WHERE DID THE FREAKSHOWS COME FROM?

In the 16th century, freak shows became a public curiosity in Europe. People found human oddities intriguing and fascinating. Businessmen gathered people with physical deformities, brought them around Europe and charged a small fee.

In 1835, already having established himself as a marketer and a lottery ticket vendor, PT. Barnum found himself out of a job after the passage of the anti-lottery law. He heard about the freak shows in England and decided to purchase a blind, paralyzed slave woman named Joice Heth. He claimed that she was 160 years of age and that she served as George Washington’s nurse. A year later she passed away and a death report confirmed that she was only 80 years old. Even after being completely lied to, the people craved more entertainment that sparked their curiosity.

Barnum wanted to continue showcasing strange cases and purchased Scudder’s American Museum and renamed it Barnum’s American Museum. A few of the acts showcased were giants, midgets, albinos, musicians and exotic women.

He later created the Feejee Mermaid, which was a creature with the head of a monkey and the body of a fish. He tried to convince people that it was real and his story made it in the newspapers.

Following this act of trickery, Barnum heard of his distant cousin Charles Stratton who had an abnormality. Stratton was a born to two normal sized adults and developed normally until he was six months old, measuring 25 inches tall and 15 lbs. By age 5 he did not grow an inch and was renamed General Tom Thumb. He was taught how to sing and impersonate famous figures and went on tour in 1844. Viewers were told he was 11 years old, while he was only 5 years old.

BUT HOW DID FREAKSHOWS MAKE IT TO CONEY ISLAND?

Samuel Gumpertz, a Missouri showman, came to Coney Island to manage “Midget City” also known as Lilliputia which opened in Dreamland in 1904. Lilluputia was a miniature city scaled for midgets and dwarfs. They had their own fire department, parliament and private beach. After their long days of entertaining, they had their own lives in these little communities. After the tragic burning down of Dreamland in 1911, Gumpertz decided to further his showcasing of human oddities and so he opened Dreamland’s Circus sideshow.

WHO WERE (A FEW OF) THE FREAKS?

Lionel: A lion faced man

-born in 1891 in Poland

-had long hair covering his face

-today known as hypertrichosis- “Werewolf disease”

-performed in the Dreamland Circus Sideshows in the 1920’s

-his act was gymnastics

Violetta: The limbless woman

-born in 1906 in Germany

-lacking arms and legs

-performed in the Dreamland Circus Sideshow

-her act was singing

William Henry Johnson: Zip the Pinhead

-born in New Jersey in 1842

-oddly tapered head with normal sized face

-currently known as microcephaly- birth defect

-his act was to play the violin

-he played so terribly that the audience would pay him money to stop

 

Works Cited

Cellania, Miss. “Coney Island Freaks of Yesterday and Today.” Mental Floss. N.p., 15 Feb. 2008. Web. 21 May 2017.

“Coney Island Remembered.” YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2017.<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v>.

Stanton, Jeffrey . “Coney Island – Freaks & Shows.” Coney Island – Freaks & Freak Shows. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2017.