Barnum created the original freak show, the truth is that people have always been attracted to the odd and unusual. The golden age of American and European freak shows -- traveling exhibitions and carnival attractions, often of disabled or disfigured entertainers -- spanned about a century, from roughly 1840 to 1940 [source: Disability Social History Project].Wildly popular during the apex of the Victorian era, the human curiosities and oddities behind sideshow curtains consistently attracted crowds at . Stiles was so disliked that only 10 people came to his funeral. Victorians were so taken with the stars of the shows that freak show paraphernalia became a hot commodity. Circus officially opened for business, capitalizing on the extreme to earn a profit. It was an age of scientific and medical advancements and, consequently, the public was naturally curious about unexplained oddities. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988, Drimmer, Frederick, Very Special People. Balto just ran the last leg, later to be sold to a freak show + neglected, Charles Stratton AKA General Tom Thumb was a diminutive relation who worked for PT Barnum, and became an internationally acclaimed stage performer. Dwarf and midget exhibitors such as Major Mite, Harold Pyott (the English Tom Thumb) and Anita the Living Doll followed in the example of Charles Stratton and became highly successful side show novelties operating on the fairs and the music halls. Leonardo da Vinci dressed lizards up as dragons to freak people out. In 1992, Stiles wife Mary and her son Harry Glenn Newman, a human blockhead, hired sideshow performer Christopher Wyant to kill Stiles for $1,500. Julia The Nondescript Pastrana, circa 1850. Home > National Fairground and Circus Archive > Research and Articles > History of Freak Shows. Author of. The income amounted to the average salary earned in 1935. A couple of Victorian era facts is that Queen Victoria was married to her cousin, Prince Albert. Making mermaids was a popular way to make money in the 1880s. His last major performance was in 1968. Midget Shows 8. In the early 19th century, some naturalists toured Europe and North America with examples of exotic or unique animals, charging admission to view their cabinets of curiosities. Humans with bodies that were perceived to deviate significantly from an understood norm were often grouped with those lusus naturae shows, and from those shows developed a variety of different performance genres that have become collectively known as the freak show. To give the mermaid mummies a feel of authenticity, dried codfish tails were used for the lower half of the body. Wyant shot the 55-year-old man multiple times in the back of the head while he was watching TV in his trailer. [2]Regardless of whether the connotation was negative or positive, freaks either way were seen as something different and non-compliant with social ideas of normality. The presentation of human oddities in the Victorian era changed dramatically with P.T. In Victorian Britain, attitudes towards race, gender, disability and Empire were all to be found in the popular freak shows. He stopped growing when he was six months old. Moreover, freak shows were big business, especially during their heyday in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when the likes of P.T. She began performing at the age of six and continued as a Barnum attraction until her death in 1926. In 1829, they began touring the world as a curiosity with a man named Robert Hunter. A number of factors led to its decline including shifts in public interest, charges of exploitation by journalists like Henry Mayhew, and the rise of television. Two latter day midgets were Davy the Irish Leprechaun who exhibited in the 1960s and Johnnie Osbourne the Wee McGregor who continued appearing at Newcastle in the 1980s. 9. Other nineteenth century exhibits included Patrick OBrien the Irish Giant, a regular act at St Bartholomew's Fair and Sam Taylor the Ilkeston Giant. Another one of our fun facts about Victorians is that the post box and stamps were invented during Victorian times. Jullia Pastrana, aka The Nondescript. From there, someone, usually a broker, would almost always approach the farmer to buy the strange animal. (Berkley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2009). Midgets were frequently advertised as being much older than they actually were. what was the name of the American Indian sculptor who worked in sideshows in the middle of the last century. At the heart of readings of the Victorian freak show are theories of vision. While it would be easy to think that these women led lonely lives, the reverse was actually true. Raging Diseases. I also want to get Early Bird Books newsletter featuring book deals, recommendations, and giveaways. Spectacles of strange, exotic, and titillating bodies drew large middle-class audiences in England throughout much of the. Chang and Eng Bunker, possibly the most famous circus freaks who ever lived, were conjoined twins born in 1811. Barnum in 1842. Performing animals were also exhibited alongside the same lines as the human exhibits with extreme size being desirable features or the perfection of the miniature. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. But despite the splendor of circuses in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, theres no question that these shows had a dark side. Freak shows give people the opportunity to see new things. The Industrial Revolution. So sad that Johnny Eck didnt get a mention in this piece! It was a danger that was equally present in the Victorian freak show. https://www.britannica.com/art/freak-show. Nellis; a cadre of persons with ambiguous sexual characteristics, such as bearded ladies and hermaphrodites; clairvoyants; Lightning Calculators; and many others. Typical features would be physically unusual humans, such as those uncommonly large or small, those with intersex variations, those with . Perhaps the most famous of all frog men was Otis Jordan. Lionel came to the US in 1901 and began appearing with the Barnum and Bailey circus, then at Conet Island when he moved to New York. Its still unknown what caused her facial hair, but it was most likely hirsutism, a condition that leads to coarse hairs in females in a male-like distribution.. [5]Mayes, Ronald. Type above and press Enter to search. In those days female "hysteria" (i.e., anxiety, irritability, nervousness, and similar symptoms) was considered as a serious problem. Freak shows were thus one of few kinds of Victorian entertainment that explicitly catered to, and succeeded in attracting, an extremely broad audience that cut across lines of class, gender, age, and region. He had a completely normal childhood, until he inexplicably began losing weight at the age of 12. Freaks shows were also essential components of circus shows in America such as the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Baileys sideshow. New Yorks Coney Island continues to host sideshow performances and is home to one of the worlds last Ten-in-One freak shows. Balto was a real sled dog in Alaska who led his team through a treacherous run to deliver life saving medicine, but ultimately ended up "sold to the highest bidder and [the dogs] ended up mistreated and chained in a small area in a novelty museum and freak show in Los Angeles", Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man, worked as a door to door salesman before joining the freak show, Tsar Peter I established Russia's first museum, which is known for its anatomical freak show filled with preserved body parts and fetuses. Source = Netdna-cdn. Incubators for premature infants were initially only available at freak shows. After the building burned down, Sprague toured the country. He then went on to travel the world and earn a good living while doing so. Freak shows were staged at both enter- tainment and scientific venues, drawing everyone from young children to seasoned medical professionals. Does anyone have information about Princess Wee Wee? The advent of photography and the career of history's greatest champion of spectacle, P.T. The exhibit could not be seen before a show and therefore needed the showman to market their particular attractions to the curiosity seeking public. CharlesSherwoodStratton, better knownas General Tom Thumb (pictured above), was an international celebrity under the management of P.T. Electrical wires were attached to Mr. No Name and a woman, presumably the one who worked the machinery, accompanied him on the stage where he would walk and move, always bearing a plain expression. She was a tremendous success, partially because of her flamboyant promotion and partially because her tales of Washingtons youth were told with such integrity and intimacy that a controversy over her true identity was kept alive for decades. Biographics History, One Life at a Time. The controversy was resolved when an autopsy revealed that she was merely 80, but Heths fame increased after her death, and Barnums skillful protestations of innocence produced widespread publicity and interest. Step right up for a peek into our stunning collection of posters and photos from 19th century freak shows in the gallery below! A famous example of this type of act and sort were Siamese twins, so called because of Chang and Eng, the original twins were born in Siam in 1811 and brought to America in 1829. Based on this non-exhaustive list, what is clear is that freaks were not solely seen as something negative, but at times were actually valued based on the rarity of their existence. As Garland-Thomson writes 'the freak show manifested tension between older modes that read particularity as a mark of empowering distinction and a newer mode that . As a child, Betty Lou earned $250 a week when most people earned about $30 a week. Buy Online AccessBuy Print & Archive Subscription. The reign of the freak show waned at the dawn of the 20th century; by the 1950s, it had all but disappeared. She also paid for the college education of all eleven of her siblings. Many of the shows that appeared during the reign of Victoria were quickly superseded by the latest novelty or wonder of the age. [3]Durbach, Nadja. Another distinguishing factor was that the nature of their work was such that it held them in a powerful position giving authority, better living conditions and other facilities which were out of the reach of the other two classes. There was the ever popular sword swallower and the fat lady who, incidentally, earned more per week than her counterpart, the fat man. The fact lists are intended for research in school, for college students or just to feed your brain with new realities. They were married for over 60 years. She was said to have been fond of domestic life and enjoyed her private time away from the sideshows. Outside the circus, Jones was married twice the second time widowed before becoming ill during a visit to her mothers home in Brooklyn. The Tattooed Baby 9. In 19th century freak shows it was not uncommon for the Living Skeleton act to marry the Fat Lady act. However, for the British side show performers their heyday was the Victorian period when the performers were household names and patronised by the general public and royalty alike. One of history's most recognized freak show performers, Annie Jones was born in 1865 with her chin already covered in hair. info@gurukoolhub.com +1-408-834-0167; 10 facts about victorian freak shows. On top of that, freaks came in all shapes and sizes. A French poster advertising The Bearded Woman Annie Jones. These stars were immortalised in Todd Brownings 1932 film Freaks, which featured Daisy and Violet Hilton, Johnny Eck, Prince Randian the Living Torso and Harry Earle the midget who falls in love with Cleopatra the trapeze artist. Sign up for The Lineup's newsletter and receive our eeriest investigations delivered straight to your inbox. They claimed that Fannys father would pay an eligible bachelor $5,000 and a farm if he was brave enough to make her his wife. This is our collection of basic interesting facts about Freak Shows. A variety of factors fueled this fascination with all that the world had to offerfrom the rise of photography to Darwins theory of evolution. When she was just a month old, her father began showing her to curious neighbors for a dime. Isaac W. Sprague was born in 1841. By the middle of the 20th century, freak shows had suffered a major decline in popularity. Wang the human unicorn never actually performed in the freak show. Turkey bones were used to help shape the arms and dried turkey eyes were used for the mermaids eyes, although sometimes glass or paste was used when dried turkey eyes were unavailable. By the time she was 18, she had made enough money to retire. Into the discursive terrain of the Gothic, I want to suggest that freakery has a place. Terms like lusus natrae (Latin for freaks of nature), curiosities, oddities, monsters, grotesques, and natures mistakes are a few of the many examples that carry clear negative implications. Queen Victoria. I cantRead more , Thank you so much for your all your hard work . Midgets shows were incredibly popular in the United States during the early half of the 1900s. It makes my heart feel good that people really do care and have the desire to do the work for others to learn by! Hello ! On 23 March, 1844, General Tom Thumb, at 25 inches tall, entered the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace and bowed low to Queen Victoria. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". In 1847, during the great age of the freak show, the British periodical Punch bemoaned the public's prevailing taste for deformity. Jullia Pastrana, aka The Nondescript. I cant believe the unbelievable resemblance of Schlitzie the Pinhead to our 44th President but it sure explains quite a bit! I would also like to receive the Early Bird Books newsletter which features great deals on FREE and discounted ebooks. Schlitzie performed in sideshow attractions with many circuses. my heart aches for them. One popular act in the early 1900s was called No Name. Mr. No Name was described as an object of human form whose arms and head and otherwise simulate[d] the actions of an everyday, well-dressed man.. For example, little person Vincent Tarabula was fluent in five different languages. (Photo by London Stereoscopic Company/Getty Images) JUST like the current era, many a lady and chap thought working out and trying to get the perfect . That's a lot of mouths to feed. They were the most prized of all the fairground exhibitions and Harold Pyott who exhibited until the 1920s, would challenge anyone to produce a man as small as himself. But then, the kidnapper made a wild claim that the girl was actually his child. Joseph Merrick was born on August 5, 1862 in Leicester to Mary Jane and Joseph Rockley Merrick. 1556332. During the second half of the 20th century, some efforts were made to appropriate the term freak by those who sought to celebrate an intentional rejection of conventional, conformist ideals, but the words pejorative meaning persisted, and activists of the disability rights movement tended to avoid freak as a term of hatefulness. Individuals who can be classed as freak-show performers (also called "human curiosities") were present in America as early as 1738, but they were not highly professionalized, and they appeared more often in the context of scientific lectures than in theatrical performance. Carnival sideshows and freak shows have long put the different and deformed on display. This site uses cookies to improve user experience. He became a circus freak in 1865, performing in the sideshow as the Living Skeleton or the Original Thin Man. P.T. Annie Jones, another bearded lady, was said to have been extremely charming. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Grady Stiles Jr. - The Murderous Lobster Man. In the same way that the circus travelled between towns and cities across the country, freak show owners deployed a similar strategy. Privacy Policy | TopTenz T-Shirts | Sponsors. What was saleable as far as the freak was concerned was, of course, physical difference, in a form that was both marketable and palatable. Click on the book cover to find out more! A massive part of their success lay in the way that the showmen marketed them, told their stories, and highlighted the rarity of their existence to the audience. 10 facts about victorian freak shows. Perhaps most surprisingly, the performers were not always born different. No matter how poor people were, they could usually raise a penny or so for some light entertainment. All rights reserved. By continuing to browse, you accept the use of cookies and other technologies. Barnum, a man who spun elaborateand often entirely fabricatedbackstories for his freaks in order to draw an audience. But she was ultimately unsuccessful, and by the end of her life she had known no other life than that of a freak.. The word likely conjures up different feelings to different people. But, in a perplexing sort of way, freak shows gave freaks a platform to exhibit their bodies and make a small income more than anything else in Victorian society offered to most of them. Barnum, it marked the beginning of Queen Victoria's obsession with the world of "circus freaks". By his 18th birthday, Stratton had reached a height of 2 feet 8.5 inches. The midget shows also joined up with the dog and pony shows, wild west shows, and various circuses worldwide. Freak show did not come into use until close to the end of the 19th century, after the death of the American showman P.T. Barnum. When their contract was up, they went into business for themselves. An 1887 poster advertising Krao Farini as The Missing Link. Freak show audiences were especially intrigued by acts featuring Darwinian themes. The doctors of that era were treated hysteria in women with Masturbation. Take any peculiar-looking person play up that peculiarity and add a good spiel and you have a great attraction.. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. He, or it, as the newspaper called him, intentionally fell down the steps and was miraculously unharmed. After a successful stint at the museum, Barnum offered Jones parents a three-year contract for the girl at $150 per week. Thomas Frost in his account of Bartholomew Fair cites many examples of this activity and Simon Paap was presented to Prince Regent in 1815 and was a famous attraction at Bartholomew Fair. Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit, 1988. 10 facts about victorian freak shows. The Victorian freak show existed as this disruption from the day-to-day struggles and hardships of industrial life, where starers could interact with monstrous bodies in order to challenge and disrupt their mundane, daily hardships that seemed almost inescapable. This vividly detailed work argues that far from being purely exploitative, displays of anomalous bodies served a deeper social purpose as they generated popular and scientific debates over the meanings attached to bodily difference. Conjoined twins, bearded ladies, pinheads, tall men, alligator and lobster boyshuman marvels whose existence defied explanation. When Barnum arrived in England in 1844 the British showmen were amazed that he was hoping to attract so much money for simply exhibiting a dwarf. The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run Clevelands Torso Murderer, Gavrilo Princip: the Teenager who Started WWI, Oda Nobunaga The Great Unifier of Japan. In 1691, Londoners could pay to visit the newly built Bethlehem (later called Bedlam) Hospital near . A poster advertising the Hirsute Kostroma people from the primeval forests of central Russia, 1874. 40,000 people went to watch the first journey of Locomotion No.1 In 1825. However, when the bigger picture is scrutinized, it becomes apparent that the situation facing those involved within freak shows wasnt as straightforward as it might initially seem. Barnum changed his nationality from American to English, he changed his age from four to eleven years old, and his name from Charles Stratton to General Tom Thumb. Viewers claimed it was a miraculous piece of machinery to not have been broken during the eye catching stunt. By 1883 Norman came into contact with Joseph Merrick the Elephant Man, perhaps one of the most famous exhibits of the time. From the smallest man in the world to the dog-faced man, the lion boy and the camel woman, Barnum and his collection of freaks and sideshows shocked, wowed and amazed the public. By 1860 the human curiosityappearing in a museum, on the legitimate stage, or in carnival sideshows (so named because they required a separate fee for entry from the main circus or carnival midway)had become one of the chief attractions for American audiences. A photo of P.T. Tom Thumb died in 1883 of a stroke at age 45, six months after narrowly escaping a disastrous hotel fire at the Newhall House in Milwaukee that killed 71 people. He and his sister Cathy made a television appearance in 2014 on the AMC series Freakshow to talk about their father. The Romance of London Theatres No.87. Bad food and canned food with arsenic, dead children in the photo, the Queen-guzzler, and other weird and creepy facts about Victorian era. In fact, some freak shows were entirely dedicated to animals. Barnum and his famous attraction Tom Thumb. During the Enlightenment in Europe and its attendant efforts at biological classification during the 18th century, as naturalists and others attempted to find specific categories for all life-forms, organisms that failed to match a perceived species average were often referred to as lusus naturae, cavorts, or freaks of nature. 45 Buttoned-Up Facts About The Victorian Era, History's Strangest Time Buttoned-Up Facts About The Victorian Era Baffling Trends. Mary Ann Bevan continued to appear on the fairgrounds until the 1930s and threatened legal action against any act daring to say she was uglier than herself! Spectacle of Deformity: Freak Shows and Modern British Culture. A favorite Victorian pastime was viewing such images in the privacy of their parlors on "magic . Here are some facts about the elephant man. New York and London: New York University Press, 1996, View the current University of Sheffield website, Collections at the National Fairground and Circus Archive. Saartjie 'Sarah' Baartman's stage name was the Hottentot Venus. - source. According to several newspaper reports from that time period, the mermaids were made out of wire, paper, and rags. Following his success with Heth, Barnum became a promoter of theatricals and variety entertainments. they were forced some of them in this at young ages. In the late 1800s, Juno the frog man was a popular act. 1. Wickware, the Living Phantom; a variety of individuals with dwarfism; the Albino Family; African Americans with vitiligo; the armless wonder S.K.G. A poster advertising Miss C. Heenan, The Great American Prize Lady, circa 1868. The trial was quick, and included witness testimony from a carnival fat lady and a bearded woman. Barnum instructed the two-foot-tall Stratton to lie about his age, claiming to be eleven rather than his true age of five, aiming to exaggerate Stratton?s tiny stature. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Known as the Bearded Girl, Annie Jones had a mustache and sideburns by the time she was five years old. While it has been boasted that P.T. Yes! His diminutive stature and misshapen limbs made him an attraction where people would pay to look at him sitting in a chair. Barnum; Barnum is not known to have used the term himself. Take a peek inside the freak show tent at historys most famous circus freaks. The animal was then sold to a show manager who generally kept excellent care of his investment. That moment is considered the beginning of the Golden Age of the freak show and its performers, which would persist until the 1940s. This made a lot of people rich Some of the performers had been kidnapped and were forced to go onstage against their will. More of his blog posts, his writing portfolio, and details about his copywriting services are available athttp://writersblick.com/. Coming up: 10. On the other hand, people born with disabilities, and who have been deemed unemployable by so-called normal people, have discovered that they can make a healthy living being on display in a sideshow. [2]Bogdan, Robert. Yet in previous centuries it was considered a perfectly acceptable pastime. She aspired to find an education and work but ended up back living with her mother. v. t. e. Coney Island and its popular ongoing freak show in August 2008. Eventually they settled on a plantation in North Carolina, where they married sisters Adelaide and Sarah Anne Yates. Shows could be found on the fairground arena, within a travelling or fixed circus, in a show of optical and scientific wonder at permanent halls or on the high street. There is a legitimate Phantom of the Opera sequel titled Love Never Dies which takes place on Coney Island and centers around a freak show. God bless you. The photo was sent to Robert Ripley, who offered money to exhibit Wang in his Odditorium. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). At Cobalt Fairy, we want to entertain you. After their famed snow run, Balto and his fellow sled dogs were sold to a freak show in L.A. After over 2 years living in horrible conditions, they were rescued by the efforts of the entire city of Cleveland, OH. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. He is also the author of the award-winning non-fiction book, 'The Wonders: Lifting the Curtain on the Freak Show, Circus and Victorian Age.' Having read history at the University of Cambridge, John went on to obtain a PhD on nineteenth-century freak shows. A death cast of Cheng and Eng, as well as their preserved liver, can now be seen at the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia. Eng awoke one morning in 1874 to find Cheng had died. By 1903, Ferry the Human Frog was making his rounds dressed as a frog. Wikimedia CommonsA French poster advertising The Bearded Woman Annie Jones. For the late 1800s and early 1900s, the scene was considered both bizarre and obscene. As an adult, Jones performed as the Bearded Lady or the Bearded Woman. And she also began to pursue her own interests, becoming just as well known for her musical skills as her bearded face. According to witnesses, a strange creature came out of a South Carolina lake, made some odd sounds, and plopped back into the water. Charles Sherwood Stratton was born in 1838. Curiosity about the freak show tradition has bounced back in recent years. The Victorian freak show was at once mainstream and subversive. Copyright 2023 History Today Ltd. Company no. Early freak shows occupied a very general category that could refer to nontheatrical exhibits such as fetuses in jars or exotic or deformed animals as well as exhibitions of humans. In the heyday of the sideshow, the circus would roll into town with lurid banners . An 1898 Barnum & Bailey poster, advertising the Coney Island Water Carnival. Flea circuses died out on the fairground due to a shortage of human fleas necessary for the operation of the show but its history as a side show attraction dates back to the early 1800s. The four main reasons behind the popularity of freak shows are as follows. 10. Freak show attraction Ella Harper, the Camel Girl, was born in 1873 with a condition called congenital genu recurvatum, which caused her knees to bend backward. His skeleton is preserved in the Museum of Natural History in Mons, Belgium. Tom Normans career continued after the Elephant Man and over the next ten year he became involved with managing Mary Anne Bevan the Worlds Ugliest Woman, John Chambers the Armless Carpenter and Leonine the Lion Faced Lady. Numerous strange characters made up the freak show exhibits. Let us know below. Barnums American Museum. Without question, the greatest of all the American Museums stars was Charles Stratton, better known as General Tom Thumb. He began his film career with The Sideshow in 1928 and Tod Brownings 1932 classic Freaks. Not surprisingly, the infants father was a traveling showman who reportedly had a clubbed foot. 6. They were denied entry, since the show was sold out. Those who participated in these shows were usually highly intelligent, well-educated people. Krao was exhibited by Farini at the London Aquarium in a display that labelled her as The Missing Link between animals and humanity. Here are some of the most famous and fascinating circus freaks from the annals of sideshow history: Grady Stiles, Jr. was the 4th generation of Stiles family members born with ectrodactyly, a family trait going back to the 1840s which caused their fingers and toes to fuse into claws. London: Geoffrey Bles Ltd, 1969, Jay, Ricky, Jay's Journal of Anomalies. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2001, Norman, Tom, The Penny Showman: Memoirs of Tom Norman "Silver King". The Victorian Upper Class consisted of the King and the Queen, Aristocrats, Nobles, Dukes, Viscounts and other wealthy families working in the Victorian courts. As uncomfortable as the continued usage of the word freak may be, it is used solely on the grounds that there is no modern equivalent that accurately represents the diversity of the men and women involved within the shows. 579 Likes, TikTok video from Jocelyn (@allfemininity): "I wrote about Victorian Freak Shows in my blog. The relationship between freak-show performance and disability is ultimately a complicated one, because not all performers were persons with disabilities.
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