10 facts about victorian freak shows

Sign up for The Lineup's newsletter and receive our eeriest investigations delivered straight to your inbox. During the second half of the 20th century, some efforts were made to appropriate the term freak by those who sought to celebrate an intentional rejection of conventional, conformist ideals, but the words pejorative meaning persisted, and activists of the disability rights movement tended to avoid freak as a term of hatefulness. He died in Chicago of asphyxia in 1887, weighing only 43 pounds. Possible use cases are in quizzes, differences, riddles, homework facts legend, cover facts, and many more. A famous example of this type of act and sort were Siamese twins, so called because of Chang and Eng, the original twins were born in Siam in 1811 and brought to America in 1829. Electrical wires were attached to Mr. No Name and a woman, presumably the one who worked the machinery, accompanied him on the stage where he would walk and move, always bearing a plain expression. He would "fasten scales to a lizard, dip it in quicksilver so it trembled as it moved, add larger eyes, a horn and a beard, and after taming it, show it to his friends to terrify them". June 30, 2022 . He got his law degree in Budapest, but when he was offered a job with a thespian group of little people, he accepted the position. According to Tom Norman, Mary Ann's features became so deformed after the shock of seeing her husband drop dead at her feet just as he was entering the front door of their cottage. In 1691, Londoners could pay to visit the newly built Bethlehem (later called Bedlam) Hospital near . Leonardo da Vinci dressed lizards up as dragons to freak people out. The Victorian freak show existed as this disruption from the day-to-day struggles and hardships of industrial life, where starers could interact with monstrous bodies in order to challenge and disrupt their mundane, daily hardships that seemed almost inescapable. People loved a good freak show. Some of the performers had been kidnapped and were forced to go onstage against their will. Take a peek inside the freak show tent at history's most famous circus freaks. They were the most prized of all the fairground exhibitions and Harold Pyott who exhibited until the 1920s, would challenge anyone to produce a man as small as himself. 1. A freak show, also known as a creep show, is an exhibition of biological rarities, referred to in popular culture as "freaks of nature". The history of freak shows can be dated through Victorian-era Europe filled with larger-than-life characters that basically created a whole story filled with drama to promote themselves . So sad that Johnny Eck didnt get a mention in this piece! This new novel is very much based on people who are 'different', and who find themselves involved in the Victorian entertainment worlds ~ the country fairgrounds, the London Pantomimes, and an anatomy museum in Oxford Street, all based on places and events that really did exist. A quick way to earn some cash in the freak show was to get a man (or woman) to pretend to be a robot or mechanical device in the form of a human. After the building burned down, Sprague toured the country. Stuart Cameron is a freelance copywriter and blogger on a mission to harness the past to better understand the now. Eng awoke one morning in 1874 to find Cheng had died. In fact, some made so much money that they out-earned everyone in the audience and even their own promoters. Spectacle of Deformity: Freak Shows and Modern British Culture. Yet their obsessions extended to the peculiar side of life as well. Julius Koch, The Giant of Constantin. Midgets shows were incredibly popular in the United States during the early half of the 1900s. I was amazed to see all the work you had dine. Barnum, a man who spun elaborateand often entirely fabricatedbackstories for his freaks in order to draw an audience. Take, for instance, Betty Lou Williams. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. By modern standards, most would agree that much of the language used by Victorians towards individuals exhibited within freak shows - freaks - would be considered distasteful, uncomfortable, and politically incorrect to say the very least. To the showmen in charge, freaks were undoubtedly their business commodities and their way of turning a profit. Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit, 1988. 40,000 people went to watch the first journey of Locomotion No.1 In 1825. Barnum in 1842. His book 'The Wonders: Lifting the Curtain on the Freak Show, Circus and Victorian Age' (Michael O'Mara Books) examines the extraordinary stories of the people made into living exhibits in . In 1829, they began touring the world as a curiosity with a man named Robert Hunter. It was an age of scientific and medical advancements and, consequently, the public was naturally curious about unexplained oddities. Many of the shows that appeared during the reign of Victoria were quickly superseded by the latest novelty or wonder of the age. Wang the human unicorn never actually performed in the freak show. Bearded Ladies were Popular Women Bearded ladies were naturally a very popular exhibit in the freak shows. One advertisement for a midget show at the New York Worlds Fair in 1939 invited people to come visit the Little Miracle Town that had been built for 125 European midgets. As an adult, Jones performed as the Bearded Lady or the Bearded Woman. And she also began to pursue her own interests, becoming just as well known for her musical skills as her bearded face. The income amounted to the average salary earned in 1935. At the heart of readings of the Victorian freak show are theories of vision. Lionel came to the US in 1901 and began appearing with the Barnum and Bailey circus, then at Conet Island when he moved to New York. The inventor had been turned down by hospitals, so he funded his work by putting premies on display, and didn't charge the parents for the care. 10 facts about victorian freak shows. They were both "freak" show performers who met and fell in love. This is our collection of basic interesting facts about Freak Shows. 'Freak Shows' were exhibitions of biologically abnormal humans and animals that members of the public could pay a small fee and observe a physical manifestation of something quite drastically different from themselves. Here are the top 10 freak show acts of all time: 10. As an adult, Stiles and his two youngest children performed as the Lobster Family. Mary Ann Bevan continued to appear on the fairgrounds until the 1930s and threatened legal action against any act daring to say she was uglier than herself! In his memoirs, British showman Tom Norman (also referred to as the Penny Showman) admitted: There was a time, in my career as a showman, when I would exhibit any mortal thing for money,addingthere were always large crowds who were only too eager to pay and see anything that aroused their curiosity, no matter how repulsive, or how demoralising.[6]From a twenty-first century perspective, seeing the freak show industry as anything but exploitative can prove to be difficult. 10 facts about victorian freak shows. He is credited with changing the perception of freak shows, which were previously seen as base work, and they soon after became highly popular. She was featured in W. H. Harriss Nickel Plate Circus in 1886, but there are no references to her after. It makes my heart feel good that people really do care and have the desire to do the work for others to learn by! Little wonder, then, that touring attractions of the exotic and sideshows that displayed the human form in all its variety and deviation flourished during the Victorian era. Corrections? But the Victorian Erathe 63-year period from 1837-1901 that marked the reign of Queen Victoria also saw a demise of rural life as cities and slums rapidly grew, long and regimented factory . That's a lot of mouths to feed. Queen Victoria had a strange obsession with freak shows When six-year-old, 63cm tall Charles Stratton arrived at Buckingham Palace in March, 1844, with his showman P.T. The animal was then sold to a show manager who generally kept excellent care of his investment. In this context, the term freak was considered a pejorative way of referring to humans, in performance or not, and was rarely used by professional performers or promoters. In 19th century freak shows it was not uncommon for the Living Skeleton act to marry the Fat Lady act. In the early 19th century, some naturalists toured Europe and North America with examples of exotic or unique animals, charging admission to view their cabinets of curiosities. Humans with bodies that were perceived to deviate significantly from an understood norm were often grouped with those lusus naturae shows, and from those shows developed a variety of different performance genres that have become collectively known as the freak show. The showman was an essential component and it was the relationship between the presenter and the exhibit that produced the freak show. info@gurukoolhub.com +1-408-834-0167; 10 facts about victorian freak shows. Heenan was known as the heaviest female living, weighing in at approximately 560 pounds. propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('toptenz_sticky_1'); }); In fact, it is easy to say that most of what we do not know about freak shows, past and present, is rather shocking and goes against the harsh conditions portrayed in, In between all these characters was the man known as the, One popular act in the early 1900s was called No Name. Mr. No Name, When Fanny grew up, she realized she could bring in some money by exhibiting her large feet which were said to fit a size 30 shoe. Known as the Bearded Girl, Annie Jones had a mustache and sideburns by the time she was five years old. Fascinating images reveal stars of Victorian circus 'freak' shows including 8ft tall 'Mighty Cardiff Giant' and the smallest recorded human being on Earth. Some were born as freaks, some became freaks at a point in their lifetime as a result of an accident or a medical condition, and others altered their bodies and became freaks by choice. Barnum instructed the two-foot-tall Stratton to lie about his age, claiming to be eleven rather than his true age of five, aiming to exaggerate Stratton?s tiny stature. Barnum. If there were any complaints about the show not having a live mermaid, the showman would always be quick to point out that he would have had to charge more if the mermaid had been captured alive. He became General Tom Thumb,. The word likely conjures up different feelings to different people. Due to an elaborate backstory, the exhibit was extremely successful. They claimed that Fannys father would pay an eligible bachelor $5,000 and a farm if he was brave enough to make her his wife. The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run Clevelands Torso Murderer, Gavrilo Princip: the Teenager who Started WWI, Oda Nobunaga The Great Unifier of Japan. Inside those dimly-lit freak show tents, they encountered living nightmares horrifying mutations of humans and animals. Instead of wasting her income on frivolous things, she bought her parents a 260 acre ranch. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Viewers claimed it was a miraculous piece of machinery to not have been broken during the eye catching stunt. He retired in the late 1920s and moved back to Germany, where he died of a heart attack in 1932. Victorians were so taken with the stars of the shows that freak show paraphernalia became a hot commodity. A poster advertising the Hirsute Kostroma people from the primeval forests of central Russia, 1874. Koch starred in the short film The Giant Constantin, released in 1902. And she was so popular with audiences that other circus recruiters wanted to feature her in their shows instead and some were willing to resort to horrific measures to do so. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. The mermaid later changed hands and was exhibited by P.T. These remarkable images show the little . bible teaching churches near me. Flea circuses died out on the fairground due to a shortage of human fleas necessary for the operation of the show but its history as a side show attraction dates back to the early 1800s. Freak show did not come into use until close to the end of the 19th century, after the death of the American showman P.T. Hiring people for "Freak Shows" is illegal in Massachusetts. In 1847, during the great age of the freak show, the British periodical Punch bemoaned the public's prevailing taste for deformity. In spite of this, the discovery or creation of Tom Thumb surpassed all of his previous achievements and profits. Nile Rogers was so upset that he wrote a song titled " Aaaah, Fuck Off!," which was later renamed "Le Freak.". Midgets were frequently advertised as being much older than they actually were. A poster advertising Franz Winkelmeier, known as The Giant. Winkelmeier is depicted beside a soldier of Emperor Wilhelm the Emperor was known to have vertically gifted soldiers, yet they were dwarfed by the Giant who stood at 89. See also our section on Showmen and Performers. Cristian Ramos was born in Poland 1891 covered in thick, long hair most likely due to a rare condition called hypertrichosis. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Others, however, did not achieve such success and were instead, sometimes as involuntary performers, exploited by promoters and audiences. The most popular attractions were oddities with extraordinary talents, who could do supposedly normal things despite their disabilities. She was born with a severe congenital deformity of conjoined twining that caused her to have two separate pelvises and a smaller set of inner legs that she was able to move. Barnum, and began performing when she was 13. His diminutive stature and misshapen limbs made him an attraction where people would pay to look at him sitting in a chair. The Egyptian HallLewisham Hippodrome Programme, March 1930. . Perhaps the most famous of all frog men was Otis Jordan. However, the waxworks display with the freak show was perhaps the most continually popular travelling type of exhibition in the nineteenth century. While it would be easy to think that these women led lonely lives, the reverse was actually true. While there were, of course, many offers for marriage, what the crowds did not know was that Fannys father had passed away without ever having made such an offer and Fanny was already happily married. Stratton was a distant cousin of Barnum?s and was taught from very early on to be a performer. She became a popular sideshow attraction during the 18 th century thanks to a European fascination with African 'natives.'. I would also like to receive the Early Bird Books newsletter which features great deals on FREE and discounted ebooks. She later performed with the Ringling Bros. and a freak show at Coney Island. During their marriage they had nine children! Many old newspaper accounts describe these women as charming, handsome, and well-loved. Stratton appeared not in the traditional pit show or cabinet of curiosities but was celebrated around the world as a talented actor in highly theatrical, expensively produced melodramas, and he appeared in performances before American presidents and industrial barons as well as European and Asian royalty. Lobster Boys son, Grady Stiles III, was also born with ectrodactyly and works as a sideshow performer today. Grady Stiles Jr. - The Murderous Lobster Man. The shows could be set up quickly, and at very low cost. According to one newspaper article, the strangest part of the freak is that the colors of the India ink used to decorate the mother are exactly reproduced on the babys body except the face. Easily duped, the public was far more fascinated by the oddity of a tattooed baby than to care about how the stunt was actually pulled off. In the late 1800s, Juno the frog man was a popular act. Shows of the early 19th century that are today considered freak shows were known at that time as raree shows, pit shows, or kid shows. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Of course, Ringling Bros. was far from the only circus to offer a freak show to curious audiences across America. According to several newspaper reports from that time period, the mermaids were made out of wire, paper, and rags. Whileprofit was split between showmen and performers, the entertainers often fared better than their management. 7. Barnum and the Ringling Bros. joined forces to create the "Greatest Show on Earth," one man's decisions single-handedly changed the American circus forever. Its a word that has been used to refer to bearded ladies like Julia Pastrana (dubbed as the Bear Lady); conjoined Siamese twins like Chang and Eng; and to people with full body tattoo coverage like George Burchett (dubbed as the King of Tattooists). The photo was sent to Robert Ripley, who offered money to exhibit Wang in his Odditorium. Many factors contributed to the decline, including the emergence of the medical model of disability, which replaced the freak shows narrative of wonder with one of pathology. This site uses cookies to improve user experience. He exhibited his performers in shop fronts, on his travelling fair or acted as an agent for the acts and booked them in venues such as the Panopticon in Glasgow and Nottingham Goose Fair or his penny gaff in Croydon. People were not the only things on display at freak shows. 10. His mother believed his appearance was caused her the fact that she witnessed his father get mauled by a lion when she was pregnant. 10 facts about victorian freak shows. Nellis; a cadre of persons with ambiguous sexual characteristics, such as bearded ladies and hermaphrodites; clairvoyants; Lightning Calculators; and many others. He had learned how to roll and light a cigarette with his mouth and, after showing his trick to a sideshow manager, began his lifelong career in the freak show circuit. By continuing to browse, you accept the use of cookies and other technologies. The Unbelievable True Story Of America's Radium Girls, Hundreds Of Colorful, Stone-Cut Tombs Dating Back To The Roman Era Discovered In Turkey, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. Tattooed men and women were popular sights at freak shows because getting body tattoos was controversial, especially when women had it done. The exhibition of freaks, monstrosities or marvels of nature were essential components of travelling exhibitions in Europe and America throughout the Victorian period. By 1903, Ferry the Human Frog was making his rounds dressed as a frog. Stratton made his first tour of America at the age of five, with routines that included impersonating characters such as Cupid and Napoleon Bonaparte, as well as singing, dancing, and comical banter with another performer who acted as a straight man. Something so intriguing, though, will never fade entirely. For example, little person Vincent Tarabula was fluent in five different languages. CharlesSherwoodStratton, better knownas General Tom Thumb (pictured above), was an international celebrity under the management of P.T. Sometimes they were manufactured. As Clyde Ingalls, the manager of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey sideshow in the 1930s, once said, Freaks are what you make them. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. Hetwice appeared before Queen Victoria, metPresident Lincoln at the White House, and lived a life of luxury in New York City before his death in 1883. Step right up for a peek into our stunning collection of posters and photos from Victorian era freak shows. The golden age of American and European freak shows -- traveling exhibitions and carnival attractions, often of disabled or disfigured entertainers -- spanned about a century, from roughly 1840 to 1940 [source: Disability Social History Project].Wildly popular during the apex of the Victorian era, the human curiosities and oddities behind sideshow curtains consistently attracted crowds at . 23-24. Conjoined twins, bearded ladies, pinheads, tall men, alligator and lobster boyshuman marvels whose existence defied explanation. An essential part of the telling of the tale consisted of wonderfully and medically impossible reasons to explain to the audience the history of the person they were going to see. At Cobalt Fairy, we want to entertain you. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Odd, or freak, animals born to farmers usually made the local news. So, many of the people featured in that freak show became some of the most famous circus performers in the country. Though he was billed as The Last of the Aztecs, Schlitzie was most likely born in The Bronx in 1901. Among the displays was a cow with two sets of udders, a bull with six legs, a duck with four legs, and a lamb with one head attached to two bodies. Two latter day midgets were Davy the Irish Leprechaun who exhibited in the 1960s and Johnnie Osbourne the Wee McGregor who continued appearing at Newcastle in the 1980s. He and his sister Cathy made a television appearance in 2014 on the AMC series Freakshow to talk about their father. Stiles was so disliked that only 10 people came to his funeral. The last thirty years has seen the eventual disappearance of the fairground show. On the other hand, people born with disabilities, and who have been deemed unemployable by so-called normal people, have discovered that they can make a healthy living being on display in a sideshow. The most popular attractionsbecame full-blown stars with lucrative careers. While "freaks" have captivated our imagination since well before the nineteenth century, the Victorians flocked to shows featuring dancing dwarves, bearded ladies, "missing links," and six-legged sheep. She earned a good living being the bearded lady and had married twice, both times to men who were in the circus business. By 1860 the human curiosityappearing in a museum, on the legitimate stage, or in carnival sideshows (so named because they required a separate fee for entry from the main circus or carnival midway)had become one of the chief attractions for American audiences. London: Geoffrey Bles Ltd, 1969, Jay, Ricky, Jay's Journal of Anomalies. [2]Regardless of whether the connotation was negative or positive, freaks either way were seen as something different and non-compliant with social ideas of normality. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". The Stiles family has been afflicted for over a century with ectrodactyly, a condition commonly known as 'Lobster Claw . [2]Bogdan, Robert. However, both Davy and Johnnie expressed a desire to be exhibited on the fairground. Freak shows were thus one of few kinds of Victorian entertainment that explicitly catered to, and succeeded in attracting, an extremely broad audience that cut across lines of class, gender, age, and region. Fun Facts about the Victorian Era. While little people were often a part of the ever common freak shows, if a show organizer was able to gather up two or more little people to perform for audiences, it was immediately labelled a midget show and visitors were charged a separate fee to witness the event. Schlitzie performed in sideshow attractions with many circuses. Freak shows were a particularly popular form of entertainment during the Victorian period, when people from all classes flocked to gawp at these unusual examples of human life. When their contract was up, they went into business for themselves. For the late 1800s and early 1900s, the scene was considered both bizarre and obscene. The reign of the freak show waned at the dawn of the 20th century; by the 1950s, it had all but disappeared. (Photo by London Stereoscopic Company/Getty Images) JUST like the current era, many a lady and chap thought working out and trying to get the perfect . 4 The term encompasses the popular phenomenon of the freak show defined as the 'formally organized exhibition of people with alleged and real physical, mental, or behavioural anomalies for amusement and . 10 facts about victorian freak shows. A variety of factors fueled this fascination with all that the world had to offerfrom the rise of photography to Darwins theory of evolution. While she was a baby, she and her father immigrated to the United States and her father became a farmer in Ohio. In 1992, Stiles wife Mary and her son Harry Glenn Newman, a human blockhead, hired sideshow performer Christopher Wyant to kill Stiles for $1,500. In the heyday of the sideshow, the circus would roll into town with lurid banners . The term "Geek" once referred to the opening act of a Freak Show carnival in which the opener would end his act by biting off a chickens head. Charles Stratton, or Tom Thumb, was eleven years old when first exhibited by Barnum in 1843. Queen Victoria's first railway journey took place on 13 July 1842, after which she used . In 1841 Barnum purchased Scudders American Museum in New York City. I also want to get Early Bird Books newsletter featuring book deals, recommendations, and giveaways. 1556332. 10 Stories About Real 'Freak Show' Performers by Debra Kelly fact checked by Jamie Frater It's human nature to stop and stare at anyone who's different. The exhibition of freaks, monstrosities or marvels of nature were essential components of travelling exhibitions in Europe and America throughout the Victorian period. And it worked: For many years, the most popular component of the circus was the freak show.. A year later, at the age of two, she was discovered by the infamous Ripley and her life, as well as the lives of her family, was changed forever. Since the introduction of the Welfare State, economic necessity was no longer a factor in freak show exhibition. The girl, probably about four at the time of her capture, was of unusual appearance. By the 1930s midget shows or Lilliputian wonders as they were advertised were all the rage and midget strong men, midget dare devil drivers and midget conjurers all would appear as a League of Nations under the same show. When the matter went to court, Jones quickly ran into the arms of her real parents. Barnum and Charles Stratton, known as General Tom Thumb, circa 1850. The Radium Girls, Radium Jaw and the Women D Edmund Fitzgerald Bodies: The Shipwreck that Cremation Video: See What Happens During the Video of the Bizarre Magnapinna Bigfin Squid. Biographics History, One Life at a Time. 1. The Tattooed Baby 9. As uncomfortable as the continued usage of the word freak may be, it is used solely on the grounds that there is no modern equivalent that accurately represents the diversity of the men and women involved within the shows. Fanny Mills, born in England, was born with Milroys disease which caused her feet to swell to enormous proportions. His skeleton is preserved in the Museum of Natural History in Mons, Belgium. Inside The Tragic Stories Of 9 Freak Show Performers. A photo of P.T. However, as he stated in his autobiography "you could indeed exhibit anything in those days. Cigarettes were an item of luxury, to be smoked during leisure time, but not all the time, one after the other.