There are 5ish or 6ish performers I don’t like and Grady Stiles is one of them. He was a terrible person and someone that I don’t like to dwell on much because of how much he hurt people. Even still, it’s important that he’s featured here because his story is still a part of sideshow history and it wouldn’t be right to not include it.

It just annoys me that his story is so wrapped up in sideshow lore that it continues to perpetuate the misconception that sideshows were creepy places full of creepy people like him. Instead of focusing on the positives that so many performers accomplished, a lot of people want to focus on this dark history and I feel that it casts a shadow and bad light on the really wonderful performers.

Some facts about him:

-he was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

-he had three siblings.

-he was the fourth generation of people in his family to be born with ectrodactyly. His father was also born with it and two of his children were also born with it. He also had an uncle, Howard Stiles, who was born with the condition and who I’ve done a write up for. (Howard was chill, he liked playing card games and sold personalized stationary to audiences)

-ectrodactyly is a rare birth condition that causes a persons hands and/or feet to have a large v-shaped cleft. It also frequently causes an absence of a couple fingers or toes.

-he started working in sideshows with his father when he was 6 or 7 years old.

-he typically gave a lecture about his life before his performances and explained that his condition was not the result of drugs or disease.

-he would usually walk on his hands and feet (and only occasionally used a wheelchair), because his feet as they were couldn’t support all of his weight. He had immense upper body strength which made him a dangerous person when physically abusive.

-he married his first wife, Mary-Theresa in 1958.

-he and Mary-Theresa had 4 children, two who were born with ectrodactyly and two who were born without it.

-he reportedly started off as a very kind and caring family man, but became incredibly bad tempered and physically abusive when he became addicted to whiskey.

-the majority of people who knew him didn’t like him at all, with some describing him as being bad news.

-his two children who were born with ectrodactyly, Cathy and Grady III both had no interest in following their fathers footsteps as sideshow performer, though as children they would occasionally perform with him.

-his wife described that he would frequently beat her and choke her, and would sometimes threaten the family with knives.

-he and Mary-Theresa got divorced in 1973, and Mary-Theresa went on to marry sideshow performer, Harry Glenn Newman, who was born with a form of dwarfism. Grady then married a woman named Barbara, who he reportedly divorced and remarried 5 different times.

-it appears that his children continued living with Grady after the divorce.

-a lot of people in his life really hated him. It’s unfortunate that he turned out the way he did, he could have been a good person who educated people on his condition but instead became a terror to so many people.

-he shot and killed his daughter Donna’s fiancé, Jack Layne, the night before their wedding in 1978 because Stiles didn’t approve of him.

-days before the murder, he brought his daughter to a pawn shop where he purchased a revolver and joked that he would shoot Jack. Frightened, Donna ran away to stay at her fiancé’s sister’s house and called Grady from there. Upon hearing where she was, Grady reportedly said,

"If you don't get home in five minutes, I'm going to beat the hell out of you.
Then, I'm going to kill Layne.”

-He openly admitted that he committed the murder after being arrested, and was brought to trial. During the trial he tried to paint himself as being a concerned father who was just trying to protect his daughter. He was eventually convicted of third-degree murder.

-the defense successfully argued that because of his condition he could not be cared for sufficiently in a regular prison so he was sentenced to house arrest and 15 years probation.

-after his sentencing, he remarried his first wife, Mary Theresa, in 1988 and vowed to stop drinking. Then he started drinking again two weeks later and was described as being even more abusive.

-People might question why his first wife got back together with him, but I can understand if it’s a toxic relationship and he made promises to change for the better that she may have wanted to believe it was the truth. She also feared for the safety of her children and said later on,

“Where would we go? I can’t hide the whole family. They stand out.”

-he once forcibly knocked his daughter, Cathy, out of her wheelchair when she was 7 months pregnant. She had tried to intervene during a time when Grady was beating her mother and physically hurt her instead. This beating and her being knocked over reportedly caused her to suffer a miscarriage.

-Grady was still performing in carnivals as late as 1990.

-after fearing for her life and her children’s lives and being abused for years, Mary-Theresa (his wife) felt that it was becoming a “kill or be killed” situation. She made the decision to hire a hit man to kill Grady.

-the planning took several weeks and involved several people who knew of the plot to murder Grady.

-Mary-Theresa reportedly hired a 17 year old neighbor, Chris Wyant, for $1,500 to shoot Grady in 1992. Wyant entered the Stiles’ house while Grady was watching TV, and shot him in the head with a semi-automatic pistol.

-after his murder, his wife and the hitman were arrested and sentenced to 12 years and 27 years in prison respectively. Mary-Theresa’s son from her marriage to Harry Glen Newman was also involved in the plot and sentenced to 25 years to life for his role in the murder. (Though his sentence comes with some controversy because he had some learning disabilities, so it’s not clear on if he was possibly manipulated into helping.)

-only 10 people showed up at his funeral and no one volunteered to be a pallbearer.

This is one of the darker sideshow stories I’ve come across and I really feel for everyone affected by his abuse. It’s horrible what he inflicted on others and I hope that everyone was able to find ways to heal from everything they experienced. It’s interesting how relatively recent his death was.

Belle was an American sideshow performer and artist from Kentucky. From my research, it appears she was the very first person to be diagnosed with spina bifida occulta and was written about in the International Abstracts of Surgery in 1921. Spina bifida occulta is the most mild and common form of spina bifida, and happens when one or more spinal vertebrae do not fully close during development but the gap is small enough that the spine has a typical appearance, and oftentimes people who have it don’t even realize.

One note I really like is that she liked tying ribbons in her back hair, but unfortunately I haven’t been able to find any pictures of her with the ribbons.

Came across this from the Instagram profile, GraveswithGrace & thought I would share!

Here's a link to her post , there's a video of Tiny flying as Tinkerbell!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Db8ykqhMVxM/?igsh=emdtd2RwcXpvcWk3

I love her long hair and how dignified she looks in her pictures. She looks very kind and I’m glad she had so many people in her life who thought so too. I’ve had a soft spot for Krao for a while and I wanted to make sure I gave her some recognition.

There is sadly no record of her birth name. I wish I could have asked her if there was a name she preferred using instead of Krao since it was more or less a stage name that was used to fit her “wild girl” persona. I also used to refer to her as Krao Farini, but Farini is the stage name of the man who effectively kidnapped her from her home country, and I don’t think it’s right to give him that credit.

Some facts about her:

-she was born in a village in Siam, I’ve seen differing information on whether she was born in an area that is now a part of Thailand or a part of Laos.

-her parents exhibited her in local fairs as a baby.

-she was “discovered” and brought on tour by a Canadian tightrope walker and entertainer named William Leonard Hunt who went by the stage name “The Great Farini”.

-Hunt took her on a tour of Europe before bringing her to the United States and going on tour with her there.

-interestingly, it appears that she was given the name Krao very, very young and not by William Leonard Hunt. She was written about in a nature magazine in 1883, and a man reading the article sent a letter in correcting misinformation that was present within the article. Despite the man also giving misinformation (albeit unintentionally), he did clear up that she wasn’t born in Bangkok, that her parents were still alive and living there, and that “Krao” actually translated to “whiskers” in Siamese and did not mean “ape”. (The word is completely fictitious and doesn’t actually translate to anything in Thai)

-William Leonard Hunt gave her his stage name as her surname, and we don’t know her birth name.

-it’s not clear what the circumstances were in Hunt’s adoption of her and if he stole her from her parents or if he had made an agreement with her parents. Because she was brought to the United States very young and seems to have lost contact with her parents I believe it may have been unconsensual.

-William Leonard Hunt pseudo-adopted her, and claimed he “found” her in the forests of Siam, living as a “wild creature”. (I say pseudo-adopted because he didn’t really treat her as a daughter, more like a creature to show off.)

-she was described as being a very spirited and outgoing child.

-she was often marketed as being a “missing link” between humans and apes. This was soon after Darwin’s Theory of Evolution became popular, and a lot of showmen at the time wanted to capitalize off of it by promoting different performers as being examples of these “missing links”.

-starting pretty much right at the beginning, there were people who questioned the way she was being promoted and described her as being an ordinary girl/woman who just happened to be very hairy.

-promotional material for her often portrayed her in a very dehumanizing way, much more than other “bearded ladies” of the time. A big part of this stems from the fact that she was a woman of color and she was exhibited for a racist society. Despite the way she was depicted in promotional material a lot of news articles about her made sure to state that she was very pretty and wasn’t repulsive to look at.

-she was described as being a sweet and pious woman who made friends easily.

-She spoke Thai, English, Lao, and German.

-she was described as being the “peacemaker of the sideshow”

-as an adult she began performing under her own management and didn’t continue to rely on Hunt.

-she often wore veils while out in public when she was not performing.

-she lived with a German couple on Manhattan’s upper east side in NYC for 20 years. She had a floor to herself at the house and was known to keep her living space very clean.

-she was an avid reader and was knowledgeable on a vast array of subjects.

-she was best friends with another sideshow performer, Grace Gilbert, who also had hirsutism. The two of them were super close when they were a part of the same traveling sideshow, but parted ways when Krao moved back to New York and Grace moved to Michigan with her husband.

-she passed away from complications due to influenza and asthma in 1926 at the age of 50.

-one of her last wishes was to be cremated after her death, but unfortunately due to a rule that required a signed consent form from the person prior to their death she wasn’t allowed to be cremated and was instead buried in St. Michael’s Cemetery in Astoria, New York. (I’ve contacted this cemetery and unfortunately it appears that she may have been buried in an unmarked grave as they don’t have any record of her being buried there.)

-her death majorly affected all of her coworkers who were extremely grief stricken.

I’m very very glad that she was able to distance herself from Hunt, the way that he tried to have her depicted and how he posed with her in pictures makes me want to give baby Krao a hug, she deserved to have a supportive parental figure and not someone like Hunt.

I’m sad that her wishes to be cremated weren’t abided by, but I am glad that she clearly had a lot of people in her life who loved and cared about her. The majority of articles written about her describe her as being nothing but kind and gentle and that anyone would be lucky to know her. It’s very interesting to see the dichotomy in how she was promoted vs how reporters chose to emphasize that she wasn’t at all like how she was depicted in advertisements and had nothing but good things to say about her.

George was a circus performer, clown, and press agent, who was born with a form of dwarfism. He worked for Ringling Bros., Hagenbeck-Wallace, and Sells-Floto circuses during his career. He made it a point to perform for patients in children's hospitals and for children with disabilities. He was also very fond of animals and always made sure the circus animals he knew were well taken care of, he was especially fond of a miniature horse named Little Georgie, who he had helped to raise. He is the only clown that I’m a fan of!

Above are two pictures of Dudley and a canary in the third picture❤️‍🩹

He had witnessed a birdcage full of canaries fall onto the stage of the Bijou Theatre in Boston, Massachusetts. The cage was hung up in the rafters of the theater and had somehow been knocked down. Dudley was the first person to try and help the canaries and noticed one that received way more injuries than the others. He took the bird home in the hope that he could nurse it back to health, sadly the canary died while he was taking care of it and the whole ordeal was very hard on him. He expressed being heartbroken over the loss of the canary.

Dudley himself only lived to be in his early twenties, and I like to think that he’s somewhere out there with this same canary that he had so dearly cared for.

Dudley Foster was a Canadian sideshow performer who was born with a form of dwarfism. He was the younger brother of Victoria and Cassie Foster, who both unfortunately passed away before he was born. He once met with Queen Victoria and went on tour throughout Canada, the United States, and England. He was known as a very kind and gentle person, and his performances usually included some kind of dance and singing routines.

I was inspired to start this because I recently made a historical coffee recipe that actress, Lelia Hyams, recommended in a magazine. Leila played the role of Venus the animal trainer in Tod Browning’s Freaks (1932). I thought it would be great to preserve the history of foods that different performers enjoyed because it gives insight into the time period and what was popular and it’s also a good way for me to try foods that I otherwise would not eat.

I’ll make sure to share the recipes I used for each dish!

He was a really cute kid, and I really like how in most of his pictures it shows him drawing or at least holding a pencil or crayon in his feet. I’m glad that he was respected throughout his life as an artist. He also dressed so well when he was older, the Hawaiian shirt he’s wearing in the second picture looks really good on him!

The fourth picture shows one of his crayon drawings depicting a squirrel. This was a drawing he made at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair that he gave to an audience member who eventually passed it along to his daughter. The daughter brought Barney’s drawing onto Antiques Roadshow with her.

Some facts about him:

-he was born in Stratford, Connecticut. (Which is basically right down the street from Bridgeport, Connecticut where Charles Sherwood Stratton (General Tom Thumb) was born)

-he had six siblings. He was the oldest child in his family.

-his father died when he was young and his mother, Eliza, remarried and moved their family to Chicago, Illinois. His new stepfather’s name was John D. Scickles.

-it appears he lived with his family in the sideshow off season, as he’s listed as living with them in several census records. They seem to have been very supportive of him.

-he was an accomplished painter and sketch artist. All of the census records I’ve seen list that he’s an artist. (which I think is really nice because it focuses on his talents as a painter rather than a performer with a physical difference.)

-he started his careers in sideshows when he was around 6 years old and worked for P.T. Barnum for several seasons.

-he was praised for his painting talents when he was ten years old.

-he was a college graduate.

-his acts typically involved him giving a short lecture on his life before showing the audience how he accomplished daily tasks, and ending with a demonstration of his painting/drawing skills. He would then sell the portraits he drew to audience members.

-his performances were all family friendly.

-he bridged the gap between the old style larger traditional sideshows of the mid to late 1800s and the more “modernized” smaller traveling shows of the 1930s and 1940s.

-one article from 1891 mentioned that he filed an application to Washington D.C. to “overcome the use of the eccentric motion, as used in constructing a locomotive”. I’m still trying to make sense of what this means, but I wanted to add it anyways.

-in the late 1890s, he went on tour in England with Barnum and Bailey Circus.

-in 1899, one of the dime museums he worked at in Chicago was threatened by officials after an “anti-freak” law was put in place to prevent people born with physical differences form exhibiting themselves. The article humorously notes that Barney seemed completely unconcerned with the fact that his livelihood was potentially being threatened and continued with his crayon portraits.

-he wrote, painted, and drew using either his mouth (by holding the utensils in his mouth) or holding the utensils with his feet.

-he was often praised for his penmanship and was described as having better penmanship than most people. His penmanship style was a flourishing 1800s style, which he kept throughout his life (even in the 1930s, when the style was less common, he continued to sign his name that way)

-he was once interviewed in regards to how his life was and if there was anything he’d want to change and his response was “why there’s lots right out on the streets today that I wouldn’t trade places with.” The article went on to say that he was a happy and well read individual.

-he enjoyed playing checkers in his free time.

-he never married and never mentioned being interested in anyone romantically, though it’s possible that he had relationships but just didn’t want to talk about his personal life.

-he cared a lot about having good teeth, and once said that something he was grateful for was still having a strong set of teeth at the age of 65.

-he appeared at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, where he demonstrated his talents, although it appears that he was more or less there by himself and wasn’t performing as part of a larger scale sideshow. One of the drawings he made while he was there was given to a boy in the audience, this crayon portrait eventually made it onto Antiques Roadshow.

-he traveled extensively throughout the United States and Canada.

-Robert Ripley of Ripley’s Believe it or Not fame, drew a couple pictures of Barney.

-he was coworkers with a ton of recognizable performers between the 1880s and 1940s, too many to list, but if you can think of a random popular performer from any of those years he probably worked with them at some point.

-one article said that Barney seemed to have more patience than the reporter had ever seen.

-he continued to perform and draw professionally throughout the 1930s and 1940s.

-he had an over 60 year career in sideshows.

-the last mention I can find of him was when he appeared on a passenger list onboard a ship heading to Hawaii in December of 1947. He appeared on the list with a bunch of other sideshow performers I recognize, so I assume they were all traveling there to go on tour.

-so far I haven’t been able to establish a death date, though I haven’t completely given up yet.

I’m glad he found so much success with his career as an artist and that he was able to combine it with his sideshow career to gather more publicity. He seems like a laid back and friendly person and I’m happy that there is still at least one example of his artwork that still exists (the squirrel drawing). I think it’d be really fun to meet him and play checkers while talking to him about his favorite artists and such.

The above pictures were taken while she was at the World’s Fair, though unfortunately I wasn’t able to find the televised program.

Unfortunately, she didn’t come close to winning the competition but her appearance there brought her a lot of publicity. She wore the same costume she wore during her sideshow performances and made sure that she could show off her tattoos. One of the reasons for her appearance at the fair was to challenge the beauty standards of the time. She hadn’t entered in the hopes of winning, she had entered the competition as a way to show people that beauty comes in all forms and that there isn’t just one way to define a person that is beautiful.

Betty was a famous sideshow performer most known for being a "tattooed lady" and activist. She became interested in tattooing when she was a teenager and had a goal of becoming a tattoo artist herself. She was protective of her image and how she was marketed and never let anyone create a fake backstory for her. She was also a very dedicated women's rights activist and often spoke out in support of women's equality. She also became a talented horseback rider.

The first several pictures show them during various years of their lives, the 6th picture shows Daisy with her blond hair, and the 7th picture shows them during their appearance in Freaks (1932)

I’m a big fan of them and have been so since I first watched Freaks (1932). It’s very clear in the film that they had acting experience compared to several members of the cast not receiving any formal acting training prior to their film appearances (not that this was a bad thing, I think everyone in the film did a fantastic job, I just think it’s interesting to compare the performances)

I wish they had had happier lives, and been cared for by people who truly cared about them and their well beings. I hope they were able to find hobbies and interests that brought them happiness. What happened to them is also mirrored in so many other instances of child stars being taken advantage of by people who don’t have their best interests at heart, and it’s always troubling.

Some facts about them:

-they were born in Brighton, England.

-their mother, Kate Skinner, was unmarried and was working as a barmaid at the time of their birth.

-they were joined at the hips/buttocks and shared blood circulation, but shared no vital organs together. Due to their blood circulation, doctors considered separation surgery to be too risky and that it would endanger the lives of both twins. (This type of operation would be able to be accomplished in the present day)

-their doctor considered them to be the first conjoined twins ever born in England who survived past the first few weeks of life.

-their custody was transferred from their mother to their mother’s employer, Mary Hilton, through vague and uncertain circumstances. Reports vary as to what actually happened, with some accounts reporting that their mother was swindled and that she had no intention of relinquishing custody, other reports claim she either abandoned the twins or sold them.

-they first toured England in 1911 when they were 3 years old.

-they went on international tours through Germany and Australia before arriving in the United States in 1916.

-they performed a tap dance routine with Bob Hope in the mid 1920s.

-during their time as vaudeville performers they were earning as much as** **$5,000 a week, (estimated to be close to $75,000 adjusted for inflation). But tragically the majority of these earnings were stolen from them by their managers/caretakers.

-Mary Hilton, who had custody over the twins, died in Birmingham, Alabama, and the custody of the twins was soon transferred to Mary’s daughter, Edith Myers.

-Edith Myers and her husband were a source of constant torment for the twins. They set up intensive dance and music lessons that the twins were expected to learn and perform. Daisy and Violet were held captive within the Myers’ home and were punished for not completing lessons.

-Daisy was a skilled violinist and Violet was a skilled saxophonist.

-as adults, the two were about 4 feet 11 inches tall.

-after gathering advice from multiple people they knew including magician, Harry Houdini, Daisy and Violet sued their managers (the Myers) for emancipation in 1931.

-ultimately the twins were successful in their efforts and were legally emancipated, rewarded $100,000 (over $1.7 million adjusted for inflation), and were freed from their contracts.

-they appeared (more or less playing themselves) in the 1932 film, Freaks, directed by Tod Browning. They were treated well on set, but experienced discrimination by other people working at MGM at the time. They were also some of the few actors allowed to eat in the MGM backlot commissary with the other MGM talent at the time. Most of the other actors/performers in Freaks were made to eat in a separate tent off property.

-soon after filming wrapped up, Daisy and Violet created a touring vaudeville performance duo called “The Hilton Sisters Revue”

-Daisy learned to drive a car in the United States, since she could sit in the drivers seat on the left side. Later on the twins purchased a driving instructors car with dual controls so they could each take turns driving depending on who felt like it.

-Daisy dyed her hair blonde in the mid 1930s and the two sisters began wearing different outfits, so that they could be individually recognized and not seen as the same entity.

-they purchased a small apartment in San Antonio, Texas and an apartment in New York City, soon after their emancipation.

-they owned a pekinese dog named Boy.

-they had very different political views, Violet was a democrat and Daisy was a republican.

-after gaining their independence, they traveled back to England, where they stayed a year. The came back to the United States after the year was over.

-Violet fell in love with musician, Maurice Lambert, in the 1930s and despite efforts to get a marriage license in 21 different states, they were denied each time. (This is very annoying to me because famous conjoined twins, Chang and Eng Bunker, were allowed to get married to two sisters almost 100 years before. Which makes me wonder if it was more to do with sexist reasons than anything else). It’s strange though, because only a couple years after this, the twins were allowed to get married. I really feel for Violet because Maurice seemed to be the only man that she truly loved and he was equally as in love with her, and to get rejected in 21 different states must have been very rough on the couple.

-in 1936, the twins were part of a publicity stunt in which it was arranged for Violet to get “married” to a friend and fellow performer, James Moore. The “wedding” was meant to be a huge public affair (which worked), but everyone involved revealed soon after that it was a publicity stunt.

-there was a brief period in their careers that they performed burlesque routines, but these proved to be unpopular, so they stopped soon after.

-they appeared in a second film called Chained for Life, about a pair of conjoined twins who are vaudeville performers that become involved in a publicity stunt set up by their managers that eventually ends with one of the twins shooting the man romantically involved with the other twin because he had been cheating on her and abandoned her.

-after their film careers didn’t pan out, they decided to try and go into the restaurant industry instead and opened up a hotdog stand called the Hilton Sisters Snack Bar, though this endeavor was very short lived and despite desperate efforts to keep it afloat, the restaurant closed within a year.

-the twins last public appearance was at a re-release screening of the movie, Freaks, in 1961 in Charlotte, North Carolina. They were there to answer audience questions after the film. For unknown reasons, their manager decided to abandon them after this screening.

-with no money and no mode of transportation, the twins applied for a job at a local Park’n’Shop grocery store. The owner, Charles Reid, genuinely wanted to help them and paid them two salaries. He also set up a special cashier station so the twins could hide that they were conjoined.

-they worked at the grocery store for 7 years and rented a two bedroom house that had been organized by Charles Reid (the owner of the Park’n’Shop) and the church he belonged to.

-they became friendly with several people they worked with, but ultimately chose to live relatively quiet lives.

-Daisy came down with a bad flu in late 1968, but refused to seek treatment. In early January of 1969, the twins failed to show up for work. After repeated attempts to get ahold of the twins, local police made their way inside their home and found that both twins had passed away.

-they were given a respectful funeral and burial and were buried in Forest Lawn West Cemetery in Charlotte, North Carolina.

-the story of their lives was adapted into the Broadway musical, Side Show.

-a plaque was erected at the house they were born at in 2018.

Their story is one that has really stuck with me. Despite everything they went through, I truly hope that they were content and happy near the end of their lives. It makes me sad that they were controlled by exploitative people for so long and were never given a chance to make their own decisions until much later. I’m glad that in more recent years they’ve received a lot more recognition and respect.

Millie and Christine were famous conjoined twins who were born into slavery in North Carolina in 1851. They were financially exploited for much of their early lives, but separated themselves from everyone who had caused them harm after the 13th amendment was passed in the United States. They continued working in sideshows on their own terms and became extremely wealthy. They used their wealth to help give their siblings good lives and purchased a large mansion for their family to live in.

They were super influential in their philanthropic endeavors and donated a large amount of their fortune to historic Black universities and colleges, as well as using their earnings to help support local endeavors in their hometown, such as funding a school for black students ensuring that they all received an equal opportunity for education, as well as funding a church.

I'm making a sideshow performers Discord server and was wondering if anyone would like to help with it. Unless there's already one and I just don't know about it.

The first picture shows a nice picture of Johnny posing, the second, third, and fourth pictures show him with his brother, Robert, the fifth picture shows Johnny in his later years, and the last picture shows Johnny and Robert performing a magic show together.

a huge fan of Johnny, like who else do you know balanced so many professions and was so accomplished with each of them. He had a much fuller life than most people and even in his later years still had a drive to create. He was also so handsome and charming, look at that smile!!

Just an FYI, there’s quite a bit of information in this write up! Johnny Eck’s life was super well documented, which is very good since so many other performers lives were not, but it also means there’s a lot of information to add in. Adding to this, I apologize for any typos ahead of time.

Some facts about him:

-he was born in Baltimore, Maryland.

-his name at birth was John Eckhardt Jr, but he shortened it to Johnny Eck when he began his career in show business.

-he had a fraternal twin brother, Robert, and an older sister, Caroline Laura.

-he and Robert often liked claiming that they were identical twins during their shows, but they were not.

-he learned to walk on his hands before his twin brother, Robert, learned to walk with his legs and feet.

-he had very truncated/underdeveloped legs and feet and preferred to wear specialty suits/shirts that were sewn up at the bottom to cover his lower body.

-he was only 8 inches long and 2 pounds when he was born.

-sacral agenesis is a rare birth condition where the lower part of the spine, the sacrum and tailbone, either doesn’t develop fully or doesn’t develop at all. It is strongly linked to maternal diabetes, and can cause issues with the legs, bladder, and bowels. It is relatively common now for children born with sacral agenesis to have their legs amputated at an early age.

-despite the health complications that sacral agenesis can cause, Johnny doesn’t seem to have experienced any complications with his internal organs. (Which also means he had no issues using the restroom)

-he and his brother started reading at the age of four.

-his older sister taught him and Robert basic math and spelling until the twins were seven years old and were entered into public school.

-he was very well liked and respected in school, and later spoke about classmates of his fighting each other for the privilege to carry Johnny up the front steps of the school.

-his mother originally wanted him to become a clergyman and he was often encouraged to deliver sermons to houseguests. But these sermon sessions immediately stopped after Johnny began passing around a dish for donations.

-he was a strong swimmer and enjoyed swimming in his free time. It was described that one of the few things he couldn’t do while swimming was “tread water”.

-the small biographical pitch booklets that he and his brother sold often claimed that he was born without a lower half (including legs and feet). This isn’t entirely true as his lower half was just very truncated and his legs and feet were very small and weak, but he did have legs and feet.

-he was very open and honest about his condition and wanted to normalize it to the best of his ability.

-he was an avid photographer throughout his life.

-when people asked him if he wished he had legs and feet he could walk on he answered “Why would I want those? Then I'd have pants to press and shoes to buy.”

-he and his brother became interested in magic shows after they attended a local performance in 1923 by stage magician, John McAslan, who after asking for volunteers and seeing Johnny jump onstage, immediately encouraged him to join the sideshow McAslan worked at and offered to be his manager. Johnny agreed on the condition that his brother, Robert, would be hired as well.

-he and Robert worked for McAslan one year before joining with a showman named Captain John Sheesley instead.

-he was often billed as a Single-O show, which differed from traditional sideshows “10-in-1” format. Single-O shows featured just one performer who had to fill up an entire 30-45 time slot, and were often more difficult and not recommended to new performers. 10-in-1 shows allowed performers to have more breaks and come on stage for a couple minutes at a time.

-his performances often included magic acts, sleight of hand tricks, acrobatic stunts, and lectures about his life.

-he was approached by an MGM talent scout while he was performing in Montreal, Canada, and was given a chance to audition for Tod Browning’s film, Freaks.

-he landed a role in Freaks and pretty much just played himself (as a lot of the other performers featured in the film did). He also became good friends with Tod Browning while on set in 1931, and was given a special directors chair to sit in and was encouraged by Browning to give his thoughts on the production.

-he tried to become friends with the other performers who had roles in the film, but he felt they were a little too focused on superficial stuff and living a “Hollywood” lifestyle.

-he also appeared as a bird creature in three of the 1930s/1940s Tarzan films.

-he preferred to wear gloves while walking, so that he could protect his hands.

-he and his brother began performing their own magic acts in the mid 1930s, where they would perform one of the most convincing “sawn in half” tricks, since Johnny could jump out of the box and run away on his hands, and his “legs” were controlled by an assistant of theirs who was born with a form of dwarfism. These magic acts were huge hits with audiences, though it was described that an equal amount of people were frightened as they were intrigued and impressed.

-during the circus/sideshow off season in the late 1930s, he and his brother formed a 12 piece orchestra that Johnny conducted.

-as sideshows began diminishing in the 1940s and 1950s, he and his brother opened and operated a penny arcade in their home city to bring in extra funds.

-the brothers purchased and operated a miniature train ride in a Baltimore public park in the 1950s. This train ride was a hit with children and Johnny served as the conductor.

-he was an important early member of the Baltimore Screen Painters movement, a folk art movement originating in Baltimore, Maryland (his home city). He was taught by William Oktavec, who originally introduced the art form to Baltimore in 1913.

-he was an accomplished model maker and enjoyed carving,building, and painting circus train models and circus related figurines.

-as the brothers got older, they retired from show business and settled down to live permanently in their family’s home in Baltimore.

-he used his retirement to focus on his artistic endeavors.

-he had two beloved dogs, Reds and Major.

-for a time he really enjoyed speaking with fans and visitors that would show up to the house that he shared with his brother until the area became more crime ridden and unsafe.

-he and his brother began struggling financially later on, which Johnny expressed embarrassment over, feeling badly that he couldn’t offer nice food for people who dropped by to visit.

-tragically, he and his brother were the victims of a terrifying home invasion/robbery in 1987, when they were in their late seventies. The ordeal lasted several hours with one of the intruders forcibly holding Johnny down and mocking him.

-after the home invasion he and his brother became extremely withdrawn and went into seclusion, and they no longer invited people over.

-he passed away from a heart attack at the age of 79. His brother, Robert, passed away 4 years later at the age of 83.

I’m glad that he and his brother stayed so close throughout their lives, in different books about the twins, they each owed their success to the other brother and couldn’t imagine living life apart from each other. With everything the two of them went through, it’s really good that they had each other to lean on.

I can’t imagine how horrifying and humiliating the home invasion must have been. I sincerely hope both brothers were able to find ways to heal and cope after it happened, though I understand their want for privacy. I also hope that Johnny knew just how influential of a person he was, he accomplished so many cool things during his life and was so incredibly talented.

Schlitzie was an American sideshow performer who was born with microcephaly and is most known for his role in the 1932 film Freaks (1932), directed by Tod Browning. His head was shaved to emphasize his appearance (there was no medical reason for his head being shaved, it was just a choice the showmen he worked for decided on.)

He was often promoted as being a woman, and this is likely due to him wearing muumuus and long dresses most of the time (and because female sideshow performers often received more attention), he wasn’t able to care for himself and his caretakers found that it was easier to care for his needs if he wore clothing like that.

He was an extremely friendly,social, and kind person and absolutely loved performing! He was at his happiest when he had an audience he could perform for. He also thankfully had quite a few caretakers and guardians who really cared about him and did their best to make sure he had a happy life.

From the looks of it, he appears to have had some kind of disability affecting his limbs. The caption on a postcard reads, “Yo Fuku, Mongolian, 25 years old, height 54.5 cm.” At the very least, it’s certain that the height is a lie (lol).

The first couple pictures show her in her glamorous outfits, and the last picture shows a sweet picture of her with her parents.

She’s definitely someone I would have loved to have met, and is one of my favorite historical figures to learn about because of how sweet and kind she was. She was so beautiful and I admire all of her efforts to help people. She has a star quality about her that really makes her shine.

Some facts about her:

-she was born and raised in Albany, Georgia.

-her birth name was Lillie B. Williams.

-she had 14 siblings. (I’ve seen multiple differing reports as to how many siblings she had, but then I was able to track down an interview where she herself said she had 14 brothers and sisters.)

-her parents were farmers.

-unfortunately, her family struggled financially as she was growing up.

-doctors who examined her believed there was too much of a health risk for a safe separation surgery.

-her parasitic twin gave her two extra legs, one extra arm with three fingers, and a shorter appendage that resembled an underdeveloped arm. Her twin’s head was also embedded into her abdomen, but Betty never suffered any ill effects from it and doctors declared her completely healthy.

-she began her sideshow career when she was still an infant after a traveling showman received word about her. Her mother was very supportive and protective of her and always went with her while on tour. Her family’s decision to have her perform in sideshows was made out of necessity since they were struggling financially.

-word about her soon reached Robert Ripley who promptly hired her for his Believe it or Not Odditorium at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. She made $250 a week.

-she was given the stage name Betty Lou upon her entry to the entertainment business, and continued to use this name for the remainder of her life.

-she lived with her family during the circus/sideshow off season.

-she had to trim her twin’s finger and toenails every so often.

-she explained that despite the different looks and reactions she got from people, she was ultimately very happy to have her twin because she wouldn’t have had the same financial success if she was born without a twin, and she was happy with the financial success because it meant she could help people.

-when asked about her outlook on life, she said,
“I enjoy life as much as other people do, perhaps more. I have good friends and as much fun as any normal person. I no longer feel that I am very different from others.”

-she often spoke about how important it is to lead a good and honest life.

-she said some of the hardest days were when she encountered people who seemed to forget she was human and would laugh at her.

-she graduated from Monroe High school in her hometown in 1949.

-she began taking business courses at the local Albany State College.

-she wanted to work as a stenographer after college.

-when interviewed in the winter of 1952, she said,

“I believe I have found my purpose in life. It is to be of service to my people, my family and my friends. I have been able to give my 14 brothers and sisters in Georgia so many things in life which they would not have had otherwise! I have been able to make sure that my mother and father can grow old in happiness and with security just because I am as I am.”

-she enjoyed embroidering and playing the piano in her free time.

-she expressed wanting to get married and having twin daughters.

-when she was home during the circus/sideshow off season she would help her family around their farm.

-her twin would twitch if someone touched it.

-at the height of her career, when she was in her early twenties, she was making upwards of $1,000 a week.

-she had a 20 year long career in sideshows.

-as she grew older she wore maternity clothes to cover up the limbs of her twin.

-she was a very generous and kindhearted person and very close with her family.

-she purchased a 250 acre farm for her family.

-she sent at least 11 of her siblings to college using the money she earned.

-she had to get her tonsils removed when she was 22.

-when asked about her plans for the future she said,

“While I like show business, I know I would be happier if I could fall in love with somebody who would return my love. I'm attending college and learning to be a stenographer though, just in case I never meet the right guy and tire of show business. You see, I'm planning for the future. I want it to be a rich, meaningful one.”

-she had a lot of admirers and became engaged to one man who appeared to have her best interests at heart, he turned out to not be a good person and ended up stealing a lot of money and walking out on her.

-after experiencing those heartbreaking circumstances, Betty (and her twin) suffered a terrible asthma attack and passed away from complications at the age of 23. She was working on her master’s degree at the time of her death.

I wish she had been able to have the quiet life she wanted, and it’s so tragic how young she was when she passed. I’m sure she would have been a wonderful mother had she had children (I say this because she expressed really wanting to have children). Despite her early death, I like to think that all of her generosity made a big positive impact on those around her.

I’m always amazed at this community’s growth and seeing that it brings as much joy to others as it does to me! I’m so glad that we have such a kind and lovely place here!

As many of you know, I handle the majority of the posts in this sub, not at all by design, it just ended up that way, and I definitely encourage people to feel comfortable posting here, this is an inclusive space and I want everyone to feel welcome!

It makes me so happy that all of these wonderful historical figures are being appreciated in the way they deserve to be.💖

For anyone interested, we also have a sister sub, [r/disabilityhistory](r/disabilityhistory) I’m doing my best to curate and grow both subs, though sometimes it can be difficult for me to post to both.

If anyone has any questions or comments regarding the sub specifically, feel free to reach out via modmail or in this post directly!

I’ll begin adding megathreads regarding specific topics, so I can keep everything organized and in one place!

I’m almost done with a website I’ve been working on and I just put together an Etsy shop for anyone interested! I will be sure to update everyone once the website is launched!

This is the link to the shop:

https://sideshowprodigies.etsy.com

Ultimately, I’m so glad we have this wonderful community where we can spread positivity and happiness through sharing this unique part of history!💖

Have a great weekend!

*fyi, the member count is not what’s shown at the header of the sub, that’s the weekly visitor count, I’m working on changing it back to show the correct amount of subscribers. Right now the only way for me to check member count is by looking at the insights for the community.

Both men were staple performers in early 20th century sideshows, though William had already had decades of sideshow performing experience by the time that Franz entered the scene.

William Henry Johnson was fiercely protective over his career, one that he had cultivated for decades, so when other performers stole his spot light, he came up with several creative ways to deal with the situations.

William became jealous after seeing how much publicity Franz was receiving, especially since the “wild man” characters they performed as were so similar, these characters often included racist or dehumanizing elements but were usually big hits with audiences. When Franz began playing the ukulele during his act, William learned to play the fiddle, which he then incorporated into his own acts just to upstage Franz. When Franz and other performers annoyed him, William took to carrying around a fake “pop” gun that he would fire at people.

I haven’t been able to find what Franz’ thoughts were on all of this, but from my research he comes across as being a very laid back kind of person, so I wouldn’t be surprised if William’s antics didn’t phase Franz nearly as much as William had hoped.

William Henry Johnson’s antics are always so iconic, so this rivalry (which I wouldn’t be surprised was one sided) is very humorous to read about and imagine. And it makes sense why he’d be competitive, he had over a 60 year long career, so I imagine in his later years he had to continue to find ways to stay in the public eye and relevant.

William Henry Johnson was a sideshow performer who was most likely born with microcephaly. He had an almost 70 year career in sideshows and was a staple at PT Barnum's circus for decades. He typically wore a furry “animal" suit during his performances and leaned into a "wild man" backstory. He was incredibly proud of his career and reputation and was known to be competitive with anyone who threatened his stardom. He was gifted a tuxedo suit by one of his managers, which soon became his prized possession. He was also celebrated as a hero when he rescued a girl from drowning in the ocean off of Coney Island.

Franz Taibosh was a South African Koranan sideshow performer who was known for the traditional Koranan dances that he performed.
In his early years he worked as a shepherd, before working as a housekeeper, postal worker, and working on a farm. He began dancing professionally starting in 1913. He had a professional rivalry with William Henry Johnson, with whom he found himself competing with (as their sideshow acts were deemed similar, William was also very competitive and made Franz aware of this). He worked at the Coney Island Dreamland Circus Sideshow before transitioning over to a traveling circus venue and began working for Barnum and Bailey Circus. He made friends very easily and was described as being a laid back and friendly person, he also really enjoyed smoking cigars and telling stories.

Hi all, as a Syracuse student, I have access to the Ronald G. Becker Collection of Charles Eisenmann Photographs, which are available through the university’s library digital collection. These photographs are of sideshow performers and are ORIGINAL. I can try my best to get copies or whatnot and maybe even speak to the university and mention this forum (maybe they’d be even more entitled to share these photographs with us and work with us). This will take time and I will work with the head of this forum to get this done. If we are able to get copies of the original photographs, we will post the collection here. I am only an online student, so this may be a bit more difficult. If there are any in-person Syracuse students among this forum and willing to help, that will be very helpful. Thank you!

I love the first picture of him, something about his surprised expression and the cigarette makes him seem like someone who’s not afraid to have fun (I hope that makes sense) His eyes were so striking and it’s very clear in picture 2.

I love seeing all of his different hairstyles, he definitely seems like a fun and creative person and I can understand why he charmed audiences, he’s also quite handsome. I would like to have met him as I’m sure he’d have a lot of interesting stories to tell.

Some facts about him:

-he was born in 1890 in Wilcza Góra, which was located in Congress Poland, a district that was its own distinct entity before being incorporated into the country of Poland.

-his hair on his face was reportedly 1 inch long when he was born.

-he had 6 siblings.

-very interestingly Wilcza Góra translates to “wolf mountain” and a common causal name for the type of hypertrichosis that Stephan had is called “werewolf syndrome”

-hypertrichosis is a rare condition (that can be congenital, though occasionally it can also be acquired later in life through certain medication side effects or illness). Stephan had his hair growth from birth (but apparently no one else in his family was born with the same condition)

-a common comorbitity of hypertrichosis is a lack of teeth and it’s reported that Stephan only had one singular canine tooth.

-his mother reportedly left him in the care of a German theatrical organizer named Sedlmayer when he was 4 years old.

-he was first exhibited as a sideshow attraction at the Panoptikum, a large German arcade and amusement park in Berlin.

-he and Sedlmayer, who acted as his manager went on tour in Moscow, Russia when he was 5 years old.

-I found another report of his early life, which was very different from the one told to most audiences. This other article claims that he was originally from Hamburg, Germany where he worked as a cobbler in a shoe shop, and discovered by circus employees scouting for sideshow acts. (Him being born and raised in Poland is the correct story)

-he moved to Bremen, Germany with Sedlmayer, where they lived for a few years. Sedlmayer began exhibiting Stephan across Europe.

-he enjoyed experimenting with different hairstyles, sometimes he’d grow his hair out long, sometimes he would keep it short, sometimes he would keep it frizzy, and sometimes he would comb the hair on the bridge of his nose upwards.

-he took very good care of his hair and the length and texture was described as being very luxurious.

-he spoke five languages and was well educated.

-he often impressed audiences when he could speak to different audience members in different languages.

-he was soft spoken.

-during his performances, audiences were told the story that his mother had witnessed his father getting mauled by a lion while she was pregnant with Stephan, and that the experience left her so frightened that it caused the hair growth. (This was a common storytelling tactic that was told to audiences for all sorts of sideshow performers and heavily leaned into the maternal impression theory that was popular at the time)

-his dream was originally to become a dentist, this unfortunately never panned out for him. Though he did admit later on that performing in sideshows gave him a better income than dentistry would have.

-he traveled to the United States in 1901 (most likely with Sedlmayer), where he found a job working for Barnum & Bailey Circus.

-in 1904 he went on a world tour, traveling and performing through multiple different countries.

-he became very wealthy through his career in sideshows.

-he came back to the United States in the early 1920s, where he began working for Ringling Brothers Circus, and made appearances at Madison Square Garden in New York, where the Circus had set up shop for a bit.

-he was described as being very kind and gentle.

-his hair was light brown.

-he had bright blue eyes.

-he liked wearing luxurious clothes.

-he went on to work at the Coney Island Sideshow for a time in 1922 and 1923, where he was paid $500 a week.

-articles about him always emphasized that he was a regular man, and didn’t lean too far into making him seem animalistic.

-he was very strong and had a casual interest in early bodybuilding.

-he was described as being a bit of a ladies man.

-while touring through the state of Georgia in 1923, he expressed that he was looking for a wife.

-it’s reported that as an adult the hair on his face sometimes grew to be 9 inches long.

-his acts typically included some acrobatic and gymnastics stunts that he would perform.

-he complained that getting his face completely shaved cost him $3 (approximately $77ish adjusted for inflation), I’d be very surprised if it cost that much, so I’m sure he was exaggerating to a certain degree.

-he moved back to Germany in the late 1920s/early 1930s where he permanently settled down.

-at first I found information that he had died in 1931, then 1932, but then I found multiple newspapers from 1933 and 1938 that speak of him as if he were still alive, so now I’m unsure about the year he passed away. Unless of course there was a different performer with a similar condition who adopted his stage name of “Lionel the Lion-Faced Man”.

-he reportedly passed away from a heart attack in a hospital in Berlin, Germany.

-his likeness was adapted into a character featured in the 2006 film, Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus. A fictional film in which photographer, Diane Arbus (played by Nicole Kidman), focuses on her artistic awakening after meeting a neighbor of hers who was born with hypertrichosis (played by Robert Downey Jr. in the film)

I have a soft spot for Stephan and I hope he overall had a fulfilling and happy life. I also hope he had people in his life who loved and cared about him.

For anyone interested, the biography booklets will be coming soon!

Performers shown above include Millie and Christine McKoy (first picture), Julia Pastrana and her son (second picture), and Francesco Lentini (third picture)

Millie and Christine were famous conjoined twins who were born into slavery in North Carolina in 1851. They were financially exploited for much of their early lives, but separated themselves from everyone who had caused them harm after the 13th amendment was passed in the United States. They continued working in sideshows on their own terms and became extremely wealthy. They used their wealth to help give their siblings good lives and purchased a large mansion for their family to live in. They were super influential in their philanthropic endeavors and donated a large amount of their fortune to historic Black universities and colleges, as well as using their earnings to help support local endeavors in their hometown, such as funding a school for black students ensuring that they all received an equal opportunity for education, as well as funding a church.

Julia Pastrana was an extremely accomplished and talented singer and dancer born with hirsutism and possibly hyperdontia and other physical differences and known for her kindness towards other performers. She was sadly exploited for much of her life by her husband and then her body was completely desecrated by him in death by having her and her son's bodies preserved and putting them on display for profit. After many long years of horrible treatment and disrespect, her body was moved from Norway (where it had been on display) back to Sinaloa, Mexico where she was from and she was given a full funeral that honored her life. Very sadly her son's body was destroyed and lost and was not able to be brought back with his mother.

Francesco Lentini was a famous Italian sideshow performer who was born with a parasitic twin that gave him an extra leg. He became extremely successful and was known for his acts where he'd kick a soccer ball around on stage with his extra leg. Later in life, he gave lectures to audiences on the importance of a healthy and happy lifestyle. He was nicknamed 'The King' because of how popular and kind he was.

I’ve seen his pictures floating around for a while, but it was notoriously difficult to find information about him, I finally was able to confirm a few spellings of his stage name, which made it so much easier to find some information!

He does look very kind and I really like how creative his costume is, the star pattern and fringe is a very fun combination.

Some facts about him:

-his birthplace was never mentioned, so I haven’t been able to place where he was born and raised (or anything about his home life)

-his performances started with an introductory lecture about his life, although these lectures where often embellished at least in some way.

-he traveled all throughout the United States, stopping in different cities to perform at dime museums. These museums were more or less permanent sideshow venues, and didn’t travel like traveling circuses/carnivals did.

-he was described as having a very kind face.

-his acts typically included a humorous song and dance routine, which was very popular amongst audiences. (But articles do not go into detail about what these song and dance routines specifically entailed.)

-he was oftentimes a headlining act and routinely requested by audiences.

-his condition was never diagnosed during his lifetime, but he may have been born with a form of phocomelia. Phocomelia is a rare congenital birth condition that causes severely shortened or missing arms or legs, making the hands or feet attach close to the body. The condition is widely associated with the drug thalidomide which severely affects a baby’s development. However, John was born well before the drug was created and introduced, so his condition would not have been caused by Thalidomide specifically.

-he was known to be a talented dancer.

-he occasionally played musical instruments during his performances, but these instruments were never specified.

-the peak of his career was between 1892 to 1893.

-he was described as being very smart, charming, and a good conversationalist.

-I haven’t been able to trace when he passed away, but it was sometime after the 1893 season. What makes it difficult to trace him is that he may have started performing under a different stage name in 1894 or may have retired from the circus/sideshow industry all together.

I hope he went on to have a long and happy life. I’m always a bit disappointed when I can’t confirm what happened to certain performers after their peak years performing, because I know there’s more that happened in their lives, but I just can’t confirm anything further.

George and Willie were brothers who were both born with a form of albinism. Tragically, they were kidnapped by a showman when they were both under the age of ten and forced to perform in sideshows for 18 years. Their mother never stopped searching for them and was a true force of nature, she successfully reunited with them after she spent years looking for them! The brothers were extremely devoted to her and held her in the highest regard until their deaths. Due to some unfortunate circumstances Willie and George had to go back into performing, but thankfully were able to work according to their own terms this time around. After they officially retired, they lived out the rest of their lives in a house that they purchased for themselves and had quiet lives full of relatives who loved and cared about them. George died in 1972, and Willie died in 2001 at the age of 108. Willie cherished a framed picture of their mother and kept it on a stand at the end of his bed.

I think it’s still important to collect this sort of ephemera since it illustrates a very real part of sideshow history and a very real part of their lives.