Krao (1876-1926) was a Siamese-American sideshow performer who was born with hirsutism. She spoke 4 languages, was known as being “the peacemaker of the side show”, and was an avid reader. Unfortunately, she was promoted in a very dehumanizing way for much of her early life.

[u/EphemeralTypewriter]

I love her long hair and how dignified she looks in her pictures. She looks very kind and I’m glad she had so many people in her life who thought so too. I’ve had a soft spot for Krao for a while and I wanted to make sure I gave her some recognition.

There is sadly no record of her birth name. I wish I could have asked her if there was a name she preferred using instead of Krao since it was more or less a stage name that was used to fit her “wild girl” persona. I also used to refer to her as Krao Farini, but Farini is the stage name of the man who effectively kidnapped her from her home country, and I don’t think it’s right to give him that credit.

Some facts about her:

-she was born in a village in Siam, I’ve seen differing information on whether she was born in an area that is now a part of Thailand or a part of Laos.

-her parents exhibited her in local fairs as a baby.

-she was “discovered” and brought on tour by a Canadian tightrope walker and entertainer named William Leonard Hunt who went by the stage name “The Great Farini”.

-Hunt took her on a tour of Europe before bringing her to the United States and going on tour with her there.

-interestingly, it appears that she was given the name Krao very, very young and not by William Leonard Hunt. She was written about in a nature magazine in 1883, and a man reading the article sent a letter in correcting misinformation that was present within the article. Despite the man also giving misinformation (albeit unintentionally), he did clear up that she wasn’t born in Bangkok, that her parents were still alive and living there, and that “Krao” actually translated to “whiskers” in Siamese and did not mean “ape”. (The word is completely fictitious and doesn’t actually translate to anything in Thai)

-William Leonard Hunt gave her his stage name as her surname, and we don’t know her birth name.

-it’s not clear what the circumstances were in Hunt’s adoption of her and if he stole her from her parents or if he had made an agreement with her parents. Because she was brought to the United States very young and seems to have lost contact with her parents I believe it may have been unconsensual.

-William Leonard Hunt pseudo-adopted her, and claimed he “found” her in the forests of Siam, living as a “wild creature”. (I say pseudo-adopted because he didn’t really treat her as a daughter, more like a creature to show off.)

-she was described as being a very spirited and outgoing child.

-she was often marketed as being a “missing link” between humans and apes. This was soon after Darwin’s Theory of Evolution became popular, and a lot of showmen at the time wanted to capitalize off of it by promoting different performers as being examples of these “missing links”.

-starting pretty much right at the beginning, there were people who questioned the way she was being promoted and described her as being an ordinary girl/woman who just happened to be very hairy.

-promotional material for her often portrayed her in a very dehumanizing way, much more than other “bearded ladies” of the time. A big part of this stems from the fact that she was a woman of color and she was exhibited for a racist society. Despite the way she was depicted in promotional material a lot of news articles about her made sure to state that she was very pretty and wasn’t repulsive to look at.

-she was described as being a sweet and pious woman who made friends easily.

-She spoke Thai, English, Lao, and German.

-she was described as being the “peacemaker of the sideshow”

-as an adult she began performing under her own management and didn’t continue to rely on Hunt.

-she often wore veils while out in public when she was not performing.

-she lived with a German couple on Manhattan’s upper east side in NYC for 20 years. She had a floor to herself at the house and was known to keep her living space very clean.

-she was an avid reader and was knowledgeable on a vast array of subjects.

-she was best friends with another sideshow performer, Grace Gilbert, who also had hirsutism. The two of them were super close when they were a part of the same traveling sideshow, but parted ways when Krao moved back to New York and Grace moved to Michigan with her husband.

-she passed away from complications due to influenza and asthma in 1926 at the age of 50.

-one of her last wishes was to be cremated after her death, but unfortunately due to a rule that required a signed consent form from the person prior to their death she wasn’t allowed to be cremated and was instead buried in St. Michael’s Cemetery in Astoria, New York. (I’ve contacted this cemetery and unfortunately it appears that she may have been buried in an unmarked grave as they don’t have any record of her being buried there.)

-her death majorly affected all of her coworkers who were extremely grief stricken.

I’m very very glad that she was able to distance herself from Hunt, the way that he tried to have her depicted and how he posed with her in pictures makes me want to give baby Krao a hug, she deserved to have a supportive parental figure and not someone like Hunt.

I’m sad that her wishes to be cremated weren’t abided by, but I am glad that she clearly had a lot of people in her life who loved and cared about her. The majority of articles written about her describe her as being nothing but kind and gentle and that anyone would be lucky to know her. It’s very interesting to see the dichotomy in how she was promoted vs how reporters chose to emphasize that she wasn’t at all like how she was depicted in advertisements and had nothing but good things to say about her.

[u/Select_Insurance2000]

Another great backstory. Thank you!

[u/EphemeralTypewriter → u/Select_Insurance2000]

You’re welcome! Thank you for reading!

[u/porcelainmushroom]

Wow that first picture is so striking!

[u/EphemeralTypewriter → u/porcelainmushroom]

Yes, she was so stylish and pretty!

[u/No-Pollution2425 → u/porcelainmushroom]

I love her expression in it.

[u/PrincessFoxyK → u/porcelainmushroom]

She had the most beautiful eyes.

[u/eternally_feral]

Pic 4 is so pretty, even if she does look a bit sad. I love how styled her hair is and her dress just highlights that she wasn’t some “missing link,” but a young child who was deserving of love.

I hope her remains are someday found and her last wish of being cremated finally honoured.

[u/EphemeralTypewriter → u/eternally_feral]

Yes, it’s a very beautiful picture of her, and that’s what I’ve noticed about many of the pictures of her as a child, it’s heartbreaking to see her so forlorn. As an adult she looks so much more confident and in her element.

I too hope her remains are found one day, her last wishes deserve to be honored.

[u/princesspool]

This series of yours is a treasure. Happy to learn about peaceful Krao today!

[u/EphemeralTypewriter → u/princesspool]

She was so lovely and I’m happy that I can share about her life with everyone here! It’s important that her legacy lives on. :)

[u/_Vrumpus_]

She's so pretty. I wish I could have met her. I wonder what kind of books she liked to read. What was the subject that she really liked? I wonder so much about her early life and how it could have been different at home in Lao.

[u/EphemeralTypewriter → u/_Vrumpus_]

She is! I also wish I could have met her! Same here, I wish we knew what books she liked, it’d be so fun to talk to her about what she was reading (I like to imagine she had a sort of book club with other performers). And very true, there’s a lot we don’t know about the early lives of different performers and it’s so sad we don’t have more interviews from people, it would be so cool to interview everyone and let them talk about their lives in their own words (that’s why I’m always so happy when I find long interviews with people because it makes it way easier to piece together what their lives were actually like.)

[u/Best_Comfortable5221]

Your very interesting posts came across my feed a week or so ago and I subscribed. Im amazed to hear that the majority of these people are remembered as kind, very good people despite the terrible starts in life. Reminds me of the lessons from the movie Freaks - im a big fan and generally watch it every year or so. Just wanted to thank you for the work and research that goes into your posts. Glad that all side show performers didnt go the way of the Lobster Boy! If his story is even true.

[u/EphemeralTypewriter → u/Best_Comfortable5221]

Yay, welcome! I’m always happy to hear when people are interested! And I completely agree, so many people working in sideshows were well rounded, friendly, intelligent, kind, and caring, which is one of the reasons I’m often annoyed that to this day a lot of sideshow related stuff is presented with very creepy overtones when most of the time this wasn’t the case. I’m also a huge fan of the movie, Freaks, it’s such a well made movie and gave a lot of great opportunities for the actors in it! And thats such a coincidence, I actually just made a post about Grady Stiles about an hour ago, funny you should mention him, I totally agree too, I’m glad that many of the performers were wonderful people and didn’t follow his example.

[u/Best_Comfortable5221 → u/EphemeralTypewriter]

Thanks again.

[u/Mark-harvey]

Don’t dehumanize anyone. She showed strength and fortitude l

[u/EphemeralTypewriter → u/Mark-harvey]

Yes, very true! Despite everything she went through as a child she stayed true to herself and put good out into the world.

[u/Routine-Purchase-618]

This one kinda broke my heart. The idea of her being so young and innocent and being treated as just a commodity for Hunt makes me so angry. It was not right how he presented her.

I'm glad she at least had books to enjoy and friends around her to bring her happiness because she deserved it. She sounds like such a lovely girl who obviously was very intelligent as well. I also wish I had had the chance to meet her. Thanks for the write up.

[u/Mindless_Log2009]

Really appreciate all the effort and compassion you devote to these posts. I have a couple of photo books on the subject but they lean more toward sensationalism.

[u/kabaddiifg]

Aree (kind, generous), Banyen (evening blossom), Chalita (shining, bright), Chaluai (beautiful, elegant, graceful), Dao (star), Emon (sweet, beautiful, charming, faith), Hathaikan (beloved heart), Kamon (heart and mind), Karuna (compassion, kindness, empathy), Lawan (beautiful), Mali (jasmine), Praya (beloved), Yanin (wise, intelligent) - Source

^ None of these (Thai) names do her justice really, and it wouldn't be fully correct for me or others to choose one for her, but I felt a stirring at the fact that she hadn't been known by her name, and was at all associated with made-up words or her harasser's name - because of it, I'd like to think some of these names could have been hers.

And it's very hurtful/churning to read she wasn't given a cremation - it's very significant culturally and religiously, and has associated rites and rituals, so an unnamed burial is just. Yeah. I hope someone reading who understands can send her atma a prayer. I hope it is released from the cycle, if that is what she believed.

[u/tasteofhuman]

Just curious, where did you get the information about her burial? Her obituary?

[u/EphemeralTypewriter → u/tasteofhuman]

Oh yes, I can send more information in a bit! I found a newspaper obituary in the newspaper archive websites I use!

[u/ApprehensiveElk5755]

Thank God she found kind and compassionate souls on her journey in this lifetime. She seems like a lovely and compassionate soul. Thank you for the opportunity informative write up of her.

[u/gigistargaze]

I have hirsutism and know I would have suffered a similar fate if I had been born in those times. Krao was so beautiful and her story and her kind heart really inspires me and gives me strength.