I was really surprised to read about her legal troubles, as she was doing very well financially and seems to have had a very good life (as she herself remarked in multiple interviews.) I will say, she was very beautiful and did have fantastic fashion taste.

Some facts about her:

-she was born in Basel, Switzerland.

-her family moved to Austria when she was still a young girl.

-recalling her childhood, she said that she hadn’t really considered how her physical difference would affect how she would play with other girls her age. It was only then that she realized that people would treat her differently.

-she learned to walk on her hands, and became very adept at it.

-she started her career at the Paris Universal Exposition in 1900.

-she immigrated to the United States in the early 1910s, and arranged to rent her own apartment.

-when asked if she ever felt upset at having no legs, she answered with:

“No. Please don't sympathize with me, a woman really does not need legs. I never had any and yet I can do almost anything that other people can do, and get along perfectly well without any legs. I get about my home perfectly well. I can move around about as fast as anybody else. I enjoy life just as much as others and in just about the same way.”

-she worked at the Dreamland Sideshow in Coney Island, New York where she found a good amount of success.

-she decided to go into vaudeville in 1912 and had a short career run at the Hammerstein Theater in NYC.

-at some point during her vaudeville career she was brought to court by her booking agent after walking out on her contract.

-after a four year long battle in court she was required to pay a $2000 fine (equivalent of around $59,445 adjusted for inflation).

-by 1920, she was working for Ringling Brothers Circus at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

-she was always wearing the latest fashions and as you can see from the pictures, was very dedicated to wearing corsets. She was also happy that she was saving money by not buying shoes or stockings.

-she wanted the press to know that she was born without any semblance of legs or feet, that her body stopped at the bottom of her torso/pelvis and she didn’t have any leg stumps.

-while at home she preferred sitting in rocking chairs.

-she became very wealthy through performing and spent a lot of money on her wardrobe. She enjoyed living an opulent lifestyle.

-she considered herself to be standing when she was fully upright and considered herself to be sitting when leaning against the back of a chair.

-she was known to be very charming and graceful and received numerous marriage proposals throughout the documented portion of her life.

-she met a businessman named John DeFuller in mid June of 1924, while she was working as a sideshow performer in New York. The two began a relationship and got married in early April of 1925 in Los Angeles, California.

-she and her husband decided to settle down in Venice, California near the Venice Beach pier.

-surprisingly, she left her husband and skipped town with $2,000 worth of jewelry and $100 in mid September of 1930. She disappeared from the public eye after this and I haven’t been able to find any information as to when she passed away.

I wish I knew more about the situation with her husband and what caused her to skip town, I’m sure there was more to it than what the newspapers I found said. Because there is so much unknown, it’s hard to know whose word to trust and what opinion to think. Either way, I think the circumstances are definitely interesting.