. Barnum's Feejee mermaid—perhaps Animal Planet will feature it in their next "documetary"? Image from Wikipedia In 1842, the infamous showman P.T. Barnum unveiled a truly bizarre creature. In his autobiography, Barnum described it as "an ugly, dried-up, black-looking, and diminutive specimen... its arms thrown up, giving it the appearance of having died in great agony." The Feejee mermaid, as the mummified remains were called, possessed the torso of a monkey with the tail of a fish. Naturalists from around the world came to examine the specimen, enticed by letters explaining how a Dr. J. Griffin had hooked the strange creature while fishing in the South Pacific. At first Griffin was reluctant to share his find, but somehow, Barnum convinced him to reveal the mermaid to the public. Huge crowds swarmed the Concert Hall on Broadway just to get a glimpse. Things were not, however, as they appeared: The letters were written by Barnum himself. "Dr. J. Griffin" was only a character portrayed by Barnum's close friend, Levi Lyman. The so-called mermaid was purchased from Japanese sailors in 1822 and leased to Barnum by Moses Kimball. Barnum even asked for a professional opinion, and was assured by a naturalist that the mermaid was a fake. The tale of the mermaid's capture, Griffin, and his reluctance to unveil the animal was a publicity stunt. The Feejee mermaid, in all its grotesque glory, was P.T. Barnum's first major hoax. His knack for trickery, manipulation and showmanship proved highly profitable, and over the years, his circus became known as "The Greatest Show On Earth". In his autobiography, Barnum explained how he manipulated so many into believing in the Feejee mermaid. "How to modify general incredulity in the existence of mermaids, so far as to awaken curiosity to see and examine the specimen, was now the all-important question," Barnum wrote. "I saw no better method than to "start the ball a-rolling" at some distance from the centre of attraction." So he wrote letters, which appeared in New York papers, from Alabama, South Carolina, and Washington DC. "I may as well confess that those three communications from the South were written by myself, and forwarded to friends of mine, with instructions respectively to mail them, each on the day of its date. This fact and the corresponding post-marks did much to prevent suspicion of a hoax, and the New-York editors thus unconsciously contributed to my arrangements for bringing the mermaid into public notice." You might expect such deception and fraud from P.T. Barnum, one of the most notorious showmen of all time. But it seems the executives at Discovery Channel are cut from the same cloth.