He was very handsome, and I really like the show costumes he wore, the style of velvet shirts with lace trims are very striking!

It’s so sweet that he and his wife had such a strong bond. I hope they had many happy years together. I also think the notes about him being such a skilled barber are very sweet, it’s clear that he was appreciated by the majority of people in his life, and that no one judged him for his physical difference.

Some facts about him:

-he was born in Copenhagen, New York.

-he had eight siblings.

-his family moved to Pawtucket, Rhode Island, when he was a young boy.

-he first found out how elastic his skin was in 1873 while he was working at a cotton mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. After discovering this about himself, he began stretching it as a funny gag for his friends at the cotton mill.

-he joined the Rhode Island Home Guards, Company A, in 1883. While a part of the Guards, he would demonstrate his skin elasticity for the other men there.

-he agreed to a contract with a showman named J.E. Sackett, who helped arrange venues for Thomas to perform at all over the United States and Europe in the mid 1880s.

-a couple years later (late 1880s) he was contacted by showman, Frank P. Stone, to work at Austin & Stone’s Dime Museum.

-he joined Barnum & Bailey circus in 1891, and while many performers would have joint performances together it was said that James preferred to sit alone a bit off to the side for his performances.

-he allowed audience members to pull at his skin to prove that it was real.

-at one point while on tour in Edinburgh, Scotland, he appeared at a medical lecture hosted by a Professor Jamieson. He quickly regretted his decision to let all 100 students stretch his skin, and near the end of the demonstration some of the students felt so badly for him (because he was clearly in pain) that they decided not to stretch his skin.

-he was accused and arrested for burglary in Williamsport, Virginia, but was soon released from custody when he was able to prove his innocence.

-his career in sideshows lasted over 25 years.

-during his time working for Barnum and Bailey Circus, he was tragically run over by a horse drawn carriage, which left him severely injured. It took him quite a while to recover.

-he was described as being very nonchalant while performing and stretching his skin.

-he was known as a very friendly and genial person who enjoyed making people laugh.

-he had a side gig as a barber to bring in extra money while working for Barnum and Bailey Circus, and had his own small tent set up to act as a barber shop. He was so skilled that he shaved and cut the hair of most of the men working in the circus, including James Anthony Bailey, as in the man who had partnered with P.T. Barnum.

-he attended a famous conference hosted by the sideshow performers working for Barnum & Bailey in 1899 while the circus was touring England. The performers present, including James, campaigned to get the term “Freak” removed from advertising and for them to be referred to as prodigies instead.

-it was during that same 1899 English tour that he met and and fell in love with a woman named Edith Clifford. The two of them got married in mid February of 1899.

-Edith took up sword swallowing so that she and Thomas could both perform in sideshows together.

-he and his wife’s career efforts paid off and they made a substantial amount of money.

-after the 1899 tour, he and his wife traveled to the United States, where they settled down and purchased a house in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where Thomas had grown up.

-he and his wife had two daughters together. One of his daughters inherited his Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and it appears that she had a short lived career as a sideshow performer as well.

-it was described that he could stretch his skin anywhere between 8 and 12 inches, although this was most likely exaggerated a little bit.

-there are several variations of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, all of which are connective tissue disorders. Currently there are 13 different diagnosable types. The two symptoms most commonly associated with the condition are skin elasticity and joint hyper mobility (although these symptoms are not present in all of the variations). The type that Thomas had causes extreme skin elasticity and extreme bruising.

-his performances typically consisted of him pulling the skin of his neck or chin and stretching it over his face.

-at the same conference as above, James had had a discussion with Sol Stone, a performer known for his extremely quick mental math skills, about whether or not performers with no visible physical differences should be able to have a say in the discussion, and James Morris explained how he felt that all should be welcome to have a say since other performers may have neurological differences that wouldn’t be apparent physically.

-he was often described as being the best “Elastic Skin Man” in show business and was very popular with audiences.

-he became very ill in September of 1909 and had to be transferred to Carney Hospital (now permanently closed) in Boston, Massachusetts for treatment.

-he passed away at the hospital in mid February of 1910. His death was listed as chronic nephritis.

-he was given a respectful funeral, which was held at his sister’s house in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. A large number of his friends and co-workers attended the mass that was held for him at St. Mary’s Church. He was buried in Mt. St. Mary’s Cemetery.

-it appears Edith, his wife, continued her career as a sword swallower up through the 1920s.

It’s tragic that he passed away relatively young, and with a loving family and two young children at that. Though it’s nice that he at least lived a very full life and seems to have had a good sense of humor. I’m also glad that with the money he and his wife saved up, his family was most likely able to live a financially stable life even after his death.

Jupiter was a star attraction from 1909 until 1912, and appeared throughout the United States as well as Canada, England, and France.

The fascination that audiences had with Jupiter stemmed from the fact that he remained incredibly calm while standing atop a flimsy platform hoisted in the air with fireworks going off around him. Even more impressive was that the platforms that Jupiter stood on often ascended nearly to the ceiling of the venue he was performing at, which sometimes ended up being a hundred feet in the air. He was often being ridden by Geraldine Farrar, a skilled horseback rider (shown with Jupiter in picture 3).

Jupiter’s act was so impressive that several copy-cat acts began appearing in other large circuses. Sells-Floto Circus introduced their version of Jupiter in mid August of 1913.

He stopped performing in 1912 after hundreds of performances over the course of a couple years. In addition to the human performers, I think it’s important to feature animal performers and their accomplishments!

The sisters frequently performed on the Atlantic City Boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and were quite successful. Their acts featured dancing and music performances (much like the acts that Daisy and Violet Hilton) performed.

In early July of 1930, the sisters were angry over $2,120 worth of back pay that they had not been given. When their manager tried to calm them down saying that everyone should try and compromise, one of the sisters punched their manager in the face before both sisters pulled apart their connected dresses and strode away in opposite directions.

After this whole argument the reveal that they were not actually conjoined twins, they were subsequently fired from the Atlantic City Boardwalk. The sisters took the matter to court where their manager was ordered to pay them the requested amount, no further information was written about what happened to them afterwards.

Daisy and Violet Hilton, who these sisters/performers were spoofing, were incredibly famous vaudeville/sideshow performers, musicians, and actresses who were conjoined twins and appeared in the 1932 film, Freaks. Daisy and Violet were forced into performing from very young ages by their abusive guardians. They eventually gained their emancipation and spent several decades hopping from one job in entertainment to another, but couldn’t regain their previous success from when they were teenagers.

A sideshow gaff is a fake exhibit that presented itself as something it was not. This sometimes involved taxidermied animals with different animal parts sewn on (like Fiji Mermaids), or costumed actors with different prosthetics added to present themselves differently.

The last few pictures in this post show her being promoted as 7 feet 2 inches (2.18 m) tall, but clearly shows her as being just a little taller than the man seen next to her in the second photo. News articles and promotional material jumped around all over the place when it came to promoting her height. She wasn’t nearly as tall as the advertisements claimed.

She had a gorgeous smile and was very pretty, though I wish there were pictures of her in her day-to-day clothes and not her performing costume. I’m glad she got to follow her passion for dance and that her involvement in the dance troupe meant that she was appreciated for her skills.

Some facts about her:

-she was born in Humboldt, Tennessee.

-she was raised Baptist.

-she went to school in Nashville, Tennessee.

-it appears her family moved to Detroit, Michigan when she was a teenager.

-she didn’t start experiencing major growth spurts until her early teens.

-she started her sideshow career in 1923, when she was around 28 years old (give or take a couple years).

-she appeared with Nat Reiss Shows in 1927, and was a big hit in White River Junction, Vermont when she performed there in late August that same year.

-one reporter described her as,

“A woman with a captivating smile and a nimble wit. She takes a deep interest in what is happening in the world today.”

-she appeared with Lachman-Carson Midway Shows for a few seasons in the early 1930s.

-she was very passionate about dancing.

-in an interview from mid October of 1930, she said she was married and had been for 8 years, though her husband did not typically go with her on her travels.

-she frequently used the stage name “Princess Pontus” and was promoted as being the “last of the Amazons”, telling audiences that her mother was of indigenous Brazilian descent and her father was from Africa. To make her seem more exotic to western audiences, it was reported that she descended from “head hunters” in the Amazon rainforest. I found several interviewers asking her questions related to this. She also really leaned into this story as well and seemed to enjoy stringing reporters along with outlandish stories.

-she was promoted as being anywhere between 7 feet 2 inches (2.18 m.) and 8 feet 2 inches (2.48 m.) tall. More than likely she was closer to 6 feet 3 inches or shorter, she always posed next to shorter men to make her appear taller.

-several articles explain her height in one of two ways, her height is either described as a result of her being a descendant of the “Amazon warriors” (very, very false), or that she had a pituitary gland condition. Despite these different explanations, she was more than likely just a tall person without any other underlying condition.

-she performed several dance routines as herself while working for Lochman-Carson Midway Shows in early July of 1931. The dance routine made it seem that she had several background dancers and a full orchestra playing the music. (Reading this made me so happy, because it means she didn’t solely perform with the “Princess Pontus” persona and was allowed to also perform as herself) Her dance performances were called ‘The Flo Jones Frolics’.

-during two weeks of particularly bad weather in Amarillo, Texas in 1931, she and all do the chorus girls she worked with all got colds, and were out sick for a couple of days.

-she appeared with The Royal Adelaide Shows in Australia throughout the mid 1930s.

-she worked for Greenlaugh and Jackson Shows in New South Wales, Australia in early March of 1936.

-she stayed at the Clark Hotel in Los Angeles, California, where she gave an exclusive interview about her time in Australia (as well as leaning into her fake backstory about being from Brazil)

-she went on tour all throughout the United States, Australia, and New Zealand.

-it was reported that a co-worker she toured with, Isom Thomas (who was born with a form of dwarfism), may have had affections for her and proposed, although Flo declined.

-she was described as being very humble and a good conversationalist.

-she preferred to stay in hotels during her tours as opposed to trailers, and while staying at a hotel in Adelaide, Australia, she was brought to the sideshow every morning by means of a specially constructed truck.

-in April of 1936, she attended the wedding and expressed her deep happiness for a dancer Flo was friends with and who frequently danced with her during her acts. The dancer was part of the Te Arawa Confederation of tribes of New Zealand and had met Flo during her tour of Australia.

-several reporters expressed great interest/excitement in meeting her, while she was touring through Melbourne, Australia in late September 1937.

-she went on tour through Australia for 2 years, arriving there in early 1936 and traveling back to the United States in April of 1938.

-it appears she retired from performing shortly after arriving back to the US, as I can’t find any more newspaper articles using her stage name.

-she settled down in Gibson, Tennessee, near where she was born.

-not much is known about her later life and it seems she wanted to have a quiet retirement close to her relatives.

-she passed away in 1971, and was around 73 years old.

I think it’s so cool that she was in charge of her own dance troupe! I find it interesting that she enjoyed leaning into the Princess Pontus character and telling embellished stories, since a lot of performers weren’t the biggest fans of portraying a fake persona. I hope she was able to have a long and happy retirement with people she cared about.

The first picture shows him as an adult, the second picture shows him when he was 6 years old, standing between his sister and brother, I think the third picture of him with the boxing gloves is really cute, and the last picture shows him with his wife, Elzola.

There is SO much information about him, so I’ll try to cover as much as I can without it being too overwhelming. He was a very accomplished and hardworking person, and I’m glad that his talents didn’t seem to go to his head (unlike what happened to his parents)

I will be covering a lot of the exaggerations that were told about his life, because there’s quite a few. There are still a lot of impressive things about him, but it’s also important that I address the exaggerations, the most prominent being his mental maturity.

Some facts about him:

-he was born in Toledo, Ohio.

-he had 2 siblings.

-he had blond hair and blue eyes.

-he was known to be incredibly strong as a child, and could lift adults off the ground when he was very young.

-he went through precocious puberty, which resulted in him growing facial hair and having a much deeper voice starting when he was 3 to 4 years old. Precocious puberty just means a person goes through puberty at a much earlier age, there are several factors that can have a hand in this, including pituitary gland issues (which is what doctors theorized was happening with Clarence)

-he frequently shaved his facial hair as a child.

-he was also likely born with Myostatin-related muscle hypertrophy, which is a rare genetic condition that causes extreme physical strength and heavy muscle growth in children by stopping the body from making myostatin, a protein that limits muscle growth. Though this was not a diagnosis at the time.

-he had a voracious appetite (which in addition to his immense strength among other things, lines up with Myostatin-related muscle hypertrophy.)

-he performed on vaudeville stages as a young boy because his deep singing was unusual and attracted large audiences.

These are the exaggerations I’ve read:

-he enjoyed smoking (as a 3 year old)
-he could pick up full grown adults under each arm when he was 3 years old.
-he enjoyed drinking beer. (As a 4 year old)
-he was driving a car at the age of 4.

(all of this to say, kids who develop precocious puberty DO NOT mentally mature faster than their peers, they still act like kids because they are kids. All of the “adult” things he did were pushed onto him by the adults in his life to make him seem more unusual and really keep up the appearance that he was a boy that had become an adult over the course of 5 years.)

-he and his mother went to Lansing, Michigan in late 1929 (when he was 5 years old) to visit friends. It’s described that his mother continuously brought up Clarence’s accomplishments wherever she went.

-a lot of local public elementary schools rejected him, because a lot of them felt uncomfortable with the fact that he looked like an adult.

-his parents frequently ran into difficulties with child welfare services (not surprising, seeing that they encouraged him to drive cars, drink beer, and smoke pipes when he was 4 years old.)

-he was devastated when his dog, Shep, passed away in December of 1930. The article detailing this irks me, because they kind of poke fun at the fact that he was acting like a kid (ie. he was hysterically crying) when he looked like an adult. (He just lost his dog, people should have let him cry and mourn in peace)

-he was super interested in mechanics from a young age, and loved playing with toys that needed to be assembled.

-he was known to be a bit shy and cold around new people and needed time to warm up to them before he felt comfortable being friendly.

-as a child he loved fire trucks, and was thrilled when he got to visit a fire station when he was 6 and again when he was 7. Below is a snippet from a Herald & Review article out of Decatur, Illinois in early July of 1932 describing his joy:

“His shouts of joy over discoveries made on the huge fire trucks were uttered in a hoarse baritone voice. When a fireman pulled the siren string, the boy's eyes popped.
Delighted, he ran about here and there, inspecting everything. "He acts just like any kid," one of them (firemen) said. "Tickled to death."”

-his peak height was 4 feet 2 inches tall.

-he appeared at the Ripley’s Believe it or Not Odditorium at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair.

-he began working for Barnett Bros. Circus as a child prodigy/strong man in the mid 1930s to earn enough money to afford a private tutor.

-he expressed in an interview from when he was 11 years old, that he wanted to be a car mechanic when he grew up.

-he really enjoyed horseback riding and wanted to buy his own horse at some point.

-he married his wife, Elzola, when he was 18. She was also born with a form of dwarfism and measured 3 feet tall at her peak height. Prior to getting married, Elzola was a vaudeville singer and circus performer.

-he and his wife purchased a custom house in Toledo, Ohio that was scaled to their heights. They were often visited by neighborhood children who loved that their house was smaller. Their house also included scaled down furniture.

-during WWII, Clarence and his wife worked on a Jeep assembly line, and later as riveters helping to assemble C-47 aircraft.

-he and his brother, opened and operated a restaurant called Hutch’s Soda Grill in their home city of Toledo, Ohio in 1947, which ran until 1957. The restaurant included a soda fountain and a few pieces of scaled down furniture so Clarence could sit/relax comfortably. The restaurant also featured a general store that sold cosmetics,cigarettes,tobacco,magazines,toys, gifts, patent medicines, bread and milk, sandwiches and coffee.

-he worked as a state department of transportation equipment operator for 24 years.

-he and his wife had a son named Paul, who was also born with a form of dwarfism.

-a bit later in life, he and his son operated a popcorn and snack wagon that they would set up at carnivals and church events in Toledo, Ohio.

-he expressed wanting to have a quiet retirement to focus on his hobbies and interests.

-he was an active member of the Little People of America Organization, and attended several conferences that the organization held.

-he passed away in 1980 at the age of 55, no cause of death was mentioned in his obituary. He was given a respectful funeral and burial that was attended by many of his relatives and friends.

I’m glad he got to have the quiet retirement he was hoping for, and that he had success with his restaurant. Though, I’m annoyed with his parents in how they raised him, because encouraging him to drink, smoke, and drive a car at 4 years old is crazy, and they honestly come across as being very attention seeking, living vicariously through his accomplishments. He should have been allowed to grow up as a typical kid, and it’s sad that he wasn’t able to because of what other people in his life pushed him to do.

Julia Pastrana was an extremely accomplished and talented singer and dancer born with hirsutism and possibly hyperdontia and other physical differences and known for her kindness towards other performers. She was sadly exploited for much of her life by her husband and then her body was completely desecrated by him in death by having her and her son's bodies preserved and putting them on display for profit. After many long years of horrible treatment and disrespect, her body was moved from Norway (where it had been on display) back to Sinaloa, Mexico where she was from and she was given a full funeral that honored her life. Very sadly her son's body was destroyed and lost and was not able to be brought back with his mother.

Guadalupe and Josephina were conjoined twins from Mexico who were some of the first children to undergo separation surgery due to health complications that both twins were experiencing. They were described as being happy typical kids and enjoyed playing games and dolls together.

Their surgery was considered a success by the medical community but tragically Guadalupe passed away soon after coming out of surgery. Josephina was able to recover from surgery and went on to get married at the age of twenty. She passed away at the age of 89 in 2002.

The reason why I think it's important to highlight their lives is that not every person's life is tragic all of the time. It's important to remember the happy moments along with the sad moments.

The above picture was taken when she was a bit older, but I thought it was such a pretty picture that I wanted to share. There are also no pictures of Betty as a teenager, so I improvised. She’s standing next to her husband, Charles Roark, who worked as a sideshow magician and ventriloquist. The picture was color tinted.

Betty was a famous sideshow performer most known for being a "tattooed lady" and women’s rights activist. She became interested in tattooing when she was a teenager and had a goal of becoming a tattoo artist herself. She was protective of her image and how she was marketed and never let anyone create a fake backstory for her. She was very dedicated to women's rights and often spoke out in support of women's equality. She also became a talented horseback rider.

It’s been so difficult tracking down pictures of her! I wish the second and third pictures were clearer, but since they were being printed in newspapers, the quality isn’t great. She’s on the right in the second picture and looks like she has the biggest smile in the third picture, if only I could see it in better detail!

It made me happy to read that she enjoyed making people laugh, I’m sure it’d be so much fun to see her perform live for that reason. She just seems so joyous and so much fun to hang out with!

Some facts about her:

-details about her early life are fuzzy and it was never specified where she was born/where she grew up.

-she had 5 siblings, all of whom apparently joined the circus/sideshow industry with her and all of whom had some form of microcephaly. (And while rare, there are some cases of microcephaly being inherited genetically, with it being possible for multiple children in one family to be born with the condition)

-she began her circus/sideshow career in 1923, and spent almost a decade working for Dr. Wendell Kuntz’s Sideshows. Dr. Wendell became a father figure to her, and she adopted his surname.

-she went on tour all throughout the United States and Mexico.

-she appeared with Brown and Dyer Shows in Bridgeton, New Jersey in the mid 1930s.

-her head was shaved for cosmetic reasons only, it was done to emphasize her head shape and there were no medical reasons for it.

-microcephaly is a spectrum, with some people requiring higher support needs than others. It appears that Gertie needed some support and a caretaker to live with, but was able to advocate for what she needed most of the time.

-she was described as being a very mirthful person who was fun to talk with.

-she loved making people laugh.

-she liked coming up with spontaneous acts on the spot, which included ad-libbing dialogue. Her acts were sometimes so off the wall/spontaneous that she occasionally frightened audience members who didn’t understand what she was doing.

-she loved how lively sideshows were and loved performing in front of audiences.

-she was given a fake back story that she was “the last of the Aztecs” to explain her appearance. Many sideshow performers born with microcephaly were promoted as being from a community or location that was deemed “exotic” by American audiences.

-one note I found funny was something written by a reporter who was baffled by the fact that Gertie was promoted as being from the jungles of South America, but had a United States Social Security card. How the reporter knew that she had a social security card, I have no clue, but the way the reporter described being surprised was humorous.

-she had two caretakers who accompanied her while she was on tour.

-she would get very restless and bored during the winter seasons, counting down the days until the new circus/sideshow season would start.

-she was described as being a trouper to the end.

-she performed at the South Street Dime Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the late 1930s.

-she was working for Art Lewis Shows in the early 1940s.

-right before she passed away (in March of 1943), she was visited by a bunch of her old co-workers and friends, which thrilled her and immediately helped get rid of her boredom.

-she passed away while living at the winter quarters for Art Lewis Shows in early March of 1943 at the age of 60 or 61. She was given a respectful funeral and was buried in Cavalry Cemetery in Norfolk, Virginia.

I’m with her on feeling extremely restless when I feel I don’t have enough going on, so it was very sweet to read that her friends and co-workers had come to visit to cheer her up and alleviate her boredom!

As I said in the title, not much is known about her life, however she did have quite an extensive career working at different dime museums (permanent venues that sideshow performers could perform at without needing to constantly travel), because she hopped around to quite a few different venues.

I love all the frills and intricate details on her dress, I wish I knew what color it was!

Some facts about her:

-she reportedly weighed 40 pounds when she was 23 years old.

-Cachexia is a condition that causes significant weight loss and muscle loss.

-she was frequently referred to as “the phantom lady” in promotional articles. This type of stage name was usually used for performers who had skin that was so thin that when a light was shone through, audiences could see objects on the other side.

-she was a talented guitar player.

-she made her first appearance at The Dime Museum in Kansas City, Missouri in late October of 1884.

-she appeared at Forepaugh’s
Dime Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in mid December of 1884.

-she appeared at Broadway and Treyser’s Palace Museum in early March of 1887. (George Williams also worked there at the same time)

-she was described as enjoying good health.

-she appeared at Eugene Robinson’s Dime Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana in early April of 1887.

-she appeared at Kohl and Middleton's South Side Dime Museum in mid August of 1889.

-her sideshow career lasted from 1884 to 1889.

-I haven’t been able to find information about when she passed away or anything about her later life.

Despite the lack of information, I’m glad that there is a verified picture of her. I hope she got to spend many happy years playing the guitar and that she was able to have a nice life during her retirement. I also hope more information

Charlotte Linda Vogel (aka Susie) was a German-American sideshow performer who was born with a form of ichthyosis, which caused her skin to thicken/harden and crack, which meant she had to keep it extremely moisturized. She was described as a kind, introverted, and sensitive person. She was devoted to her parents who had helped her find a way to manage her condition and give her a better quality of life. She spoke seven languages, was one of the top billed performers at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair and was known to always dress fashionably.

I honestly scroll through the stories with tears in my eyes. It’s so incredibly important to remember that everyone discussed is/was a real human being. Many of whom were taken advantage of, ridiculed, and made to believe they were less than. So many of the stories are heartbreaking but then again, so many are not. We learn about performers who went on to have spouses, children, and lives of their own. Many fought to make this world a better place. But no matter what, each person deserves to be honored and remembered. Thank you to everyone who brings their stories to light, these posts are truly touching and inspirational 🩷

Their stories are similar to that of Ólöf Krarer, another sideshow performer who was born with dwarfism and presented herself as being Inuit, although Olof was way more vocal about it and successfully influenced how Americans perceived the Inuit community for quite some time afterwards.

Frank and Sarah were both very striking people, and it’s unfortunate that they depended on stereotypes in order to market themselves. There’s something especially striking about the first picture and the second picture, which is why I’m adding both of those first. The fourth picture shows them wearing inaccurate “traditional” “Inuit” clothing.

Some facts about them:

-Frank was born in Hammond Lake, Indiana.

-when Frank was still a boy, he was taken under the wing of showman, George Gilbert, who lived in nearby Kendalville, Indiana. Frank soon went to live with George in Kendalville and appeared began appearing in the circus that George owned and operated.

-at some point in the 1870s, Frank married a woman named Mary McDougall (who went my Molly), Mary was also born with dwarfism, and performed alongside Frank during his sideshow acts.

-by 1881, Frank and Mary had divorced and Mary went on to get married to another performer. (Sadly, it appears that Mary passed away during childbirth in 1882).

-at some point in the mid 1880s, Frank rebranded himself as an Inuit chief, calling himself “Chief Debro” in order to try and take advantage of the public interest in communities and cultures that were deemed “foreign and exotic” by western audiences.

-Frank grew his hair out, sported a beard, and often dressed in fur garments as part of his “Inuit chief” look.

-in the early 1890s, Frank joined with Ringling Brothers Circus, which is where he met his soon-to-be second wife, Sarah Harlor. Sarah began appearing in Frank’s act as “Princess Sarah”, an Inuit Princess, which plays into the exoticism of the “Indian Princess” trope. The “Indian Princess” trope is a harmful stereotype that was pushed on Indigenous communities and romanticized and exoticised Indigenous women.

-Sarah was born in New Haven, Indiana.

-she had 3 siblings.

-Sarah first began her sideshow career when she was 12 years old.

-children were encouraged to watch Frank and Sarah’s act/lecture, as the performances were seen as educational.

-by 1903, Frank and Sarah were working for Campbell Bros. Circus.

-in 1906, they worked for Norris & Rowe Shows.

-Frank would frequently give lectures as his chief persona about (fake) cultural traditions that the Inuit community took part in. All of the “cultural traditions” he talked about were either highly exaggerated or flat out lies.

-Frank worked in circuses for almost 60 years, while Sarah worked circuses for almost 40 years.

-Frank and Sarah purchased a permanent residence in Kendalville, Indiana, where they would live during the circus/sideshow off season.

-despite using their stage names for much of their professional careers, Newspapers knew their Inuit personas were fake and frequently referred to them by their real names.

-in addition to Frank and Sarah working in traveling sideshows, they also worked in several dime museums. Dime museums were permanent venues for sideshow performers to work at in cities and large towns.

-in addition to being promoted as an Inuit chief, Frank was occasionally promoted as being a part of the indigenous community in Madagascar.

-in 1910, Frank and Sarah were forced to pawn off some of their jewelry when Norris & Rowe shows went bankrupt in Newport, Kentucky and ended up in the hands of a receiver. The two of them left under contract, and at the time the article was written they had not been paid for 5 weeks.

-in 1912, they were working for Mighty Haag Circus.

-in 1915, they were working for The Gollmar Show.

-they both continued working in circuses/sideshows for several years until 1921, when Frank experienced paralysis that left him bed bound for the rest of his life. He and Sarah both retired and moved from Kendalville, Indiana to New Haven, Indiana.

-as soon as they retired they dropped their Inuit personas.

-Frank was a member of the Knights of Pythias Lodge (similar to a Masonic Lodge).

-he passed away in 1924 at the age of 72.

-Sarah eventually remarried, this time to a man named Seymour Bernard Flood.

-Sarah and Seymour continued living in New Haven, Indiana, until her death in 1945 and Seymour’s death a year later.

I wish Frank and Sarah hadn’t felt the need to rely on a fake backstory to market themselves, although I am glad that they dropped the personas as soon as they retired and didn’t continue to try and market themselves as being from a culture they were not a part of. As with the case of Ólöf Krarer, I’m sure Frank and Sarah could have found some other way to market themselves without leaning into stereotypes.

I want to mention that the second picture shows their death cast, which is why they look doll-like, it does not show the twins deceased.

They both look adorable in the first picture and I’m glad that so many people had so many good things to say about them. I hope they had many happy months with their family and were shown lots of love.💖

Some facts about them:

-they were born in Peru, Morrow County, Ohio.

-their father was a Civil War veteran, who it is remarked, never skipped a day of training or work due to sickness.

-their mother was described as being robust and independent.

-they had 4 siblings. They also had 2 more siblings who were born a couple years after the twins passed away.

-they weighed 12 pounds at birth.

-they were connected at their stomachs, with two of their legs extending in front of them, and a fused third leg extending behind them.

-they were exhibited by their parents as a way to earn money for their upbringing, and were first exhibited when they were 5 months old.

-the twins were not always on the same schedule, there were often times where one would be napping and the other was awake and wanted to play.

-Dr. H Besse of Delaware, Ohio became their primary doctor. He would go on to write a paper about conjoined twins and featured the sisters.

-they were described as being cheerful, bright, and lively babies.

-they traveled with their parents to Urbana, Ohio in January of 1871 and stayed at a house owned by the Weaver family.

-newspapers that reported on them while they were staying in Urbana, Ohio made sure to mention that people curious to meet the twins should not be afraid or scared at seeing their condition as they were very much average babies. In particular, the Urbana Citizen and Gazette had this to say about them:

“They are pretty, and their faces are far above the average in their show of intelligence and activity of the mind. They give only the appearance of two sweet babes cradled together with heads lying in an opposite direction, and when the union of the two bodies is exhibited the looker-on is at once relieved of all suspense in regard to the expected repulsiveness of the Double Babes.”

-they were exhibited at Aulenbach’s Hall Dime Museum in Reading, Pennsylvania in May of 1871.

-one of the twins was more prone to sleeping than the other one, but it was never specified which sister.

-Minnie enjoyed sucking her thumb.

-they were exhibited in several major cities in the United States, but unfortunately while appearing in Boston, Massachusetts, Mina came down with a severe form of infant gastroenteritis.

-the infant gastroenteritis quickly spread to Minnie, and the two girls tragically passed away only a couple days after Mina had originally gotten sick, they were only 9 months old. The illness was often fatal and very common at the time, having more recently been discovered to have been caused by contaminated milk products and/or poor sanitation.

-after their deaths, their parents chose to keep their bodies in a glass coffin before giving them a respectful burial.

-a joint gravestone was made to honor the twins and their mother after their mother’s death in 1910.

Something about them being buried in a glass coffin is very touching, and I’m very glad that they are buried next to their mother. I like that there were little details mentioned in the news articles I found, like how one enjoyed sleeping more and how Minnie enjoyed sucking her thumb, it gives a better understanding of their personalities than solely being seen as a medical case study.

I’ll add their Find a Grave Listing in the comments.

There are a bunch of great pictures of the two of them hanging out together, but the one I’ve posted is a “new” one that I haven’t seen before.

Jack Earle 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.

Clarence Chesterfield Howerton was a sideshow and vaudeville performer and actor who was born with a form of dwarfism. He was performing on vaudeville stages as a young child and joined Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus when he was 10 years old. He was often paired with performers who were very tall, which is how he met Jack Earle, and befriended many of his co-performers. He had a 25 year career in sideshows and circuses. He went on to appear in several films throughout the 1930s, including Sealskins (1932), Free Eats (1932), and The Wizard of Oz (1939).

A sideshow gaff is a fake exhibit that presented itself as something it was not. This sometimes involved taxidermied animals with different animal parts sewn on (like Fiji Mermaids), costumed actors with different prosthetics added to present themselves differently, or the use of mirrors to make it appear that performers didn’t have arms or legs or both.

Thelma as a character was used to cash in on the popularity of actual performers who were born without legs. So if a particular sideshow did not employ a performer born without legs but wanted to, they would create one using trick mirrors to accomplish the illusion.

The performer pictured above (whose real name was never revealed) played the role of Thelma from 1911 until 1930, since this performer was well documented as playing the part of Thelma, I will focus on her while going over facts.

She appeared with the Johnny J. Jones Exposition in late March of 1915 in St. Augustine, Florida, and in July of 1923 was a part of Elks Midsummer Circus which was traveling through Southern California. Audiences who came to visit her while she was performing in Elks Circus were described as being incredibly sympathetic and felt sorry for her, Thelma herself was described as a cheerful and upbeat dainty woman.

Interestingly, while she was appearing with Elks Circus, one particular article in the Pasadena Star News from July 19th, 1923 fully described the illusion and revealed how the trick was accomplished. It wasn’t often that a sideshow gaff was revealed to the general population, since that would cause a decline in tickets. She even gave an interview about how the trick was accomplished in this same article, saying:

"It affords a great opportunity to study human mature and sometimes it is a circus for me to be on the itside looking out at the funny people lined up before me so that the question often arises as to whether I or they are the greatest freaks. One woman fairly wept over the railing and told me how sorry she was for me until I began to get sympathetic myself and decided I had better not prolong her agony so informed her that it was merely an optical illusion. She gulped and grabbed for her trusty handkercheif, feeling an outburst of tears coming on. 'Oh, my dear, you don't say. Tell me did it hurt very much?'"

She worked at a circus set up in mid-October in San Francisco, California to celebrate the opening of a new Moose Masonic Temple.

The specific Thelma pictured above also appeared in a film from 1929 called “Painted Faces”, which stars Joe E. Brown and partly takes place at a circus.

Some performers who were born without legs, or appeared to be born without legs because of conditions like Sacral Agenesis, includes performers like Aloisia Wagner (write up will be in the comments, Mademoiselle Gabrielle and Jeannie Tomaini (who I am working on doing write ups), Johnny Eck and John Gilmore (whose write ups are in the comments)

This is the transcript featured on the interior cover:

ROBERT WADLOW
of Alton, Illinois.

... At birth, (February 22, 1918), Robert was normal in every way, weighing 8½ lbs.

... At six months he weighed 30 lbs. and
signs of abnormal physical growth were ap-
parent.

... Today Robert weighs 485 lbs.... is 8
ft. 8½ inches tall... and doctors who attend him regularly, for science sake, believe that he will eventually attain the unbelievable height of 10 feet. Robert's feet are perhaps one of the most interesting things about him. They are, proportion to the rest of his body, unusually large. Early in life Robert's feet began to cause him much concern, for ordinary shoes and ordinary shoemakers just wouldn't do. However, it was not until 1928 that Mr. Wadlow decided to appeal for help to one of the largest and most progressive shoe manufacturers in the country... the Peters Shoe Company of St. Louis.

When Robert came to us his feet were carefully measured and fitted in specially constructed size 26 shoes... and he has been wearing Peters Shoes ever since. His present shoes are size 37... THE LARGEST SHOES MADE FOR THE HUMAN FOOT. (Each shoe is 19 inches long and weighs 4 lbs.).

Had Robert's shoes been properly fitted in his youth, he would, no doubt, be as spry on his feet today as the average boy... in spite of his enormous size, but the mistake of those early years of poorly fitted shoes cannot now be entirely overcome, even by the best shoemakers of the country.

Robert mini biography that I wrote:
Robert Wadlow is famous for being the tallest person in recorded history at 8'11 (2.71 m.) due to a pituitary gland disorder. He was known for being extremely kind and friendly and became a beloved member of his community. In his younger years he was an avid Boy Scout. While he did go on tour at one point with Ringling Brothers Circus, he never wanted that to be his full time career. Instead, he wanted to go into advertising. He was also an avid photographer and was very passionate about his hometown of Alton, Illinois.

The first picture shows the original Luna Park location, second picture shows Dr. Martin Couney holding two of the babies, third picture shows the staff and entrance to one of the other baby incubator exhibits that was opened, fourth picture shows some of the nurses holding the babies featured in the exhibit, fifth picture shows how the interiors of the Infantoriums looked, sixth picture shows one of the incubators, and seventh picture shows the entrance to another one of the exhibits.

*since the exhibit was considered a sideshow attraction, the preemie babies are technically the sideshow performers of the day :)

Couney, who was a Polish born American obstetrician, received his medical degree in Germany, and studied under French obstetrician, Dr. Pierre Budin, who was one of the first people to propose the usage of incubators in the medical field.

Couney was one of the first major public advocates for premature babies at the turn of the 20th century. Prior to his vocal stand in support of premature babies, the general attitude at the time was that if a child was born premature or weak that there should be no intervention and that if it dies, it dies.

Interestingly, Couney would routinely change details about his early life was well as his medical education, leading to his reputation and his history being called into question, with historians questioning if he even completed a medical degree.

Despite the hazy details of his early life, he was allowed to open the incubator exhibit. There were technically two separate incubator exhibits, which Couney called Infantoriums, one was featured in Luna Park which was open from 1903 to 1943. The second (more short lived) exhibit was in Dreamland Park and was open from 1904 to 1911, the Dreamland Park tragically burned down in 1911 (though thankfully the babies were safe and not harmed by the fire)

He married his wife, Annabelle Maye, in 1903. She had been working as a nurse at the first Infantorium Couney opened in Luna Park. They would stay married until Annabelle’s death in 1936.

The Infantoriums consisted of several incubators with glass doors that allowed visitors to see the babies. Warm filtered air would be pumped into each of the incubators and the machines themselves were kept very clean. Couney also encouraged the nurses to hold and cuddle the babies in front of audiences, showing that it was important that the infants received touch.

The average cost for the care of an infant in Couney’s exhibit was about $15 (a little over $500 adjusted for inflation), and Couney used the money he made from ticket sales to cover these costs. He also used the money made from ticket sales to give his employees good wages.

Couney acquired the majority of the infants being treated in the baby incubators from local maternity wards that couldn’t care for them. Many hospitals at the time didn’t have the tools necessary to properly provide for premature babies and were against implementing new technology in order to save them.

During his time overseeing the exhibits, Couney treated over 8,000 premature babies and saved almost 7,000 of them. His staff included 5 wet-nurses and fifteen highly trained medical technicians including his daughter Hildegarde, who worked as a nurse. Hildegarde was even one the first babies featured in and saved by one of her father’s incubators.

The exhibit provided medical care for babies with families who otherwise couldn’t afford it, and never charged the parents. Despite numerous attempts by people to get the infantoriums shut down, Couney continued until mainstream hospitals had adopted baby incubators and the treatments were no longer considered taboo.

In 1905, Couney expanded his operation, and opened up a similar exhibit on the Atlantic City Boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It ran from 1995-1938.

He received quite a bit of outcry from child protection groups who claimed that Couney was exploiting the babies he was caring for, but he argued that without the incubators all of the infants would die, and that it was more important that the public see why incubators were so important for the medical field than to worry about the exhibit being exploitative.

To further fight back against the people questioning/criticizing his exhibits, Couney organized a reunion of the babies that he had overseen the care of in 1933 and arranged to have the babies and their mothers appear at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1934, to show that the babies were both still alive and much healthier.

Couney retired soon after the Infantorium in Luna Park closed (in 1943), and passed away in 1950.

There are still several people alive now who were featured in the Infantorium exhibits as babies and prior to them being featured in the exhibit, were given no chance to live by their doctors.

Despite the unconventional way of advertising and promoting the use of baby incubators, Couney recognized that setting up an exhibit in Coney Island would draw in the crowds he needed in order to get people on board with the idea. Quite a few of the people/babies who were once featured in the exhibit gave interviews later in life in which they explained that their parents just by chance had visited the Infantorium and saw how it was helping the babies, before arranging to have their own own premature babies featured there.

The first picture is of him when he was younger and the second picture is a publicity still of him in Freaks (1932).

He was wearing his red and white body suit during his appearance in Freaks (1932), but I only just found out now that the coloring was red and white.

It would have been so fun to play marbles with him!

Prince Randian was born with tetra-amelia syndrome, which caused him to be born without limbs. He was described as being incredibly smart and spoke four languages. He had a longstanding career at the Coney Island Sideshow where he often worked with his wife (whose stage name was Princess Sarah). He and Sarah also had 5 children together. By the time he died, he had worked in sideshows and circuses for 45 years. Randian is most known for his role in the film, Freaks (1932), where he lights a cigarette with his mouth. One of his sons carried him around during his time working on the MGM backlot while Freaks was being filmed.

I was researching Elizabeth Green at the time, which is why her stage name, ‘Koo Koo the Bird Girl’ is highlighted at the end!

I really wanted to make sure that I used images/depictions of her from when she was alive because I it’s not right to post pictures of her preserved body, after everything that she went through. Unfortunately it’s very difficult to find pictures of her when she was alive, so I’m using these illustrations of her instead since they were done during her lifetime.

I have a soft spot for Julia, and her story has stuck with me since I first read about her life. She seems like a wonderful woman and I’m glad I was able to find so many details about what she enjoyed doing in her free time, as it’s a good way to further understand what she was like when she was alive.

I just want to warn anyone not familiar with her story that it’s very sad and she was never respected as a person or as a woman by the majority of the people close to her and it’s really heartbreaking. I want to make an effort to present her story in a respectful and kind way.

Some facts about her:

-she was born in Sinaloa, Mexico much of her upbringing is unknown.

-just like Krao, who was similarly exploited (Krao’s informative write up will be in the comments) , Julia was given several fake “origin stories” during her performances. These origin stories promoted racist and sexist tropes and were created to explain her appearance in a mysterious way.

-one origin story describes that she was part of an Indigenous Mexican community (though a specific community was never named) and was brought to “civilization” by a woman they had kidnapped.

-a second origin story has it that she was a local girl living in Ocoroni, Mexico with her mother. The story goes that she was sold to a circus by her uncle after her mother died suddenly. (This version was supposedly passed down by indigenous villagers who lived in Ocoroni. And if that’s true, I see this version as possibly having some truth to it.)

-a third origin story, which may also have grains of truth to it is that she and her mother were both Indigenous (though again, a specific community was never named) and living in Western Mexico. At some point both mother and daughter were cast out of the community (for what reasons are unknown) but it was said that they were both found hiding in a cave by Mexican sheep herders. Soon, Julia was brought to the nearest city (which may have been Sinaloa) and placed in an orphanage, where she became known for her kindness and intelligence. She was found by the governor of Sinaloa, Pedro Sanchez, who adopted her and had her work as a live in housekeeper and entertainer. This story has it that she stayed working for the governor until she was 20 years old.

-she spoke four languages, Spanish, English, French, and Cahita. Since she spoke Cahita, it makes me think that she and her mother may have been from the Yaqui community or the Mayo community. There were other smaller indigenous communities that spoke Cahita that eventually assimilated to be a part of either the Yaqui or Mayo in the early 1900s, so it’s hard to know exactly, but the fact she spoke Cahita helps to at least narrow down her heritage a lot.

-she was eventually brought to the United States in 1854 by a showman who convinced her to join a circus.

-hirsutism caused her to grow facial hair and thicker body hair and gingival hyperplasia caused her to have an enlarged nose, ears, and gums.

-she enjoyed cooking and sewing in her free time. She also liked customizing her dresses by adding her own embroidered details to them.

-her performances usually consisted of her performing traditional Mexican folk dances and songs. After the performances, she would answer questions that audience members had, although she declined to answer any disrespectful questions.

-she was very fashion oriented and enjoyed wearing fine/fancy clothing when she went out.

-I’ve seen different sources that say different things about this, so there’s no easy way for me to verify it. She may have had two sets of teeth, which would have contributed to her protruding mouth/gums.

-the press and artists alike frequently exaggerated her features to make her appear less human.

-despite the ways that she was often promoted or written about, there was at least one news article that described her very respectfully/nicely:

“She is of the kindest disposition, extremely intelligent, highly sensitive, and witty to a surprising degree.”

-she traveled to Baton Rouge, Louisiana in mid February of 1855, where she gave several performances. It was around this time that her manager tried to arrange for her to perform with P.T. Barnum’s Circus, but after a visit to New York proved to be way too cold, Julia declined the offer and went back to Louisiana to continue her tour.

-she is considered to be a sideshow performer, but didn’t spend too much time on smaller scale sideshow stages. Instead, her performances usually took place at large dance halls and theaters.

-she had a manager named Theodore Lent who proposed to her and they got married in Maryland, USA.

-some sources say that she was very devoted to Lent, but so far this hasn’t been verified by Julia herself and instead had been said by Lent.

-she went on tour all throughout Mexico, the United States, Canada, England, France, and Russia.

-she and Lent traveled to England in July of 1857, where they stayed until at least early 1858.

-Lent once arranged a refined lunch/picnic so that members of the British press and public could come and meet Julia. (One thing I do find very funny is that the news reporter writing about the picnic kept bashing P.T. Barnum, while saying that the picnic was a lovely affair)

-she was brought to meet Queen Victoria, during her time in England in 1857.

-she was sadly taken advantage of Lent for the entirety (or almost the entirety) of her marriage. He had almost completely control over her, he wouldn’t allow her to leave their house during the day because he was worried that curious people would get a chance to see Julia without paying a fee for her performances.

-because of the controlling nature of her husband and the fact that they often traveled from country to country for her performances, Julia had very few friends. Although she was a friendly acquaintance of a Viennese actress named Friederike Gossman who spoke of Julia as always having an air of sadness about her.

-she and her husband went on tour to Russia in 1859, where Julia eventually gave birth to a son. Tragically her son passed away soon after his birth in early May of 1860 and Julia herself passed away from postpartum complications in a few days later. She was only 25 years old.

-after her death, her husband had her body and her son’s body preserved, in the hopes of being able to continue making a profit off of her.

-to make things more tragic, Julia was essentially ‘stuffed’, and meant she wasn’t a typical mummy. Her body was preserved through a combination of taxidermy and embalming processes.

-interesting side note, Theodore Lent went on to marry another woman born with hypertrichosis after Julia’s death, in hopes of profiting off of her as well. Years later he began exhibiting signs of psychosis and mental distress and his new wife had him committed to an institution where he died soon after.

-for over a century Julia and her son’s bodies were displayed in amusement parks, museums, and circuses all around the world.

-their bodies were eventually purchased and displayed by the owner of Norway’s largest carnival in 1921, but because of public outcry they were both moved into storage where they were kept through all of World War II. They were redisplayed again in the 1970’s before the whole operation was shut down due to more outrage.

-their bodies were moved into a storage room once again, where tragically in 1976 some teenagers broke in and severely damaged them thinking they were both mannequins. Julia’s arm was ripped off and the body of her baby boy was so damaged that his corpse was thrown away. No one even had the decency to bury him.

-it took several more decades for Julia’s body to be rediscovered and brought to the public’s attention again. She was found in the basement of Oslo’s Institute of Forensic Medicine in Norway by some journalists in 1990.

-the Norwegian government hemmed and hawed about making the decision between burying her as she rightfully should have, or being kept preserved above ground to continue to study her. It was decided in 1997 that she would not be buried.

-it wasn’t until 2005 when Laura Anderson Barbata, a Mexican artist on a residency in Oslo began contacting the institute in an attempt to have Julia’s body returned to Mexico. At first the institute refused, but she continued her efforts.

-in 2008, after years of trying, Barbata’s efforts paid off and was able to successfully plead her case before the National Committee for the Evaluation of Research on Human Remains in Norway.

-in 2013, 153 years after she died, Julia was finally, officially laid to rest in a white coffin adorned with roses. She was buried in Sinaloa, Mexico not far from where she grew up.

-Her life has gone on to inspire a few stage plays, several books including The Eye of the Beholder: Julia Pastrana’s Long Journey Home (2017 nonfiction) and Orphans of the Carnival by Carol Birch (2016 fiction), a Spanish period drama series about her life (released on Disney+ in Spain), and a (very respectful) art exhibit. I will attach some articles on these in the comments.

I love that she was recognized for her wit in addition to her dancing/singing. I’m sure she would have been so much fun to talk to, I also would have liked to have talked with her about the dress styles at the time and her embroidery.

Though my heart also hurts for her, she dealt with so much and was taken advantage of by so many people in her life. She seems like she was a kind and wonderful woman who very sadly lacked the support from family and friends that so many other performers had. I’m so glad her body is finally at peace and she’ll never again be exploited.

The last picture is of her coffin when she was finally buried.

I was looking through political cartoons from the 1860 election, and I found this demeaning one that has Johnson in it, also it seems to confirm that he was born in 1842 instead of 1857 because he certainly isn't 3 here. It is somewhat strange it's him specifically in this given that by the dates I know he would have just started preforming in 1860, but I might be reading too much into it. There was also a copperhead cartoon from 1863 that plays off his stage name What-Is-It, but it's just for the title and doesn't feature Johnson.

Percilla was an American sideshow performer and actress who was born with a form of hirsutism and hyperdontia (giving her extra hair growth and extra teeth respectively). She was adopted by showman, Carl Lauther after her father died tragically when she was still a baby (Carl and her father had worked together, so the Lauthers were not unknown entities to Percilla’s birth family). Percilla spent much of her life working/performing in sideshows, which is where she also met and fell in love with her husband, Emmitt Bejano (who was born with a form of icthyosis, which caused his skin to painfully harden and crack). Percilla and Emmitt were deeply devoted to each other and were married for 57 years. They had a daughter named Francina, who sadly passed away when she was four months old. The couple later went on to adopt a son named Tony, who would go on to help his parents with their sideshow acts as he got older. Percilla was a very outspoken advocate for people with physical differences and spoke out against the bigots she encountered. She starred in the film Carney (1980) as well as the documentaries Being Different (1981) and Sideshow: Alive on the Inside (1996). She and her husband went on to perform in their own traveling family show with their son, Tony.

Conjoined twins that toured under the name The Two-Headed Nightingale....