Theatre, Film

P. T. Barnum begins a notable career in U.S. show business. Connecticut-born promoter Phineas Taylor Barnum, 25, paid $1,000 last year to purchase a slave woman who is alleged to have been George Washington's childhood nurse and to be more than 160 years old. The fledgling showman takes in $1,500 per week by exhibiting the woman throughout New York and New England. Joice Heth will be proved to be no older than 80 when she dies next year, but Barnum will continue the well-publicized tours that he has begun with a small company of carnival attractions (see Siamese Twins, 1829; Tom Thumb, 1842).