One of Barnum's daughters lies about it being her birthday, and Barnum doesn't really care about her fib. She's definitely Barnum's daughter.
One might wonder why Bennett would be so sympathetic about Barnum's show despite hating it. It seems that he is more concerned about Barnum exploiting his "freaks", and he's right. But why does he want Barnum to somehow get his show running again? Well, Bennett was Scottish, and in the mid-to-late 1800's would know a lot about discrimination, and he probably sympathatizes with them.note The real Bennett was very aristocratic and likely would never have been open-minded about them.
Jenny Lind is definitely not the sort of person to work for Barnum — so why does she? He presses the right button by telling her that he has to be a fake and he would like something real for once; she reveals later that she feels like a fake in high society, too.
Barnum's above comment about not having any "real" acts seems weird once you think about it—even if he doesn't consider having people whose appeal is based not having been born like everyone else (like the twins or the General) to be real, the Wheelers' act should count, since it's based entirely on their skill as acrobats. It seems mean that he'd just discount them like that. But then later you realize that's the point. As black acrobats, the Wheelers are not appealing to the high society types Barnum desperately wants to court, while a Swedish opera singer definitely is. He didn't mean "real", he meant "posh", because he'd fallen into thinking posh was more important.
It's due to his desperate need to prove to Charity's aristocratic father that he could make it to his level — and beyond.
The Wheelers are talented, but they're not world-class talented; lots of acrobats could probably do what they do. Barnum wanted to exhibit a performance which he could hype as "the greatest" without exaggerating.
The liberties the movie takes with the actual history of P.T. Barnum for a more romanticized retelling mirrors Barnum's own justification of embellishing the truth in the film. So long as "The joy is real", twisting the truth to make a more entertaining story is justified. So a self-aware movie about an entertainer selling people lies is selling people lies.
Likewise, the Trailers Always Lie example, mischaracterizing the movie to generate hype, is itself a very Barnum thing to do.
The movie poster for the film also emphasizes this idea, showing the fantastic circus performance reflected in the large puddle below, while the real circus is empty, showing the performance itself doesn't exist in reality, but is no less spectacular.
Anne's resistance to an interracial relationship with Philip makes a lot more sense when you realize she's a product of one herself. And since her brother is fully black and they're on their own with no parents in sight, one can infer that the relationship ended as badly as one could expect in those times.
Anne's brother is pretty hostile towards Phillip at first, but seems to have warmed up to him in the end. You could interpret it as him knowing (or at least suspecting) that Barnum was exploiting their skills for money, and since it was Barnum who brought Phillip into the circus then the brother probably thought Phillip was the same. It's only after Phillip proves that he actually cares about the circus (as opposed to Barnum, who was only in it for the money) does the brother accept him, as shown when he immediately steps up beside Phillip against the thugs (and is even the one who throws the first punch in Phillip's defence).
Barnum comes through again during "The Other Side", slyly giving Carlyle more liquor in the shots he takes compared to his own, hoping that he can persuade Carlyle to help Barnum reach the favor (and pockets) of the aristocrats.
There's a neat little trick used by con-men and socialites alike: Mirroring Body Language. Barnum's mirroring of Philip's gestures when he drinks and when he puts on his scarf (among others) isn't just for the musical's rhythm, it's also to gain his trust.
Another part is when Barnum starts playing on the piano. If you look closely, you'll notice that the keys are moving on their own, and when Philip turns around Barnum closes the lid on them to hide it. He's trying to seem more artsy to Philip.
The circus folks briefly turning into a Badass Army at the end comes out of nowhere, but if you think about it, Lettie was a washerwoman, who would need a lot of upper body strength; the Heaviest Man can do Belly-Fu because Barnum deliberately padded him up and created a protective layer; and with tattooing technology what it was then, Tattoo Man would already have a high tolerance for pain. Also it makes more sense for Tom Thumb to be absent for his own safety, as dwarfism often leads to improper bone structure and vulnerability to physical injury.
One possible reason for a huge gut is alcohol, so the Heaviest Man may actually have some Bar Brawl experience (he's clearly more into it than he should be!)
Averted with Tom. While it is true that dwarfism may lead to those things, it is more likely that Tom is absent because his actor spent the entire movie walking on his legs, meaning he couldn't really take part in any choreographed fighting. What proves this is that Tom was actually part of the brawl in the original script.
At the beginning of the film, Barnum is singing a song, then hears an advertisement for a railroad. Cut to him walking up to get Charity from her house. At the end of the film, Barnum is singing a song, then jumps on a train. Next we see of him, he's walking up to get Charity from her house.
How does Barnum catch up to a departing train on foot?
Musical logic.
Happened in Real Life more often than you can imagine back then. Trains would take a little while to pick up speed.
What perplexes me is Barnum catches a train that he didn't actually have a ticket for.
He's famous enough at that point. If the conductor has an issue, Barnum will stuff a few bills in his pocket.
It looked to me like a streetcar that he boarded, presumably a route that goes to the train station. While not encouraged, people did board moving streetcars on occasion, and it was common to pay the conductor after boarding.
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