P.T. Barnum documentary to focus on his role in advertising

Tuesday, 03 November 2009 14:21

Filming has started on a new documentary about P.T. Barnum, Bridgeport’s most famous citizen,

The documentary is scheduled for release July 5, 2010, which is Barnum’s 200th birthday. The Barnum Museum will organize the premier as a fund-raiser.

The film project by Bridgeport-based Borres Productions, in association with the Barnum Museum, will focus on Barnum’s influence on the world of advertising.

According to producer Frank Borres, “The documentary will, no doubt, make a compelling argument about the influence the great showman has had on the modern consumer age, and we’ll demonstrate the tricks of the trade as pioneered by P.T. Barnum himself.”

Barnum Museum Executive Director Kathy Maher said, “Innovating and creating ingenious marketing techniques, Barnum inspired American society to reach beyond the limits of ordinary expectations, to see the world as a place of opportunity and wonder. His models of advertising are still being used today. Look around — Barnum is everywhere!”

Borres said he has raised the seed money needed to start the production, and continues to seek sponsorship to complete the project. The production company also is negotiating with well-known personalities to have one of them host the documentary, and with television networks to broadcast the program.

The production comes as Hollywood prepares to produce a musical about the showman, and a dramatic series also is expected to be announced, Borres said.

The producers of the yet-to-be-named Bridgeport project say they purposely decided not to produce a straight biography of Barnum since this already has been done. Instead, the documentary will look at Barnum’s primordial instincts and their applications during the antebellum period.

The documentary will make the associations between Barnumesque techniques and today’s bombardment of marketing worldwide, Borres said.

“It’s incredible to note how much of what is going on in today’s consumer world traces back directly to the genius of P.T. Barnum,” he said. “Our effort will attempt to give P.T. the credit he deserves for the innovations that changed the world he lived in, and, in effect, our world as well.”

Bridgeport resident Borres is a multi-Emmy Award-winning producer whose production company has produced numerous documentaries, national TV concerts, news magazines and other television programs.