Sometimes I think God wants there to be a circus so we can show there's another way to respond. ―Tony Dungy
In the midway, between the entrance to the circus and
the big top, a tent off to the side offered a special kind of show.
As "oddities" became more extensive and popular, "10-in-1" tents featured a variety of displays. Big, colorful, exaggerated images were painted on banners out front.* A barker beckoned you in with descriptions that employed artistic license. There was probably a bally act out front, a taste of the marvels that awaited you. For only a small fee...
The acts were enhanced by make-up, costumes, teased hair, lighting, and backdrops. There were lectures (often with invented biographies) and performances that depended on good timing and acting. Limbless performers lit cigarettes or drank tea.
*Mostly painted by David "Snap" Wyatt or Fred G. Johnson.
Prodigies (Don't call them freaks!)
Prodigies were the royalty of the sideshow. They were born with conditions that now have medical names and are often treatable. They told their stories and hoped to give people a new understanding of what it means to be human.
People can be little, big, conjoined, albino, spotted, limbless, enormously fat or skeleton thin, or have extra or missing parts. There were "human pincushions" that felt no pain, "pinheads," bearded ladies, dog-faced boys with hair everywhere, and "half and half" folk (hermaphrodites... or just cross dressers on one side of their bodies).
William Henry Johnson, or Zip the Pinhead, or the What-Is-It, was presented as a missing link. He had a small, misshapen head but probably was of average intelligence. He was in show business for 67 years: a hundred million people saw him. In his 80s he rescued a drowning girl off Coney Island, then dodged the press.
Serpentina had no bones except a skull and a few in her arms.
There were also animal "freaks of nature," such as a two-headed calf or a horse with an extraordinarily long mane and tail (actually a breed).
"Made freaks"
"Lydia O! Lydia, have you seen Lydia?"
Tattooed ladies in the circus had wild stories: like that they had been abducted by savage cannibals and forced to endure being tattooed.
(I wonder if that's why my daughter has all those tattoos...)
Offensively, people were "made" into freaks by being presented in costumes and make-up and described as savages or missing links. Sometimes they had actual physical disabilities, but often they were just members of a different race and culture.
Artists with crazy skills
Sword swallowers: yes, they really swallow swords. They train themselves to focus carefully and relax their gag reflex and esophagus. It is quite dangerous. The sword passes within millimeters of lungs, aorta, and heart. There have been 29 deaths reported since 1880.
Knife throwers with brave assistants to add drama.
Fire eaters and breathers. Try putting gas in your mouth then spitting it out at a flame. On second thought, don't.
"Fakirs" who lie on a bed of nails, walk on hot coals, etc. They say it's all physics, which I can sort of see, spreading your body over a thousand nails, but I don't get other things like walking up a sword ladder.
Snake charmers: I could come out wearing a boa constrictor!
Magicians, strong men and women, rope tricksters, and other novelty acts
Cooch dancers: scantily clad girly dancers like the "Daughter of the Sheik of Araby." Sometimes there was a special section, men only were admitted for an extra fee, where the dancers were topless for their bump-and-grinds.
Illusions
The best illusions were done in dark tents with mirrors and special lighting: talking heads with no body, mermaids in bowls, and some really creepy concoctions. New inventions like kinetoscopes turned up in sideshows at the turn of the last century.
The inevitable decline of the sideshow
As medicine progressed there were fewer "freaks," diseases started to evoke sympathy instead of wonder, and television and other sources of information and entertainment made the public less naive and harder to impress. At the end of WWI freak shows were outlawed in Britain with the birth of the concept of disability. In the 1960s and 1970s people with disabilities in America began to object to sideshows, although sideshow casts were sorry to lose their jobs. Today, television presents such people, often in programs that help viewers see them as fellow humans.
Why did prodigies join circuses?
Families of those born with birth defects sought out circuses. Treatment was seldom possible, and few could afford it anyway. If left at home, these children would be locked away in isolated poverty. In the circus they sometimes suffered from rude audience members, but they earned an income (at least after the early slavery days), often enhanced by selling souvenir postcards and books. Impresarios advertised for freaks in Billboard and were flooded with applicants.
The "freaks" were proud people, and had a strong community where no one was judged. But being put on view was still at times depressing and isolating.
The 1932 movie Freaks portrays such a community put to extremes. Actual sideshow stars are in the film.
The talks given in the 10-in-1 always emphasized the normal lives the cast led outside of the show, their health, and their abilities. Prodigies found respect and often love, marrying and having families.
In 1903 they organized into the Protective Order of Prodigies, their preferred label. They protested the “F word.” (Barnum did not call them "freaks" but "living wonders" or "human curiosities." After he died, Bailey changed to "freaks.")
Why did people want to view prodigies?
It's hard now to relate to sideshow visitors.There was some delicious fear of the unknown, some reassurance that the viewer's own imperfections are comparatively minor, and yes, some desire to learn about the essence of humanity. "Human Wonders" demonstrated the extremes of what it means to be a human in the time when scientists were growing interested in human diversity.
Sideshow casts celebrated their physical differences.
Ultimately the sideshow is another circus celebration of human triumph over adversity.
Stories about stars of the sideshows are scattered in the Mammoth but Mesmerizing Major Milestones, including:
The inevitable decline of the sideshow
Today, television presents such people, often in programs that help viewers see them as fellow humans.
Why did people want to view prodigies?
