January 7th, 2010
Jump on the band wagon
To “jump on the band wagon” means to join a movement only once it has proved to be successful; it is often used to describe someone as being opportunistic.
P.T Barnum
This phrase originated during the mid 19th century and comes to us from the circus world. A “band wagon” was literally a wagon that carried a circus band. It was first used in print in 1855 by Phineas T. Barnum (a.k.a P.T Barnum, of Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus) in his aptly-titled autobiography The Life of P.T. Barnum, Written by Himself. He writes “At Vicksburg we sold all our land conveyances excepting four horses and the ‘band wagon’.”
The financial security of a circus is inherently linked to how many people buy tickets. To drum up customers, the carnies would stage parades at all the cities in which the circus played. The circus band would parade through town on highly decorated band-wagons. As they moved through the streets people would literally jump on the band wagon and ride it to the circus. Politicians began using bandwagons during campaigns to gain popularity.
The phrase had transitioned from a literal meaning of jumping on a politicians actual bandwagon, to a more metaphorical one by the 1890′s. Teddy Roosevelt referenced the phrase in his Letters, 1899 (published 1951) when he said “When I once became sure of one majority they tumbled over each other to get aboard the band wagon.”