One way to do this without an extra non persistant object is to configure the series to be selectable from the legend.
To do this, you need to add series configuration in the ‘Advanced’ tab of each series.
f.e.:
{
"visible": "legendonly"
}
The series will now be visible in the legend, but not in the chart. When you click the item in the legend, the column will appear. You can choose to display some bars by default, by not adding this configuration.
All options: look here
Goodluck!