WILLIAM J. BARNUM

1925 - 2019

BORN

1925

DIED

2019

WILLIAM BARNUM Obituary

BARNUM, William J. Born May 22, 1925, passed away peacefully on July 21, 2019, surrounded by family and friends at Pyareo Home in New Hampshire, where he had lived for the last five years. Bill was well known in the Boston area as a poet, mime, actor, and performance artist. In later years, he performed his poetry with movement on the streets and in many coffee houses and performance venues. He is survived by his daughter, Dorothy French (husband Vincent McDonald), his son, Adam Barnum (wife Claire Barnum), as well as his three grandchildren, Josephine McDonald, Olivia Barnum, and Wyn Barnum, and his ex-wife Lenore Myers (Adam's mother). He also leaves many other relatives and friends. He was predeceased by his parents, William N. Barnum and Josephine J. Suter, his sister, Josephine Wallace, and his long-time companion, Dorothy Hayden. The family is planning a Celebration of Billy's Life for the fall.

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Published by Boston Globe from Jul. 24 to Jul. 25, 2019.

Memories and Condolences
for WILLIAM BARNUM

4 Entries

Peter Gerety

July 18, 2021

In the late summer of 1961 , when we were performing in "Rashomon" at the Image theater - Harvard SQ. Billy asked me to help him with a little film he wanted to make . He had secured a space in the top turret floor of the building on the SW corner of Mass. ave and Huntington - it´s still there . All I recall is that after placing minimal lighting and a fixed camera , I held a ladder aiming straight for the apex of the room . Billy would climb the ladder - which went nowhere and was secured to nothing ( except me at the bottom ) .... he would then proceed too enact several spacial scenes - just breathing .. making abstract sounds .. creating what I would later learn Buckminster Fuller referred to as " tensegrity"... tension /suspension . He was endlessly fascinating .

Of Rare Design, c. 1999

Victoria-Ann Bonanni

January 26, 2020

R. I. P., William J. Barnum (May 22, 1925 - July 21, 2019), lifelong mime actor, poet and performing artist

I learned from a friend and fellow poet that Billy Barnum passed away peacefully last year at his assisted living facility in New Hampshire, surrounded by family. Billy was a descendant of P. T. Barnum, his grand uncle.

In 1999, I established a contract with William J. Barnum's trustees to publish his first and only book of poetry. The late David "Doc" Cote, my editor and friend, wrote the introduction and proofread the master. The late Lawrence Carradini photographed the author for the cover.

What an honor it was to work with Billy 20+ years ago!

Our precious Billy Barnum TRUSTED me to produce his book. I remember chasing him around the room at a poetry venue to match swatches of green with his favorite green scarf! I remember picking him up at his apartment building near downtown Boston, bringing him to the MetroWest area for a Chinese lunch, and then sitting for hours at a time at my computer, typing his work. We had no magnifying glass, so he used a plastic one I had obtained from a Cracker Jack box to read the printouts. Production of the print-ready master required two months. I developed a problem with my hands and hired someone to help finish the typing.

He autographed a copy for me, "Victoria - All nights and days we are together from forever. Love, Bill Barnum, The Dancing Poet. This dance is ours."

At the last minute, Billy insisted on a page-long dedication and I had no time for Doc to proofread that. THUS, the only typographical error in the book occurred! Essentially, "Of Rare Design" (VB Documentation Enterprises, Natick, MA, ISBN 0-9636942-6-X) is NEAR PERFECT and I think of it as a masterpiece!

Its title is derived from one of Billy's well-known poems, "Cockatoo." The dedication begins, "I dedicate these poems to Victoria Bonanni who struggled to bring forth this book;..."

I last saw Billy at a poetry venue in Cambridge before he moved to New Hampshire. Frail and trembling, I sat beside him, put my arm around him and brought out a few of his books. Two were purchased and I gave him the proceeds. He was unable to sign his name. I fought back tears...

Billy Barnum is finally dancing with the angels, his rightly place, for we who knew him well knew that he was more of an angel than a MAN.

Thomas DeFreitas

September 19, 2019

I met Billy in the late 1980s, when I was about 19, either at the New Writers Collective readings in Copley Square, or at one of his performances in Harvard Square. I was immediately drawn to the language of his poems, and astonished at his prodigious memory for verse (both his own and that of others). He had a knowledge of poetry that would rival the knowledge of many Ivy League professors. Many of his wildest poems had an iambic heartbeat. I recall these lines:

Bemused, a cherry mouth will play the infidel
With bones that mingle in a sun-charged field.

He was technically accomplished. He knew, as Mary Oliver phrased it, "the rules of the dance" --- and he knew when to subvert those rules!

Along with the late Antonio Giarraputo and the late Victor Howes, he was part of the "triple crown" of the Boston poetry scene in the late 1980s, and beyond. Irrepressibly and unmistakably himself, a soul of rare whimsy, a weaver of innumerable enchantments. Rest in peace, William Johnson Barnum.

August 2, 2019

My name is Peter Gerety and I was friends with Billy back in 1960 . We performed in a production of "Rashomon " at the Image theater near Harvard sq. He played the Priest , or monk , and I played the policeman.
We had a great time and I assisted him in filming a short piece where he was miming while at the top of a ladder in the top floor of an attic space on the corner of Huntington and Mass. ave.
I have had no contact with Billy since then - and I have been an actor ever since then . I was sad to see that he had passed . I would love it if someone could inform me of any memorial in the Boston area . I live upstate NY but I would try to make it .
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