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We Are Not A Nation of Sideshow Freaks And It Is Too Bad

I love sideshow freaks, I really do. I could spend hours talking about such individuals as Jo-Jo, The Dog Faced Boy; Krao, Darwin’s Missing Link; Mary Ann Bevan, The World’s Homeliest Woman: Ester Blackmon, The Alligator-Skinned Woman; Emmet Blackwelder, The Turtle Man; Dick Brisben, The Penguin Boy or The Great Omi. I would love someday to be able purchase several sideshow, or as they were known in their day, dime museums, Single-Os or Ten-in-Ones, posters, have them framed, and placed on the walls of my office, not just because this form of Americana art is amazingly beautiful, but because I love these self-described human oddities, these so-called freaks.

What I love about these human beings is not that their birth defects or their physical appearances makes them different, but just how normal they really were. In their tents filled with carnival-goers, farmers, townspeople, and curiosity seekers, they were often the most normal and decent people there. When you read about their lives and who they were, they turn the ancient Greek philosophical notion of beauty as a reflection of the inner-person, which our society still lives by, on its head. I would much rather share a beer with Count Orloff, The Only Living Transparent and Ossified Man; The Great Waldo, Eko and Iko, The Ambassadors From Mars; Commodore Nutt; or Chang and Eng Bunker, from whom we get the phrase, Siamese twins, than some of the most beautiful people in Hollywood. I would rather break bread with Violetta, The Trunk Woman; Hugh Baily, The Pretzel Man; Francesco Lentini, The Three-Legged Wonder or Otis Jordan, The Frog Boy than most of our Governors, Senators and Congressmen because most of them were such kind and decent people.

Most of these individuals would have every right to be horrible, bitter individuals. Some of their lives were extremely hard. Some like them like Annie Jones, The Easu Lady; May-Joe, who had three-legs and two sets of genitalia, one male and the other female; Tom Thumb; the conjoined Tocci Brothers; and Schlitzie, (Zippy the Pinhead’s appearance is based on Schlitzie!) were sold by their parents to circuses, carnivals, or promoters who happened by. Imagine what it must feel like to have your own parents not want you, or to realize that they saw you as something to be bought and sold.

Like latter day conquistadors looking for gold, some of these “human oddities” were taken from their family and friends by white men seeking their fortune and taken to America. Julia Pastrana, The Ugliest Woman In The World, who was advertized as being half-ape/half-human was taken from her small Mexican village.

Some had pasts that were more painful than most of us could imagine. Kitty Smith was born a healthy little girl in Chicago. Her mother died when she was little, leaving her with an alcoholic father. One winter evening he ordered the eight-year-old little to make him a meal. When the little girl failed to follow his orders in a timely fashion, he punished her by placing her hands on the hot stove. The burns were so severe that doctors were forced to amputate her arms to save her life. She learned to use her feet to dress and take care of herself. The kind-hearted Kitty, who at one point in her life, was higher paid than the President of the United States, protected her father the rest of her life by claiming, when newspaper reporters ask, that she had found one of his bottles, drunk it, and fallen into the stove. It was not until researchers discovered old newspaper accounts of the incident that the truth became known.

They were often dressed in costumes and asked to do ridiculous stuff on-stage to make them seem more exotic and mysterious. Ella Harper, The Camel Girl, who suffered from a condition that caused her knees to bend backwards and forced her to move about by walking on all fours, was exhibited along side of the lions and elephants.

Lionel, The Lion Faced-Boy was only allowed to roar in public even though he was fluent in five languages. Zip, The What Is It? was paid an extra dollar a day to only grunt in front of the public even though it is claimed he could recite poetry that would bring a person to tears. Commodore Nutt and General Tom Thumb, two little people, dressed in noble regalia and toured in a miniature carriage drawn by two Shetland ponies. The Wild Men of Borneo, Waino and Plutano, were really incredibly strong midget brothers from England, spoke gibberish on stage, acted out of control, and lifted audience members over their heads. George and Wille Muse, Eko and Iko, albino African-American brothers, had to pretend they were from Mars. (Iko lived to be 108 years-old.)

In an era where birth defects and genetics were not well understood by the average individual, working for a sideshow was the only way some of them could make money, and several of them were paid handsomely. They could make more in a week than the average worker could earn in a year, but it was not easy work, but it was work all the same. Still, the jeering, the stares, the unkind comments from crowds had to cut to the bone at times. As one of the most famous of them said, “What else can I do? No one is going to hire me to work in their store or teach their children. I am at least paying my way.”

Sam Alexander was billed as The Man With Two Faces. He was born with only one face, normal in every way, but suffered a horrific accident one evening while celebrating a promotion he had just received at his first job. While walking by a steam-cleaning establishment, Sam flicked his cigarette at an open fifty-five gallon drum. He did not know that it was filled with gasoline. The resulting explosion burned off his face. Fortunately, he was able to cover his eyes with his forearm. After a year in the hospital, he was moved to a nursing home where he was to spend the rest of his days. Instead Sam made his escape and made his way to the one place he would be accepted and he could make money, a nearby sideshow that was playing in town.

With the bones of his face visible, he was forced to wear a mask, which he would remove at the right moment to send audiences out screaming. He was the blow off act, the one who was there to make sure audiences left as quickly as possible. At Madison Square Garden in New York City, his looks were judged to be so horrifying by local officials that he was paid not to perform. Before he died he suffered through seventy-two surgeries and too many screams to even count. How would you react to being Sam? Yet, he was never bitter and was said by everyone who knew him that he was as kind a human being as there was. It was Sam who discovered Schlitzie, the infamous pinhead, and saved him from being institutionalized and took care to make sure no one ever mistreated his friend.

What was true about Sam was true about most sideshow performers. They were kind and accepting individuals, who often got married, many times to normal looking people, and raised well-adjusted children. Many of them often left show business and entered compassionate occupations or jobs that could provide more stability for their families. They suffered legal hassles, unkind individuals, doctors who wanted to institutionalize them, drunks, cat-calls, and screams. Yet, they were very accepting of who they were and what they looked like, amazingly accepting of how they looked.

I think about those sideshow freaks every time I meet a woman who has had plastic surgery or a girl who is starving herself to achieve an ideal weight that she will never reach. Two million American women have had breast enhancements. Only 20 percent of these are the result of a mastectomy. Most have to do with body image. In fact, the number of women getting them each year has doubled every five years over the last decade. How many women have looked in the mirror and not liked what is looking back at them? Sprays, makeup, low self-esteem, garments to cover up, clothing that shapes and molds, what does it say about our society? It is not like we are a nation of sideshow freaks.

Percilla, The Monkey Girl, had a full black beard, even as a baby. Her parents sold her to a sideshow and she was put into an act with a chimpanzee named Josephine. At 20 years old, she met Emmitt Bejano, who was the adopted son of one of the performers. Emmitt’s only problem is that he suffered from a dry skin condition on his legs and chest, but looked perfectly normal in a suit of clothes and was described as extremely handsome by some. There was never a doubt from anyone that saw them together that he loved her. They married and adopted a son named Tony.

One day Percilla woke her husband by telling him that she was going to shave the beard and dye her hair blonde, that it would be a lot of hard work, but that she thought she could pass, and that he must wish he had a more normal looking wife. He replied, “You do, and I’m gonna walk out on you. I love you as you are.” They were married for fifty-seven years until he died in his sleep.

“I love you, just as you are.” Maybe it is too bad, we are not a nation of sideshow freaks.