Circus performers have always attracted attention, especially at the time when the freak circus appeared, which became a source of entertainment for most people. Legendary American showman Phineas Taylor Barnum united and turned the so-called "freaks" into one of the most famous attractions. The performers of this circus were unfortunate victims of a cruel world that refused to accept them and recognize them as “normal.”
1. Francesco Lentini - the man with three legs
Born in Sicily in 1889, Francesco Lentini was widely known as the "King of Freaks". Francesco was born with a third leg (and reportedly fully functioning genitals). Lentini's condition was the result of a partially formed twin that failed to separate properly from his body. The parents abandoned their son. He first lived with his aunt, and then she gave him to a shelter for disabled children. Francesco was ashamed of himself at first, but then he realized that there were other unusual children in the world. At the age of 8, he immigrated to the United States, where he became a respected circus performer.
2. Stefan Bibrovsky - "The Lion Man"
Born in 1891 in modern Poland, Stefan Bibrowski was an ordinary boy, except for one startling fact: he suffered from hypertrichosis, a disorder that caused hair to grow all over his body and face. His mother was convinced that the child was cursed. One day she witnessed how her husband, Stefan's father, was attacked by a lion. Thinking that her son would become inhuman, Stefan's mother gave him to a German artist. It turns out that Stefan wasn't a "monster" at all. He was kind, gentle and smart person who spoke five languages. He spent part of his speeches simply talking to his audience. Stefan was such a successful circus performer that he was able to retire in his 30s and return to Europe. Unfortunately, he died of a heart attack at the age of 41.
3. Isaac Sprague - "Living Skeleton"
Isaac Sprague was a completely normal boy until the age of 12, when he began to suffer from a mysterious illness. He lost weight at an incredible rate until he finally muscle mass didn't evaporate at all. In his adult years, he weighed no more than 43 pounds (about 19 kg). This condition made him unable to do regular work, so Isaac began performing in the circus to pay bills. Sprague spent most of his career working with famous showman P.T. Barnum, toured with him, and also performed at the museum. Isaac died at the age of 46.
4. Ella Harper - "Camel Girl"
Ella Harper was born with an unusual orthopedic condition - recurvation knee joints, which allowed her to fully bend her knees in the opposite direction. She preferred to walk on all fours. In the 1880s, Ella became the star of the major Harris" Nickel Plate show, where she received the nickname "Camel Girl." Newspapers advertised Ella, but she herself was modest and not very interested in fame. After some time, she left the stage and got married and started new life in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1921 she died of cancer.
5. Chang and Eng Banker - conjoined Siamese twins
Chang and Eng Banker are perhaps the most famous artists circus in history. The brothers were born joined at the chest in Siam (now Thailand). At the time, doctors didn't know how to safely separate twins. When they were young, a famous showman convinced their parents to send them on a world tour, which brought them fame and fortune. After the contract ended, Chang and Eng bought a large plantation in North Carolina. Chang and Eng, determined to live normal life, married local women, also sisters. In total, they had 21 children.
6. Schlitzi Surtees
Schlitzy Surtees rose to fame when he starred in Todd Browning's 1932 classic Freaks. Schlitzi was born with microcephaly, a developmental disorder that caused him to have a very small brain and skull, and was himself vertically challenged. Due to illness, he was unable to do normal work and could only speak short words or phrases. He was sometimes dressed as a woman in dresses because he was incontinent and wore diapers. Although this assumption never became reliable. In 1965, Schlitzie was assigned to the Los Angeles County Hospital. But he felt bad there and was able to return to his normal life. He died in 1971.
7. Joseph Merrick - "The Elephant Man"
Joseph Merrick's life changed the public's view of physical disability. Merrick was born in Leicester. His strange condition, which medical science is still unable to fully explain, began in the first few years of his life, causing deformities in his face and body. When Joseph was 11 years old, his mother died of bronchopneumonia, and his father and new stepmother abused him. Unable to do a regular job, Merrick contacted a showman named Sam Torr and agreed to perform as "The Elephant Man." While in London he was visited by a surgeon named Frederick Treves, who took him in and became his benefactor. Treves visited him daily and they developed quite a close friendship. Merrick also visited wealthy ladies and gentlemen of London society. Joseph Merrick died on April 11, 1890, aged 27.
8. Prince Randian - "Snake Man", "Living Torso", "Caterpillar Man"
Prince Randian was born with tetra-amelia syndrome, a disorder that causes a person to be born without limbs. According to legend, it was brought by P.T. himself. Barnum to America at the age of 18. Randian became famous after playing the "snake man" (he wore a one-piece outfit and crawled around the stage). He could write with his mouth, roll cigarettes and shave. Randian was very capable without limbs. In fact, he made all of his circus props and acts himself. He was very smart and could speak many languages.
9. James Morris - "Rubber Man"
James Morris was born with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a disorder that allowed him to stretch his skin to incredible lengths. Morris took advantage of his condition and began performing in the circus as the “Rubber Man.” Morris's skin was so elastic that he could take the skin from his neck and pull it over his eyes. Naturally, this affected his health. Stretching the skin soon became incredibly painful, and welts and scars began to appear. James Morris was forced to leave the circus. He opened his own barbershop.
10. Grady Stiles - "The Crab Man"
Grady Stiles was a circus performer who became famous for his deformed arms and legs. Styles suffered from a condition known as ectrodactyly, which caused him to have claws instead of arms and legs. This disorder is inherited. Styles' father was also a circus performer. Two of Styles' four children suffered from ectrodactyly. Soon Styles started drinking a lot. In 1978, Styles killed his fiancé eldest daughter on the eve of their wedding. He was convicted of third degree murder and sentenced to fifteen years probation. His first wife, Maria Teresa, paid one of the circus workers to kill Grady. As it turned out, no one loved Grady and all his friends and acquaintances refused to carry his coffin.
11. Charles Sherwood Stratton - "General Tom-Tom"
Charles Sherwood Stratton was a little man who mysteriously stopped growing once he was six months old. Stratton's growth throughout early childhood was about 63 cm, although later he grew a little more and reached 99 cm. Charles began performing in the P.T. Circus. Barnum since age 5. Stratton sang, danced, joked and even imitated celebrities. He became an international celebrity as he toured Europe and met Queen Victoria, President Abraham Lincoln and King Edward VII. In 1863, Stratton married Lavinia Warren (who was also short). He died at the age of 45.
12. Annie Jones - American bearded woman
Annie Jones began touring with the circus at the age of 9 months. Her mother signed a three-year contract with showman P.T. Barnum. By the age of five, Annie had sideburns and a mustache and became the famous "bearded girl." Annie Jones was also famous for her musical abilities. She was married twice. In 1902, Annie died of tuberculosis.
Many people have loved going to the circus since childhood: to admire the performances of trained animals, laugh at the antics of mischievous clowns, or hold their breath while watching complex acrobatic acts. But behind the superbly performed numbers there are not only years of work and rehearsals, but also real human tragedies, the cause of which is someone’s mistake, an absurd accident or animal instincts.
Death under the hooves
On August 30, 2015, circus rider Anastasia Maksimova and her group took part in a performance at the sports complex in the village of Abrau-Dyurso near Novorossiysk.
Carrying out acrobatic stunt, the 24-year-old girl fell out of the saddle, caught her foot in the stirrup, after which the horse dragged her several times across the arena. Then the horse jumped onto the podium.
They were able to stop the frightened animal only after a couple of minutes, but during this time Maksimova received several severe blows to her hooves and to the head. She died from her injuries in the ambulance.
During the investigation, it turned out that Maksimova was far from a beginner in equestrian sports: she had been doing it for six years and had numerous awards for horse riding. At the 2012 World Championships in this discipline, she received a silver medal. Some experts then put forward a version that the cause of the incident was a violation of safety precautions during horse riding: the girl’s second leg, contrary to all the rules, was rigidly secured in a tarpaulin loop. This was probably done to make it easier to perform the trick. But it is precisely because of the fixation of the leg that the athlete cannot jump off the horse in time.
Last straw"
In the spring of 2013, the “Drop” act was held at the circus on Vernadsky Avenue. According to the scenario, a group of acrobats had to jump from 30 meters (which corresponds to the eighth floor of the building) straight into the arena upside down. In flight, they managed to perform complex acrobatic figures. The act was performed by a group of athletes from Kenya. According to the author's idea, the first to land was 23-year-old Caro-Christopher Kazungu. Everything went well, the audience, including numerous relatives of the acrobat, who specially came from Africa, were delighted. But the falling Kenyan was not stopped by the safety net or cable as they should have been, and he collapsed into the arena. The acrobat was urgently taken to the nearest First City Hospital, doctors diagnosed him with a concussion, a comminuted fracture of the first spine and a number of other injuries. Kazungu miraculously survived.
The State Labor Inspectorate found out that, firstly, the victim was not a professional acrobat, but in his homeland, together with a group of colleagues, he was engaged in dancing. Secondly, he jumped without a safety rope.
In the circus itself, the incident is not associated with the gymnast’s low qualifications: supposedly no one performed the “Drop” better than Kazungu. Allegedly, everything was in order with the net before the Kenyan’s performance, and the point of the act, according to the head of the aerial acrobats’ act at the circus on Vernadsky Avenue, Vladimir Doveyko, was precisely to jump without insurance. Eventually official reason The emergency was recognized as a defective net, and the circus management paid for the artist’s subsequent treatment.
Falling on ice
The performance of Yulia and Alexander Volkov, who performed in the circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard in Moscow, ended in an accident. In 2009, they rehearsed the number “Aerialists on Canvases”; it lasts 5.5 minutes and is performed without harness. Yulia was sitting in the splits, her legs were secured with rings of fabric, her hands were holding onto the fabric, and belts were attached to her waist, which Alexander was holding on to. But at some point, the artist’s leg slipped out of the ring, and the acrobats fell onto artificial ice (the circus also held an ice show at that time): Alexander from six meters, Yulia from eight. The couple survived, but received numerous injuries. After a long rehabilitation, the artists returned to the arena.
"Flight" is over
Also in 2009, a gymnast from the Moscow Starfish Circus crashed in Khabarovsk. The 26-year-old acrobat was rehearsing the “Flight” routine.
For some reason, his colleagues did not have time to catch the gymnast flying under the dome and he, working without a safety harness, fell onto the net.
He fell so badly that he suffered a dislocation of a cervical vertebra and damage to the spinal cord - but remained alive.
Tiger-tiger, burning fear
In 2006, during a performance at the circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard, trainer Artur Bagdasarov wanted to push one of the tigers towards the rest of the animals with a stick, but approached him too quickly. As a result, when the man raised his hand, the tiger raised its paw at him, and then crushed Arthur under itself and squeezed his head with its teeth. They tried to drive away the predator with whips, but he only responded to several shots from a pistol into the air. Doctors put about a hundred stitches on the trainer’s head alone. The tiger, by the way, who even refused to eat for a while due to stress, was not punished: they decided that Bagdasarov himself had violated safety regulations.
Lions on the hunt
Trainer Alexander Shatirov was attacked by two lions during a performance in the Ufa circus in 2005. One of the animals tore the man’s leg, the second threw him into the arena. Assistants tried to ward off predators cold water from a fire hose, but it was not possible to do this right away.
It is noteworthy that Shatirov, on principle, did not give his pets special sedatives, although this practice is often used in many circuses: he believed that this had a bad effect on the abilities of lions.
I came, I saw, I bit
On March 8, 2004, in the Moscow circus on Vernadsky Avenue, the tiger Caesar, whom everyone considered harmless (by predatory standards, of course), suddenly attacked the pregnant trainer Svetlana Sobenko. The woman was taken to intensive care with serious wounds and fractures, there was even a threat of miscarriage, but the child, fortunately, was born healthy.
Dodon attacks
In December 2003, a bear named Dodon attacked three people. The tragedy occurred in “Durov’s Corner”, in the room where the animals are kept, when assistant trainer Umar Zakirov was going to feed the pet. Somehow Dodon got out of the cage, bit Zakirov to death, and then attacked two trainers - Timur Shchedov and Vladimir Soshin, who tried to stop the bear and save their colleague. Zakirov died on the spot, Shchedov was seriously wounded, Soshin received a wound to his right hand.
Trampled by elephants
One of the most tragic incidents occurred on February 22, 2001, in the same “Durov’s Corner”. Trainer Alexander Terekhov rehearsed with two elephants - Dasha and Masha. When he tried to put a harness on Dasha, for which, apparently, he got up to some kind of attack. It is still unknown whether he fell off it himself, losing his balance, or whether the elephant accidentally threw him off with her trunk, but in addition, Dasha stepped on Terekhov several times. The ambulance was unable to save the artist.
"The Old Lady on the Lampshade"
Tragedies also occurred in Soviet time. A terrible incident was the death of the clown Irina Asmus, known for her role as Toffee in the television program “ABVGDeyka”. Asmus was born in April 1941, she miraculously survived the siege of Leningrad. For some time after graduating from school, she was an acrobat, but after an injury she moved to the V.F. Komissarzhevskaya Theater, where she played Cinderella, Juliet and other roles. Then Irina Asmus returned to the circus, but as a clown: she performed in solo numbers under stage name Toffee.
The tragedy that ended Iriska’s life occurred in 1986 in the circus of Belarusian Gomel. 44-year-old Asmus had a spectacular “Old Lady on a Lampshade” trick: she rotated around her axis right under the dome.
But when the clown spun upside down, putting her leg through the loop and unfastening the safety net so that the rope would not interfere with her movements, she fell off. The body fell like a stone from a 12-meter height. The artist died from numerous fractures and internal hemorrhage. Later it turned out that the spinning machine had broken down: after the death of the circus performer, this type of mechanism was prohibited.
Freak shows are a rather interesting, albeit gloomy topic. This type of circus art, if you can call it that, originated in Europe in the 16th century and existed 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
Mermaids are mythological creatures whose existence people have believed in for many centuries. We know that there are no mermaids, but this knowledge does not make the photograph of a “real mermaid” mummy any less terrible. Yes, even today you can find some dark, uneducated people who will believe that these are the remains of a mermaid. Cunning entertainment show owners made such fakes from the body of a fish and the head of a monkey, sewing or gluing them together. And go ahead - scare the gullible public, making a lot of money along the way.
Living frog princess
Posters for freak shows are a separate issue. They were bright, enticing and very intriguing. The reality usually turned out to be much more modest than these shocking posters, but the job was already done - people bought a ticket and came to the show. Therefore, it is clear that the “frog woman” depicted on the advertising poster was, of course, not actually a frog. She apparently had some kind of congenital deformity of the lower extremities and it all probably looked disgusting.
Living headless woman
“The Headless Woman” - popular optical illusion, which was often introduced into its repertoire by various freak shows. The viewer was told that the woman actually lost her head and continued to live thanks to a system of wires and some kind of tubes connected to her body. To carry out the trick, a system of mirrors was used; at some point the woman turned her head away - it seemed as if she was not there at all. But be that as it may, the idea itself is disgusting.
Some artists of the original genre also worked in freak shows
By the way, not only people with physical disabilities performed in the circus of freaks. There were others - original acts who joined the freak show, as in Victorian times, for example, it was the only place available for such artists to express themselves. If they differed from generally accepted norms and standards, it was calmer and safer to go to work in a freak show. This fully applied to dancers, singers and burlesque artists. Like this lady in a slightly scary horse costume.
Evil clowns are the highlight of the program
It is not surprising that clowns have taken their own special place in freak show culture. Clowns can make people laugh, ask riddles, and perform tricks; they have extravagant costumes and face paint. In general, they are essentially all freaks, whatever. But look at this clown - he's not funny. Especially with cold steel in your hands.
“Twin” artists are the key to success
Again, even if you didn't have a physical disability, but had something that set you apart from the rest - say you had a twin brother and were acrobats - that was enough to work in a freak circus and draw crowds at their performances. Moreover, you could not even have a twin brother, but pretend that your partner is your copy, and the trick is done. That's how these two are in the photo.
Camel girl
“Camel Girl” Ella Harper was born with a very rare anomaly - recurved knees. Her knees were turned the other way and she could only move on all fours. At the age of 12, Ella became a freak show star and led a comfortable life until her death at 51. And they called her “the camel” because in her act Ella went on stage at the same time as the camel and repeated all its habits and movements.
Ventriloquists were the worst
A skilled ventriloquist can be quite frightening, and even more so if you choose a creepy doll for him. Typically, artists who mastered this art held their own shows, but some joined the circus of freaks and performed as part of a freak show. They served as a good bait for the public - just like clowns, they could be funny, but they could also be scary.
Vintage piercing
In those days, this still seemed an unacceptable ugliness and people came to gawk at how someone deliberately mutilated himself by sticking nails and sharp knitting needles into his face.
Albino man
Albinism is a congenital absence of the pigment melanin, which gives color to the skin, hair, iris and pigment membranes of the eye. Nowadays, albinism is very fashionable in the modeling industry, but before, albinos were looked at as a curiosity, destined for the circus of freaks.
Headless Rooster Mike
Not only people, but also animals could become freak show artists. For example, this rooster with its head cut off is a famous case. The farmer decided to make soup, caught the rooster and cut off his head - almost completely, the head was kept on his word of honor. But the miracle rooster jumped up and ran - and ran like this, without a head, for another 18 months! The farmer reasonably decided that he would come up with something else for dinner, and this headless handsome man urgently needed to be shown to people for money.
Elastic man
This man, Felix Werle, suffered from a rare disease - Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which causes a person's skin to become super elastic. He knew how to stretch his skin from any part of the body so that the ladies auditorium fainted from horror.
Predicting the future is a required topic
Any self-respecting freak show always had gypsy fortune tellers or some other predictors of the future. They read fortunes using Tarot cards, looked thoughtfully into magic crystal balls, and generally fooled people in all sorts of ways. But besides the predictors in human form some freak shows could boast of such machines that predict the future - like in this picture. It doesn't look very inspiring, to be honest.
Monkeys dressed like people
Yes, animals were often part of the performance - just like in a regular circus. And not just headless roosters or calves with two heads. No, quite normal monkeys, dressed up as if they were about to go out secular society, are also intended to entertain the audience. Although they themselves look very sad.
Physical disabilities were the subject of jokes and amusement
The main complaint about the freak show, of course, is the fact that, in essence, it was necessary to laugh at physically disabled people who were born with disabilities. These people had no other opportunity to earn money and they went to work in a circus of freaks, exposing themselves to the amusement of the public. By the way, they earned very good money there, and often their fellow actors became a real family for them. But there is still an unpleasant aftertaste.
Circus of freaks is a genre of circus performances in which the actors are crippled and simply strange people. The genre was most popular in the 19th century in the USA; now it is banned in most countries as degrading the disabled and crippled.
The origin of the genre began approximately in the 16th century, when the circus and farce business began to take shape in profitable business, circus troupes began to consist of many people, different talents and advantages. At the same time, the circus repertoire began to include acts demonstrating people with various physical deformities and disabilities, but these acts never became the “highlight” of the circus.
At the beginning of the 18th century, the genre of “freaks” almost completely fell away from the usual circus: enterprising businessmen began to pick up various ugly and wretched people on the street in order to demonstrate them at specialized performances. The first performance of the official “Freak Show” is considered to be a showing in Europe of a woman taken from Guinea, allegedly possessing a monkey’s head.
IN European countries The “Circus of Freaks” was never able to gain popularity in people’s hearts, remaining the lot of eccentric connoisseurs of such spectacles. The real “boom” in the genre occurred in the 19th century, when the idea of the “Circus of Freaks” crawled to the United States and fell into the hands of businessman Phineas Taylor Barnum, who was looking for any way to make money. In 1835, Barnum bought an old black fish, Joyce Heth, and began taking her around cities, telling tales that she was 161 years old and was the nanny of the future US President, George Washington. It sounds like incredible nonsense, but Americans came in droves to look at the old black woman. Interestingly, there were wild rumors among the audience that the old woman was not real, but was an incredible robot doll.
The old woman died of old age seven months after the start of the tour, but even from this Barnum managed to make money by arranging a show from the autopsy of the deceased, to which anyone could come for 50 cents and make sure that the black woman was real - flesh and blood. Also, during the autopsy, it was revealed that Joyce was no more than 80 years old at the time of death, but despite this, rumors spread among viewers that Barnum replaced the robot doll with the body of a real person.
Despite Joyce's death, Barnum found his recognition. Since 1841, he began to engage in organized demonstrations of various curiosities and freaks - both real and skillfully made up. One of Barnum's most popular exhibits is a wild mixture of the remains of a small monkey and a large fish.
In addition, Barnum came up with a detailed legend and image for each of his actors, which the actor had to tirelessly follow on stage. With all this, Barnum paid his actors generously - the most popular ones received up to $500 for one performance, which was crazy money at that time.
Fyodor Evtishchev, the so-called “wolf man”, completely covered with hair, was widely known. He was born in St. Petersburg. According to the story invented by Barnum, Fedor was wild man, raised by wolves. Accordingly, on stage Fedor only barked and growled.
The decline of the “Circus of Freaks” occurred in the 1930s, after the emergence of a tendency to protect the rights of everyone and everything, and after the release of the film “Freaks” (1932), which showed the life of a circus of freaks from the inside, the public demanded a ban on such circuses altogether. Many actors of the “ugly” genre found themselves on the street without a livelihood, and before that they were stars with enormous earnings.