Is there a circus of freaks now? Louise - leopard girl or "white black"

Freak shows are a rather interesting, albeit gloomy topic. This kind circus art, if you can call it that, originated in Europe in the 16th century and lasted until the mid-20th century. And in America such shows can still be found! Here are 15 old photos that will tell you almost everything about the freak show.

“Real” mermaid

Living frog princess

Living headless woman

Some artists of the original genre also worked in freak shows

Evil clowns are the highlight of the program

“Twin” artists are the key to success

Camel girl

Ventriloquists were the worst

Vintage piercing

Albino man

Headless Rooster Mike

Elastic man

Predicting the future is a required topic

Monkeys dressed like people

Physical disabilities were the subject of jokes and amusement

Freak show or "freak circus" is a popular entertainment that originated in the 16th century in England. People with physical defects, such as dwarfs and giants, hermaphrodites and people with other strange diseases, began to be viewed as objects of entertainment and aroused the interest of hundreds of people. At that time, it was difficult for people with physical disabilities to earn a living and they were forced to entertain crowds of onlookers by demonstrating their defects. Freak show participants traveled around Europe and the USA until 1940.

Freak show: artists

Isaac W. Sprague, Living Skeleton

Born in 1841 in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, this man was famous for his incredible thinness. He grew up as a normal child until he was 12 years old, when the boy suddenly began to lose weight.

By the age of 44, his height was 168 cm, and he weighed 43 kg. He was observed by many eminent specialists of that time, but no one could make any other diagnosis than general weight loss syndrome.

He regularly ate twice as much food as an average healthy man, and also always carried a flask of sweetened milk with him in case he suddenly became hungry.

The man was married twice and raised three sons of average height and weight.

Isaac died at the age of 46, having worked in freak shows for more than 24 years.

Stefan Bibrowski, Lionel - the man with the lion's face

Stefan (1891-1932) was famous actor freak show. The entire body of the lion-faced man was covered with long hair, which is why he got his nickname. Stefan suffered from a rare condition called hypertrichosis.

Bibrowski was born near Warsaw, Poland, in 1891, with approximately 2cm of hair covering his entire body at birth. His mother blamed the boy's father for this problem, which allegedly arose after she witnessed her husband's interactions during pregnancy. with lions.

After birth, she could not come to terms with her son’s peculiarity for a long time and at the age of 4 she gave him into the hands of a German impresario named Meyer, who gave Stefan a stage name and began traveling with him around Europe.

By the time the boy became the object of such spectacles, Lionel's hair had grown up to 20 cm on his face and up to 10 cm on his entire body. There was hair everywhere, with the exception of only the palms and soles of the feet.

In 1901, Stefan began performing in the American circus Barnum & Bailey. However, by the end of 1920 the man abandoned his freak show career and returned to Germany. Lionel died in Berlin in 1932 of a heart attack at the age of 41.

Otis Jordan, frog boy

Otis Jordan was an African-American man with the body of a 4-year-old child, a normal-sized head, and a very intelligent face.

Beginning in 1963, he performed his show "Otis the Frog Boy," during which he rolled around, smoked a cigarette using only his lips, and performed various other tricks.

In 1984, he was banned from doing “his business” after a complaint was received from a woman who considered the “exhibition of disabled people” unethical. Then he moved to Coney Island, where he continued his work, coming up with a more politically correct name for his performances - “The Human Cigarette Factory”.

Ruth Davis, penguin girl

Circus performer Mignon was born in 1910 with a defect called phocomelia, which affects all of a person's limbs, making him look like a penguin.

Mignon's real name was Ruth Davis. With small, thick legs and a waddling gait, the girl began working in the early 1930s under the pseudonym Mignon, which means “darling” in French.

She played a musical instrument called marimba. Also, in addition to freak shows, she often performed at regular fairs that were held in New York and Chicago in the 1930s.

Ruth was married twice. With her second husband, Earl Davis, she spent the last decade of her career performing in freak shows. In 1965, the woman decided to leave this activity.

People with physical deformities

Millie and Christine McCoy, two-headed nightingale

These girls (1851-1912) were born into slavery. They and their mother were sold to showman Joseph Smith. Smith and his wife took charge of raising the girls. Ultimately, the Siamese twins learned to speak five languages, as well as sing, dance and play musical instruments.

People knew them as the "two-headed nightingale." In the 1880s, the “girls” retired and bought themselves a small farm. Millie died of tuberculosis at 61, and Christina died a few hours later.

They are one of the first Siamese twins to live this long.

Felix Wehrle, man – super elastic skin

This man (1858) knew how to stretch his skin from any part of the body to unimaginable sizes, and his fingers were bent both forward and backward.

Felix suffered from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which causes a person's skin to become incredibly elastic. He performed in many Barnum & Bailey shows.

Louise, leopard girl

This girl was an African-American woman who suffered from vitiligo, a skin condition that causes blemishes.

Louise was far from unique in her kind. For more than 200 years, philosophers, scientists, and entertainers exhibited African American bodies with white or part-white skin in taverns, museums, and as circus attractions.

The term "white negro" was very popular then. It was used to refer to people born with albinism or vitiligo.

Susi, the elephant-skinned girl

Charlotte Linda Vogel, born in Berlin on February 26, 1908, was the only one in her family with this special skin condition. Her ichthyosis was of a different type from the one (“crocodile skin”) that many of her contemporaries suffered from.

Charlotte's skin did not peel; it was grey, thick and formed deep folds. A more likely diagnosis is epidermolytic hyperkeratosis.

The girl first toured Europe, but in 1927 she moved to the USA. There she began performing in the Dreamland Circus Sideshow under the direction of Carl J. Lauther, taking the pseudonym “Suzy, the Elephant Skin Girl.”

Dressed either in a bikini or simply “draped” in a veil, Susie told the story of her life, captivating the crowd.

In 1933, Susie left Coney Island and began working at Ripley's Believe it or Not?!, a Chicago exhibition and fair, where her performance was watched at least 80 times by more than a million curious spectators.

When the shows became too grueling for Susie, she went to New York and took a job where the stress level was minimal. She devoted only one hour a day to the circus, performing with an elephant named Lou.

In the 1960s Susie created own show. She died a few days before her 68th birthday in New York.

Leopold, Admiral Dot

In 1870, Phineas Taylor Barnum traveled with his friends by train through the western United States. In San Francisco, he met a German named Gabriel Kahn, who offered his dwarf son Leopold to the showman.

Barnum gladly bought the boy. Leopold immediately received the pseudonym "Admirad Dot", and he was also known as "El Dorado the Elf" because he was, as Barnum himself put it, "a very valuable nugget."

Admiral Dot took his place among other artists museum exhibition Barnum. In 1872, Phineas called his show "the greatest on earth."

Admiral Dot's career lasted about 20 years, despite the fact that there were "actors" who eclipsed him in stature. He often performed alongside Major Atom, who was even shorter. After his “retirement”, instead of resting on his laurels, Dot developed for himself stage image and earned a reputation as "the world's smallest character actor."

Smith, musical acrobat

Smith was an acrobat who played the banjo while twisting his body into incredible knots. A man performed in the 1910s.

Freak circuses were very popular in the United States until the middle of the last century. The owners of these establishments recruited people with various developmental defects and showed them to the public, from whom there was no end.

True, it is unknown how the circus “artists” themselves felt about their work, but they still had no choice, since tolerance had not yet been invented at that time, and only endless ridicule and bullying awaited them anywhere.

Pascual Pinon - the man with two heads

Grace McDaniels

After winning the ugliest woman competition in 1935, she joined Miller's freak show as the "mule-faced woman."

Louise - leopard girl or "white black"

Isaac Sprague - living skeleton

This man regularly ate twice as much food as a common person. He was born healthy, but at the age of 12 he suddenly began to lose weight. Isaac was often seen with a flask of milk around his neck, which he sipped periodically to stay conscious. The skeleton man died in 1887 in complete poverty, to which his passion for gambling. Isaac Sprague bequeathed his body to science so that scientists could find out the reasons for his thinness. With a height of 168 centimeters, this unique person weighed only about 18 kilograms.

Artie Atherton - skeleton dude

Arthur Moll (stage name Artie Atherton) was born in Michigan in 1890 with a body weight of only 900 grams. Until the age of six, Arthur was carried on a pillow; he was too fragile to walk.
Artie weighed 18 kg, his biceps girth was 7.5 cm, his waist was 40 cm. Etherton ate well and never got sick, he married a thin circus snake charmer Blanche Buckley. This unusual family gave birth to two lovely children - a boy and a girl with normal weight.

Hannah Perkins and John Bathersby

Another circus couple. Hannah Perkins performed as a "giant fat woman" as she weighed 700 pounds, about 320 kg. Her husband, John Bathersby, demonstrated himself as a "matchstick man." His weight is 37 kg.

Susie

The 1920s freak show star suffered from ichthyosis, a disorder of the keratinization process of the skin. Her skin was scaly, gray and cracked, exactly like an elephant's. With such a feature, there was only one way for her - to the circus of freaks. Susie had an excellent career and earned excellent money, but, according to eyewitnesses, she suffered greatly from her work, as she was shy and did not like to show herself off.

Minion - penguin girl

Mignon's real name was Ruth Davis. Born in 1910. Her nickname translates from French as “sweetheart.”

Anna Look

Anna was born without arms and joined freak shows to earn a living.

Minnie Woolsey - Bird

Minnie was born in 1880 and was nicknamed Koo Koo Bird. She suffered from a disease related to her skeleton and was completely blind. Billed as the "Blind Girl from Mars", she never reacted to her surroundings and could sit motionless on a chair for hours.

Eli Bowen - "The Legless Miracle"

Eli Bowen was a victim of phocomelia, a genetic disorder of the lower extremities that left him with only flipper-like feet. At the same time, Bowen was an excellent acrobat, distinguished by incredible physical strength and was adored by the public who came to the circus to watch his acts. He made excellent money, was married and raised four completely healthy children. Eli Bowen died at 80.

Mike - headless chicken

Lived 18 months after his head was almost completely severed. At the peak of its popularity, the chicken brought its owners $4.5 thousand a month and was valued at $10 thousand.

infinity eyes of the Masonic bird

Oh, how I’ve been meaning to make this post for a long time)) finally got around to it. I want to invite you into the world of the 19th century, in which such a popular phenomenon as the “Circus of Freaks” flourished everywhere, and show you its main “exhibits”. I think you will find it interesting.

I'm warning you. Some things may be shocking, so watch at your own risk.

Standard freaks

1. Bearded women
Oddly enough, many women have the ability to grow mustaches and beards. The abnormal growth of these male characteristics is due to an excess of androgenic hormones in female body. In the 19th century, a bearded woman had to be present in every circus - there were so many such freaks that spectators were only interested in those who had additional oddities. For example, gray beard or lack of hands. No one was interested in an ordinary black beard anymore. Most bearded women successfully married and gave birth to children - their feature only added piquancy to them.
The most famous bearded women in history were the Mexican Julia Pastrana, who was taken to Europe as a child in 1840 and lived in St. Petersburg from 1858-1860. This unusual woman, however, never ceased to have admirers - nobles - and died from unsuccessful childbirth.

Julia Pastrana

Other famous bearded ladies included Jane Barnelly (Lady Olga) and Annie Jones, and the Frenchwoman Clementine Deleit even ran a café called The Bearded Woman's.

Annie Jones

Jane Barnelly

They were the most common circus participants of the 19th century.

2. Wolf people.
People suffering from hypertrichosis - increased hair growth throughout the body. The most famous wolf boy was Fyodor Evtishchev, who inherited his face from his father.

Fedor Evtishchev

Today, such patients lead normal lives because hair growth is easily suppressed hormonally.

3. People with skin abnormalities
The most common group of people with skin conditions were those with "crocodile" or "elephant" skin, the result of a severe form of ichthyosis. This disease is expressed in a violation of the upper integument - the skin becomes multi-colored and keratinized. Famous alligators were the girl crocodile Susie and Ralph Krooner, a man with keratinized feet.

Susie

The second large group were people with elastic skin - patients with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. The synthesis of collagen, a protein that is the basis of connective tissue, is disrupted, and as a result, the skin becomes hyperelastic and the joints become hypermobile, even to the point of bending the fingers. reverse side.
One of the most famous elastic men was James Morris, who opened a very popular barber shop after the end of the performances.

James Morris

4. Skeletons and fat men
Unusually thin and monstrously fat people most often performed in joint numbers. The most famous couple were husband and wife - skeleton Pete Robinson (26 kg) and fat Bunny Smith (212 kg).

Husband and wife

Peter had a classic theater education and played the harmonica superbly. Many "skeletons" were often educated people and subsequently made careers in other fields, since their strangeness was easily hidden under clothes.

Peter Robinson

5. Lost Limbs
Unlike other freaks who demonstrated their oddities, those without limbs had to study and work, because the audience was primarily interested not in the absence of arms, but in the ability to shave their legs.
The most popular were the “living torsos,” such as Prince Randian, the serpent man. Deprived of arms and legs, he himself took out a cigarette and lit it, drew, wrote, moved. He was also married twice and had six children.

Prince Randian

In addition, Lilliputians and giant men and various Siamese twins could often be observed.

Artificial freaks

The integral participants in the freak show were amazing people without any flaws. For example, women with extra-long hair were highly valued, like the seven Sutherland sisters, who all had hair lengths of about 14 meters.

sisters

Strong men, sword swallowers, even albinos and representatives of relict tribes brought from Africa were also popular. Like Sarah "Sartgy" Bartman, a native South Africa, was a very famous freak early XIX century, "Hottentot Venus". She, like all women of her tribe, had steatopygia, excessive body fat on the buttocks.

Was special group artificial hermaphrodites - people who make up half their body as a man and the other half as a woman. A particularly famous character was Josephine Joseph.

Josephine Joseph

Unique freaks

Bearded women and skeleton people were quite common, but the real success of the circus was given to freaks with unique anomalies, such as:

1. Camel girl

The most famous freak late XIX century there was Ella Harper, a camel girl who suffered from reverse knee syndrome. She was born in 1873 and if her knees had not bent in the opposite direction, she would have been completely an ordinary child. Performing in the circus, she earned about $200 a week, repeating the habits of a camel in her act.

ella harper

2. Woman baby
Jellyfish van Allen, nicknamed "Little Miss Sunshine," was born in 1908 and suffered from a unique genetic bone disorder that caused only her head to grow. She could not stand or sit - she could only lie. In freak shows, she usually played the role of a baby - she was carried onto the stage in her arms, rocked, cradled, and then she suddenly began to talk and talk about philosophy, plunging the audience into delight.

3. people with spinal deformity
The most famous freak this kind there was a certain Leonard Trask, born in England in 1805. At the age of 28, he fell from a horse and suffered a curvature of the spine. Another 7 years later, he fell out of the crew and received a number of fractures. Over the next 18 years, his spine curved and his nose ended up buried in his chest. He no longer saw anything in front of him and made his living only by demonstrating strangeness.

Leonard Trask

4. penguin people
People with phocomelia were in high demand. With this disease, the hands and/or feet are attached directly to the body - without shoulders, forearms, or legs.

boy seal

This also includes the fairly common disease ecrodactyly - lobster people. With this disease, the number and shape of fingers and toes are arbitrary. Most often these are just two fingers on the hands, resembling claws. A famous freak of this kind was Grady Stiles Jr., a unique third-generation “lobster.”

Grady

The most famous of these circuses were W. H. Harris's Nickel Plate Circus, the Congress of Living Freaks show and the Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth. The "artists" received high salaries, signed contracts for performances - and generally lived almost like normal people, got married and had children. Many healthy people deliberately mutilated themselves, for example, in order to get into famous circus Barnum.
Todd Browning's 1932 film "Freaks" shows from the outside a typical freak show, with a standard set and the actors there are real people who performed in various circuses.

After World War II, freak shows fell out of favor dramatically. Society has become more rigid in ethical terms, and many freaks who received a lot of money before the war vegetated in poverty and obscurity after it.
Today, freak shows as such do not exist; the majority of disabled people are cured and provided with a normal existence. In the 19th century, there would have been only one road for them - to the circus of freaks. But this road also had the good side- many freaks earned a lot of money and could provide for themselves much better healthy people. So what is it complex issue- who is happier - today's disabled people or the freaks from the circus of those times.

the text was compiled using the magazine "World of Science Fiction" No. 97

In 1932, the famous American director Tod Browning filmed Feature Film"Freaks." Being in some way a tragicomedy, in some way a melodrama, the film almost immediately after the end of filming was severely cut by censorship (by about 45 minutes), and then completely banned. It entered the US National Film Registry more than half a century later, in 1994.

And the whole point is that Browning was not afraid to make a picture on a topic that was forbidden at that time. A film about the dying genre of freak shows, about people who had no other choice but to make a living by demonstrating their own ugliness...

Today, there is no such thing as a freak show. Medicine has stepped forward over the last hundred years, and the ethics of human relations have undergone serious changes. The majority of disabled people are cured or provided with normal living conditions - and rightly so. In the 19th century the attitude was completely different. For huge amount people who today could lead a full life, there was only one way - to the circus of freaks.

But this road also had positive sides. Many freaks earned huge money and could provide for themselves better than other healthy people. For example, the legendary camel girl Ella Harper in the prime of her career (1885-1886) received $200 a week from Harris' circus! Taking into account inflation today, this is equivalent to a salary of $25,000 per month. Quite a lot, right?

The birth of the genre

Demonstration of various deviations human body has been popular for centuries. From a psychological point of view, this is a win-win option for doing business: even today we are drawn to look back at a disabled person passing by, and we cannot explain this impulse from a logical point of view. But looking back at passers-by is ugly and inconvenient. And freak circuses provided a legal opportunity to look at anomalies, collected in one place and beautifully decorated. Therefore, in almost every circus, starting from ancient Roman times, people with physical disabilities were always present - they had their own acts along with strongmen and acrobats.

In the 16th century, Europe began to move to a market system of relations. Traveling circuses ceased to be a gathering of buffoons who earned their living mainly through alms and handouts. Already in the 17th century, a fixed fee was taken for entrance to many booths, and circuses, stopping at the fair, paid money for rent. The circus business began to become truly profitable. If in the 15th century circus performers were basically beggars, and the circus fit into a single trailer, then two centuries later the circus business became a business.

This is not a real freak, but Charles Lufton in the film The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939). Did brilliant makeup best specialist 1930s Hollywood Perk Westmore.

And within the framework of this business, a strange and unpleasant direction began to actively develop - a freak show. If in the time of Quasimodo the fate of a disabled person was pokes and rotten eggs, then modern times began to bring profits to freaks. It was these three centuries - from the 18th to the beginning of the 20th - that became the golden era of freak circuses: the profit was already significant, and public morality allowed arbitrary cruel attitude to unusual people.

In the 17th century, the first known freaks appeared who made a fortune on their appearance. The most famous freaks of that time were the Siamese twins Lazarus and John Baptist Colloredo, originally from Genoa. John was not so much a person as an underdeveloped appendage growing roughly from the area of ​​his brother's chest. He always kept his eyes closed and his mouth open, and could not speak. Nevertheless, he lived, moved and even took food (apparently, the brothers’ digestive systems were separate).

Lazarus, being a completely mobile and slender man (not counting half of his brother growing from the front of him), traveled throughout Europe in the first half of the 16th century - Denmark, Germany, Italy, England - and was successful everywhere. Moreover, he later married and had normal children.

Russia also did not shy away from all sorts of wonders. For example, Peter the Great's Cabinet of Curiosities has become one of the world's largest collections of freaks preserved in alcohol. This, of course, is not exactly a freak show, but the genre is very close.

IN early XVIII century, the freak show genre spun off from the regular circus. Enterprising businessmen picked up various crippled, sick, and underdeveloped people on the streets - and made them into something like a zoo. Officially, the first performance of a classic freak show is considered to be the demonstration of a woman “with a monkey’s head” taken from Guinea in 1738. True, modern researchers are inclined to believe that the woman was completely normal. It’s just that Africans of exotic tribes seemed to Europe of that time to be something completely outlandish, and an ordinary African woman (maybe sick with something) completely passed for a freak. But these are just assumptions.

Nevertheless, in Europe, freak shows remained a rather rare sight. Freaks still found their way into regular circuses, and normal people, just properly made up, were often passed off as freaks. But in the early 1800s, the idea of ​​freak shows spread to the United States. And a terrible, terrible golden age began.

Barnum and Bailey's American Idyll

Up until the 1840s, American freak shows were not very different from European ones. These were groups of trailers that traveled around the country, setting up a booth in every city and demonstrating their freaks. Unlike Europe, American entrepreneurs approached the issue competently. Freaks received fairly high salaries, signed contracts to perform - and generally lived like normal people. The only place where they had to endure shame, demonstrating their inferiority, was the stage. But art requires sacrifice.

And in the 1840s, photography began to develop rapidly. The owners of the freak show immediately adopted it: almost all freak show advertisements from that time on were supplied with numerous photo illustrations. Attendance at performances has increased tenfold in just a few years, as have profits.

Sarah Bartman (before 1790-1815), nicknamed "Sartgie", a native of South Africa, was a famous freak of the early 19th century, the "Hottentot Venus". In fact, she simply had steatopygia, excess fat deposits on the buttocks.

In the 1880s - 1930s, several hundred circuses specializing in the demonstration of human anomalies operated in Europe and the United States. The most famous among them were W. H. Harris's Nickel Plate Circus, the Congress of Living Freaks show and, of course, Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth. The latter is worth talking about separately, because it was P.T. Barnum who made his circus the quintessence of all freak shows in the world.

Born in 1810, Phineas Taylor Barnum was a businessman by nature and constantly founded companies and firms, subsequently reselling them or giving them away for debts. He managed to be a newspaper publisher, a lottery organizer, and a shopkeeper, until he came to the conclusion that people can be deceived and more in simple ways. In 1835, he acquired an old black slave, Joyce Heth, and began taking her around cities, claiming that she was 161 years old and that she was Washington's own nanny. When interest in the nanny began to subside, Barnum started a rumor that the old woman was not alive, but mechanical, and in the second wave of popularity he collected an even doubled jackpot. True, then Joyce died. And Barnum found his calling.

Since 1841, Barnum began organizing organized demonstrations of freaks - the midget Charles Stratton, nicknamed "General Thumb Thumb", the Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker, as well as a number of African and Indian women of unusual appearance for a white man. Stratton was incredibly popular in Europe and the USA - they sent him tons of Love letters, he was invited to society, and even his wedding with the midget Lavinia Warren Barnum staged as a grandiose freak show.

"General Thumb" and his midget wife Lavinia Warren.

Barnum founded his most famous circus in New York in 1871; ten years later, the surname of James Bailey, the show's co-organizer, was added to the circus' name. Invented for every freak unique story and a unique number. For example, the Kostroma boy Fyodor Evtishchev, suffering from increased hair growth (hypertrichosis), only barked and growled on stage, pretending that he could not speak. Barnum paid very well - people deliberately mutilated themselves in order to get to work in his circus. The long-haired Sutherland sisters who performed in his circus (on average 1.8 meters of hair for each of the seven sisters) made a fortune of $3 million at the end of the 19th century!

Barnum set a new trend in business development - he used many methods then unknown. Spread rumors, viral advertising, invented spam (paper) and so on. The name of Barnum is given to the psychological effect when people trust descriptions of their personality that are supposedly created individually for them, but in fact are an empty general set of words (for example, newspaper horoscopes).

Standard freaks

During the “golden age” of American freak shows (1850-1930), there was a clear classification of various deviations. Every self-respecting circus was obliged to have a standard set of freaks plus several unusual, unique specimens. The latter usually received the most big fees; circuses bought them from each other, just as they buy football players today.

Bearded women

Oddly enough, many women have the ability to grow mustaches and beards. The abnormal growth of these purely male characteristics is due to an excess of androgenic hormones in the female body. In the 19th century, a bearded woman had to be present in every circus - there were so many such freaks that the audience “pecked” only at those who had some additional deformities. For example, a gray beard or lack of arms. An ordinary black beard (99% of bearded women have black hair) was no longer of interest to anyone. Most bearded women married many times and gave birth to children - their feature only added piquancy to them.

The most famous bearded woman in history was the Mexican Julia Pastrana, who was taken to Europe as a child in the 1840s and lived in St. Petersburg from 1858-1860. An unusually ugly Indian woman, she nevertheless had a constant stream of noble admirers. She died from unsuccessful childbirth. Famous “employees” of freak circuses were Jane Barnelly (Lady Olga) and Annie Jones, and the Frenchwoman Clementine Deleit even ran the Bearded Woman’s Cafe. As already mentioned, this is the most common type of “obligatory” freak for every circus of the 19th century.

Wolf People

People suffering from hypertrichosis - increased hair growth throughout the body. The most famous wolf boy was Fyodor Evtishchev, who inherited the “dog face” from his father Adrian. Evtishchev became famous performing in the American Barnum show at the end of the 19th century. Today, such patients lead a completely normal lifestyle. Hair growth is suppressed hormonally, and hair removal products have improved significantly over time.

People with skin abnormalities

Today, genetic diseases associated with the skin are either cured or left alone if they do not cause inconvenience to their carrier. The most common group of freaks with skin problems were people with “crocodile” or “elephant” skin - those suffering from severe forms of ichthyosis. This disease is expressed in a violation of the horny, upper integument - the skin becomes multi-colored, keratinized, truly reminiscent of a crocodile. A famous alligator freak of the first half of the 20th century was Susie, the crocodile girl; in the 19th century, Ralf Kruner shone with his crocodile keratinized feet.

The second large group were freaks with elastic skin - patients with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. With this syndrome, the synthesis of collagen, a fibrillar protein that is the basis of the body’s connective tissue, is disrupted. As a result, the skin becomes hyperelastic and the joints become hypermobile (even to the point of bending the fingers in the opposite direction). Today, Briton Gary Turner, nicknamed “Elasti”, who is listed in the Guinness Book of Records, is widely known, and in the 19th century, the “rubber man” James Morris shone on the stage.

Skeletons and fat men

Unusually thin and monstrously fat people most often performed in joint numbers. But if everything is clear with fat people - most often these were people with severe obesity, then “ skeleton people» were usually carriers of genetic diseases. “Skeletons” were more often men than women, and the upper limit of their permissible weight (with normal height) was 35 kilograms. Diseases that cause abnormal thinness could be different - from various types dystrophies to the familiar anorexia.

The most famous couple were husband and wife - skeleton Pete Robinson (26 kilograms) and fat Bunny Smith (212 kilograms), who married in 1924 and were freak show stars for 20 years. Like many “skeletons,” Pete had a classical theater education and, by the way, played the harmonica superbly. “Skeletons” were often educated people who later made careers in other fields - their ugliness was easily hidden under clothes.

Limbless

Unlike other freaks who simply showed off their bodies, the freaks with no limbs were forced to study and work. Because the audience was primarily interested not in the absence of arms, but in the ability to shave with legs.

“Living torsos” were the most popular. The megastar of the 19th and 20th centuries was Prince Randian, the “snake man.” Deprived of arms and legs from birth, he independently took a cigarette out of a pack and lit it, drew, wrote, moved, and was also married twice and had six children. Of the women, Violetta (Aloysia Wagner) was famous because she knew how to dress herself and even put on makeup.

Also famous were the armless photographer Charles Tripp, who demonstrated his ability to shoot with his feet (this was with 19th-century cameras!), and the “half-boy” Johnny Eck, who lost the entire lower half of his torso due to sacral agenesis.

Artificial freaks

The integral participants of the freak show were amazing people without any physical disabilities. For example, women with extra-long hair were highly valued (the seven Sutherland sisters, who had a total hair length of about 14 meters for seven of them), strongmen who knew how to tie a horseshoe in a knot, and sword swallowers were very popular. In the 19th century, albinos and representatives of relict tribes taken from Africa (especially women with large... hmm... buttocks) were also considered freaks.

There was a special group of artificial hermaphrodites - people who made up one half of their body as a man, the other as a woman. Particularly famous in the 20th century was a character named Josephine Joseph. Of course, his “hermaphroditism” was nothing more than a masquerade.

Unique freaks

Of course, every circus had to amaze the audience with something completely incredible. Bearded women, skeletal people and legless people were common sights. But the stars of the panopticons were freaks with unique anomalies that occurred once in a million.

Camel girl

Ella Harper (1873-?) disappeared from a freak show in 1886. Photo from approximately 1884.

The most famous freak of the late 19th century was the camel girl Ella Harper, who suffered from congenital genu recurvatum, a syndrome of reverse bending of the knee joint. She was born in 1873 and, if her knees had bent in the normal direction, she would have looked like a normal, pretty child. Star year Ella's career began in 1886, when she earned up to $200 a week while performing in W. H. Harris's Nickel Plate Circus. In her act, Ella went on stage at the same time as the camel and repeated all its habits and movements. At the end of the year, Ella left the circus, being the owner of a good fortune, and nothing more is known about her.

History also knows another freak with the same disease - the “pony boy” Robert Huddleston. He was born in 1895, grew up on a farm, then joined the Tom Mix Circus and showed off his weird knees for 36 years. After leaving the circus, he opened a car repair shop and was married.

Woman baby

Jellyfish Van Allen, nicknamed "Little Miss Sunshine," was born in 1908 and suffered from a unique genetic bone disorder that caused only her head to grow. She could not stand or sit - and always lay down. In the freak show, she usually played the role of a baby - she, 70 centimeters, was carried onto the stage in her arms, cradled, rocked, and then she suddenly began to talk, talk about philosophy and literature, plunging the audience into delight. Medusa was the star of Ripley's human oddities circus.

People with spinal deformities

The most famous freak of this kind was a certain Leonard Trask, born in England in 1805. At the age of 28, Trask fell from a horse and suffered spinal curvature. Another 7 years later, he fell out of the crew and received a number of fractures. Over the next 18 years, his spine spontaneously curved, ending with Trask's nose buried in his chest. He could no longer see anything in front of him and made his living by demonstrating ugliness. Researchers claim that the cause of the bending was ankylosing spondylitis, a systemic disease of the joints, but there is no firm certainty about this.

Another strange freak was the German Martin Lorello, who was able to turn his head 180° and remain in this state for quite a long time. He toured extensively in Europe and the United States, performed for Barnum, was married, and even wrote a satirical pamphlet, “How to Turn Your Head 180 Degrees: Detailed Instructions.”

Penguin people

Freaks with phocomelia were in high demand. With this disease, the hands and/or feet are attached directly to the body - without shoulders, forearms, legs... A person really resembles a penguin or a seal. The small number of penguin freaks was due to the high infant mortality rate of those suffering from congenital phocomelia. In principle, such an anomaly in nature is as common as the absence of any limb from birth - but only 3% of patients with phocomelia survive up to 5 years.

This “subtype” also includes the fairly common “lobster people” - patients with ectrodactyly. With this disease, the number and shape of the fingers, as well as the shape of the feet, are essentially arbitrary. Most often, ectrodactylists have two “fingers” on each hand; they are formed by fused tissues of normal fingers. The hands resemble claws. Famous freaks of this type were Fred Wilson (born 1866), Bobby Jackson (early 1910s), Grady Stiles Jr. (a unique “lobster” in the third generation!).

Glory and sunset

Up until World War II, the human ethic allowed freak shows to flourish.

Todd Browning's famous 1932 film Freaks features a typical freak show - with the standard cast of freaks plus a few unusual freaks. True, the ethics of this film shocked the public even in those years; Browning fell out of favor and turned from a famous director into a Hollywood outcast - he continued to film, but failure followed failure.

The most real circus freaks play in “Freaks”. The worm-man Prince Randian, born without arms or legs, gained fame throughout the world thanks to his skills. Half-boy Johnny Eck, missing the lower half of his body. Siamese twins Daisy and Violet Hilton, joined at the sides (by the way, today such twins are separated; but even the deformity did not prevent the sisters from getting married and divorcing several times). Martha Morris, the “armless miracle” and Frances O’Connor (oh, how she drinks wine with her legs in the film!).

The listed freaks were at least mentally competent and played in the film as actors. Problems with the law were caused by the use of mentally retarded freaks - microcephalics Zip and Pip, the “bird woman” Ku-ku (suffering from Seckel syndrome and blind), and so on. The issue was not ethics at all, but the fact that most people really did not know about the existence of freaks. More precisely, they knew, but pretended not to know. And here - ah-ah-ah! - they showed everyone, look, there is a freak show in the USA.

After World War II, freak shows fell sharply in popularity. Society has become more rigid in ethical terms, and the struggle for various rights, including the rights of people with disabilities, has become fashionable. And many freaks who before the war earned huge money and, in general, were happy, after the war vegetated in poverty and obscurity (including the mentioned “half-boy” Johnny Eck).

By 1955, all European countries and most US states had adopted a ban on freak shows as a phenomenon. Freaks could expose themselves at will as separate issues, but posters with the words “amazing ugliness”, “lizard man” or “our best freaks” disappeared once and for all.

Freak show today

Another analogue of the old freak shows is the Lilliputian circus. There are very few similar circuses in the world; they are closed communities and rarely allow ordinary people into their inner life. Some freaks demonstrate themselves in various television shows and club performances. For example, in the USA the “lobster boy” nicknamed “Black Scorpion” (he hides his real name) is widely known - a man with fused fingers; his hands resemble lobster claws.

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The difficult question is who is happier - the freaks of the 19th century, who earned decent money from their ugliness, or modern disabled people. If the latter will give up all their benefits for the right to regain health, then the former would not even think about this. Their mutilated bodies were their bread, and there was no talk of any ethics.

But looking at vintage photographs, remember that in comparison with these people you have no problems at all. Even if you were fired from your job, your wife left you and you owe money to a big mafia boss, you still don’t have any problems.