Charles Stratton was born a normal baby in a normal family. But he stopped growing at 6 months. He did add some inches years later, but he never topped 3 1/2 feet. When the healthy little boy was 4, he came to the attention of the showman P.T. Barnum. Barnum trained him to sing, dance, mimic, and tell jokes. He gave him the stage name General Tom Thumb and had him performing at age five. One year later, he was visiting England. He met and charmed Queen Victoria. He staged a sword fight with one of her spaniels. From there he went to France where he imitated Napoleon Bonaparte to the delight of huge crowds. He grew up without a childhood and was very mature for his age. He smoked cigars at age seven. He returned after three years and became a fixture in the Barnum and Bailey Circus and in Barnum’s “human oddities” exhibits. He was responsible for making freak shows respectable. At age 24, it was love at first sight when he met another little person who worked for Barnum. Lavinia Warren had been discovered a year earlier dancing on a Mississippi showboat. She stood 32” tall. Stratton proposed and Barnum saw the publicity opportunity of the wedding, which he paid for. It was held at a church in NYC on Feb. 10, 1863 and thousands came to see the couple. It was the celebrity wedding of the decade and knocked the Civil War off the front pages. The press referred to it as “The Fairy Wedding”. The reception was held at the Metropolitan Hotel with 2,000 guests (some of whom paid $75 for a ticket – about $2,000 today). The couple greeted attendees while standing on a piano. After this, they visited Pres. Lincoln in the White House. It was then off to tour Europe and Asia. They later went into semi-retirement in a mansion. Stratton died of a stroke at age 45. 10,000 people attended the funeral. Lavinia remarried, but when she passed away in her late 70’s, she was buried next to her first husband.
https://www.historytoday.com/archive/tom-thumbs-wedding
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/08/29/lavinia-warren-and-tom-thumb/
0 Comments