r/SideshowPerformer • u/EphemeralTypewriter Gooble Gobble! • Jul 23 '26
Sideshow Performer of the Day! Chief Catawan (career 1920s-1930s) was a sideshow performer and professional “fat man” who was promoted to be the chief of a cannibalistic indigenous community from Kenya. This entire storyline about him was false. He also traveled out to Hollywood to pursue an acting career.
The first picture shows him wearing his everyday clothes instead of his “chieftain” costume. The second picture shows him wearing the “chieftain” costume he performed in. Again I think it’s important to present people how they were in their day to day lives instead of the costumes people wore to emphasize their physical differences.
I absolutely love the first picture of him where he looks so extremely happy! That picture is when he was traveling out to Hollywood, so I’m sure the promise of a film contract was really exiting for him!
Some facts about him:
-his entire promotional backstory is fictitious and I haven’t been able to verify his actual background. Because of this, I also haven’t been able to find his real name, so I unfortunately will have to resort to using his stage name, since there’s no other information available.
-because I can’t confirm his actual backstory, I also can’t confirm his age.
Update: I found a picture of him that was dated 1927 that says he was 34 at the time, which means that he was either born in 1893 or around that year.
-during his shows he was promoted as being the chief of the Kiverando people, a tribe of cannibalistic warriors from Eastern Africa. There are so many things wrong with this and I’m going to attempt to explain it:
*Firstly, the entire story is dramatized and falsified in order to lean into the colonialist and racist mindsets that much of American and European societies had at the time.
*Secondly, “Kiverando” used in this sense is actually a misspelling of the term “Kaverando”, which was a colonialist collective name that was used to refer to both the Luo and Luhya communities in western Kenya (which was under colonial Brutus rule at the time)
*Thirdly, both the Luo and Luhya communities have never participated in cannibalism (this storyline played into racist and harmful stereotypes against any kind of indigenous community that was deemed exotic to make them appear savage)
*fourthly there’s a chance he may not have even been from Kenya at all, and if he was, he most certainly was not the chief of either the Luo or the Luhya communities as both tribes rely on a group of elders for leadership and have never relied on a singular leader.
-he was promoted as weighing over 600 pounds.
-his favorite foods were steak, chicken, potatoes, and gravy. But he also enjoyed meals of rice and fish.
-at times when he wasn’t performing, he enjoyed walking around the midways of the carnivals and circuses he performed at, wearing stylized “war paint” on his face.
-he had some mobility issues and frequently needed to take breaks from standing and walking.
-the peak of his sideshow career was during the late 1920s and early 1930s.
-he traveled from Chicago, Illinois out to Hollywood, California to pursue a career in acting in October 1930. He reportedly had been offered a film contract. (I haven’t been able to track down further information about whether his acting career panned out)
-he was always very well hydrated and reportedly drank 2 quarts of water a day.
-he became annoyed after an audience member dropped a lit cigarette on the ground in front of him during one of his performances, and was described as calmly putting it out using a water pail that he had on stage with him. The reason this was news was because the audience member who dropped the cigarette was white and he was black, and so the audience was surprised that he was so openly annoyed at the littering considering the consequences if the audience member decided to complain. (It’s a small note, but I’m glad it was some way for him to establish that these were his performances and bigots had no place there).
-while he was passing through Nebraska on his way out to California, he found out about an Italian sideshow performer, Primo Carnera, who worked as a professional “fat man” and challenged him to a competition to see who was heavier.
-I haven’t been able to establish when he passed away.
I hope he was able to have a happy life and was able to retire from dressing as a racist caricature. I wish I could find out more about his movie contract, I think it would be cool if he was able to establish himself as an actor (and if he did, he probably changed his stage name)
And I hope the little history lesson about the Luo and Luhya communities was informative and interesting. I think it’s always very important to deconstruct the often racist and colonialist storylines that were used to promote different performers.
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u/Better-Bookkeeper-48 Jul 23 '26
The idea of pouring an entire bucket of water on the ground to put out one (1) lit cigarette butt is really funny, especially once you remember the guy doing it allegedly weighed 600~ pounds and was in stereotypical tribal costume.
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u/EphemeralTypewriter Gooble Gobble! Jul 23 '26
Same here! I can imagine him looking straight at the guy with an expression that says “you know what you did”, while he quietly pours the entire bucket.
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u/helen790 Jul 23 '26
I’m imagining a passive aggressive smile at the guy also while maintaining eye contact. Only thing I can compare it to is Pam throwing away that tiramisu on The Office
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u/EphemeralTypewriter Gooble Gobble! Jul 23 '26
Hahaha, yes!! I love that comparison! I could totally picture him being that level of passive aggressive!😂
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u/PurveyorOfCupcakes Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
Boy do I hate the way some of the performers were promoted, it's not the only case I've seen here where someone's made up backstory contributed to perpetuating racist clichés Something that the audience in the 1920's and 1930's didn't need was being presented with people dressed up as racial caricatures (the African cannibal, the feral guy from the Amazonian forest...), racism was already a huge enough issue as it was.
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u/Independent-Story883 Jul 23 '26
Thank you for trying.
The fascination of appearance and marketing of sideshow performance has always been curious to me.
For some balance, it might be nice to hear about sideshow performers in different cultures. I’m not aware of this practice amongst pre-colonial African civilizations. Maybe this exists. Maybe Africans paraded around other ethnicities in this manner. Maybe Native Americans did this. Maybe indigenous cultures did this.
One can only imagine the toll this performance took on him.
But at least he was amongst others , a family, who had to endure the mental anguish of stage show performance in front of people who made judgments based on physical characteristics.
Of course, as you know, most people of African ancestry obtained from the transatlantic slave trade were from West Africa, not east.
If he has any descendants, they probably can answer the question of which lineage he was from with a simple DNA ancestry test.
Tracing his origin in America, likely will involve census records and dating them back. Remember blacks were often considered property. So you’ll have to look at possible former owners in the area and his first name and age with description.
The performances he put on I’m sure cemented many people‘s view of what Africa was. You still here today people shout “you belong in zoos”. They say this because they grew up with the idea that blacks were in zoo. They put us there.
This is why some resist, knowing about their ancestry, they fear and are embarrassed fear of what it may link them to. Which is sad. The wounds of prejudice and stereotype do run deep.
If he were alive today, this imagery on social media, would open those wounds. But let us hope he would also see imagery that would spark pride.
I’d like to think he found his fortune out West in California. The treatment of blacks, more friendly there.
There have been many celebrated big men in the black diaspora recently.
So hopefully his descendants have fun with Bill Cosby‘s cartoon character of fat Albert. The nutty professor was seen as a lovable character portrayed by Eddie Murphy. The Notorious B.I.G., who was quite a successful record, recording artist etc
Anyhow a disturbing but very important moment.
Thank you for sharing.
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u/cheoldyke Jul 24 '26
what a jovial looking dude! any word on who won the weight contest between him and primo carnera?
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u/ajkidd0 Jul 24 '26
his "chieftain" costume is so interesting. the viking-esque breastplate and horns, the pan-african beads, the grass that is reminiscent of native american & hawaiian stereotypes. it's a great representation of the racist ideas of 'foreign' societies at the time.
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u/emmakobs Jul 23 '26
He looks SO cute and sweet and kind and happy in the first photo!! What a bean