AFTERWORD

Historical background

This fictional story is inspired by a real event. General Tom Thumb and his troupe of little people visited Australia for nine months in 1870 as part of their world tour, and caused a tremendous stir wherever they went.

Mary Ann and Dr Musgrave are pure fiction, but I have used the names of real people in the troupe and have imagined their characters and doings. The route they followed around Australia is similar to the one in my story, and some of the events I describe did take place, though I have changed some details.

For example: to get to Adelaide the troupe had to cross a desert. In Seymour, Victoria, they were held up by floods. In Oatlands, Tasmania, they had to perform in a stable. They survived a perilous fording of a flooded river. At a fancy-dress ball in Sydney, Minnie Warren wore a Red Riding Hood costume, danced with the Duke of Edinburgh to the envy of all the ladies, and was said to have kissed him. ‘I never kiss and tell,’ Minnie told Mr Bleeker.

While the General and Commodore Nutt never fought a duel, they were rivals for the hand of Lavinia, and at one stage had a scuffle where the Commodore threw the General onto his back. I have imagined that their rivalry was rekindled by the Australian newspaper reviews of their shows. While these were generally favourable, some praised the Commodore as a natural comedian and denigrated the General, in either oblique or explicit references, as a portly, pompous has-been.

In some ways, the most important person in my story is a background character: Phineas Taylor Barnum, the quintessential American showman. The real Barnum was the discoverer and mentor of the little people, and the promoter who turned them into the equivalent of pop stars, so it is impossible to overestimate his influence on their lives. Barnum’s life is well documented in two autobiographies, a collection of letters and a number of excellent biographies.

My main sources are an account of the world tour written by the troupe’s manager, Sylvester Bleeker; an autobiography by Lavinia Stratton, ‘Mrs Tom Thumb’; contemporary accounts and reviews of the tour in Australian newspapers; and, for background, books by and about P.T. Barnum.

The General and Lavinia never had a child, but it was widely believed that they had one, thanks to Barnum’s spin doctoring. They were frequently photographed with a baby in Lavinia’s lap. In 1863 a medal was struck to commemorate the birth of a child, who was said to have died two years later. The General and Lavinia also carried infants to visit royalty on their tours. The children were supplied by foundling homes and were given away when, as inevitably happened, they grew too big to be credible ‘thumblings’.

The condition that characterised all four little people was probably what is today called pituitary dwarfism 1, or sexual ateleiotic dwarfism, caused by a deficiency in growth hormone. People with this rare genetic condition stop growing in early childhood and, though they may grow a little in later life, they remain at much below average height. Unlike in some other forms of dwarfism, the head, body and limbs remain in perfect proportion. They may be born to parents of normal height and may have average-sized siblings.

Some people with pituitary dwarfism are unable to have children; others have children who may or may not have the same condition. They are most likely to have normal-sized children. The genetics were not well understood in 1870, and it would have been reasonable then for a little person to expect to give birth to another little person. But there might also have been a fear of giving birth to a normal-sized baby.

Readers may be interested to know what happened to General Tom Thumb’s troupe after the world tour. The little people continued to tour America, and the General and his wife built a fine miniature house in Lavinia’s hometown of Middleborough, Massachusetts, where the General indulged his fondness for yachting and horseracing.

In 1881, the couple were travelling with Barnum’s ‘Greatest Show on Earth’ when a disastrous fire ripped through their Milwaukee hotel. Mrs Bleeker died from her injuries in the fire, and the General was said to be so upset by the experience that he died from a stroke the following July. He was forty-three, and had been performing since he was four years old.

Lavinia’s sister Minnie did eventually marry another little person, Major Edward Newell, in 1877. She became pregnant, and everyone expected a tiny baby. But she gave birth to a child weighing nearly six pounds. She died from exhaustion, and the baby died soon afterwards. Mother and child were buried together in the Middleborough family plot.

Although Lavinia was said to be devastated by all these deaths, she continued to tour on Barnum’s advice. She appeared with two little brothers, Count Primo and Baron Ernesto Magri, and in 1885 married Count Magri. These three little people went on performing together for many years (it seems Lavinia’s days of wealth were long gone) and, even after retirement, they set up a roadside stand for passing tourists in Middleborough, selling candy and soda pop. Countess Magri, as Lavinia became known, died in 1919.

Some reports say that Commodore Nutt never married. But according to The New York Times, he married a Miss Elston of Redwood City, California, sometime in the 1870s. She was a woman a little below average height. When Nutt died of Bright’s disease in 1881, his wife sobbed over his coffin, calling him her dear little boy.

My Franz Richardson is a plagiarist: ‘The Mermaid’ is a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.