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SIDESHOW STORIES A LOOK AT SIDESHOW PERFORMERS IN THE CONTEXT OF SOCIETAL SHIFTS
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SIDESHOW STORIES A LOOK AT SIDESHOW PERFORMERS IN THE CONTEXT OF SOCIETAL SHIFTS Edited by Mikayla Gregory & Erika von Kelsch
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CONTENTS O RIGINS OF THE SIDESHOW
7
Birth & Work Locations
8
Overview of Conditions
10
TIME LINE OF BIRTHS 15 PERFORMER BIOGRAPHIES 31
Cheng & Eng Bunker
33
The Great Omi
37
Joseph Merrick
41
Ben Dova
45
SOURCES 48
6
ORIGINS OF THE SIDESHOW
SIDESHOW STORIES 7
A sideshow refers to a show adjacent to a larger show, which in most cases is a circus. The main attraction of sideshows was their strangeness and novelty. Many performers had physical conditions which were scouted by showmen to make money. The earliest record of these performances can be dated back to 2400 BCE in Egypt; other records come from The Middle East, China and Greece. Looking at the side show on a global scale, we are focusing on the 19th and 20th centuries, showing the rise in popularity of the 1850s when there was a less negative connotation of the “outside show�. Following this turning point till the slow demise of the sideshow as a place displaying deformities. The best know known PT Barnum. He started the exploitation business when he bought a slave, and claimed that she was 161 years old. He then traveled around New England with her to make profit from the many spectators. And thus our story begins of exploit and performance.
8
WORK & BIRTH LOCATIONS WORK LOCATION BIRTH LOCATION
57%
of performers were born in the United States.
43%
of performers worked in the United States.
BIRTH LOCATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES Many performers were born in the United States. This map shows location specific to state where these performers were born.
SIDESHOW STORIES 9
76%
OF PERFORMERS HAD TO MOVE FROM THEIR BIRTHPLACE FOR WORK Because so many of these performers were part of a traveling group or troupe, the majority of them had to move for work. The most popular locations for the sideshow were Europe and the United States. The majority sideshow performers were constantly on the move, and in the case of larger name proprietors like Barnum and Bailey, travel would be done by boat and train.
10
overview of conditions
sword piercing animal trainer flexibility acrobat
heavily tattooed
①
② ③ ④ ⑤
⑥
KEY talent body modification accidental modification congenital disorder
① ② ③ ④ ⑤ ⑥
limbs face and head conjoined twins skin hair height
SIDESHOW STORIES 11
FORM OF AMELIA a congenital condition which results in one or more missing or shrunken limbs
18%
CAUSE IS UNKNOWN cases were not able to be identified at the time, with poor medical documentation
8.5% 3.2% 2.1% 1.1% 1.1% 1.1%
PHOCOMELIA results in severely shortened limbs, usually the arms ECTRODACTYL SYNDROME results in a cleft or split hand MUSCULAR ATROPHY results in loss of muscle mass MILROY’S DISEASE causes a malfunction of the lymphatic system, causing abnormal swelling of the face GENU RECURVATUM a deformity of the knee joint so that the knee joint bends backwards CRANIOPAGUS PARASITICUS a twinning of the head, resulting in a secondary partially formed head PROTEUS SYNDROME characterized by overgrowth of the bones, skin, and other tissues
1.1% 1.1%
ARTHROGRYOSIS MULTIPLEX CONGENITA results in curved joints, limiting movement
1.1%
MICROCEPHALY a neurodevelopmental disorder that is accompanied by a very small head NEUROFIBROMATOSIS can cause tumors to grow on nerve tissue, producing skin and bone abnormalities
2.1% 1.1% 1.1%
VIRCHOW-SECKEL SYNDROME a congenital nanosomic disorder,characterized by bird-like features
FRONTONASAL DYSPLASIA the nose has a flat, wide appearance, and the eyes may be wide-set
1.1% 1.1%
STURGE-WEBER SYNDROME results in wine-colored stains on the face
1.1%
PARASITIC TWINS one twin is highly functional, the other may only appear as another limb
7.4%
NON-PARASITIC twins are both highly functional with fusing
4.2%
ALBINISM is a lack of pigment in the skin and hair
ITCHYTOSIS is a condition responsible for rough, scaly skin
4.2% 1.1% 1.1%
HYPERTRICHOSIS excessive hair growth
10.5%
HERMAPHRODITE reproductive organs normally associated with both male and female sexes
1.1%
DWARFISM results in short stature from abnormal slow or delayed growth
15%
GIANTISM characterized by excessive growth and height
9%
ACROMEGALY the pituitary gland overproduces growth hormone, affecting different parts of the body
VITILIGO is a loss of pigmentation in the skin over time
12
CONDITION OVERVIEW In order to be a successful sideshow act, some sort of selling point needed to be present in order for spectators to spend money on the sideshow. This set of performers have been categorized by the root cause of their sideshow attraction. The most prevalent category of sideshow performer between 1780 and 1980 is performers with congenital conditions. For many of these people, the sideshow was an opportunity to make money off of the way that they were born and perceived in a society which understood little about these disorders.
94%
of performers had a congenital condition.
POSSIBILITY OF TREATMENT TODAY 26% treatable 26.6% not treatable 45.5% manageable
SIDESHOW STORIES 13
CONGENITAL ACT TYPE BREAKDOWN
8.6% spectacle and vaudeville 5% strength 3.6% musical talent 3.6% painting 1.8% acrobatics 1.8% acting
THE ART OF VAUDEVILLE Vaudeville, the most prevalent type of act, is a type of performance for entertainment purposes, which rose to popularity in the 20th century. It covers a wide range of acts, including dancing, singing, and acrobatics. Comedy was an especially important aspect of this type of performance. Especially in the context of the sideshow, vaudeville many times included performance of everyday tasks done by people with missing or undeveloped limbs, especially the arms. These acts could include lighting and smoking a cigarette, preparing a simple meal and eating it, writing, and painting.
14
TIMELINE OF BIRTHS
SIDESHOW STORIES 15
In its original state, the most basic premise of the sideshow was to make money off of people that were mostly anomalies in some way. The majority of these performers had some sort of physical condition which was visible to others. At the height of the sideshow’s rise, The Victorian Era, it was common entertainment to gawk at the physical disorders of other people. Adults and children alike would go to the sideshow to see these performers. The medical community would also many times attend, and the performers of the sideshow were a constant source of inquiry and question to them throughout the early 19th century. Many times, the sideshow is taken out of historical context, viewed today only through the events directly related to the performers and proprietors. Viewing sideshow under a different lens, the views of society can be observed as shifted over time. This eventually led to the dismantlement of sideshow as a form of entertainment.
16
The steamboat is invented
TIMELINE KEY
congenital disorder accidental modification body modification
Sarah Bartman Hottentot Venus
1790
1784
Dates in red represent births in the Victorian era
Sarah Biffen The Limbless Artisan
One block represents one performer’s birth date
1784
DATE
BIRTHname NAME Birth PERFORMER PSEUDONYM Pseudonym
talent based act
SIDESHOW STORIES 17
WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF THE VICTORIAN ERA?
The smallpox vaccination is created
Lithography is invented
Fourdrinier Machine for sheet paper making is invented
1796
1798
1799
The Victorian Era earns its name from the beginning of the rein of Queen Victoria, and ends in the year of her death, spanning the years 1837 to 1901. Small American freak shows first started to spring up in 1829, around the time of the arrival of Chang and Eng, the original Siamese twins. As American sideshows began hitting their stride in the 1840s, English versions gained similar popularity. The Victorian era is often viewed as the heyday of the freak show. It was an age of scientific and medical advancements and, consequently, the public was naturally curious about unexplained oddities. Freak shows were staged at both
entertainment and scientific venues, drawing everyone from young children to seasoned medical professionals. In an age where scientific reasoning started overshadowing traditional religious values and medicinal advancements claimed stories of miraculous and life-saving surgeries, freak shows introduced the average working class person to medicine and science, while enthralling them with tales of exotic places and mysterious people discovered via colonial expansion.
1817
1814
1811
1808
Sander Grims Nellis Master Sanders
Cheng & Eng Bunker The Siamese Twins
George Alexander Grattaan The beautiful spotted boy
The fist steam locomotive is invented
18
Rita & Christine Parodi The Sardina Sisters
Johnathan Bass The Living Mummy
1829
1830
1814
Small American sideshows start appearing.
The electromagnet is invented
SIDESHOW STORIES 19
Martin Avery The Living Skeleton
1836
Issac Sprague The Living Skeleton
1841
Eli Bowen The Legless Acrobat
George Washington Morrison Nutt Commodre Nutt
George Lippert The Three Legged Man
Carl Unthan The Armless Fiddler
1848
PT Barnum introduces his first hoax, known as The Feejee Mermaid.
Warning, Raymond & Co. Becomes the first circus to advertise as a museum and menagerie.
1844
1842
Charles Sherwood Stratton General Tom Thumb
1839
1837
Julia Pastrana The Monkey Girl
1834 20
1859
SIDESHOW STORIES 21
ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species. Debates over evolution and slavery further peaked interest in sideshow performers, many of whose physical conditions and ways that they were marketed fed into this curiosity.
PT Barnum took advantage of the public’s curiosity in the subject, many timesadvertising performers as being between human and animal. This is particularity evident in the pseudonyms of many performers, many of which include reference to animals.
John Campbell The Albino Dislocationist
Joseph Merrick The Elephant Man
1861
1862
Charles Tripp The Armless Wonder
1855
Fanny Mills The Ohio Bigfoot Lady
William Thomas Goy Goy the Roly Poly Man
1854
1860
Millie & Christine McCoy The Two-Headed Nightengale
1852
1859
Nikolai Wassilijewittsch Kobelkoff The Human Trunk
1851
Dolly Dutton The Little Fairy
John William Coffey The Skeleton Dude
First World’s fair at London’s Crystal Palace.
Tai Jin The Kung Fu Werewolf
1849
Charles Decker General Charles Decker
The only illustration included in the original publication, drawn by William West, depicts the degree of similarities between a number of varieties and species, explained by descent from common ancestors.
Born on July 5, 1810, in Bethel, Connecticut, PT Barnum became a successful promoter after moving to New York City. He displayed the “Feejee Mermaid” and other oddities at the Barnum American Museum, and introduced audiences to “General Tom Thumb” and opera singer Jenny Lind.
Barnum bought Scudder’s American Museum in lower Manhattan in December 1841 and reopened it as Barnum’s American Museum, where he displayed the “Feejee Mermaid” and other oddities of dubious authenticity among its 500,000 exhibits. In 1842, Barnum met 4-year-old Charles Sherwood Stratton, who stood 25 inches high and weighed 15 pounds. Sensing another potential windfall, Barnum trained the boy to sing and dance and revealed him to the public as “General Tom Thumb.”The two together are pictured at the left. The massive popularity of the exhibit led to a traveling tour of Europe, which included an audience with England’s Queen Victoria.
Grace Gilbert Princess Gracie
Barnum formed the circus that would come to be known as “The Greatest Show on Earth” in 1871, and died in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on April 7, 1891.
Neelie Keller Little Queen Mab
Alice Espirona The Living Doll
Mina & Minnie Finley
Fred Wilson The Lobster Boy
Willis Carver
Fedor Jeticheff Jo-Jo the Dog Faced Boy
Ella Harper The Camel Girl
Prince Randian The Living Torso
Francis Joseph Flynn General Mite
Sam Parks Hopp the Frog Boy
Krao Farini The Missing Link
Rora & Marie Drouin
1866
1868
1869
1870
1871
1872
1874
1876
1877
Dudley Foster Hop-O-My-Thumb
Pauline Marie Elizabeth Wedde Marian the Giant Amazon Queen
Annie Jones The Bearded Girl
1865
Pauline Musters The Little Princess
Ella Grisby Abomah the Abyssinian Giant Leopald Kahn Admiral Dot
1864
Paul Desmuke The Armless Man
PT Barnum’s Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan and Circus—the largest circus ever in America—made its debut in 1870.
Alexander Graham Bell recieves the first patent for the telephone.
THE SHOWMAN P.T. BARNUM
Dominique Castagna The Mummy Man
1870
22
1880
SIDESHOW STORIES 23
CONEY ISLAND STARTS A SIDESHOW An incredibly popular performance location, the golden age of the village’s side shows began in 1904 when Samuel W. Gumpertz opened Lilliputia, an entire miniature city scaled for its dwarf and midget inhabitants. Lilliputia became such a popular tourist attraction at Dreamland, Gumpertz spend many years afterwards finding and promoting human oddities. After Dreamland first burned in 1911, he opened Dreamland Circus Sideshow.
Artie Atherton The living Skeleton
Minnie Woosley KOO-KO O Koo-Koo
Edouward Beaupre The Willow Bunch Giant
Kitty Smith The Armless Dynamo
Harry Overduff Ossified Harry the Man of Stone
Madmoiselle Gabriell THEHalf HALFWoman WOMA N The
Martin Emmerling The Man with the Revolving Head
Alice Doherty The Minnasota Wooly Girl
Grace McDaniels The Mule-Faced Woman
Francesco Lentini The Three Legged Man
John Aasen Johnny Aasen
Stephan Bibrowski Lionel the Lion-Faced M
Horace Riddler The Great Omi
1880
1881
1882
1883
1884
1885
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892
Natalia Jaramillo Athelia the Monkey Girl Dora Herms Brunhilde
Rosa & Josepha BlaĹžek The Bohemian Twins
1878
George Auger The Mighty Cardiff Giant
Frank Fifthen The Armless Cyclist
Karl Benz creates the first gasoline powered car.
Lilliputia was built to half scale to resemble 15th century Nuremberg Germany. The midgets had their own parliament, own Midget Fire Department that responded hourly to false alarms, and their own beach complete with midget lifeguards. While they entertained patrons during the day, they had their own lives and community when the park was closed.
Rondo Hatton The Creeper
1894
Stanislaus Beren Sealo the Seal Boy
1901
Sissy Cook The Penguin Girl
Marie Jean Bernabet Little Lady
Forest Layman The Armless Wonder
Anne Haase Hilda
John Maroldo Johnny Winters
Aloisia Wagner Beautiful Armless & Legless Venus
1905
1906
Ben Dova The Drunk DaredevilL
A letter is addressed to James Bailey protesting the word “Freak� in advertising.
Simon Metz Schlitzie
Ruth Davis The Penguin Lady
1900
1903
Moe & Joe The Comedic Dwarf Twins
Ruby Belle Rickoff Madmoiselle Corretta
The Lumiere Brothers invent a portable motion-picture camera called the Cinematographe
1898
1995
Anna Mae Burlingston Artoria
1893 24
SIDESHOW STORIES 25
1908
A PUBLICATION IN SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN “Circus and Museum Freaks Curiosities of Pathology” is published in Scientific American, condemning sideshows. This publication shifted the once common view of congenital conditions as entertainment to a medical view of improving the quality of human life. The following is an excerpt from that article:
Dick Hilburn The Quarter Man
Robert Melvin The Man With Two Faces
1920
wwi
1918
Frances O-Connor The Living Venus De Milo
1914
Bill Druks The Man With Two Faces
1912
Arnold Henskes The Invulnerable Man
1912
Johnny Eckhardt Johnny Eck
1911
Catherine Virginia McDonald
1910
1908
Charlotte Vogel The Elephant SKin Girl
Loretta Luce The Sunshine Girl
Emmit Bejano The Alligator Man
Social reform for disability in the United States begins.
“In most civilized countries there are now enacted laws forbidding the public exhibition of monsters and revolting deformities. A more refined and a more humane popular
taste now frowns upon such exhibitions, and they are less profitable to their promoters. The profession of museum freak is passing. The genuine lusus naturae is, however, always a valuable subject of study for the scientific physician, which may add to our knowledge of development of normal types and I may possibly illuminate many difficult and obscure problems in pathology.”
A SOCIAL ISSUE with few legal outcomes
Betty Lou Williams Four Legged Three Armed Wonder
Grady Stiles Lobster Boy
1932
1936
1931
Ursula Blütchen The Polar Bear Princess
1927
Sam Alexander The Man With Two Faces Otis Jordan The Forg Boy
1926
1925
Frieda Pushnik The Little Half Girl
1923
The Great Depression begins
But for the majority of the 19th century’s “freaks,” notoriety wasn’t a choice. They grew to accept their lifestyles and appreciate wealth and fame, but paid for it in other ways. Frank Lentini, a three-legged man who was once dubbed “King of the Freaks,” confirmed this in a newspaper interview at the turn of the century.
1929
While sideshows were ousted for their questionable morals, they exist today— just not in the traditional sense. Television network TLC, for instance, has proved that curiosity still sells. Just as P.T. Barnum exploited “Fat Boy” Ulack Eckert, TLC’s “My 600 Pound Life” exploits the sensational aspects of America’s morbidly obese. The network’s “Little People, Big World” light-heartedly portrays the struggles of a dwarf couple, as Barnum did with Tom Thumb. “The Man With Half a Body,” and “I Am the Elephant Man” each prey on the
Penicillin is discovered
same prying eyes that funded freak shows throughout the 1800s. And, like their predecessors, these modern-day “stars” Ware paid for their exploitation—up to $8,000 per episode.
1928
In 1931, Michigan banned sideshow performers from making money by the traditional way of the sideshow. Much of this ban was fueled by a fear of these people being exploited.
The Great Gatsby is published
1931
26
1939
1937
wwii
Television sets become widely accessible, scheduled programs grow in number
The Korean War Begins
1950
Delores Pullard The Amazon WOman
Gabriel Estavo Monjane One of the Last Show Giants
1948
1946
1945
1944
SIDESHOW STORIES 27
The Soviet Union launches the Space Age with Sputnik
1957
Castro becomes dictator of Cuba
The Cuban Missile Crisis
1959
1962
Denis Avner Stalking Cat
The Montgomery Bus boycott begins
1955
1958
dna is discovered
1953
28
SIDESHOW STORIES 29
CONCLUSIONS As is evident from the timeline, the majority of performers were born and performed in the span of the Victorian Era. After Scientific American’s publication on the medical and social issues surrounding sideshows, the amount of people born who performed in sideshows dropped dramatically. As technology improved, the types of entertainment people engaged with changed as well. The invention of the television allowed for in-home entertainment that provided many of the same attractive qualities that the sideshow possessed: novelty as well as having the ability to tell visual stories.
30
PERFORMER BIOGRAPHIES
SIDESHOW STORIES 31
The era of the sideshow as a whole can be analyzed in the context of human history, but when broken down further, the performers of the sideshow reveal an incredibly complex landscape of human life. These were people doing their best to survive by overcoming obstacles. The individual stories of these performers are each so diverse. The sideshow was a global phenomenon which ended up affecting a wide array of people, and as such no two stories are the same. A selection of these stories have been illustrated in order to connect these individual lives to that of the larger view of the sideshow.
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WORK LOCATION BIRTH LOCATION
25%
of conjoined twins survive being born.
30%
of conjoined twins are male.
75%
of conjoined twin separations since 1950 are successful.
SIDESHOW STORIES 33
CHeng and eng CONJOINED TWINS
Without a doubt, Chang and Eng are by far the most famous of all conjoined twins. In fact, it’s because of them that conjoined twins are also often called ‘Siamese Twins.’ The brothers were born on May 11, 1811 in Siam now modern Thailand. They were just two of seventeen children and among their siblings were three sets of twins and one set of triples. The pair was only joined by a single stretchable four inch ligament at the chest. They were positioned nearly facing each other, with Chang on the left and Eng on the right. Because the pair shared no organs, their biology seemed to function almost completely separately. The two had contrasting personalities and accounts seem to indicate that Eng was the dominant personality. By 1838 the pair retired to Wilkes County, North Carolina with $60, 000. During their retirement, they explored the idea of being separated— however no physician was up to the task.
34
Cheng & Eng’s TIMELINE
1870 Cheng becomes partially paralyzed by a stroke.
1850
Deciding they need to make more money, the twins join up with BT Barnum for the next five years to travel as a sideshow act.
1829 The twins are discovered by an American explorer named Captain Able Coffin, and they leave Siam with him to travel the Eastern United States as a sideshow act.
1843 The twins marry a pair of sisters.
1839 Cheng and Eng decide to take charge of their own money and exhibition.
1811 Cheng and Eng are born in Siam, modern day Thailand. They are joined by a small tunnel of tissue connecting their torsos.
SIDESHOW STORIES 35
1874 Cheng passes away, followed by Eng with only hours between them.
36
WORK LOCATION BIRTH LOCATION
150 HOURS
were spent being tattooed.
500 SESSIONS
were needed to transform Horace Riddler.
1600 DAYS
were spent performing by The Great Omi.
SIDESHOW STORIES 37
THE GREAT OMI HEAVILY TATTOOED
The Great Omi was one of the most popular tattooed men of all time. He was primitively tattooed over much of his body including his head and face, which was tattooed in bold black zebra-like stripes. Sometimes referred to as the ‘The Zebra Man’, Horace Ridler – the man who would become The Great Omi – was born in Surrey, England around 1892 to a wealthy family. He served twice in the British Army as a commissioned officer but left the military after the First World War with the rank of major. The design of the wide black stripes would cover his old work and, by Burchett’s account, 150 hours later Horace Ridler became The Great Omi. As soon as the tattoo work was completed the job offers rolled in from Bertram Mills Circus, Robert Ripley’s “Believe It Or Not”, Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus and the Bellevue Circus. Gladys Ridler worked with her husband and became the Omette, introducing the Great Omi to the audiences of the world.
38
THE GREAT OMI’S TIMELINE
SIDESHOW STORIES 39
1927 The small amount of tattooing wasn’t enough to make himself a successful attraction. He recieves his “zebra stripes” from the famed tattoo artist George Burchett in London.
1922 Deciding to go into show business, Horace starts to get more body art so that he can become a sideshow attraction.
1939 The Great Omi appears at the World’s fair in Queens. After, he is approached by Ripley’s believe it or not Odditorium to be a more permanent exhibit.
1941 Tours Australia, New Zealand, and Canada for the next 2 years.
1950 1892
The Great Omi decides to retire with his wife back in England.
Horace Riddler is born in Surrey, England to a well-to-do family.
1969 Horace Riddler dies.
40
WORK LOCATION BIRTH LOCATION
0.05%
20%
of all Proteus Syndrome cases are manageable.
of people born with Proteus Syndrome will die prematurely.
SIDESHOW STORIES 41
JOSEPH MERRICK THE ELEPHANT MAN
In 1873, when Merrick was just 11 years old, his mother died of bronchial pneumonia. Merrick would later describe her passing as the “greatest sadness in my life.” His father remarried to their landlady less than a year later, and Merrick left school to seek work, eventually finding a job rolling cigars in a factory. But within two years, his right hand had become so deformed that he could no longer do the work and was forced to leave. His father, who owned a haberdashery, attained a peddler’s license for him and sent him out to the streets to sell his shop’s wares. By this point, however, Merrick’s deformities were so extreme, and his speech so impaired as a result, that people were either frightened of him or unable to understand him, and his efforts were met with little success. When one day his father beat him severely for not earning enough money, Merrick went to live with an uncle briefly before becoming a resident at the Leicester Union Workhouse at age 17. Merrick found life in the workhouse intolerable, but unable to find any other means of supporting himself, he was forced to stay.
42
JOSEPH MERRICK’S TIMELINE
1862 Joseph Merrick is born in Leicester, England.
SIDESHOW STORIES 43
1887 With nowhere else to go, several rooms in the London hospital are converted into living quarters for him.
1879
1890
At 17 years old, extreme deformities forced Merrick to become a workhouse resident.
Joseph Merrick dies from asphyxiation overnight, most likely from attempting to sleep laying down, something his condition would not allow.
1884 Merrick attempts to leave the workhouse and profit from his appearance.
1885 After England started to find sideshows distasteful, Joseph makes a trip to Belgium to exploit himself. He is robbed by his manager and tries to find his way back to England.
44
WORK LOCATION BIRTH LOCATION
16 YEARS
20%
make up Ben Dova’s acting career.
of people born with Proteus Syndrome will die prematurely.
SIDESHOW STORIES 45
BEN DOVA THE DRUNK DAREDEVIL
Ben Dova was perhaps best known for his signature ‘convivial inebriate’ act. His act consisted of Dova playing a quirky drunkard. He would swaggeringly stagger out onto the stage, dressed in a rumpled top hat and wrinkled tails, and would feign falling into the audience while perform wonderfully limber moves. It appeared to the audience as though Ben would topple at any moment and he teased such a disaster, only to steady himself and proceed. He would search, for a comical length of time, through his pockets for a cigarette which was in his mouth during the entire time. Then, at this point, he would climb a street lamp to light his cigarette. While perched atop the lamp the lamp would begin to sway back and forth, eventually to an alarming degree. Dova would hold on and begin an astounding acrobatic routine heighten by his seemingly intoxicated state. To some, Dova’s act was comedic and entertaining fluff, however in 1933 that all changed. For the benefit of American newsreels Ben Dova performed his act atop New York’s 56 storey Chanin Building with no net, no wires and no camera tricks. Theatre audiences were terrified by what they saw and genuinely feared for Dova’s personal safety. Fainting at the sight of the newsreel was documented.
46
BEN DOVA’S TIMELINE
SIDESHOW STORIES 47
1986 Ben Dova dies.
1933 1937 Performs his “drunk” act on top of New York’s Chanin Building.
1905 Ben Dova is born in Strasbourg as Joseph Späh.
Dova escapes the Hidenburg disaster alive.
1970 Ben retires as an actor, and six years later he plays a role in Marathon Man.
48
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SIDESHOW STORIES 49
http://www.circushistory.org/Routes/PTB1911.htm http://www.aiga.org/the-last-sideshow-banner-painter/ http://faculty.washington.edu/qtaylor/a_us_history/1700_1800_timeline.htm http://faculty.washington.edu/qtaylor/a_us_history/1800_1900_timeline.htm http://humancuriosities.weebly.com/timeline-of-the-freak-show.html timeline of sideshows http://priceonomics.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-circus-freakshows/ http://variety.com/2012/tv/news/is-reality-tv-the-modern-day-equivalent-of-the-sideshowact-9092/ http://sideshow-circusmagazine.com/research/data/state-circus-2013 http://sundaymagazine.org/2011/02/the-passing-of-the-once-popular-sideshow-freak/ http://sideshow-circusmagazine.com/research/data http://sideshow-circusmagazine.com/research/data/language-circus-marketing