Today is the birthday of the original “human skeleton”, Isaac W. Sprague (1841-1887). His weight loss began at age twelve, although he wasn’t to join a sideshow until age 24 in 1865. P.T. Barnum hired him the following year for his American Museum and the traveling show he mounted when the former institution burned down. At the time of his death while performing at a Boston museum at age 46 he weighed only 43 pounds. The cause of his muscular atrophy was never identified.

To find out about  the history of show business, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

For more on silent and slapstick comedy please check out my new book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc

Today is the birthday of Henri Brustad (1844-1899). Born on the Island of Ytteroy, Norway, he was to grow to a height of seven and a half feet tall and travel with shows in his homeland before coming to the U.S. and touring with Barnum and Bailey. A later Norwegian giant, Johan Assen later claimed Brustad for his grandfather but it turns out to have been bunkum. Brustad died at age 45, presumably as a result of his acromegaly.

To find out about  the history of vaudeville, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

For more on silent and slapstick comedy please check out my new book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc

Usually, the zoological nickname of a sideshow anomaly bears some relation to the performers’ physical appearance. The Alligator Girl has scales; the Leopard Woman has spots; the Penguin Boy has stunted legs and waddles. George Williams (1859-?) was billed in sideshows as the “Turtle Boy”, but the reasoning for the nickname is elusive. Certainly he had no shell on his back. He couldn’t retract his head into his neck. Perhaps he moved slowly? At any rate, the man was 18 inches tall, with curved, malformed legs and arms. If that says “Turtle” to you, well, okay.

He was a staple of Huber’s 14th Street Museum in New York, although he worked at other dime museums and side shows over the years. He enhanced his act with musicianship, playing both the harmonica and the flute. His act was very popular, yet he was underpaid, probably due to the fact that he was an African American. He first appears in the historical record in the 1880s and steps off around 1920, when he sued the city for an injury he sustained while spilling out of his wheelchair due to a fault in the sidewalk.

To find out about  the history of vaudeville, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

For more on silent and slapstick comedy please check out my new book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc

Mademoiselle Gabrielle (1884-?) is one of the very few human oddities known to have performed in vaudeville (as opposed to circuses, sideshows, and dime museums, although she certainly performed in those types of venues as well). Born completely legless in Basel, Switzerland, she first exhibited herself at age 16 at the Paris Exposition of 1900. Her success there opened the door to America, where she performed at Dreamland Circus Sideshow in Coney Island, and Ringling Bros Barnum & Bailey, billed as the “Half Woman”. Beautiful of visage as well as of figure (assisted by the then ubiquitous corset), she accentuated these aspects, dressing in fine clothes and adornments. And this is what made vaudeville (theoretically more refined and polite) possible for someone like Gabrielle.

If you’re a vaudeville buff already then you can probably guess which theatre hired her. It was Hammerstein’s Victoria in 1912. Unfortunately, the date ended in acrimony when Gabrielle broke her contract.

To find out about  the history of vaudeville, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

For more on silent and slapstick comedy please check out my new book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc

This exciting new show is every Thursday night at 8pm at Times Scare (669 8th Ave between 42nd and 43rd). As they describe it:

“Times Scare in conjunction with Todd Robbins (Play Dead, Monday Night Magic, Carnival Knowledge) and Donny Thomas (aka Donny Vomit of the Coney Island Sideshow and Pretty Things Peepshow) present an unforgettable evening featuring deranged disciples of variety entertainment.  Strange for Hire is an eclectic live show featuring sideshow acts, circus skills, burlesque beauties and other magical doings.   Each week brings forth a different line up of performers from America’s Got Talent, Cirque du Soleil, Coney Island, Big Apple Circus and more; there on the stage in the Crypt Cabaret- up close and dangerous! “

It’s very historic. I’m tempted to say “not since Huberts…”, but of course the Bindlestiffs had their own Palace of Variety on the deuce about a decade ago. But I CAN say, not since Huberts (and before) has there been a sideshow, wax museum, dime museum and house of horrors all in the Times Square area all at the same time. To say these are exciting times for someone with my tastes is putting it mildly. Can’t wait to check it out.

For tickets and info go to http://timesscarenyc.com

The Magri brothers were a pair of Italian performing little people of the 19th century. Count Primo Magri, a.k.a Count Rosebud (1849-1920) was the 2 ft, 8 in. second husband of Lavinia Warren. His brother, whose name was either Giuseppi or Ernesto (both were given) was billed both as Baron Magri and Baron Littlefinger. Count Primo and Warren were to tour the world for a number of years, eventually settling down to run a roadside tourist attraction in her native Middleborough, Massachusetts.

To learn about the history of vaudeville, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

And don’t miss my new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc

Mercy Lavinia Warren Bump (1841-1919) was the most famous female little person of the 19th century, but more than that — she was one of the most famous people of the 19th century period. Descended from no less than five Mayflower passengers, she began her professional working life as a schoolteacher, then began singing on a cousin’s riverboat. First courted by fellow performing little person Commodore Nutt, she was to go with the most eligible and appropriate bachelor of her time, General Tom Thumb. Her glorious wedding in 1863, orchestrated by P.T. Barnum was one of the most talked about events of the 19th century, and provided some badly needed whimsy when the nation was mired in the absolute depths of the Civil War. She and her famous husband toured the world and became fabulously wealthy. When the General passed away in 1883, Warren was to marry Count Primo Magri.

To find out about  the history of vaudeville, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

For more on silent and slapstick comedy please check out my new book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc

The Fickle Commodore Nutt Professes His Undying Love

Today is the birthday of Huldah Pierce Warren Bump (1849-1879), the sister of the more famous Lavinia Warren, wife of General Tom Thumb. Like her sister, Minnie performed as a singer, and worked for P.T. Barnum. She was to marry fellow little person Edmund Newell, a.k.a General Grant, Jr. Sadly she died giving birth to their first child at age 29.

To find out about  the history of vaudeville, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

For more on silent and slapstick comedy please check out my new book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc

Today is the birthday of Robert Earl Hughes (1926-1958). Along with General Tom Thumb, Hughes was one of the first famous “human anomalies” I was ever aware of. This is because during the years of my childhood he was still in the Guinness Book of World Records as the heaviest man ever recorded. His record has since been surpassed by over half a dozen people. (Does that surprise you?)

“Buried in a piano case” was the invariably quoted (and inaccurate) tidbit. In reality, he was buried in a casket the size of a piano case, and that’s been true of many souls in the history of this diverse human race. In adulthood Hughes topped out at 1,070 lbs; he was 200 lbs by the age of six. A country boy from rural Fish Hook, Illinois, for most of his life he resisted offers to be exhibited, aside from the occasional appearance at a carnival. Towards the end of his life though this began to change. In 1956 he flew to New York to appear on television, and in 1958 he finally embarked on a full fledged tour with the Gooding Brothers Amusement Company. It was while touring with this show that he contracted measles, which led to kidney failure, and this is what killed him.

Look, there is an entire web site devoted to him! http://robertearlhughes.blogspot.com/

Here’s a great little film about him, featuring his brother and sister-in-law, who cared for him:

To find out about  the history of vaudeville, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

For more on silent and slapstick comedy please check out my new book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc

Art by Carolyn Raship

A few months ago I blogged about Julia Pastrana on the occasion of her much overdue burial (Read all about her and it here).

Now her story is a theatre piece in the Brick Theater’s Sound Scape Festival opening tonight. Read all about it here:

Written by: Shaun Prendergast
Directed by: Gyda Arber
sound design by Steve Sabaugh
Starring: Linus Gelber, Amanda LaPergola, Michael McKim,* Irene Menendez, Ken Simon,* Julia Wolfermann
*Appearing courtesy Actors’ Equity Association

Performed entirely in the dark, Shaun Prendergast’s play tells the entirely true story of sideshow freak Julia Pastrana, who toured the world both in life and in death as “The Ugliest Woman in the World.”

Performances June 13 9pm, June 15 9pm, June 23 8pm, June 25 9pm, June 29 8pm

part of the sound scape festival at the brick
Tickets: www.bricktheater.com • 718.285.3863

Today is the birthday of Sandy Allen (1955-2008). From 1976 until her death she was the tallest woman in the world, at 7′ 7″, due to a pituitary condition. Never with sideshows per se, she nevertheless wound up being very much in the public eye via the media. She was frequently on television and even in a couple of movies. Here’s a local segment from when she crossed the threshold to being the tallest:

To find out about  the history of vaudeville, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

And check out my new book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc

Today is the birthday of Grady Stiles, Jr. (1937-1992). Stiles was the sixth in the bloodline of a family prone to ectrodactyly, a condition in which the extremities are hardened and fused, somewhat resembling the claws of a crustacean. Stiles, like his father before him, worked in carnival sideshows; two of his children, having the same condition, joined the family business. Billed as the Lobster Boy, Stiles worked for a number of traveling shows before he started his own personal family operation, over which he exerted tyrannical control. Despite what might be thought to be a handicap, Stiles grew unbelievably strong in his upper body, and the claws were tough and hard. He used them to strike and terrorize his family on an almost daily basis.

After years of drunkenness and physical abuse (including the murder of his own son-in-law, for which Stiles only received probation), Stiles’s wife and son hired a 17 year old hitman to shoot him in the back of the head in his Gibtown trailer. This of course yielded a sideshow of a different order: media coverage of the trial, books, television shows and movies about the lurid story were turned out with great profusion and rapidity. Several of his offspring continue to perform to this day.

To find out about  the history of show business, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

And check out my new book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc

Today is the birthday of Jack Earle (Jacob Ehrlich, 1906-1952). Born underweight, he was small for his size until his seventh birthday when a growth spurt suddenly began that made him six feet tall by his tenth birthday. 7 feet 7 1/2 inches was to be his eventual height.

His career also enjoyed a similar rapid beanstalk-like growth. In show business terms he shot straight to the top, directly into films, bypassing sideshows entirely (at least initially). At the age of 16 he was hired by the Century Film Company to appear in comedy shorts and children’s films such as Jack and the Beanstalk (1924). He made over two dozen films when he was in Hollywood, his last being Larry Semon’s Stop, Look and Listen (1926). An accident cut short his film career; a fall resulted in a damaged nose and the temporary loss of eyesight, which turned out to be from a pituitary tumor that was pinching the nerve. Radiation treatments shrank the tumor, restoring the eyesight and stopping the out-of-control growth at the same time.

From here he went into sideshows and circuses (including Ringling Bros, Barnum and Bailey) from 1926 through about 1940. Originally from Denver, his family settled in the El Paso area which is where the “Texas” comes in. After retiring from show business he worked as a wine salesman, p.r. man, and deputy sheriff. In his spare time he made art.

His nephew Andrew Ehrlich wrote a novel about his life called The Long Shadows which you can read here: http://thelongshadowsbook.com/

And here’s a film item about Jack from 1928:

To find out more about  the history of show business, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

And check out my new book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc

Giacomo and Giovanni Battista Tocci were conjoined twins born in Locana, Italy born on either July 4 or October 4 somewhere between 1875 and 1877. The pair were unique in possessing separate sets of organs and appendages in the upper halves of their bodies, but sharing everything below the pelvis. This meant a single pair of legs; each boy controlled the leg on his own side, making walking very difficult. (To get around in private, they sort of clumsily crawled; in public they would use a wheelchair). According to the many doctors who examined them, the boys were mentally healthy and intelligent, and by the time of their adolescence spoke several languages.

From infancy they were exhibited throughout Europe at medical institutions and similar venues in every major city west of Russia. From 1892 to 1897 they toured dime museums and sideshows throughout the United States; seeing them inspired Mark Twain to write “Those Extraordinary Twins” and Pudd’nhead Wilson. After their U.S. tour, the twins retired to seclusion in Italy. The year of their deaths is not known; accounts range from 1906 to 1940.

To find out more about  the history of show business, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

And check out my new book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc

Today is the birthday of Charles B. Tripp (1855-1930). Born without upper limbs, he taught himself to do nearly everything a person with arms can do: dress himself, shave, write with a pen, cut paper with scissors, and earn his living (in his case, he was a carpenter and cabinet-maker, apparently capable of high end work). In 1872 he began to work for P.T. Barnum’s circus, where he would demonstrate his ability to do all of these things and some newly acquired skills like painting and photography. After his stint with Barnum, he worked for James A. Bailey’s circus (then a different organization) and then for Ringling Brothers (yet another! The three circuses weren’t all completely merged as one until 1919). After his time with the major circuses, Tripp worked the sideshows of small carnivals. All told, he was in show business for over half a century.

Circa 1910 he made this popular publicity picture with Legless Wonder, Eli Bowen, circa 1910:

To find out more about  the history of variety arts, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

And check out my new book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc

The wire in front of him is a reference marker so you could watch him grow taller

Willard claimed to have developed the skill in childhood in order to compensate for a left side that was entirely paralyzed. When a boy he had worked for the Barnum and Bailey Circus and been an assistant to Alexander Herrman. He toured American vaudeville and English music hall with a 12 minute spiel full of amusing anecdotes about how he had alarmed people with his unique skill, even as he demonstrated it to audiences. In later years he worked the 1939 World’s Fair, and Ripley’s Believe it Or Not, was a guest on the Ed Sullivan Show, and was even a fortune teller in Atlantic City. According to Ricky Jay, who devotes a chapter to him in Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women, he spent his last years in Oakland, California where he managed real estate and owned a restaurant. Today is his birthday.

To find out more about  the history of vaudeville, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

And check out my new book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc

Today is the birthday of the conjoined twins Millie and Christine McCoy (1851-1912). Born into slavery in North Carolina, they changed hands several times in their early childhood, finally winding up in the hands of Joseph Pearson Smith, who initially owned them as slaves. When freed by the 13th amendment, the girls opted to retain Smith as manager. Billed as “The Two Headed Nightingale” and “The Carolina Twins”, the girls sang, danced, played music and spoke five languages.  They were also invariably billed as “Millie-Christine”, as though they were a single entity. At various times during their long career they worked for P.T. Barnum (initially at the American Museum, later at his circus), as well as at various dime museums and sideshows. Briefly in their childhood, they had also toured England when in the hands of a couple of promoters who had essentially kidnapped them. After several years of retirement, TB eventually took them in 1912 at the age of 61.

To find out more about  the history of show business, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

And check out my new book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc

According to some sources, today is the birthday of bearded lady Annie Jones (circa 1860-1902). Already a furry specimen by age nine months, she was hired (under the care of her mother) to be exhibited by P.T. Barnum, for whom she worked for most of her career. She came to be one of his most prominent and well paid attractions, and the best known bearded lady in the country. As the above photo attests she was not just bearded, but substantially hirsute, sporting locks that were several feet long. She was also able to sing and play several musical instruments. When she was still a girl she was reportedly kidnapped by a phrenologist who briefly exhibited her before being captured by police but most scholars believe it was just a publicity stunt of Barnum’s. Jones married twice and died in her early 40s, of TB contracted while she was touring France with the Barnum and Bailey Circus. She passed away at her mother’s home on Cornelia Street in New York’s Greenwich Village.

To find out more about  the history of vaudeville, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

And check out my new book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc

Today is the birthday of Artoria Gibbons (Anna Mae Burlingston, 1893-1985). In 1912, the Spokane domestic met and married a tattoo artist named Charles “Red” Gibbons. To supplement their income (and advertise his skill) he tattooed over 80% of her body with religious images, drawn from the works of Raphael and Michelangelo. She debuted as a performer with the locally-based Pete Kortes Sideshow. From 1921 to 1923 she worked for Ringling Bros Barnum & Bailey, in 1924, Hagenbeck-Wallace, and any number of circuses, dime museums, carnivals and sideshows thereafter, culminating in her final gig with Hall and Christ in the 1970s. She retired in 1981.

To find out more about  the history of show business, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

And check out my new book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc

Today is the birthday of Lorett Fulkerson (Loretta Love, 1915-2007), often called “the last tattooed lady”, although judging by the streets around Williamsburg and Park Slope, nowadays ALL woman are tattooed. But Fulkerson was the last of the old time, first run performing tattooed women. 90% of her body was inked and her performing career dated back to the 1930s. In her time she had worked for Ringling Bros, Hubert’s Museum, Hall and Christ and many others. She retired in the early 1990s — when there were plenty of others willing to take up the torch.

To find out more about  the history of show business, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

And check out my new book: Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc