Freak show
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A freak show is an exhibition of
History
Since at least the
As well as exhibitions, freak shows were popular in the taverns and fairgrounds, where the freaks were often combined with talent displays. For example, in the 18th century, Matthias Buchinger, born without arms or lower legs, entertained crowds with astonishing displays of magic and musical ability, both in England and later, Ireland.[4]
It was in the 19th century, both in the United States and Europe, where freak shows finally reached maturity as successful commercially run enterprises.[1]
During the late 19th century and the early 20th century, freak shows were at their height of popularity; the period 1840s through to the 1940s saw the organized for-profit exhibition of people with physical, mental, or behavioral rarities. Although not all abnormalities were real, some being alleged, the exploitation for profit was seen as an accepted part of US-American culture.[5] The attractiveness of freak shows led to the spread of the shows that were commonly seen at amusement parks, circuses, dime museums and vaudeville. The amusement park industry flourished in the United States by the expanding middle class who benefited from short work weeks and a larger income. There was also a shift in US-American culture that influenced people to see leisure activities as a necessary and beneficial equivalent to working, thus leading to the popularity of the freak show.[6]
The
There were four ways freak shows were produced and marketed. The first was the oral spiel or lecture. This featured a showman or professor who managed the presentation of the people or "freaks". The second was a printed advertisement usually using long pamphlets and broadside or newspaper advertisement of the freak show. The third step included costuming, choreography, performance, and space used to display the show, designed to emphasize the things that were considered abnormal about each performer. The final stage was a collectable drawing or photograph that portrayed the group of freaks on stage for viewers to take home.[9] The collectable printed souvenirs were accompanied by recordings of the showmen's pitch, the lecturer's yarn, and the professor's exaggerated accounts of what was witnessed at the show. Exhibits were authenticated by doctors who used medical terms that many could not comprehend but which added an air of authenticity to the proceedings. Freak show culture normalized a specific way of thinking about gender, race, sexual aberrance, ethnicity, and disability.[10]
During the first decade of the twentieth century, the popularity of the freak show was starting to dwindle.[11] In their prime, freak shows had been the main attraction of the midway, but by 1940 they were starting to lose their audience, with credible people turning their backs on the show.[12] In the nineteenth century, science supported and legitimized the growth of freak shows, but by the twentieth century, the medicalization of human abnormalities contributed to the end of the exhibits' mystery and appeal.[12]
P.T. Barnum
P. T. Barnum was considered the father of modern-day advertising, and one of the most famous showmen/managers of the freak show industry.[13] In the United States he was a major figure in popularizing the entertainment. However, it was common for Barnum's acts to be schemes and not altogether true. Barnum was fully aware of the improper ethics behind his business as he said, "I don't believe in duping the public, but I believe in first attracting and then pleasing them." During the 1840s Barnum began his museum, which had a constantly rotating acts schedule, which included obese people, "living skeletons" (men who appear emaciated), little people, giants, and other people deemed to be freaks.[14] The museum drew in about 400,000 visitors a year.[15]
Barnum's American Museum was one of the most popular museums in New York City to exhibit freaks. In 1841 Barnum purchased The American Museum, which made freaks the major attraction, following mainstream America at the mid-19th century. Barnum was known to advertise aggressively and make up outlandish stories about his exhibits. The façade of the museum was decorated with bright banners showcasing his attractions and included a band that performed outside.[13] Barnum's American Museum also offered multiple attractions that not only entertained but tried to educate and uplift its working-class visitors. Barnum offered one ticket that guaranteed admission to his lectures, theatrical performances, an animal menagerie, and a glimpse at curiosities both living and dead.[6]
One of Barnum's exhibits centered around Charles Sherwood Stratton, the dwarf billed as "
In 1860, The American Museum had listed and archived thirteen human curiosities in the museum, including an
Barnum's most popular and highest grossing act was the Tattooed Man,
One of Barnum's most famous hoaxes was early in his career. He hired a blind and paralyzed former slave for $1,000. He claimed this woman was 160 years old, but she was actually only 80 years old. This lie helped Barnum make a weekly profit of nearly $1,000. This hoax was one of the first, but one of the more convincing.[15]
Barnum retired in 1865 when his museum burnt to the ground.[18] Though Barnum was and still is criticized for exploitation, he paid the performers fairly handsome sums of money. Some of the acts made the equivalent of what some sports stars make today.[15]
Tom Norman
Barnum's English counterpart was Tom Norman, a renowned Victorian showman, whose traveling exhibitions featured Eliza Jenkins, the "Skeleton Woman", a "Balloon Headed Baby" and a woman who bit off the heads of live rats—the "most gruesome" act Norman claimed to have seen.[19][20] Other acts included fleas, fat ladies, giants, dwarfs and retired white seamen, painted black and speaking in an invented language, billed "savage Zulus".[21] He displayed a "family of midgets" which in reality was composed of two men and a borrowed baby.[22] He operated a number of shops in London and Nottingham, and exhibited travelling shows throughout the country.[19]
Most famously, in 1884, Norman came into contact with
At this time, however, public opinion about freak shows was starting to change and the display of human novelties was beginning to be viewed as distasteful. After only a few weeks with Norman, the Elephant Man exhibition was shut down by the police, and Norman and Merrick parted ways.
Dime Museum
A different way to display a freak show was in a dime museum. In a dime museum, freak show performers were exhibited as an educational display of people with different disabilities. For a cheap admission viewers were awed with its dioramas, panoramas, georamas, cosmoramas, paintings, relics, freaks, stuffed animals, menageries, waxworks, and theatrical performances. No other type of entertainment appealed to such diverse audiences before.[28] In the 1870s, dimes grew and grew, peaking in the 1880s and 1890s, available for all from coast to coast. With more dime museums than any place in the world, New York City was the dime museum capital, with an entertainment district that included German beer gardens, theaters, vendors, photography, studios, and a variety of other amusement institutions.[28][29]
Freak shows were the main attraction of most dime museums during 1870–1900, with the human oddity as the king of museum entertainment.
At the end of the nineteenth century, there was a shift in popularity of the dime museum and it began its downward turn. Audiences could now choose from a wide variety of popular entertainments. Circuses, street fairs, world's fairs, carnivals, and urban amusement parks, all of which exhibited freaks, began to take business away from the dime museums.[32]
Circus
In the circus world, freak shows, also called
Most of the museums and sideshows that had traveled with major circuses were owned during most of 1876. By 1880 human phenomena were now combined with a variety of entertainment acts from the sideshows. By 1890 tent size and the number of sideshow attractions began to increase, with most sideshows in large circuses with twelve to fifteen exhibits plus a band. Bands typically were made up of Black musicians,
By the 1920s, the circus was declining as a major form of amusement due to competition from amusement parks, movie houses and
Disability
Freak shows were viewed as a normal part of American culture in the late 19th to the early 20th centuries. The shows were viewed as a suitable amusement for the middle class and were profitable for the showmen, who exploited freak show performers' disabilities for profit.[36]
Changing attitudes about physical differences led to the decline of the freak show as a form of entertainment towards the end of the 19th century. As previously mysterious anomalies were scientifically explained as
Although freak shows were viewed as a place for entertainment, they were also a place of employment for those who could advertise, manage, and perform in its attractions. In an era before there was welfare or
Many scholars have argued that freak show performers were being exploited by the showmen and managers for profit because of their disabilities. Many freaks were paid generously, but had to deal with museum managers who were often insensitive about the performers' schedules, working them long hours just to make a profit. This was particularly hard for top performers, since more frequent shows sold more tickets.[41] Many entertainers were abused by small-time museum operators, kept to grueling schedules, and given only a small percentage of their total earnings. Individual exhibits were hired for about one to six weeks by dime museums. The average performer had a schedule that included 10 to 15 shows a day, and was shuttled back and forth week after week from one museum to another.[39] When a popular freak show performer came to a dime museum in New York, they were overworked and exploited to make the museum money. For example, when Fedor Jeftichew (known as "Jo-Jo, the Dog-Faced Boy") appeared at the Globe Museum in New York, his manager arranged to have him perform 23 shows during a 12- to 14-hour day.[42]
Historical timeline
The exhibition of human oddities has a long history:
- 1630s
- Lazarus Colloredo, and his conjoined twin brother, Joannes Baptista, who was attached at Lazarus' sternum, tour Europe.[43]
- 1704–1718
- example needed]
- 1738
- The exhibition of a creature who "was taken in a wook at Guinea; 'tis a female about four feet high in every part like a woman excepting her head which nearly resembles the ape."[45]
- 1739
- Peter the Great's niece Anna Ioannovna had a parade of circus freaks escort Mikhail Alekseyevich Galitzine and his bride Avdotya Ivanovna Buzheninova to a mock palace made of ice.[citation needed]
- 1810–1815
- Sarah Baartman (aka "Hottentot Venus"), a Khoekhoe woman, was exhibited in Europe.[46]
- 1829–1870
- The original "Siamese twins", Chang and Eng Bunker were conjoined twin brothers who started performing in 1829. They stopped performing in 1870 due to Chang having a stroke.[47]
- 1842–1883
- In 1842 Charles Sherwood Stratton was presented on the freak show platform as "hypopituitary dwarfism; he stopped performing in 1883 due to a stroke that led to his death.[48]
- 1849–1867
- In 1849 Maximo and Bartola started performing in freak shows as "The Last of the Ancient Aztecs of Mexico". Both performers had microcephaly and stopped performing in 1867 after they were married to each other.[48]
- 1860–1905
- Hiram and Barney Davis were presented as the "wild men" from Borneo. Both brothers were intellectually disabled. They stopped performing in 1905 after Hiram's death.[47]
- 1884
- Joseph Merrick, exhibited as "The Elephant Man" by Tom Norman in London's East End.[49]
- 1912–1935
- Daisy and Violet Hilton, conjoined twin sisters who started performing at the age of four in 1912. They grew in popularity during the 1920s to the 1930s performing dance routines and playing instruments. They stopped performing in 1935 due to financial troubles.[47]
- 1932
- Pre-Code-era film Freaks tells the story of a traveling freakshow. The use of real freaks in the film provoked public outcries, and the film was relegated to obscurity until its re-release at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival.[50] Two stars of the film were Daisy and Violet Hilton: conjoined sisters who had been raised being exhibited in freak shows.[51]
- 1960
- Albert-Alberta Karas[52] (two siblings, each half man, half woman) exhibits with Bobby Reynolds on sideshow tour.
- 1991
- Jim Rose Circus plays the Lollapalooza Festival, starting a new wave of performers and resurgence of interest in the genre.[citation needed]
- 1992
- Grady Stiles (the lobster boy) is shot in his home in Gibsonton, Florida.[53]
- 1996
- Chicago shock-jock Mancow Muller presented Mancow's Freak Show at the United Center in the middle of 1996, to a crowd of 30,000. The show included Kathy Stiles and her brother Grady III as the Lobster Twins.[54]
- 2000–2010
- Ozz Fest music festival in 2006, 2007 and 2010.[55]
- 2005
- "999 Eyes Freakshow" was founded, touting itself as the "last genuine traveling freakshow in the United States." 999 Eyes portrays freaks in a positive light, insisting that "what is different is beautiful." Freaks include Black Scorpion.[56]
- 2007
- Wayne Schoenfeld brought together several sideshow performers to "Cirque Du Soleil – Circus of the Sun." In attendance were: Bill Quinn, the halfman; Percilla, the fat lady; Mighty Mike Murga the Mighty Dwarf; Dieguito El Negrito, a wildman; Christopher Landry; fire-eaters; sword swallowers, and more.[57][58]
Modern freak shows
The entertainment appeal of the traditional "freak shows" is arguably echoed in numerous programmes made for television.
In popular culture
Freak shows are a common subject in Southern Gothic literature, including stories such as Flannery O'Connor's Temple Of The Holy Ghost,[62] Eudora Welty's Petrified Man and Keela the Outcast Indian Maiden,[63] Truman Capote's Tree of Night,[64] and Carson McCullers's The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.[65]
The musical Side Show centers around Daisy and Violet Hilton and their lives as conjoined twins on exhibition.[66]
American Horror Story: Freak Show also focuses on freak shows. Some of its characters are played by disabled people, rather than all of the disabilities being created through makeup or effects.[67] However, an article in The Guardian criticized the show, saying it perpetuated the term "freak" and the negative view of disability associated with it.[68]
See also
References
- ^ a b "Strange and Bizarre: The History of Freak Shows". 26 September 2010. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
- ^ Drimmer, Frederick (1985). Very Special People: the Struggles, Loves, and Triumphs of Human Oddities. New York: Bell Publishing Co. p. xiii.
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- ^ "Matthew Buchinger". Dublin Penny Journal at the National Library of Ireland. 27 April 1833. Retrieved 3 June 2009.
Matthew Buchinger was born in Germany, without hands or feet, on the 3rd of June, 1674. He came over to England, from Hanover, in the retinue of George the first, with whom he expected to have ingratiated himself, by presenting to his Majesty a musical instrument of his own invention, resembling, we believe, a flute, and on which he played with considerable skill. ...
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- ^ R. G Thomson in Freakery The cultural specatcle of the extraordinary body
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- ^ a b c d e f g Zachary Crockett, "The Rise and Fall of Circus Freakshows", "Priceonomics", June 28, 2016
- ^ Queen Victoria and Tom Thumb
- ^ Kunhardt, Kunhardt & Kunhardt 1995, p. 73
- ^ ISBN 978-0-226-06312-6.
- ^ required.)
- ^ a b Toulmin, Vanessa (2007), "'It Was Not The Show It Was The Tale That You Told': The Life And Legend Of Tom Norman, the Silver King", National Fairground Archive, University of Sheffield, archived from the original on 10 October 2010, retrieved 19 May 2010
- ^ Howell & Ford (1992), p. 69
- ^ Howell & Ford (1992), p. 70
- ^ Howell & Ford (1992), p. 72
- ^ Howell & Ford (1992), p. 5
- ^ Howell & Ford (1992), p. 77
- ^ Howell & Ford (1992), p. 30
- ^ Durbach (2009), p. 34
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- ^ "Michigan Penal Code (Excerpt), Act 328 of 1931: Section 750.347, Deformed human beings; exhibition". Legislature.mi.gov. 18 September 1931. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
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- ^ Armand Marie Leroi, Mutants, Penguin Books, pp. 53.
- ^ "The History of Kunstkammer". Kunstkamera.ru. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
- The University of Chicago Press. pp. 25.
- ^ "'Hottentot Venus' goes home". BBC. 29 April 2002. Retrieved 13 October 2008.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-226-06312-6.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-226-06312-6.
- ^ Howell, Michael; Ford, Peter (1992). The True History of the Elephant Man (3rd ed.). p. 74. London: Penguin Books
- ^ "Missing Link reviews Tod Browning's Freaks (1932)". Classichorror.free-online.co.uk. Archived from the original on 15 December 2018. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
- ^ "Bound by Flesh" (2013), directed by Leslie Zemeckis, IFC Films.
- ^ Albert-Alberta Karas, photographer unknown, Syracuse University Digital Library, retrieved May 6, 2006.
- IMDb
- Regan Books2004 pp. 121, 137–147
- ^ "Chicago Reader: Wanna See Something Really Weird?". Chicago, Illinois. Archived from the original on 25 January 2007. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
- ^ "999 EYES BIO". 999eyes.com. Archived from the original on 26 January 2009. Retrieved 13 April 2009.
- ^ "Wayne Schoenfeld". Wayne Schoenfeld. Archived from the original on 27 May 2013. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
- ^ "credits". Zootsuitclown.com. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
- ^ Logged in as click here to log out (21 February 2008). "Last night's TV: Extraordinary People: The Boys Joined at the Head | Media". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 13 April 2009.
- ^ Maher, Kevin (14 March 2007). "Last Night's TV – Times Online". London: Entertainment.timesonline.co.uk. Retrieved 13 April 2009.
- ^ Shaw, Chris (20 February 2006). "The lure of the weird | Media | MediaGuardian". Guardian. London. Retrieved 13 April 2009.
- ^ Sparrow, Stephen. "This is My Body". www.flanneryoconnor.org. The Flannery O'Connor Repository. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
- ISBN 978-1-4968-1454-8. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
- ISBN 978-1-139-45765-1. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
- ^ Cothren, Claire Renae. "Freaks, the Grotesque, and Other Sideshow Attractions in the Fiction of Carson McCullers" (PDF). Texas A&M University. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
- ^ Engelhardt, Joanne (6 March 2017). "A splendid show full of love for 'Side Show' sisters". The Mercury News. The Daily News. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
- ^ Kupfer, Lindsey (15 October 2014). "How Much of 'Freak Show' Is Reality?". Bustle. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
- ^ Sherman, Howard (26 September 2014). "'Freak' is a slur and 'Freak Show' is propagating it. Disabled people deserve better | Howard Sherman". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
Works cited
- Kunhardt, Philip B. Jr.; Kunhardt, Philip B. III; Kunhardt, Peter W. (1995). P. T. Barnum: America's Greatest Showman. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-679-43574-7.
Further reading
- Půtová, B.: Freak Shows. Otherness of the Human Body as a Form of Public Presentation. Anthropologie: International Journal of Human Diversity and Evolution 56(2), 2018, s. 91–102
- Martin Monestier, Human Freaks, Encyclopedic Book on the Human Freaks from the Beginning to Today. (In French: Les Monstres humains: Oubliés de Dieu ou chefs-d'œuvres de la nature)
- Niall Richardson (2010) 'Transgressive Bodies' (Ashgate)
External links
- Showhistory.com
- Shocked and Amazed – periodical devoted to sideshow and variety entertainment
- Freaks and prodigies – Section of Monstrous.Com dedicated to freaks and prodigies
- Sideshow World – "Preserving the past... promoting the future"
- Congress of Oddities: James G. Prodigies – freakshow ephemera from the collection of artist James G Mundie
- Collection Guide to Human curiosity prints, playbills, broadsides and other printed material, 1695–1937 at Houghton Library, Harvard University