Jenny Lind was a Swedish opera singer who was wildly popular in Europe, and in 1850 Barnum brought her to the United States. With his amazing flair for generating publicity, he somehow created such anticipation for her arrival in America in September 1850 that thousands of people met her ship at the dock, and more than 30,000 people filled the streets outside her hotel room.
What's astonishing about the mania Barnum created around Jenny Lind is that the great showman managed to generate enormous attention for someone who had been virtually unknown in America. And in the age before recorded sound, no one in America, including Barnum himself, had heard her voice. But Barnum knew that she had sold out concerts across Europe, and he gambled that the same would happen in America.
Lind's American tour, which Barnum managed, was a great success. She performed at nearly 100 concerts, and it was said that Barnum made a half-million dollars on her tour.