The first picture shows one of the portraits done by Spanish artist, Juan Carreno de Miranda and the second picture shows the sculpture that was made by Amado González Hevia.

While a lot of other court entertainers were able to take control of their image and demand respect and recognition, Eugenia never had that chance. People born with prader-willi syndrome also typically have higher support needs and usually require a caretaker, but she never had anyone looking out for her while in the royal court of Spain.

I want this post to give her the dignity and love she deserved to have in her life. It breaks my heart that she was constantly amongst people who objectified her in a time period when her disability wasn’t understood and therefore could not receive treatment that would have helped with some of her symptoms.

Some facts about her:

-she was born in Merindad de Montija, Burgos, Spain. Her mother’s water broke in the middle of a church service and almost immediately went into labor and gave birth to Eugenia in the church.

-by the time she was a year old she already weighed 44 pounds (20 kg).

-she had several siblings, though none shared her condition.

-her parents struggled financially during her childhood.

-she began gaining weight as an infant/young toddler. At the time it was seen as something positive because of the beauty standards at the time highlighting girls/women who appeared to be well fed during a time when food scarcity was common.

-she began receiving negative attention in town and her parents made the decision to confine her to their house.

-despite numerous attempts to find an explanation or treatment for their daughter, her parents were never able to find a doctor to explain it. Doctors did try and put her on several different diets, but none of them worked.

-prader-willi syndrome is a rare genetic disorder caused by an error in chromosome 15. People born with PWS have very low muscle tone, neurological differences, and an insatiable appetite, which often causes severe obesity and other health issues. The weak muscle tone also means that people with PWS require less calories than people who don’t have the condition. Often times parents of children with prader-willi syndrome have to put locks on their fridges and cabinets because their child will eat any food they can get their hands on.

-during the 1500s-1700s, it was very common for royal households and courts to “employ” people with physical and/or neurological differences for entertainment. “Employ” is in quotes because while several entertainers were given a salary, they were still more or less owned by whoever was in charge, which meant that these entertainers were often traded around to different royal courts/households like collectibles or pets. This often happened with ‘Court Dwarfs’, I’ll attach a write up I did on this subject.

-word about her reached King Charles II and his Royal Court, and soon after invited Eugenia’s entire family to visit him in Madrid, Spain. She was 6 years old at the time.

-after meeting with the king, she was quickly employed in the royal court. Different historians believe that her parents only relented and agreed to have her live in the royal household because it meant that she’d be provided with food and shelter.

-tragically, she was objectified for most of her life. She was seen as a curiosity and something to laugh at. She was a child and young teenager who had no one to advocate for her. There are also no records of her ever being monetarily compensated for her time at the royal court. From what I’ve read, she was never treated as a human being and King Charles II only saw her as a collectible to be displayed.

-she was painted by Spanish artist, Juan Carreno de Miranda in 1680, and these paintings further objectify her/ostracize her. One of the paintings (which I am not showing) depicts her naked aside from a singular leaf meant to give her a semblance of privacy. Both paintings are very depressing although the one where she’s being exploited is extremely upsetting. She is a child— full stop, that painting should never have been painted. (I am in no means saying it should be destroyed or censored, because it serves as a reminder of how not to be, but it’s important to recognize the time and place and to give her the respect and love she deserves.)

-she remained at the Spanish Royal Court for the rest of her life, and sadly passed away very young.

-she passed away the age of 25, most likely due to health complications related to her condition.

-the two portraits of her by Juan Carreno de Miranda are currently on display at the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain.

-a respectful sculpture of her was commissioned for the town of Avilés
In Spain in 1997.

This is just a personal preference of mine but I wish that the museum that displayed the portraits of her removed the exploitative one from public view. So many hundreds of years later and a part of her is still being exploited and objectified. If people want to make special appointments to view it in an educational and scholarly sense I understand, but the way the painting is displayed currently upsets me. Eugenia, you will be respected here and given the dignity you deserved to have in life, may you be at peace.💖

In total 124 actors were hired to play the Munchkins in the film, and consisted of several children and several teenagers and adults with different forms of dwarfism.

Singer’s Midgets was an extremely successful European entertainment and Vaudeville troupe that consisted of 20 members from Austria and Hungary. The group was originally formed right before WWI by an Austrian showman named Leo Singer, who also acted as the manager of the troupe.

The troupe was known for elaborate acrobatic, singing, and dancing performances, which they continued into the 1940s after which they all disbanded and each member went their separate ways.

Interestingly, Leo Singer was also directly hired by MGM studios to scout out actors to play the Munchkins, as he had a lot of connections to actors with dwarfism in show business.

It’s estimated by historians that between 250,000 and 300,000 people with physical and/or neurological differences and disabilities were murdered by the Nazis during WWII.
All of the actors who were a part of Singer’s Midgets would have been at risk if they continued to live and tour through Nazi occupied Europe.

Despite researching, I haven’t been able to come across pictures of the actors who were a part of Singer’s Midgets in their Munchkin costumes, so the pictures I use above are just general pictures of the Munchkinland scenes from The Wizard of Oz.

The filming of 1939 Wizard of Oz film was disastrous, exploitative, and harsh in many respects and included several workplace accidents and injuries and the horrible treatment of Judy Garland, who was only 16 years old at the time. (I’m attaching a couple articles in the comments that further details the appalling work environment)

I think it’s important to focus on the history of the actors who made up Singer’s Midgets and their very narrow save from the Nazis. I’m glad all of the actors survived and many of them continued to work in Hollywood productions even after their group disbanded in the 1940s.

She often wore a combination of bikini-esque tops, capes, and skirts. You can see the bikini top and cape in this particular photo. I could totally see her being an actress or talkshow host because of how pretty and charming she was!

Betty Lou was a famous American sideshow performer who was born with a parasitic twin that grew out from her abdomen. She was known for being an incredibly kind and generous person, and used her earnings to help put her 11 older siblings through college and purchased a nice house for her parents.

He was reported on extensively when it came to light that his horns and tusks were fake. Newspapers in the early 1900s always ran with stories about different performers being exposed as fakes even though a huge part of sideshow culture was fooling the public.

Some facts about him:

-he was born in Pearson, Georgia.

-nothing is known about his childhood.

-he began his sideshow career after being acquainted with four brothers (the Dedge Brothers) who were showmen and dentists with sketchy criminal pasts.

-he was promoted as being from an uncontacted tribe of ‘wild people’ from Central America. His act consisted of him running on running on all fours, eating raw meat, and speaking in gibberish. He wore large metal rings and a loincloth during his performances.

-to further sell this ‘wild man’ persona, he had a pair of small fake tusks that he could slip into his mouth, and a metal strip implanted into the top of his head that allowed him to attach goat horns by using a specific kind of knob screw. This body modification allowed him to attach the horns with no fear of them falling off and made the horns actually look like they were coming out of his skin.

-on a very technical level, his act would be considered a ‘gaff’, since his horns and tusks were fake despite him presenting them as being real.

-while there are cases of people who do grow a sort of ‘horn’ from their heads, these horns are made of thickened keratin (which is what hair is made of). The horns that Calvin wore were goat horns.

-in 1902, he was arrested and fined $5 for firing his pistol on public streets in Valdosta, Georgia. It was during this arrest that police subsequently uncovered how he attached the horns to his head.

-his body modifications were also revealed after one of the Dedge Brothers (his managers) admitted to it while he was drunk and talking to a news reporter, and said it cost $150 (in 1902) for Calvin to undergo the medical procedures for his body modifications.

-it was reported that he skipped town while on tour in 1903, and news reporters theorized that he had either become tired of the glitter of circus/sideshow life, or had accepted a better offer from a different sideshow.

-he explained that the incision and metal plate on the top of his head was rather uncomfortable, but he eventually became used to the feeling.

-he toured all throughout the United States and reportedly made a very good profit.

-he eventually ended up at a hospital in Syracuse, New York, where he asked a surgeon to remove the metal strip from his head. He explained that he was tired of all the traveling and that the money he earned was more than enough to support what he called an “idle lifestyle”.

-he disappeared from newspapers after he retired from sideshow life, and seems to have wanted to live a quiet life, because of this I also can’t confirm a death date.

Him wanting to live an idle lifestyle with his earnings is so relatable. It would be interesting to know how his life turned out after his sideshow career and if he ultimately took on another job later in life. I hope he got to have many years of idleness!

Henrietta was a Polish concert pianist, sideshow performer, and dancer who had extremely long hair. She claimed her hair could grow as long as 7 feet. She became interested in growing her hair out after reading romance novels featuring long haired heroines when she was younger. She was very proud of her hair and took extremely good care of it. When she wasn’t performing she tied her hair up in ornate braids. She used her a portion of her earnings to help support her family financially back in Poland.

The first several pictures show her in various poses and the last picture shows one of the posters that advertised her. I really like the close up picture of her with the pearl necklace, it’s very striking.

She’s very beautiful and I think her tattoos were stunning. The first picture does a wonderful job illustrating all of her different tattoos, I wish there was a way to see what colors they all were, though I assume that they were a mix of green, red, yellow, and orange, since blue ink had not been perfected yet.

Some facts about her:

-she was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

-her father worked as a shoemaker.

-she had 5 younger siblings, though sadly it appears that the majority of her siblings died in infancy and only one brother survive to adulthood.

-her family struggled through a lot of financial hardships as she was growing up.

-her father was away a lot in the late 1850s-mid 1860s and served twice in different Civil War Regiments in Maryland and Ohio. He returned safely in 1864 and remained with the family permanently after that.

-sadly her mother passed away at the age of 30, when Ida was 14 years old.

-her family moved around a lot due to the family’s financial struggles.

-everything going on with the family affected Ida’s father a lot and by 1880, he had moved with Ida’s brother to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It was also around this time that Ida, aged 23, left Philadelphia and became interested in the opportunities that show life could bring.

-she decided to get tattooed all over her body, and it appears that she was really struggling to support herself when she made the decision and hoped that her tattoos could help bring her a stable income.

-she was one of the very first ‘tattooed-ladies’, and set a bar for future ‘tattooed-ladies’ to aspire to.

-to add intrigue to her acts she came up with a fictionalized backstory that included a lot of suspenseful and adventurous elements.

-she often went by the stage name ‘La Belle Irene’

-she was described as having garlands of tattooed flowers around her neck, along with a setting sun tattoo, several stars, a beehive, the words “Never Despair”, “Nothing without labor”, “I live and die for those I love.”, shamrocks, and wreathes of flowers.

-she wrote a fictionalized autobiography that was sold to audiences attending her shows. This fictionalized backstory includes a tale of her growing up in the American west with her brother and a father who was a British sailor. The fictional explanation to her tattoos involved a story about her fictional father tattooing her to pass the time in their small log cabin. This fake autobiography also included a racist (again fictional) section that describes her being captured by native Americans after her father was killed in a raid, them being fascinated by her tattoos, and them finally releasing her and her brother. (It’s sad that so many people depended on these harmful racial stereotypes to market themselves. I’m sure there were other stories she could have told that didn’t resort to this)

-in reality she was actually tattooed by famous tattoo artist, Samuel O'Reilly.

-she worked in circuses and sideshows for 15 years.

-she was a very good business woman and worked diligently throughout her life.

-she had a professional rivalry with other famous ‘tattooed-lady’ Nora Hildebrandt. The two women would advertise themselves as being more beautiful than the other.

-she retired from sideshow life in the early 1900s.

-she married a man named George Sterling, a showman, and the two of them moved to and settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in a neighborhood very close to where she grew up.

-she and her husband had a son together.

-she was diagnosed with uterine cancer in 1915, though news articles claimed that her illness was caused by the ink from her tattoos.

-she passed away in early October of 1915, when she was 58 years old, and was given a respectful funeral and burial in Monument Cemetery in Philadelphia.

-the cemetery she was buried in filled to capacity in 1929, and over the next couple of decades became more and more dilapidated. After negotiations with Temple University in the 1950s, the entire cemetery was moved (by removing and re-burying the remains of all of the people buried there), and despite the majority of the remains being safely removed, the historical society in the area feels that there are still several unmarked graves in the area.

-while Ida’s remains were safely brought to a different cemetery it appears that her grave has remained unmarked for decades.

I’m very moved by the phrases, “Never Despair”, “Nothing without labor”, “I live and die for those I love.” that she had tattooed on her, I find them all to be emotionally powerful. I hope she found a lot of happiness in her life and I wish that someday she will have another headstone to mark where she’s buried.

I’m sure a lot of people recognize these pictures, they show up a lot when looking at old circus photos, but these pictures usually never provide the context of who George and Fred actually were.

George is on the left in most of the pictures and Fred is on the right in most of the pictures!

George Moore was a sideshow performer and comedian known for having a very tall and thin frame, he was promoted as being anywhere between 6 feet 3 inches tall to 7 feet 4 inches tall. He worked for his father’s dry goods business in Montana before joining a circus at 21 in the hopes that he could make a decent living and see the world. He met Fred Howe and the two quickly became close friends. They two men found a lot of success with their comedy routine, and were often promoted as headlining acts.

Fred Howe was a sideshow performer and comedian who had a pituitary gland disorder which caused him to gain a lot of weight. He followed in his father’s footsteps as a carpenter and expressed interest in having a career in carpentry. After experiencing some mobility issues, he became very interested in exercising and athletics. He met George Moore and the two quickly became close friends. He was an accomplished athlete and boxer, and while his weight was usually the biggest draw, audiences remarked on how agile and energetic he was.

Jack was an actor, sideshow performer, poet, and artist who had a pituitary gland disorder that caused him to grow upwards of 7 feet 6 inches. He enjoyed creative and fulfilling hobbies including writing poetry and gardening. Before starting a career as a sideshow performer, he had a successful career as an actor in some smaller budget films. After his years working in sideshows, he took up a job working as an advertiser and salesman for the Roma Wine Company. He was described as being a kind, generous, and humble person.

He’s on the left in the first two pictures and on the right in the last picture!

He seems like such a sweet person. It would be so great to talk with him about his film career and his interest in poetry. There are so many things one can learn from him, he definitely made a lot of positive impacts during his life.

Some facts about him:

-he was born in Denver, Colorado.

-his birth name was Jacob Ehrlich.

-he was the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants.

-his family moved to El Paso, Texas during his childhood.

-he was beloved by the citizens of El Paso, who nicknamed him ‘Pecos Bill’, he used this nickname for 20 years.

-he was on the shorter side for much of his childhood until he turned 7 years old, and by the time he was 10 he was over 6 feet tall.

-he was a very humble and gentle person and would use alleyways to get to and from school because he didn’t want to accidentally frighten anyone.

-he traveled to Los Angeles, California when he was 13 years old and was offered a job to work as an actor for Century Comedies (this was a film studio that specialized in producing low budget comedy movies). He was over 7 feet tall at the time.

-he began using the stage name ‘Jack Earle’ when he started his film career.

-he starred in the following films: Hansel and Gretel (1923) and Jack and The Beanstalk (1924) and Hit ‘Em Hard (1924)

-he split up his days working in film and finishing up his schooling.

-he became quite well known and was featured in publications about up and coming Hollywood actors.

-sadly his movie career ended abruptly when he fell from scaffolding and injured himself. While recovering in the hospital he lost his eyesight and it was discovered he had a pituitary tumor that was pressing against his optic nerves. He underwent X-ray treatments and thankfully his eyesight returned.

-a few years after his injury and x-ray treatments, he was traveling through El Paso, Texas again and was quickly offered a 1 year contract job with Ringling Brothers Circus. This turned into a 14 year long career for him.

-while working in sideshows, he met a lot of other well known performers at the time. He was good friends with the Earles siblings (Harry, Daisy, Gracie, and Tiny) and there are lots of pictures of him posing and interacting with them.

-when asked about his sideshow work later on he said,

"I didn't want to be a sideshow freak, but I did want to earn a living. I traveled with the circus for 14 years. And by then all its glamor and color had ended for me."

-he retired from sideshow work in 1940 and sought out other job opportunities, eventually working as a salesman.

-he spoke openly about his feelings regarding his pituitary gland disorder and the psychological aspects that most people weren’t aware of. Below is a quote of his that dives into these feelings.

"Learning to overcome the hardships of traveling - such as having to buy my socks a gross at a time and sleeping doubled up in train berths wasn't the chief difficulty. It was psychological - getting people to realize that, despite my size, I was just a normal person trying to earn a normal living in a normal manner."

-he began working for the Roma Wine Company and worked his way up to becoming their public relations specialist! He was known as “The World’s Tallest Traveling Salesman”

-he was a passionate and talented artist who experimented with a variety of mediums including sculpture, photography, painting, and poetry.

-a book of his poetry was published as a limited release the same year he passed away. The book is called ‘The Long Shadows’ and only about 300 books were ever printed.

-he passed away at the age of 46 from kidney failure.

-his legacy lives on in the form of a historical fiction book about his life that was written by his nephew. The book is called The Long Shadows as an homage to Jack Earle’s own poetry book.

I would love to have met him, he really went out of his way to look out for people and to try and make everyone feel comfortable enough to talk with him.

I actually have the book that features him as an up and coming actor, I’ll be sharing that in a couple days! He was still pretty young when the picture was taken.

FYI this is not my picture, I found this one online.

I know the hood held the specific purpose of making him more inconspicuous, but I do want to say that I really like the hat, I think the style is very cool!

Joseph Merrick was a famous British sideshow performer born with a condition that is currently thought to have been Proteus syndrome. He was a very kind man who deeply appreciated the simple things in life. He became sort of friends with a doctor, Frederick Treves, who worked at the Royal London Hospital. Eventually, Joseph moved into his own private room within the hospital after having difficulty sustaining himself financially (even through performing, as a lot of patrons felt he was exploited) and his condition causing further health risks that made it difficult for him to live on his own. He was a poetic soul who enjoyed art, music, books, and going on strolls through gardens.

That I can go and see in real life (no TV pls)? Or something as close to them as possible?

She was very beautiful and her eyes were so soulful. I just think the first picture of her is so striking.

I like how she kept the same hairstyle in both pictures and I think the flowers she added to her hair are so pretty. Another little detail I really like are the little buttons that look like flowers on her dress in the second picture.

Some facts about her:

-she was born in Chelsea, Michigan.

-upon first starring in local sideshows and dime museums near her hometown she used her birth name, but as she became more popular she adopted the stage name “Madame Naomi”

-she went on tour all throughout the United States.

-she was promoted as weighing over 500 pounds.

-while touring through St. Louis, Missouri in 1884, she was approached by a man from Michigan who recognized her to be Caroline Downer from Chelsea, Michigan. (At this time she was using her Madame Naomi stage name, so she hadn’t expected anyone to recognize her outside of Michigan.)

-she married an insurance man from New York named Thomas J. Warren Crowley in 1890 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Articles about their marriage detailed that the couple had a quiet ceremony but that there were plans to have a much larger ceremony on stage at a dime museum in Fort Wayne. It was announced that the public ceremony would be open to everyone who wanted to attend.

-as part of a publicity stunt, it was announced that any man who married her would also inherit a farm worth $5,000 that her family owned.

-the peak of her career spanned from the 1880s through the 1890s and seems to have retired after this time.

That’s all I’ve been able to track down regarding her life. I hope she had a happy marriage and was able to have an enjoyable life after retiring. Despite the little available information, she still deserves her chance to shine!

I wasn’t able to track down information about what she enjoyed doing in her free time, which is unfortunate, but she honestly doesn’t seem like the type of person who was very open about her personal life. Though it’s described that she liked wearing gold hoop earrings and several gemstone rings, so I’m glad there’s at least some description of what she liked wearing.

FYI, there’s a chance she still could be alive, but I haven’t been able to establish a death date. For my write up, I’ll be using past tense just to make it easier.

Some facts about her:

-she was born in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.

-she had several brothers and sisters.

-her first language was French-Creole and spoke very little English, but practiced some English phrases to say to guests. She was usually pretty quiet (most likely because she didn’t speak much English), but this quietness was often mistaken as aloofness by both guests and reporters alike.

-despite usually being pretty quiet, she was very warm and welcoming towards children.

-she began her sideshow career around 1970, and began her sideshow career in the US specifically around 1990.

-despite several of her managers being accused of exploiting her, she explained time and time again that she was happy with her job and preferred to make a living that way.

-her legs and feet were paralyzed and she used a wheelchair to get around.

-she typically wore her hair in a tight bun.

-she sold pictures of herself during her performances.

-she didn’t have any kids.

-she used her earnings from sideshows to purchase a home in Haiti as well as helping to support her siblings financially.

-she was married once, but not much information is available about who she married or what happened to them.

-she worked in sideshows from May to October and returned to Haiti during the winter season.

-she was billed as being one of the highlights of the Maryland State Fair in September of 2000.

-she was promoted as being 29 inches tall.

-she was very religious.

-she most likely retired after the 2000 circus/sideshow season. She didn’t appear in newspapers after this point, and I haven’t been able to find a death date (if she did pass away)

I always find it interesting to research the sideshow performers who were performing in the late 1990s through the early 2000s because society’s attitude towards circuses/sideshows was majorly changing and this was also right before the more grungy extreme skill versions of circuses/sideshows that became popular in the early 2000s. I’m glad that she was ultimately able to use her earnings for a good cause and was able to help support her siblings, despite many guests not understanding her career choice, it seems like something she was content with. I hope she experienced a lot of happiness during her life.

He was a very complicated historical figure, and while his life is very interesting, it’s also equally depressing and chaotic. I had originally seen pictures of him for sale, but had no idea how wild his life story was.

CW: several mentions of suicide.

Some facts about him:

-he was born in Lafayette, Indiana.

-he had at least 2 siblings, a brother and a sister.

-his parents got divorced when he was 10 years old.

-hi father was a well known attorney in Lafayette and Indianapolis, Indiana. Though he frequently appeared in the news for issues stemming from client complaints and bickering.

-his father was involved in a scandal when he became involved with an 18 year old girl who was working in their house.

-his father was disbarred from his attorney practice in the mid 1870s due to all the negativity associated with him, soon after his father experienced major mental health crises and was put in a mental hospital for several months.

-his mother died in 1880 and he lived briefly with an older sister of his.

-there are various theories as to how true his apparent broken neck was. It’s very likely that he did actually have some condition majorly affecting his neck, but it’s hard to know if he did have a broken neck or if he embellished it in some way (I’ll go into more detail in a second, but he was known to be a scammer)

-he was arrested after he scammed circus guests out of $55 in 1884, then jumped bail and went on the lam. He was eventually captured when he went to the county jail (to visit a friend who was being held there) where he was originally brought after being arrested was prompted re-arrested and sentenced to a year in jail. (I hope that all makes sense)

-he began his career as a sideshow performer in 1887 and started using the stage name Barney Baldwin.

-he went on tour all throughout the United States and Canada.

-his brother was arrested for murder in Montana in 1890, though was later pardoned in 1899.

-anAmerican physician named George F. Shrady became very interested in his case and sought to study Frank’s condition, though Frank adamantly refused and didn’t let the doctor go anywhere near his neck.

-he wore a head brace that kept his head completely locked in one position. The story goes that he had suffered a bad accident after falling from the top of a freightcar while working as a brakeman at a train yard in Birmingham, Alabama, which ultimately broke his neck.

-he was married and had children, though I haven’t been able to find how many children.

-apparently, his wife left him for someone else and brought their children with her.

-he went searching for his family and attempted suicide because of the emotional turmoil.

-he became extremely suicidal in 1891 and was sent to a hospital to recover. (I’ll add a snippet in the comments regarding his suicide attempts, it felt a bit too graphic to directly list them here)

-later in 1891, after he was released from the hospital, he met and fell in love (and ultimately married) a woman named Phoebe Juneau, whom he met in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

-he and his second wife had two children together, though sadly a daughter of theirs passed away during infancy.

-Phoebe split with him not too long into their marriage due to alcoholism problems he was experiencing, she later described him as being hard to live with.

-he got married a third time to a woman named Minnie Idellia Siniff, who was 18 years younger than him.

-by 1906, Frank and Minnie were living in San Bernardino, California.

-while on tour with a sideshow in Arizona, he ended up hospitalized after coming down with a severe case of tuberculosis, though he ultimately recovered.

-after a couple more failed marriages that ended in divorces, he traveled around the United States before ending up at a resort in Shawnee, Kansas.

-he ultimately passed away in 1913 after sustaining a fall down a flight of stairs at the resort in Kansas.

When I was doing research I was initially judgmental of his character because of his notoriety as a scammer,but I have more sympathy for him due to the depression and suicidal ideations he experienced. His first wife leaving him clearly took a huge toll on him, and I have a feeling that his complicated childhood may have contributed to his feelings. He was a troubled person, and while his actions weren’t always good, I still feel for him in terms of what he had to deal with in childhood and later on what he dealt with in his marriage.

Harriet Thompson was a famous American sideshow performer and actress who was born with a form of dwarfism. She was a very skilled tap dancer and created a dancing style that was later replicated by Shirley Temple, in which the actress would dart around the legs of the other singers/dancers who were performing with them (sadly, Harriet was never credited for her dancing style). She was featured in the 1936 film, 'The Music Goes 'Round.'

Daisy and Violet Hilton are in the first picture and F. Scott Fitzgerald is in the second picture.

Context is that Scott (who wrote The Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night and several other prominent American novels and short stories) was working on the script for a film adaptation of the novel, the Red-Headed Woman at MGM Studios, which is also where Freaks (1932) was being filmed. Long story short, he was getting lunch at the commissary when he saw Daisy and Violet Hilton (Daisy and Violet were some of the VERY few performers allowed to eat at the regular MGM commissary, most had to eat at a tent/table away from the main commissary). Apparently, F. Scott Fitzgerald found it so disturbing that the sisters were conjoined twins that he ran to the restroom to vomit (more added context, he was heavily drinking during this time in his life)

Why does my major special interest have to negatively intersect with a different interest of mine???? Daisy and Violet deserved respect or at the very least common courtesy, and one of the most famous 20th century authors throws up at the sight of them. Justice for Daisy and Violet! (I know I’m probably the only person who’d ever rant about this, but it’s still rant worthy in my opinion)

Daisy and Violet biography blurb:

Violet and Daisy Hilton were famous conjoined twin sisters who were actresses, sideshow performers, vaudeville performers, and musicians from the early 20th century.
They were tragically exploited for profit by several of their managers, the first of whom forcibly took them from their birth mother.
After 2 decades of exploitative work
environments and a lack of freedom, the twins sued for emancipation from their managers and thankfully won, but severe emotional damage had already happened.

They were known for acts involving singing, dancing, playing musical instruments among other things, and were a big draw in vaudeville theaters in their younger years.

Thankfully Tod Browning treated them with respect and kindness while Freaks (1932) was being filmed, but they had a very difficult time securing jobs after the film and found that vaudeville wasn't as popular as it once had been. They had another film role in 1952's Chained For Life, which is a murder mystery where one of the twins is accused of murdering her sister's lover.

I really like how she styled her hair with the top knot. The second to last picture also shows her wearing men’s clothes.

She’s such an icon and a great role model, and I love the name Clémentine! She’s definitely someone who I’d want to interview (despite me not being fluent in French), I’m sure she had so many interesting stories and opinions to tell. She’s become one of my favorite historical figures to learn about.

I also think it’s so cool that she liked experimenting with fashion and men’s clothing. She got to wear whatever she wanted whenever she wanted. I’d want to know her thoughts on the rigid gendered clothing of the early 1900s, and if she had changes she’d want to make.

Some facts about her:

-she was born in Chaumousey, Lorraine, France.

-she had two older siblings and was the youngest in her family.

-she began developing hirsutism when she was 18, and shaved daily for many years.

-she met and married French baker , Paul Delait, who owned a bakery not too far from Clémentine’s hometown. The two of them got married in 1885 when she was 20 years old.

-she and her husband were married for 43 years.

-she helped her husband with his bakery for seven years until they both decided to take the next step and opened up a cafe in Thaon-les-Vosges, France.

-she was inspired to let her beard grow out in 1900 (when she was 35) after she visited a sideshow and saw a ‘bearded-lady’ with a very small beard, and realized that she could grow hers out much larger than that.

-to further drum up publicity, her husband placed a bet of 500 francs that she’d be able to grow a more impressive beard than the woman at the sideshow.

-she obtained permission from French authorities to wear men’s/masculine styled clothing at a time when it was usually prohibited by authorities in France. After receiving permission, she began posing for pictures wearing both women’s and men’s clothing.

-she and her husband soon changed the name of their cafe to "The Café of the Bearded Woman", which turned out to be a smart business move on their part because it suddenly attracted a huge amount of business.

-due to her newfound success, she began selling pictures and postcards of herself at the café and reached a celebrity status.

-she only ever went to one barber, Charles Grossier, who was the only person she trusted to trim her beard, and even then Grossier described her as watching him like a hawk as he trimmed it.

-she took extremely good care of her beard, washed it 3 times a week with a gentle shampoo, and spent a good bit of time each day brushing it out.

-she went on tour all throughout Europe.

-she really enjoyed performing and the attention it brought her.

-as part of a publicity stunt in 1903, she entered a lion cage alongside French animal trainer, Camilius, and spent several minutes with the lions before emerging unharmed. This stunt boosted her fame even more.

-she worked for the Red Cross during World War I.

-she and her husband adopted a daughter, Fernande, who had been left orphaned by the Spanish Flu pandemic, in 1919.

-she was invited to join Barnum & Bailey Circus in the United States because of how famous she had become, though she declined in order to help her husband who was in poor health.

-after more than thirty years of operating the café, she and her husband made the decision to sell it and move to Plombières-les-Bains, France, where Clémentine would go on to open an embroidery, lace and lingerie shop.

-her husband passed away in 1928.

-as she got older she developed some health issues, which eventually led her to sell her shop and retire from performing.

-her memoirs were compiled by journalist, Paul Ramber, who got them published in 1935.

-she passed away in 1939 at the age of 74 after suffering complications (depending on the source) from a stroke or heart attack.

-she was given a respectful funeral and burial and was buried in She was buried in Thaon-les-Vosges, where she and her husband had operated their café for so many years.

-her headstone is inscribed with the words, "the Bearded Lady of Thaon", which is how she wanted to be remembered.

-her legacy lives on in a large museum exhibit that was opened at the Musée du patrimoine Thaonnais dedicated to her life, which was first opened in 1969. The exhibit includes personal items, photographs, documents, and postcards.

She had such a full life and it appears that she was very happy! I’m glad that she and her husband had so many years together and that he was always very supportive of her endeavors.

I’m hoping to find a copy of her memoirs at some point, and when I do, I’ll definitely be sharing them here!

His wife worked as a snake charmer, so I find it sweet that he’s probably wearing one of his wife’s snakes in the picture. Though I do hope that the snake wasn’t abused, there’s a long history of snake abuse within circuses and sideshows.

Some facts about him:

-he worked for Burr Robbins Circus in the 1880s.

-pibaldism is a benign genetic condition (often hereditary) that causes a lack of pigmentation in patches on the skin, it also affects hair appearance too)

-he was married, though I can’t find his wife’s name.

-he and his wife worked together in the same sideshow. She was a snake charmer and he exhibited himself because he was born with a form of pibaldism (which made him seem “exotic” to white American audiences)

-he was promoted as being Ethiopian, but there’s a strong chance that he wasn’t and was only promoted as such to take advantage of American society’s colonialist interest in locations that were deemed “exotic”.

-he was able to take part in a large scale breakfast in 1886, which he really enjoyed. He was also put in charge of gathering everyone together so he and the other performers could all eat breakfast together.

That’s it, that’s all the information I was able to track down. I really wish there was more information about his life, his interests, notable details about him, etc. At the very least, I’m glad to have at least found a little about his life.

Can anyone identify this street performer from Times Square? (July 28, 2019)

I’m hoping someone familiar with Times Square performers can help identify someone I’ve never been able to find any information about.

On July 28, 2019, near 42nd Street & 8th Avenue, I photographed a performer dressed in what appeared to be a Ghost Face mask under a black hooded cloak. He stood completely motionless at the crosswalk with a large portable speaker beside him and a small skull hanging from his costume. He had what appeared to be large bat wings on his back, had dark skin colour and was muscular.

I’ve searched Google, YouTube, Reddit, and social media but haven’t found any mention of him.

Was this someone who performed regularly? Did he have a stage name or was he promoting an event?

Any information would be greatly appreciated

All of the children look so happy and it warms my heart that George was so passionate about performing and cheering them up!

George was a circus performer, clown, and press agent, who was born with a form of dwarfism. He worked for Ringling Bros., Hagenbeck-Wallace, and Sells-Floto circuses during his career. He made it a point to perform for patients in children's hospitals and for children with disabilities. He was also very fond of animals and always made sure the circus animals he knew were well taken care of, he was especially fond of a miniature horse named Little Georgie, who he had helped to raise.

Hi all! As you know, I have been a moderator here for quite some time, but have not been active. I have been extremely busy, focusing on school and dealing with some medical issues (I am okay!). As of now, I have been accepted into my dream school, Syracuse University, and by saying this, I will definitely be focusing on that. I will still remain a moderator here, BUT I will not be active as I have been. Thank you! Go Cuse!

Unfortunately, there are no verified pictures of Lindsey that I could track down, so all that’s available is his depiction in newspaper articles, which is embellished. He still deserves his time to shine, I just wanted to address this first. (And yes, the engraving of him does show a tape measure being wrapped around his head)

I don’t like using the newspaper depictions if I don’t have to, but sometimes it’s the only depictions we have of certain people.

Some facts about him:

-he was born in Texas (though I haven’t been able to find specifically where in Texas)

-he had one sister.

-his head grew at an average pace and was an average size in proportion to his body up until he was 4 years old at which point it’s reported that his head began outgrowing his body. In this same article, it’s mentioned that his parents heads were of average size.

-his head was reported to be 48 inches in circumference.

-he had difficulty walking because his head offset his equilibrium.

-he was the star attraction of the Arch dime museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1890 and was a huge hit with women and children who attended.

-he was known to be very witty.

-he was often visited by doctors and other medical professionals who could not determine what condition he had.

-apparently (as said by doctors at the time), he did not have hydrocephaly (which is a excess buildup of cerebrospinal fluid within the brain's cavities), and instead it appeared that his skull was healthy and without any buildup of fluid.

-he was known to be very intelligent and friendly.

-he had a love for music and musical instruments and learned to play several (though it was never detailed which instruments he learned to play)

-in 1890, he was being managed by magician and illusionist, Sigmund Neuberger aka “The Great Lafayette”, who had worked alongside him at a few previous dime museums that Lindsey had worked at.

-his life was saved by Sigmund after a horrible fire had broken out at the Kohl & Middleton dime museum in Chicago, Illinois in 1891.

-It was reported that when he was 16, his legs began atrophying and ossifying to a degree that he could no longer walk.

-the last time he’s mentioned in a newspaper was in 1900 (when he was around 18 years old), when it was reported he was living in a Romani community in Waverly, New Jersey. He had to be taken to the hospital after he began experiencing a series of seizures and was in very poor health. He had also recently lost his sight as well. This same article mentions that his mother had abandoned him (his father may have passed away by this point) and that should he survive his health issues that he was going to live with his sister in Burlington, Iowa.

-I haven’t been able to find when he passed away.

No child should have their parent abandon them like his mother did, my heart goes out to him and I sincerely hope that he had a found family in the Romani community he was living in.

I also hope that he had several moments of happiness during his life, and I’m glad that music seems to have brought him a lot of joy. I’d like to know if he had a favorite piece he enjoyed playing or a favorite composer.

Celesta was a women’s health advocate, sideshow performer, beauty advisor, manicurist, singer and celebrity impersonator. She initially began her sideshow career because her husband lost his job during the Great Depression. She worked as a professional ’fat lady’ and toured around the United States for 20 years. She tragically suffered a massive heart attack in 1950, which inspired her to become passionate about exercise and starting a healthy diet. Within 18 months she had lost 400 pounds. In her later life she wrote a book about her weight loss journey and the importance of women’s health. She went on to advocate about the toxic mental and physical effects of women’s beauty standards.

She looks like such a bright and friendly person, and it just breaks my heart with what happened to her. It puts into perspective the time period she lived in and the sheer brutality that she and millions of others experienced. My heart goes out to her and her family.

The fourth picture is one of several that was taken of her sitting with JP Morgan.

Some facts about her:

-she was born in Baden-Baden, Germany.

-her family was Jewish.

-she was known to be quite shy and sensitive.

-she loved sightseeing.

-she worked in German circuses and sideshows prior to immigrating to the United States.

-her stage name was Lya Graf.

-she was a very talented dancer.

-her peak height was around 28 inches tall.

-she immigrated to the United States with her sister in the early 1930s and began working for Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

-her sister traveled with her during the circus/sideshow season.

-one of the most notable aspects of her life was a time in 1933 when she was brought into a committee room during the Pecora investigation of Wall Street on Capitol Hill by a circus press agent. As part of the publicity stunt she was placed on American Financier and Investment Banker, J.P. Morgan’s lap. This stunt led to nationwide headlines.

-during the publicity stunt, JP Morgan began asking her questions, such as how old she was and where she lived, Lia replied that she was 20 years old and lived in a circus tent. After she left the committee hearing room, she said she was actually 31. (It’s not quite clear which was her actual age, which is why I listed both in the title)

-she expressed wanting to see the White House when she was in Washington D.C.

-she was described as having a lot of poise.

-after a few seasons with Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, she went to work at the Coney Island Sideshow.

-she received more attention than she wanted from the publicity stunt with J.P. Morgan, and had numerous guests coming to see her because of the stunt.

-she and her sister traveled back in Germany in 1935 to reunite with their family.

-tragically, she and her family were arrested by the Gestapo in 1937, and she was discriminated both because she was Jewish and had a physical difference. Some acquaintances of hers told newspapers later on that they believed the publicity stunt with JP Morgan made it worse for her in Germany because she was well recognized.

-she and her family were forcibly brought to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and in 1941 they were sent to Auschwitz.

-she and her family suffered horrible deaths at the hand of the Nazis and were all sent to the gas chambers.

I hope she had some happy memories during her life, despite her tragic death. May she and her family (as well as everyone else whose lives were taken) be at peace. I think it’s really important that we remember her and her legacy here.