INDEX
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A & S men
Abdul the Egyptian Giant. See Reeder, Tyrone
A. B. Enterprises
Abominable Snowman
Abracadabra! Secret Methods Magicians and Others Use to Deceive Their Audience (Schiffman)
A. Brill's Bible of Building Plans
achondroplastic dwarf. See also dwarfs
acid-drinking
“Acme Miniature Flea Circus,”
acrobatics: in ancient Egypt; by armless/legless wonders; with bulls, in ancient times; Chevalier acrobatic family; fat lady, Ruth the Acrobat; in medieval France
acromegaly
Adams, Carrie
add-up joint. See count store
Adolph and Rudolph (bogus Siamese twins)
advance agents
“African Bison” banner
African witch doctor
aftercatch
agricultural fairs
Agrippa, Marcus
A. J. Purdy circus
Akers, Carrie
Alberto, Carlo
albinism
“Albino Girl” banner
albinos; Eko and Iko; Gorhen, Amos and Charles; Lucasies family; Martin sisters; Unzie the Australian Aboriginal Albino
Alexander, Sam
Alexis, Germain Bartlett. See Lonecloud, Dr.
alibi store
“Alien Bodies” exhibit
All American Circus
Allentown, Pa., fair
“Alligator Boy.” See Bejano, Emmitt
“Alligator Children of Morgan County, The.” See Elam, James and Henry
“Alligator Girl” banner
“Alligator Man.” See Bejano, Emmitt
“alligator” people; Bejano, Emmitt; Doto, Christine; Durks, Mildred; Elam, James and Henry; gaffed; Osanbaugh, Mona; Parnell, William; Vogel, Charlotte “Suzy,”
“Alligator Skin Girl.” See Osanbaugh, Mona
“Alligator Skin Lady.” See Durks, Mildred
All the Secrets of Magic Revealed: The Tricks and Illusions of the World's Greatest Magicians (Becker)
“Amazing Mister Lifto.” See Hermann, Joe
“Amazon Snake Charmer” banner
Amburgh, Isaac Van
Ament, W. D. “Mexican Billy,”
American Museum. See Barnum's American Museum
American State Fair (Nelson)
Amos and Andy dolls
“Anatomical Wonder.” See Burkhart, Melvin
anatomical wonders; Burkhart, Melvin; Carson, Rex “Americo,”; contortionists; India-rubber people; special-effects performers
Anderson, Bud
androgen
animal acts: acrobatics with bulls; animal showmen; bears; birds; Clever Hans (horse); Consul (chimp); dancing rooster; dogs, trained; exhibits vs. acts; Fatima the Hoochie-Coochie Bear; flea circuses; heads, restoring severed; in history; horse-riding, trick; Josephine (chimp); kangaroo, boxing; Lady Wonder (horse); “Learned Pig,”; “Learned Seal,”; lion taming; monkeys; Munito the celebrated dog; pigs; “scientific” Spanish pony; Serrano the Psychic Horse; singing mice; snake charmers; snake pits; snake wrestling; talking horse; Toby the Sapient Pig; “Two Curious Birds,”; wild-animal training; “Wonderful Intelligent Goose,”
animal exhibits: armadillos; bears; bison; camels; coatimundi; elephants; elephants (stuffed); Giant Flesh-Eating Frogs; “Giant Rat” show; “Giant Snake eating Frog,”; “Great Living Whale,”; Jungle Mother; killed in fires; lions; monkeys; snakes; stuffed; turkey buzzards; whales; Zeno the Ape Man (baboon)
animal freaks; alleged hybrids; bull with “elephant feet,”; “Calf with 5 Legs & 6 Feet,”; “Cow with Legs,”; “Daisy Mae the Headed Cow,”; “double-bodied cows,”; “enormous pigs,”; fetuses; five-legged cow; five-legged horse; five-legged sheep; “4 Wing Goose,”; “Four Horn Sheep,”; “Freaks of Nature and Pet Zoo” sideshow; “Giant Alligator,”; “Giant Chicken,”; “Giant Rat” show; “Goat without Ears,”; “Hairless Dog,”; “‘Hercules’ the Giant Horse,”; in history; horse, with long mane and tail; Jumbo the elephant; “Living Three-Horned Bull,”; “Midget Bull,”; “Nature's Living Tripod” (three-legged sheep); “Nature's Mistakes” animal freak show; ram with four horns; “Sheep with Horns,”; six-legged cow; six-legged ram; “Smallest Horse, The,”; taxidermy, products of; “3 Legged Duck,”; “Turkey Horse,”; “2 Bodied Cow,”; two-headed cow; two-legged dog; “White Mountain Giant Steer,”; “World's Largest Horse,”; “World's Largest Pig,”; “World's Smallest Cow,”; “World's Smallest Horse,”; “zonkey” (half zebra-half donkey)
“animal” people; “alligator” people; Bernadin (“fish boy”); Biped Armadillo; Blackwelder, Emmitt “Turtle Man,”; “frog” boys; Johanna the Bear Girl; Koo-Koo the Bird Girl; “leopard” people; “lobster” people; “seal” or “penguin” people; Snake Boy
animal shows; exhibits vs. acts; lion taming; menageries; single-animal acts. See also animal acts; animal exhibits; animal freaks; menageries
annex. See blowoff
Antiochus, King. See Eunus
Antiques Roadshow (TV show), Siamese twin chair on
Aquinas, Saint Thomas
Arabian Giant
arcade
Arcade Magic and Novelty Store (Toronto)
Arizona, Maude
armadillos “Armless Fiddler.” See Nellis, Sanders K. G.
armless/legless wonders; Bowen, Eli; Buchinger, Matthew; Eck, Johnny; Gabriel, Mademoiselle; in history; Nellis, Sanders K. G.; Randian, Prince; Thompson, Ann E. Leak; Tomaini, Jeanie; Tripp, Charles; Tunison, Mademoiselle, of Long Island; Valerius, John
Arnold, Jane and Floyd “Tex,”
Artword Theatre (Toronto)
Astley, Philip
Astley's Amphitheatre Riding House. See Royal Amphitheatre
Atasha the Gorilla Girl
Atlanta Exposition (1881)
at’ show
Attila the Hun
automatons
Baby Ruth
back end of midway
Bailey, Henry
Bailey, James A.
Ball, Howard
Ballard, Dave
bally
“Bally,”
ballyhoo, bally platform See also talkers
bally talker. See talkers
Bambi, torture queen
banner lines; banner painting techniques; banners for sale; canvas used for banners; exaggerations of attractions; fine art nature of banners; importance of banners for turning the tip; longest, of freak animals; “REAL,”; showing techniques; in string shows
“barber poles” candy
barker
Barnell, Jane
Barnum, Phineas Taylor (P. T.); and albinos; amusements at museums of; and armless/legless wonders; and Bailey, James A.; and bearded ladies; the blowoff; and Cardiff giant hoax; and Circassian beauties; death; and dwarfs; “Egress, The,”; and elephants, Jumbo; and elephants (stuffed); and elephants (white); and fat people; Fejee Mermaid; and freak animals; and “General Tom Thumb,”; and giants; “Greatest Show on Earth, The,”; and Heth, Joice; and hirsute attractions; and India-rubber people; John Scudder's American Museum, acquisition of; and Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Boy; and “leopard” people; and Lind, Jenny; and living skeletons; and midgets; miscellaneous curios of; and New American Museum; and “one-and-a-halfs,”; “P. T. Barnum's Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan, Hippodrome & Circus,”; “P. T. Barnum's Great Asiatic Caravan, Museum and Menagerie,”; and racial tolerance; scheming of; “scientific demonstrations,”; and Siamese twins; and sideshow, use of term; and Signor Vivalla; and tattooed people; and taxidermy, products of; and “There's a sucker born every minute,”; on tour to England; and “wild men” acts. See also “Greatest Show on Earth, The”; Barnum & Bailey circus; Barnum's American Museum
Barnum & Bailey circus; banner lines at; bearded ladies at; Circassian beauties at; “frog” boy at; Ringling Brothers purchase of; sideshows at; snakes; sword swallowing
Barnum's American Museum; “Aquarial Department” of; armless wonder at; bearded ladies at; Circassian beauties at; exotic animal exhibits; Fejee Mermaid; fire at; and “General Tom Thumb,”; giants at; “leopard” child at; living skeletons at; menagerie of; and Siamese twins; tattooed people at; “Unicorn” at
“Barnum's Magic City,”. See also “Greatest Show on Earth, The”
Barnum's Own Story (Barnum)
“Barnyard Oddities,”
Barta, Hilary
Barth, Miles; and fat people; and illusion shows
Bartholomew Fair (London): animals at,; banner lines at; concessions at; contortionist at; dwarf at; Fawkes, Isaac at; rides and amusements at; Siamese twins at
Bates, Finis
Bates, Martin Van Buren
Battalia, Francois
Battersby, Hannah
Battersby, John
“Bearded Girl.” See Jones, Annie
bearded ladies; Barnell, Jane; “Brenda Beatty the Bearded Lady” (Bernie Rogers); Clofullia, Josephine; Delait, Clementine; Devere, Jane; female impersonators as; Furella, Jean; gaffed; Gilbert, Grace; Jones, Annie; Macgregor, Betty; Madame Fortune; Meyers, Mrs.; Murphy, Frances; Percilla the Monkey Girl
“Bearded Lady of Thaon, The.” See Delait, Clementine
bears
Beatty, Clyde
Becker, Herbert L.
Beckman, Fred
beds of nails
Bejano, Emmitt
Bejano, Johnny
Bejano, Percilla. See Percilla the Monkey Girl
Belgian Giant (aka the French Giant). See Bihin, E.
“Believe It or Not!” See “Ripley's Believe It or Not!”
Bellis, George
benders. See contortionists
Bentley, Claude
Berent, Stanley
Bernadin (“fish boy”)
Bertolotto, L.
Best, Dick
Bibrowsky, Stephan. See Lionel the Lion-Faced Man
Biddenden Maids. See Chulkhurst, Mary and Eliza
“Big Cleo, World's Tallest Girl” mummy
Big Eli Wheel
Bigelow, “Texas Charlie,”
Bigfoot
“Big Sea Horse” mummy
Bihin, E.
Biped Armadillo
bird call imitations
“black-art” principle
Black Prince and his Fairy Queen (midgets)
Blackwelder, Emmitt
blade box. See “Coffin Blade Box” illusion
Blaine, David
blind opening
blowdown
blowing the route
blowoff; as after-catch for next show; for children; “Egress, The,”; fat ladies on; human pincushions; for men; shows as; snake wrestling; two-headed pickled punk; and walk-throughs
“Blue Man.” See Walters, Fred
Bobby Reynolds's International Circus Sideshow Museum & Gallery; banner lines at; and Cardiff giant hoax; illusion shows at. See also Reynolds, Bobby
“Bobby the Boy with the Revolving Head.” See Laurello, Martin Joe
“Bobo the Rubber Man.” See Duggan, Francis X.
Bogdan, Robert; and armless/legless wonders; banner lines; the blowoff; and fat people; and giants; and living skeletons; and Siamese twins; and tattooed people; and ten-in-ones; “wild man” or “wild woman” acts
bogus creatures: extraterrestrial corpses; freak creatures; Sasquatch/Bigfoot. See also mermaids
Bone, Howard
Bonnie and Clyde, auto of
Booth, John Wilkes, reputed mummy of
Bosker, Gideon
Bostock, Frank; menageries of
Bostock Carnival Company
Bostock-Ferrari Midway Carnival Company; carousels
Bostock Mighty Midway Company
Bostock's Trained Animal Arena
Boswell, Harvey Lee
Bottle Roll (game)
bouncers. See also pickled exhibits
Bowen, Eli
Bowery Amphitheater
Bradley, Oscar
Brady, Mathew
breaking stone on chest
“Brenda Beatty the Bearded Lady.” See Rogers, Bernie
“Brief History of a Celebrated Lady, Namely, Madam Squires, the Bearded Lady” (pitch booklet)
Briggs, Adah
Brill, A. K.: techniques of illusions; techniques of torture acts
Briskey, Andy
Briskey, Elise
Broadbent, Betty
broad tosser
broken glass, walking on. See also glass eating
Bronco Billy
Brouws, Jeffrey T.
Browning, Bill
Browning, Tod
Bruce, J.
Buchinger, Matthew
Buckingham Palace
Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show
building a tip
“Bull Dog Girl.” See Taylor, Bobbie
bullet
bullet-catching trick
bulls
Bump, Mercy Lavinia Warren. See Warren, Lavinia
Bunker twins. See Chang and Eng
Bunkum Entertainment (Ganthony)
Bunnell brothers
Bunyan, Paul
Burchett, George
Burgh, Emma de
Burgh, Frank de
Burkhart, Dennis
Burkhart, Jane
Burkhart, Melvin “Burning of She” banner. See also cremation illusion
Butler, Roland
Byrne, Charlie
Byzantine Empire, medieval fairs in
Cabri, Jean Baptiste
Caldwell, G. M.
Cales, Richard
“Calf with 4 Legs & 6 Feet,”
California Pacific Exposition, San Diego
Callahan, Captain
camels Canada AM (CTV show)
Canadian National Exhibition (CNE); in; all-animal sideshow; Bonnie and Clyde, auto of; Cardiff giant at; El Hoppo the Living Frog Boy; gaffed human pincushion; girl in the goldfish bowl illusion; gorilla girl illusion; inside a ten-in-one; mitt camps at; and Sasquatch; Siamese twins at
Canadian National Exposition. See Canadian National Exhibition (CNE)
candy; “barber poles,”; caramel apples; cotton candy; Jessop's Butterscotch Corn; popcorn; taffy
candy butchers
Canton Carnival Company
Capone, Al, car of
Captain Billy
capybara. See also “Giant Rat” show
caramel apples
“Cardiff Giant—10 ft. 4 ins.,”
Cardiff giant hoax
Carl Sedlmayr's Royal American Shows
Carlson sisters
“Carl the Frog Boy.” See Norwood, Carl
carnies
Carnival Diablo
Carnival Knowledge (off-Broadway show)
carnival language
carnival midway. See midway
carnivals; agricultural fairs; arcade in; business of; vs. circuses; contemporary popular interest in; current state of; games; hazards of traveling; “independent midway” at; independent owners of shows within; language of; medieval fairs evolving into entertainment fairs; as midway; rides and amusements; street fairs; traveling aspects of; traveling by railroad; traveling by truck; traveling shows. See also circuses; sideshows
Caron, Bruce
carousels; jumping-horse merry-go-round; turned by one flea
Carson, Rex “Americo,”
Cassillis, Miss
Castello, Dan
Caterpillar Man. See Randian, Prince
Caterpillar (ride)
cat rack
“Centennial Portrait Gallery.” See Constentenus, George
Center for Inquiry (Amherst, N.Y.)
Century of Progress World's Fair. See Chicago Century of Progress World's Fair (1933-34)
Chabert, Ivan
Chained for Life (1951)
chalk. See plaster
Chandler, Gary
Chang and Eng
“Changling Child,”
Chang Yu Sing
chariot racing; with fleas
Charles I, King
Charles the Fat
Charlie's Angels (TV show): “Circus of Fear,”
Chartier, George
Chevalier, Lorraine
Chevalier acrobatic family
Chicago, Riverside Park
Chicago Century of Progress World's Fair (1933-34): African Village; “Real Two-Headed Baby” show at; “Ripley's Believe It or Not,”
Chicago dime museums
Chicago Midway Plaisance Amusement Company
Chicago Museum
Chicago World's Fair (1893). See World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago 1983)
“Child Esau.” See Jones, Annie
chimps
Chinese Crested dog. See “Hairless Dog”
“Chinese fire trick,”
Ching Ling Foo
Christ, Chris; and decline of sideshows; and knife throwing
Christiani Brothers Circus Sideshow & Wild Animal Annex
Christopher, Milbourne
Chulkhurst, Mary and Eliza
“Chung Ling Soo.” See Robinson, William Ellsworth
Cicero
“Cigarette Fiend,”
Circassian beauties; Hannum, Zuruby; Luti, Zoberdie; Meleke, Zoe; “Mlle. Ivy,”; Pacha, Azela; snake charmers; “Zalumma Agra, ‘Star of the East’,”; Zanobia, Zana; z-dominated names of; Zeleke, Zula; Zobedia, Zoe; Zoledod; Zribeda; Zulu, Millie
Circus Caligulas
circuses: beginnings of modern; vs. carnivals; carnivals, as rivals to; first traveling; and menageries, tricks vs. educational; midway, location of in; midway influencing; origins of term; rivals to, late nineteenth century; Roman era, ancient; sideshows, beginnings of at; three-ring circus. See also carnivals; individual circuses and sideshows; sideshows
Circus (Granfield)
Circus Maximus
Circus Report
Circus World Museum (Baraboo, Wisc.)
Cirque Olympique
“Clahuchu and his Bride” shrunken mummies
Clarence Wortham Shows
Clark, Margurete (or Margaret)
Claude Bentley's Freak Circus
Claudette, Claude. See also Clark, Margurete (or Margaret)
Clever Hans (horse)
Clifford, Edith
Clifton Hill (Niagara Falls)
Cliquot, Chevalier
Clofullia, Josephine
clowns; dwarfs as; Ringling Brothers Clown College
Clyde Beatty circus
coatimundi
Cody, William F. “Buffalo Bill,”
Coffey, J. W.
“Coffin Blade Box” illusion; “Leona the Girl of Mystery,”; Madame Twisto in; Twistina in
Cole, Bill
Collins, Bob
“Colonel Stodare.” See Inglis, Alfred
Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star (TV, 1991)
commedia dell'arte (comedy of art)
“Commodore Nutt.” See Nutt, George Washington Morrison
concessions; candy; cotton candy; full meals; in history; lemonade; pitch concessions; popcorn; soft drinks, first; toys; at World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago, 1893)
Conchita (snake-charmer)
Coney Island; anatomical wonder at; Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show at; Dreamland Circus sideshow; Dreamland Park; “Freak Show,”; Houdini at; Jordan, Otis (“Otis the Frog Boy”) at; Lionel the Lion-Faced Man at; menageries at; roller coasters at; sideshows, permanence of at; Sideshows by the Seashore; snake charmers; Wrestling Fat Girls at
Coney Island Sideshow School
Congress of Freaks sideshow
conjoined twins. See Siamese twins
conjurers. See magicians
conjuring tricks. See illusion shows
Conklin, Frank
Conklin, George
Conklin, J. W. “Patty,”; midway of
Conklin, Pete
Conklin & Garrett Shows
“Connecticut midget,”
Conroy Brothers Circus
Considine, Bob
Constentenus, George
Consul (chimp)
contortionists; in ancient China; at Bartholomew Fair (London); Chevalier, Lorraine; Duggan, Francis X. (“Bobo the Rubber Man”); fat ladies as; Great Zella, The; Jones, Lucy Elvira; Knotella; Leonora
cooch shows
cookhouse, as carnival institution
Corbin, Myrtle
Cotter, Patrick (O’Brien)
Cottin, Angelique
cotton candy
Couillard, Lynne. See “Pele the Fire Goddess”
count store
Coup, William Cameron
cows
Craft Big Shows
“Crazy Mixed-Up Mystery Animal.” See coatimundi
created oddities; from accidents; blue-skinned man; Callahan, Captain; Circassian beauties; Cole, Bill; gaffed acts; gaffed half and halfs; gaffed oddities; “Genuine Monster-Mouthed Ubangi Savages” (lip enlargement); human marvels; long-necked women; McGreggor, Harry; pierced people; strongmen; tattooed people; Walters, Fred
cremation illusion
Cridland, Tim
crime cars “Crime ne Paye Pas, Le” (Crime Doesn't Pay) show
Cronin, J. L.
“Cross Escape” illusion
Crown and Anchor wheel of fortune
crucifixion act
Cucciani (flea “trainer”)
curios; of Barnum, P. T.; “Big Cleo, World's Tallest Girl” mummy; bogus creatures; Booth, John Wilkes, reputed mummy of; Cardiff giant; crime cars; crime shows; “devil baby” exhibits; extraterrestrial corpses; frozen animals; “Little Irvy” frozen whale; McCurdy, Elmer, mummy of; miscellaneous; mummies; O’Day, Marie, mummy of; pickled exhibits; shrunken heads; taxidermy, products of; wax figures of Nazi leaders
Currier and Ives
Curtis, Slim
Cushing, Joseph
cutis hyperelastica
cutting up jackpots
Cyclops
Dailey Brothers Circus; Museum, sideshow banner lines
daily nut
“Daisy Mae the 2 Headed Cow,”
Dan Castello Show
dancing rooster
Dan Rice's circus
date
Davies, Glen C.
Davies, John
Davis, Earl
Davis, Jefferson, statue of
Davis, Ruth
Davis, Hiram and Barney
Dawes, Edwin A.
Dean, Shari. See also Clark, Margurete (or Margaret)
DeBurke, Randy
“Decapitated Princess,”
Decker, Charles
Dedi
Deford, Frank
DeKreko, Jean
Delair, Louis Claude. See Norton, Mac
Delait, Clementine
Dell & Travers Carnival
Demon of Doom, The, illusion show
Deodota
Deremer, Tim
Devere, Jane
“Devil Child,”
devilfish, as mermaids
“Devil Man,”
Dexter, Will
“Diablo the Human Volcano.” See Horne, Marcel
Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Diamond Tooth Gertie's casino (Dawson City, Yukon Territory)
Dick Best's sideshow
Dickie the Penguin Boy
Dillinger, John
“Dillinger's Bullet Proof Limousine,”
dime museums. See also Hubert's Museum
Dime Pitch (game)
ding. See aftercatch
Dirks, Henry
Discoverie of Witchcraft, The (Scot)
Djita the “Tattooed Oriental Beauty,”
Doc Swami
Dodson's World Fair Show
Doerflinger, William
dogs
Doll, Harry
Donahue, Ginger. See Ginger the Snake Charmer
Donovan, William
Doolin, Bill
Dorson, Richard
Doto, Christine
“double-bodied cows,”
“Double-Bodied Girl.” See Williams, Betty Lou
“Double-Bodied Half Woman, Half Man.” See Josephine-Joseph
Dreamland Circus Side Show (Coney Island)
Drimmer, Frederick; and armless/legless wonders; and dwarfs; and fat people; and “freaks,”; and giants; and hirsute people; and living skeletons; and midgets; and “one-and-a-halfs,”; and Siamese twins
“Driving a Spike in your Head” instructions. See also human blockheads
Dufour, Lou; and anatomical wonders; and created oddities; and illusion shows; and pickled exhibits
Dufour and Rogers shows; “Crime ne Paye Pas, Le” (Crime Doesn't Pay) show; Fakertorium; “Life Museum,”; “Real Two- Headed Baby” show
Duggan, Francis
Duggan, George
Dundee, Daren
Durks, Mildred
Durks, William (Bill)
dwarfism
dwarfs; Akers, Carrie; causes of; Davis, Hiram and Barney (Waino and Plutano); Farrell, Owen (Irish Dwarf); as fat ladies; in folklore; in history; hunchback; Johnson, William Henry; Khnumhotou; Lolkes, Wybrand; lower size limit of; vs. midgets; Newman, Glen; Norwood, Carl; Poobah the Fire-eating Dwarf (Pete Terhurne); tattooed; Taylor, Billy; Taylor, Bobbie; wintering at Gibsonton, Fla.
Eagle, Nathan T. “Nate,”
Earle, Jack
Early, Andrea
Easler (human pincushion)
Easter, Curly
Eck, Johnny
ectrosyndactyly
“Eddie Masher.” See Hagner, Edward C.
Eddie the Blockhead
Edison, Thomas
“Edison's Animated Pictures,”
“Edna Blanché Snake Charmer” banner
Edward, Mark
“Eeka and Giant Snakes” banner
Eeka “wild woman act,”
“Egress, The,”
Egypt, ancient: acrobatics in; dwarf from; human pincushions; magicians from; menageries; sword swallowing in; tattooing
Egyptian Hall, London
Ehlers-Danlos syndrome
Ehrlich, Jacob. See Earle, Jack
Eiffel Tower
Eisenmann, Charles
Eko and Iko
Elam, James and Henry
Electra. See electric marvels
electric chair act
“Electric Chair Lady” banner
“Electric Chair—Sparks Shoot from Her Fingers” instructions
“Electric Girl.” See Cottin, Angelique
“Electricia” banner
electric marvels; Cottin, Angelique; “Crime ne Paye Pas, Le” (Crime Doesn't Pay) show; electric chair act; force deflection; Hurst, Lulu, “Georgia Magnet,”; Madame Electra; Woolsey, Floyd
electric tattooing machine
Elephant Man. See also Merrick, Joseph
elephants; Jolly; Jumbo; stuffed; white
El Hoppo the Living Frog Boy
Eli Bridge Company
Elkins, Jack
Elks, Order of
Elliott, Richard
“Enigma, The.” See Lawrence, Paul
“enormous pigs,”
Erie County Fair (New York); “alien bodies” at; Ferris wheel at; Museum of World Oddities
Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth, The (Bates)
Eunus
exaggerations of attractions; in banners; fat people; giants; midgets; “one-and-a-halfs,”
Exposition Circuit Company
Exposition Internationale (Brussels, Belgium, 1935)
extraterrestrial corpses; toys of
“eye-poppers,”
fairs. See agricultural fairs; carnivals; individual fairs; midway; sideshows; ten-in-ones
Fakertorium
Fallon, Charlie
Famous Lilliputian Company
Fantastic Freaks (Parker)
Farrell, Owen
Farson, Daniel
“Fashion Reflections” living head illusion
Fat Alice from Dallas
Father of the Modern Circus. See Astley, Philip
Fatima (girl show performer)
Fatima the Hoochie-Coochie Bear
fat people; Akers, Carrie; Baby Ruth; Battersby, Hannah; Briggs, Adah; Carlson sisters (Wrestling Fat Girls); causes of; Fat Alice from Dallas; fat children; fat ladies, as traditional feature; fat ladies, banners of; Happy Jack; Happy Jenny; Highland Fat (Mammoth) Boys; in history; Hughes, Robert Earl; James, R. J. (Ohio Fat Boy); Jlona; Jolly Dixie; Jolly Dolly; Jolly Irene; Lambert, Daniel; and living skeleton marriages; Mack, Vantile; Maitland, Ida; McCrary, Billy and Benny; Minnoch, Jon Brower; Miss Peggy; Powers, Adelaide; Ruth the Acrobat; Smith, Bunny; Snowden, Bruce (Harold Huge); “Sweet Marie,”; tattooed; Tiny Brown; Tom Ton; Washington, Mrs. Percy Pearl; working the blowoff
Fawkes, Isaac
Fay, Eva
Fejee Mermaid; “Fijii mermaid,”; techniques for producing
Fellman, Sanndi
Fell's Waxworks
“Female Esau.” See Gilbert, Grace
female impersonators
“Femme Panthère” (Panther Woman). See Loustau, Irma
Fernandez, Jose
Ferrari Brothers, Joseph and Francis. See also Bostock-Ferrari Midway Carnival Company
Ferris, George
Ferris wheels; Big Eli Wheel; the first, at World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago (1893)
fetuses
Fiedler, Leslie; and armless/legless wonders; and dwarfs; and fat people; and “freaks,”; and giants; and Siamese twins
“Find the Lady.” See three-card-monte
Fire Breather, The (Nickell)
“Fire Eater” banner
fire eating; Alberto, Carlo; in ancient times; Briskey, Andy; Cassillis, Miss; Chabert, Ivan (oven trick); “Chinese fire trick,”; Ching Ling Foo; “Chung Ling Soo” (William Ellsworth Robinson); Cridland, Tim; Doc Swami; equipment/techniques/stunts; Eunus; females; fire breathing; Giardella, Signora Josephine; Hall, Ward; in history; Horne, Marcel, “Diablo the Human Volcano,”; Hymen, Slimenstra, fire breather; Lulling, Freddy; Mannix, Daniel P.; Mayfield, Dr.; Meah, Johnny; O’Satyrdae, James; “Pele the Fire Goddess,”; Poobah the Fire-eating Dwarf; Powell, Robert; Reynolds, Bobby; Richardson; Rose, Jim; safety procedures; Smith, Harry; tattooed people; teaching of; tricks (oven trick); tricks with; Unchs, Bill “The Baron,”
Fire Eating: A Manual of Instruction (Garth)
“Fire King.” See Chabert, Ivan
fire on the tongue (fire eating trick)
“Fireproof Female.” See Giardella, Signora Josephine
Firestone, Harvey
fire walking; Woo Foo
first of May carnies
“fish boy.” See Bernadin (“fish boy”)
FitzGerald, William G.
five-in-one
fixer
“Flaming Mamie.” See cremation illusion
“Flatfoots,” the
flat games
flea circuses; “Acme Miniature Flea Circus,”; Bertolotto, L.; Cucciani (flea “trainer”); Dundee, Daren; flea training; gaffed; Garneau, Mimi; Gertsacov, “Prof.” A. G.; Heckler, “Professor” Roy; Heckler, William; in history; Jacobs, S.; “Original Cirque des Puces” (Original Flea Circus); Pulex irritans (human flea); Scaliot, Mark; Siphonaptera
Flip the Frog Boy
floating lady; “Levitation Asrah,”
Floating Palace circus
Florus
floss candy (floss). See cotton candy
Flying Ebola Brothers
force deflection. See also electric marvels
Ford, Henry
Forepaugh, Adam
Forepaugh Circus
Forepaugh-Sells Brothers Circus
fortune-tellers; banners for; Madame Roberta; mitt camp; palmistry; techniques
fossils
“Four Horn Sheep,”
“Four-legged Woman from Texas.” See Corbin, Myrtle
four-way joints
framed
France, medieval entertainers
Franconi, Antonio
Frankenstein (Shelley)
Frankestein [sic], Dr.
Frank West Wonder Shows
“Freakatorium” sideshow museum
freaks; as carny term; controversy over use of word; euphemisms for; fat people as; in history; as lecturers; “‘made’ freaks,”; the movie Freaks (1932); and Ripley, Robert; the true freak; types of sideshow. See also animal freaks; Congress of Freaks sideshow; dwarfs; fat people; giants; human oddities; midgets
“Freaks” banner
Freaks (Fiedler)
freak show; freak baby shows. See also ten-in-ones
Freak Show (Bogdan)
Freak Show Man: The Autobiography of Harry Lewiston (Holtman)
“Freaks of Nature and Pet Zoo” sideshow
Freaks (1932)
Frederick I, King, of Prussia
“French Giant,”
Frierson, Mark
Fritz, Delmo
“frog boys,”; Davis, Earl; El Hoppo the Living Frog Boy; Flip the Frog Boy; “frog girl show,”; Jordan, Otis (“Otis the Frog Boy”); Major John the Frog Boy; Norwood, Carl; Parks, Samuel D. (“Hopp the Frog Boy”)
front end of midway
Fulkerson, Lorett
Fulton, Scott
Furella, Jean
Gabriel, Mademoiselle
gaffed acts; flea circuses; with glass eating; human pincushion; iron tongue act; knife throwing; vs. magic; strongmen; swallowing objects; swords, climbing a ladder of; “wild man” or “wild woman” act
gaffed oddities; “alligator” people; bearded ladies; “Brenda Beatty the Bearded Lady” (Bernie Rogers); Clark, Margurete (or Margaret); “devil baby” exhibits; extraterrestrial corpses; fetuses; giants; “Gorilla Girl,”; half and halfs; hybrid animals; Josephine-Joseph; Koo-Koo the Bird Girl; Lionella the Lion-Faced Girl; mummies; Murphy, Frances; Sasquatch/Bigfoot; shrunken heads; Siamese twins/”one-and-a-halfs,”; “Three-Eyed Man”/”Man with Three Eyes,”; “Two-Headed Mexican” (Pasquel Pinon). See also mermaids
gaffs: with games. See also bogus creatures; gaffed acts; gaffed oddities; hoaxes
Galyon, Wesley
Galyon, Ronnie and Donnie
games: Bottle Roll; “buyer beware,”; cat rack; Dime Pitch; prizes; shell game; Sunday school show; three-card-monte; types; wheel of fortune. See also rides and amusements
games of chance
games of skill
Ganthony, Robert
Gardner, Dick; and fire-eaters; and phenomenal ingesters; and sword swal-lowers
Garey, Malcolm
Garneau, Mimi
Garrett, “Speed,”
Garth, Benjamin
Gaskill, Frank W.
geek. See “wild man” or “wild woman” acts
“General Tom Thumb,”. See also Stratton, Charles Sherwood
“General Tom Thumb Company,”
“Genuine Monster-Mouthed Ubangi Savages,”
George, David E.
“Georgia Magnet.” See Hurst, Lulu
Gertsacov, “Prof.” A. G.
Ghost Mansion
Ghost Ride
“Giant Alligator,”
Giant Flesh-Eating Frogs
Giant of Letcher County. See Bates, Martin Van Buren
“Giant Rat” show,
giants; Arabian Giant (Colonel Routh Goshen); babies born of; Ballard, Dave (Texas Giant); banners for; at Barnum's American Museum; Bates, Martin Van Buren; Belgian Giant (aka the French Giant, E. Bihin); Bunyan, Paul; Byrne, Charlie (Irish Giant); Cardiff giant hoax; Chang Yu Sing; Collins, Bob; Cotter, Patrick (O’Brien); Cyclops; Earle, Jack (Texas Giant); exaggeration of height; in “fakelore” and folklore; first in sideshow; “French Giant,”; gaffed; giantesses; gigantism; Goliath; hats and headdresses; in history; Jolly Green Giant; Mariedl (giantess); and midgets; “Monstrous Tartar,”; Nimrod; Orr, Noah (Ohio giant); Parsons, Walter; Petursson, Johann K. (Icelandic Giant); Reeder, Tyrone; Sasquatch/Bigfoot; in silent movies; skeletons of; Swan, Anna; Tarver, J. G., “Texas Giant,”; Tomaini, Al; upper height limit; Wadlow, Robert; Zimmerman
“Giant Snake eating Frog,”
Giant's Tourist Camp (Gibsonton, Fla.)
Giardella, Signora Josephine
Gibbon, Edward
Gibbons, Sam
Gibson, Edward H.
Gibson, Walter B.; and fire-eaters; and games; and human pincushion; and magic; and sword swallowers; and sword walking
Gibsonton, Fla.
Gibtown. See Gibsonton, Fla.
Gies, Frances
Gies, Joseph
“Gigantic Moa,”
gigantism. See also giants
Gilbert, Grace
Gilbert, Steve
Gilbert, W. S.
Ginger the Snake Charmer
girl in the goldfish bowl illusion; “Myrna the Mermaid: The Little Girl in the Goldfish Bowl,”; techniques
“Girl in the Swing” illusion
“Girl's Head in Goldfish Bowl” illusion instruction
girl shows
“Girl with Four Legs and Three Arms,”
glass eating; Leikind, Bernard; Narishingha Swami; Owen, Paul. See also broken glass, walking on
Globe Tavern (London)
“Glomming Geeks,” laws against in Kansas
“Goat without Ears,”
Golden Age of the Circus (Loxton)
Golden Chariot carousel
Goldin, Horace
Goliath
Gomez, Danny and Larry
Gooding's Million-Dollar Midways
Goodman, Dr.
Goodman Wonder Shows
gorgio
Gorhen, Amos and Charles
“Gorilla Girl.” See Adams, Carrie
gorilla girl illusion; Atasha the Gorilla Girl; Pepper's Ghost illusion; Zahara; Zambora the Gorilla Girl
Goshen, Routh. See Arabian Giant
Gould, George M.
“Grand Triple Equestrian and Hippodrome Exposition,”
Granfield, Linda
Grantham, Thomas
“Graveyard Scavengers.” See turkey buzzards
“Great African Wonder, the Fire King.” See Alberto, Carlo
“Greatest Show on Earth, The,”; menagerie of; sideshows at
Great Illusions of Magic, The (Wels)
“Great Living Whale,”
“Great Omi, the Zebra Man. See Ridler, Horace
Great Orient Family Circus
Great Patterson Shows
“Great Waldo.” See Rochmann, Dagomarr
Great Zella, The
Greece, ancient
Gregor, Jan T.
Gresham, William Lindsay; and banners; and created oddities; and dwarfs; dwarfs vs. midgets; and fortune-tellers; and freaks; and geeks; and giants; and human pincushion; and knife throwing; and midgets; and snakes; and sword swallowers; and ten-in-ones
grifter
grind
grinders
grind show; contemporary; exotic animal exhibits; freak creatures; girl in the goldfish bowl illusion; headless girl illusion; Lionella the Lion-Faced Girl; “Mystery Museum” grind show; pickled exhibits
Grind Show: Weirdness as Entertainment (Ray)
Guavaween Festival, Florida
Guinness Book of Records, The
Guinness Book of World Records; human pincushion; thinnest adults
Gyngell, Monsieur
gypsies
Haag, Carl
Hagenbeck, Karl
Hagenbeck, William
Hagenbeck & Wallace Circus; Flip the Frog Boy at sideshow of
Hagenbeck's Wild Animal Show
Hagner, Edward C.
“Hairless Dog,”
half and halfs; Josephine-Joseph; “Roberta-Robert/Hermaphrodite,”; techniques of gaffing
Halfpenny Hatch, London
“Half Woman-Half Man.” See Josephine-Joseph
Hall, Ward; and “alligator” people; and banners; and contortionists; and decline of sideshows; and dwarfs; and “eye-poppers,”; and fat people; as fire eater; and flea circuses; and “frog girl show,”; and giants; and knife throwing; and living skeleton; and microcephalics; and “one-and-a-halfs,”; and Percilla the Monkey Girl and Emmitt Bejano; and Siamese twins; and sword swallowers; and ten-in-ones; turning the tip; and “Two-Faced Man,”; two-headed girl illusion
Hall & Christ Show; “Carl the Frog Boy,”; devilfish, as mermaids; fat people; giants; iron tongue act; and pickled exhibits; snake charmers; “snake girl” illusion; swords, climbing a ladder of; tattooed people; and ten-in-ones; two-headed girl illusion; Wondercade (illusion show); World of Wonders sideshow
Hall & Leonard's (Hall & Christ's) Pigmy Village sideshow
Hallworth, Joseph B.
Hallworth, Kitty (Fisher)
Hammer, Carl
Hammerl Amusements (Clarence, N.Y.)
hanky panky
Hannum, Zuruby
Happy Jack
Happy Jenny
Happyland's Big Circus Sideshow
Harlem Amusement Palace
Harlequin
Harold Huge. See Snowden, Bruce
Harris, Neil
Hartel, Karsten
Hartt, Rollin
Hatasu, Empress
Hatshepsut, Queen
Hay, Henry
Hayes, Ed
“Headless Bikini Girl,”
“Headless Girl,”
headless people; “Headless Girl,”; “Hollywood Starlet Decapitated,”; Olga (headless girl); “Where Does the Head Go?” illusion
“Headless Woman—Still Alive, The”
heads, restoring severed. See also living heads illusion
Healey, John
Heckler, “Professor” Roy
Heckler, William
Heineman, Egon “Dutch,”
Hemmings, Cooper, and Whitby Circus
Hennen, Peter
Henry I, King
“‘Hercules’ the Giant Horse,”
Hermann, Joe
hermaphrodites. See also half and halfs
Herodotus
Hershey, Dorothy
Hertz, Carl
Heth, Joice
Hibben, Gil
Highland Fat (Mammoth) Boys
high pitchman
Higley, Doug
Hill, Bruce
Hilton, Mary
Hilton, Daisy and Violet
“Hindu Magician” banner
hirsute women and men: bearded ladies; Gomez, Danny and Larry, “Wolf Boys,”; “Ivanovitch, the hairy man,”; Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Boy; Lionel the Lion-Faced Man; Sacred Hairy Family of Burmah; Seven Sutherland Sisters; Tirko the Monkey Boy
hirsutism
History of the Flea, The (Bertolotto)
Hix, John
hoaxes: Cardiff giant; Ostrich Farm, Midway Plaisance. See also gaffs
Hoffmann, Professor
Holbrook, Stewart H.
“Hollywood Starlet Decapitated,”
Hollywood wax museum
Holmes, Oliver Wendell
Holt, F. G.
Holtman, Jerry
Homer
Hoomio and Iola. See Wild Australian Children (Hoomio and Iola)
“hootchy-kootchy” dance
“Hop-Frog” (Poe)
Hopkins, Albert A.
“Hopp the Frog Boy.” See Parks, Samuel D.
“Hoppy the Frog Boy.” See Davis, Earl
Horne, Marcel
“Horrors of Drug Abuse!” show
horses: acts; freaks
horse, with long mane and tail
Houdini, Harry; career; and frog swal-lowers; and Robert-Houdin; and sword swallowers; and tradition of escape artist
Houdini Magical Hall of Fame (Niagara Falls, Ontario)
House of Thoth
Hubbard, R. H. “Sheets,”
Hubert's Museum; flea circus at
Hudibras (Butler)
“Huey the Pretzel Man” banner
Hugard, Jean
Huge, Harold. See Snowden, Bruce
Hughes, Charles
Hughes, Robert Earl
Hull, George
“Human Aquarium.” See Norton, Mac
“Human Autograph Album.” See Hyland, Dick
human blockheads; Burkhart, Melvin; Doc Swami; Eddie the Blockhead; Fernandez, Jose; Kongee, “Professor” Leo; Meah, Johnny; Newman, Harry Glenn, Jr.; Phillips, Ellis; Robbins, Todd; techniques/stunts
“Human Butterfly” banner
“human butterfly” illusion
“Human Cigarette Factory.” See Jordan, Otis (“Otis the Frog Boy”)
human fountains; Manfrede, Blaise; Marchand, Floram; Norton, Mac
“Human Living Torso.” See Randian, Prince
human marvels; Hermann, Joe, “Amazing Mister Lifto,”; Hubbard, R. H. “Sheets,”; McGreggor, Harry; Mortado
human oddities: albinos; anatomical wonders; “animal” people; armless/legless wonders; bearded ladies; contortionists; created oddities; Elephant Man (Joseph Merrick); Heth, Joice (161 years old); hirsute women and men; India-rubber people; living skeletons; McDaniels, Grace, “Mule-Faced Woman,”; microcephalics; Siamese twins; Sober Sue (paralyzed facial muscles); special-effects performers; two faced men. See also dwarfs; fat people; freaks; giants; midgets
“Human Ostrich.” See Rochmann, Dagomarr
“Human Owl.” See Laurello, Martin Joe
human pincushions; art of thrusting long needles through arms etc.; causing pulse to fade away; Cridland, Tim; Easler; Frankestein [sic], Dr.; gaffed; Gibson, Edward H.; Krinko; Moffatt, Brent; Phillips, Ellis; “Pin Cushion Man,”
Human Skeleton, The. See Curtis, Slim
human skeletons. See living skeletons
“Human 2-Headed Baby” banner
Hunter, John
Hunterian Museum
Hurd, Samuel
Hurst, Lulu
Hyland, Dick
Hyman, Ray
Hymen, Slimenstra
ice cream; cones, first; on the Midway Plaisance
Icelandic Giant. See Petursson, Johann K.
ichthyosis
“Illusionist” banner
illusion shows; acid-drinking; “black-art” principle; buzz-saw illusion; “Cross Escape,” -; Demon of Doom, The; floating lady; girl in the goldfish bowl; “Girl in the Swing,”; gorilla girl; headless people; in history; “Human Butterfly,”; “Invisible Middle Girl,”; levitation; “Living Half Lady,” -; living heads; magicians; “Maxine the Half Lady,”; in medieval times; “No Middle Myrtle,”; psychic marvels; “Shooting Through a Woman,”; “snake girl” illusion; suspension illusion; “Sword Lady,”; torture box illusions; two-headed girl; water to wine; “Where Does the Head Go?” illusion; Wondercade (Hall & Christ). See also magicians
Indiana State Fair
India-rubber people; Haag, Carl; Lake, Etta; Loose, Arthur; Morris, James; Perez, Thomas Martin; Turner, Gary; Woerhle, Felix
infantile midgets
Ingalls, Clyde
Inglis, Alfred
inside talker
International Independent Showmen's Association
“Invisible Middle Girl” illusion
“Irish Dwarf.” See Farrell, Owen
Irish Giant. See Byrne, Charlie
Irish Giant, “other.” See Cotter, Patrick (O’Brien)
“iron eyelids,”
“Iron Foot Marvel” act. See broken glass, walking on
iron tongue act,
“‘Isha Voodie’/Man without a Middle!” See Carson, Rex “Americo”
Isoha, Saidor A.
Italy, medieval entertainers
“Ivanovitch, the hairy man,”
jackelope
Jacobs, S.
James, R. J.
James I, King
Jamieson, Bill
Janus the Magician
Jay, Ricky; and flea circuses; and freak animals; and phenomenal ingesters; and sword swallowers
J. Bruce, Show Painter (Williamsburg, N.Y.)
Jeftichew, Fedor. See Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Boy
“Jenny Hanivers” (hoax mermaids)
Jerry Mabie show
Jessop, Caroline
Jessop's Butterscotch Corn
Jim Rose Circus Sideshow
J. L. Cronin Shows
Jlona (German fat lady)
“Joe Van Victorina.” See Hallworth, Joseph B.
Johanna the Bear Girl
Johnny J. Jones Show
John O’Brien Circus
John Robinson Circus
John Scudder's American Museum
Johnson, Fred G.; “Albino Girl” banner; “Amazon Snake Charmer” banner; “Dickie the Penguin Boy” banner; “Eeka and Giant Snakes” banner; Eeka banners; “Freak Animals” banners; “Huey the Pretzel Man” banner; “Major John the Frog Boy” banner; “Master of Magic” banner; “Rasmus Nielsen Scandinavian Strong Man” banner; “Royal Family of Strange People: Freaks Past & Present, The” banner; “Waltzing Dogs” banner; “World's Smallest Man” banner
Johnson, Miss (circus equestrian)
Johnson, Randy; and created oddities; and human oddities
Johnson, Richard A.
Johnson, William Henry
joint
Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Boy
Jolly Dixie
Jolly Dolly
Jolly Gaoler of Leicester. See Lambert, Daniel
Jolly Green Giant
Jolly Irene
Jolly the elephant
Jones, Albert
Jones, Annie
Jones, Johnny J.
Jones, Lucy Elvira
jongleurs (jugglers)
Jordan, Otis (“Otis the Frog Boy”)
Josephine (chimp)
Josephine-Joseph
juggling; Indian, in eighteenth-century England; “internal juggling,”; Johnson, Richard A.; in medieval times; Signor Vivalla; in Streets of Cairo shows
“Ju-Ju” tribe (Devil Men)
Jumbo the elephant
jump
Jungle Mother
Juvenal
kangaroo, boxing
Keach, Stacy
Keith Orpheum show
Kelley, T. W. “Slim,”
Kelly, Connie
Kelty, Edward J.
Kentucky State Fair
Kewpie dolls
Keyes, Ralph
Keyser, Wayne N.
Khnumhotou
Khufu (Cheops), court of
Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company
Kickapoo medicines
Kiddie Autos (ride)
kid show
kiester
Kimball, Moses
King & Franklin Circus
“King of Cards.” See Houdini, Harry
Kleber, John E.
knife throwing; Christ, Chris; combined with other acts; gaffed; Hill, Bruce; Leonard, Harry “Leonardo,”; Munroe, Johnny; Pearce (“Mexican Pete”); rotating wheel; special knives for; Stebbings, “Couteau Gene,”; stunts; technique; Trower, John; “Two Leonardos,”
Knotella
Kobolds. See also dwarfs
Kolozsky, Lee and Becky
Kongee, “Professor” Leo
Koo-Koo the Bird Girl
Kortes, Pete and Marie
Kotcher, Kathleen; and anatomical wonders; created oddities; and fire-eaters; and human blockhead; and human oddities; and human pincushion; and illusions; and mummies; and phenomenal ingesters; and pickled exhibits; special-effects performers; and sword swallowers
Krantz, Grover
Krinko
Kunhardt, Philip B., Jr.; and Barnum, P. T.; and Barnum's menagerie; and fat people; and giants; and Houdini; and living skeletons; and Siamese twins; and tattooed people; and “Zip,”
La Belle Irene
Ladd, Cheryl
“Lady Confectioner.” See Jessop, Caroline
“Lady Olga.” See Barnell, Jane
“Lady Patricia.” See Zerm, Patricia
“Lady Victorina.” See Hallworth, Kitty (Fisher)
Lady Wonder (horse)
“Lady Yava, Mentalist,”
“Laff-in-the-Dark” fun house
Lake, Etta
Laloo
La Mancha goat. See “Goat without Ears”
LaMar, Leona
Lambert, Daniel
Landau, Dr.
Langevin, Alfred
Langsdorff, Georg H. von Last Sideshow, The (Schneider)
Las Vegas, performers in
Laurello, Martin Joe
Lauther, Karl
LaVey, Anton
Lawrence, Paul
laydown
layout man. See lot manager
L. B. Lent Equescirriculum
“Learned Pig,”
“Learned Seal,”
Leather, John
lecturer; freaks as own; inside lecturer
Lee's Congress of Wonders
legerdemain; mock flea tricks
Leikind, Bernard
Leland, Charles G.
lemonade; pink
Leno, Jay
Lentini, Francesco A. “Frank,” “Leona LaMar, the Girl with 1,000
Eyes.” See LaMar, Leona Leonard, Harry “Leonardo,” “Leona the Girl of Mystery,”
Leonora “leopard” people; leopard-skin girl; Loustau, Irma
Leo X, Pope
Lesniak, Sandy
Lester, Noel and Phyllis levitation
“Levitation Asrah,”
Lewis, Clarence O.
Lewis, Harry V.
Lewiston, Harry
Liem, Karel
Life in a Medieval City (Gies and Gies)
“Life Museum” (Dufour and Rogers show)
life shows,
“Life Story and Facts of the San Antonio Siamese Twins” (Hilton sisters) lighting cigarette with lit fingers (fire trick)
Lilliputian King
Lincoln, Abraham
Lind, Jenny
Lindbergh, Charles, Kewpie dolls of
line joints
Lionella the Lion-Faced Girl
Lionel the Lion-Faced Man “Lion King, The.” See Amburgh, Isaac Van
Lions, Darleen. See Atasha the Gorilla Girl
lion taming; “Lyon of Barberry,”
Little Egypt (girl show dancer)
“Little Farey Woman,”
“Little Gloria,”
“Little Hairy Girl.” See Percilla the Monkey Girl
“Little Irvy” frozen whale
“Little Lord Leon.” See Terhurne, Norbert “Pete”
“Little Man of Nuremburg.” See Buchinger, Matthew “Living Half Lady” illusion
living heads illusion; “Decapitated Princess,”; at Houdini Magical Hall of Fame, Niagara Falls, Ontario; in Middle Ages; Rusty (performer); Sphinx, The; Spidora illusion; in Syracuse, N.Y. department store window; talking; techniques
living skeletons; Battersby, John; billed as “Cigarette Fiend,”; causes of; Coffey, J. W. (Ohio Skeleton/Skeleton Dude); Curtis, Slim; Hagner, Edward C. (Eddie Masher); Lewis, Harry V. (Shadow Harry); Montarg, Alexander; Reagan, Dolly (Ossified Girl); Robinson, Pete; Seurat, Claude; Shaller, Emma; Shouse, John, the “Stone Man,”; Slim the Shadow of Baltimore; Sprague, Isaac W.; tallest thin person; White, George (Ossified Man)
“Living Three-Horned Bull,”
“Lobster Boy,”. See also Stiles, Grady, Jr.
“Lobster Girl.” See Stiles, Cathy
“Lobster Man.” See Stiles, Grady, Sr. location
Logsdon, Billy. See also Clark, Margurete (or Margaret)
Logsdon, Louise. See also Clark, Margurete (or Margaret)
Lolkes, Wybrand
London Ghost Show
London Zoological Society
Lonecloud, Dr.
Long Shadows, The (Earle)
Loop-O-Plane
Loose, Arthur
lot lice,
lot manager
Loustau, Irma
Love, Bambi and Bunny
Lowe, Raymond
low pitchman
Loxton, Howard
Lucasies family
Lulling, Freddy
Luti, Zoberdie
“Lyon of Barberry,”
Mabie, Jerry
Macgregor, Betty
Mack, Vantile “Madame Bailey, the Girl with a Thousand Eyes,”
Madame Electra
Madame Fortune “Madame Olga.” See Barnell, Jane Madame Roberta
Madame Twisto
Madison Square Garden (New York)
Maelzel, Johann
magicians; banner lines for; Dedi; Fawkes, Isaac; Gibson, Walter B.; Goldin, Horace; Gyngell, Monsieur; Heineman, Egon “Dutch,”; Hertz, Carl; Houdini, Harry; Inglis, Alfred; Janus the Magician; Krinko; Lester, Noel; Lowe, Raymond; McClory, Bill; Penn and Teller; Pinetti; “Prof. of Magic,”; Randi, James “The Amazing,”; Robert-Houdin, Jean Eugene; Roltair, Henry; Selbit, P. T.; Smith, Harry; Taylor, Billy; Teller; Thurston, Howard; Torrini (French conjurer). See also illusion shows
Magic: Stage Illusions, Special Effects and Trick Photography (Hopkins)
Magri, Count Primo
Maitland, Ida
Major John the Frog Boy
“Major John the Frog Boy” banner
Malibu Jack's Hideaway (St. Catherines, Ontario)
Malone, Jerry and Charlotte
“Maltese Fountain.” See Manfrede, Blaise Manfrede, Blaise
Mangels, W. E.
“Man-Monkey.” See Johnson, William Henry
Mannix, Daniel P.; and anatomical wonders; and created oddities; and fire-eating; and human pincushions; and molten lead; and phenomenal ingesters; and special-effects performers; and sword swallowing; and sword walking; the ten-in-one; and whip snapping
“Man of Iron.” See breaking stone on chest
“Man of the Woods, The” banner. See also bears
“Man Who Grows.” See Willard, Clarence E.
“Man Without a Stomach.” See Burkhart,Melvin
“Man with Three Eyes.” See Durks, William (Bill)
“Man with Two Faces.” See Milwin, Robert Maori tattoos
Marchand, Floram
Mariani, John F.
Mariedl (giantess)
mark
Marquesas Islands
Martin sisters
“Master Magician” banner
“Master of Magic” banner
“Maxine the Half Lady” banner
Mayfield, Dr.
Mbuti tribespeople
McCandlish, James
McClory, Bill
McCrary, Billy and Benny
McCurdy, Elmer, mummy of
McDaniels, Grace
McGreggor, Harry
McGrow, Steve
McGuire brothers. See McCrary, Billy and Benny
McKennon, Joe; and carnivals, history of; and concessions; and geeks; and illusion shows; and menageries; and the midway, setting up; and rides and amusements; the ten- in-one
McLane, Fred. See Cliquot, Chevalier
McWhirter, Norris
Meadowlands Fair (New Jersey)
Meah, Johnny, “The Great,”; and “alligator” people; and “alligator” people, gaffed; banners by; and fat people; “Suzy/Nature's Enigma” banner
medicine shows
Meleke, Zoe. See also Circassian beauties menageries; in ancient times; circuses and tricks vs. educational; fire at Baltimore; fire at Barnum's Museum; in history;; as sideshow; snakes at; stuffed animals, as part of; traveling; wild-animal training at. See also animal acts; animal exhibits; animal freaks; animal shows Mencken, H. L.
Mendell the Mentalist, xix mentalists; “Lady Yava, Mentalist,”; LaMar, Leona; Mendell the Mentalist; stunts; techniques; Zancig, Julius
mermaids; devilfish as; Fejee Mermaid; Fijii mermaid; Java Mermaid; “Jenny Hanivers” (hoax mermaids); “Myrna the Mermaid,”; and Reynolds, Bobby; “World's Greatest Fake,”
“merman.” See Bernadin (“fish boy”)
Merrick, Joseph
merry-go-round. See carousels
“Mexican Pete, Master of the Knives.” See Pearce (knife thrower)
Mexican Wild Man. See Stall, George
Meyers, Mrs. (bearded lady)
mice
microcephalics: Aztec Children; Johnson, William Henry; Schlitzie and Athelia; Wild Australian Children (Hoomio and Iola)
microcephaly “Midget and the Monsters, The” snake-charmer show
midgets; Black Prince and his Fairy Queen; “Changling Child,”; “Connecticut midget,”; Decker, Charles; Doll, Harry; vs. dwarfs; exaggeration of smallness; Famous Lilliputian Company; General Grant Jr.; “General Tom Thumb” (Stratton, Charles Sherwood); and giants; hunchback; infantile; Lilliputian King; “Little Farey Woman,”; “Little Gloria,”; Magri, Count Primo; Musters, Pauline; Newman, Harry Glenn; Nutt, George Washington Morrison (Commodore Nutt); Phillips, Calvin; primordial; progerian; Ridley, Estelle (Fanchon Moncare); shown as “fairy children,”; as traditional sideshow attraction; “true,”; types/causes; Warren, Lavinia; Warren, Minnie; Williams, Dotty; “World's Smallest,”; Zercon. See also “frog boys”
Midnight Flesh-Eating Grave Robbers. See armadillos
midway; animal shows on; back end; the bally platform; banner lines on;; beginnings; beginnings of traveling carnival; the blowoff; bogus creatures on; as carnival; concessions; contemporary issues; creating; defined; front end; games; illusion shows on; “independent midway,”; location of, in circus; modern games; modern layout of; psychic marvels on; rides and amusements; right side vs. left side; sideshows; ten-in-ones on; “villages” on. See also carnivals; sideshows; ten-in-ones
Midway Plaisance; concessions; Ferris wheels, smaller at; girl shows,. See also World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago )
“Midway Torture Feats” instructions
“Mignon the Penguin Girl.” See Davis, Ruth
Mikado, The (Gilbert and Sullivan)
Millard and Bulsterbaum Studio
Miller, Pete
Millie-Christine sisters
Milton, John
Milwaukee Summerfest
Milwin, Robert
Minnesota Iceman. See Sasquatch
Minnoch, Jon Brower
Minor, Jason Temujin
Miracle Mongers and Their Methods (Houdini)
mirror houses
mirrors, use of in illusions: acid-drinking; floating lady; girl in the goldfish bowl; glass as, for Pepper's Ghost illusion; for gorilla girl illusion; headless people; “Invisible Middle Girl” illusion; “Living Half Lady” illusion; living heads illusion
Missouri State Fair
Miss Peggy
“Mistakes of Nature, The Boy-fishes.” See Elam, James and Henry
Mister Twister the Magic Clown, xix mitt camp,
“Mlle. Corina, Mind Reader,”
“Mlle. Ivy.” See Circassian beauties
Moffatt, Brent
molten lead, withstanding
Moncare, Fanchon. See Ridley, Estelle
money store
“Monkey Girl.” See Percilla the Monkey Girl
monkeys Monster Midway (Gresham) monstrosities,“Monstrous Tartar,”
Montarg, Alexander
Montero, Sebastian
Montpelier, France, fair (1701)
Moody, Al
Mooney, Julie
Moon Rocket (ride)
Moore, Tamar
Morris, James
Morrison, William
Mortado
“Most Miniscule Show on Earth, The.” See “Acme Miniature Flea Circus”
“Most Tattooed Lady in the World.” See Arizona, Maude
mountebanks
Moxie “nerve medicine,”
“Mr. Stretch.” See Perez, Thomas Martin
“Mule-Faced Woman.” See McDaniels, Grace
mummies; “Big Cleo, World's Tallest Girl” mummy; “Big Sea Horse” mummy; Booth, John Wilkes, reputed mummy of; Canadian prospector; “Clahuchu and his Bride,”; “devil baby” exhibits; Egyptian, tattooed; eight-foot woman; gaffs of; “Gigantic Moa,”; McCurdy, Elmer, mummy of; O’Day, Marie, mummy of; “Two-Headed Patagonian Giant,”. See also Fejee Mermaid
Mundial, Feria
Munito the celebrated dog
Munroe, Johnny
Munroe, Kathy
Munroe, Marilyn
Munsey, Cecil
Murphy, Frances
Murray, Jeff and Sue; “Mystery Museum Show” of
“Museum of Crime” sideshow
Museum of World Oddities
Musters, Pauline
“Myrna the Mermaid: The Little Girl in the Goldfish Bowl,”
“Mystery Museum Show,”
“Mystic Reader” banner
My Very Unusual Friends (Hall)
Narcotic (1933)
Narishingha Swami
Native Americans: and medicine shows, use of in; Mi'kmaq tribe
Nat Reiss Shows
“Nature's Living Tripod” (three-legged sheep)
“Nature's Mistakes” animal freak show
Nebraska State Fair
Nellis, Sanders K. G.
Nelson, Derek; concessions; rides and amusements; and talkers
Nelson, William
Nevello, Millie
New American Museum (Barnum's second)
Newman, Glen
Newman, Harry Glenn
Newman, Harry Glenn, Jr.
Newton, Michael
New York City: and Barnum, P. T.; Barnum & Bailey parade; Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show; circuses, eighteenth-century; circuses, nineteenth-century; Madison Square Garden; Theatre of Natural Curiosity (New York); World's Fair (1939); World's Fair “Strange as It Seems” show (1939); Zoological Institute (New York)
New Zealand
Nichols, Gillies, and Martin
Nickell, Joe; and “alligator” people; and animal freaks; and Atasha the Gorilla Girl; and banners; beds of nails; breaking stone on chest; and curios; European travels; and fire-breather; and “frog boy,”; glass eating; and gypsies; at Houdini Magical Hall of Fame (Niagara Falls, Ontario); and magicians; and mentalist card tricks
Nielsen, Rasmus
Nightmare Alley (Gresham)
Nimrod
Noggins, Oscar “Popeye,” “No Middle Myrtle” banner “No Middle Myrtle” illusion
Norton, Mac
Norwood, Carl
Nu-Pike Amusement Park (Long Beach, Calif.)
Nusbaum, Aaron
nutria. See also “Giant Rat” show Nutt, George Washington Morrison
O’Brien, John
Ocean Wave (ride)
O’Connel, James F.
O’Day, Marie, mummy of
Odditoriums (Ripley's)
Odyssey (Homer)
office
off the nut
O’Henry Tent and Awning Company
Ohio Fat Boy, The. See James, R. J.
Ohio giant. See Orr, Noah
“Ohio Skeleton.” See Coffey, J. W.
Old Plantation Minstrels
Olga (headless girl),
“one-and-a-halfs,”; bogus; cause of; Corbin, Myrtle; exaggerations of; Laloo; Lentini, Francesco A. “Frank,”; Perumal (and Sami); Williams, Betty Lou
“Only Living Half Boy, Nature's Greatest Mistake, The.” See Eck, Johnny
On the Midway (Keyser)
on the nut
On the Old Spanish Trail (1947)
O’Reilly, James
“Original Cirque des Puces” (Original Flea Circus)
Orpheum, Keith
Orr, Noah
Osanbaugh, Mona
O’Satyrdae, James
“Ossified Girl.” See Reagan, Dolly
“Ossified Man.” See White, George
Ostrich Farm,Midway Plaisance
“Otis the Frog Boy.” See Jordan, Otis (“Otis the Frog Boy”)
outside talker
Owen, Paul
Pacha, Azela
Packard, Mary
Padaung people
Palace of Illusions
“Palace of Wonders,”
Palisades Park (N.J.)
Pan American Exposition midway (Buffalo, N.Y.)
Paradise Lost (Milton)
“parasite” twin. See “one-and-a-halfs”
Paris Exposition (1889)
Parker, C. W.
Parker, Mike; and midgets; and Siamese twins
Parks, Samuel D.
Parnell, William
Parsons, Walter
Pawnee Bill Wild West Show
Peabody Museum
Pearce (knife thrower)
“Pele the Fire Goddess,”
Penn and Teller
Pepper, John Henry
Pepper, Pinky. See also Clark, Margurete (or Margaret)
Pepper's Ghost illusion
Percilla the Monkey Girl; and art of human pincushion; and special-effects performers
Perez, Thomas Martin
Perkins, Hannah. See Battersby, Hannah
Perry
“Popeye,”
Perumal
“Peruvian fakir.” See Fernandez, Jose
“Pete the Clown.” See Terhurne, Norbert
“Pete”
Petursson, Johann K.
“Phantom of the Midway.” See Higley, Doug
phenomenal ingesters; Battalia, Francois; Fernandez, Jose; fish/frog swallowing; glass eaters; “Great Waldo” (Dagomarr Rochmann); in history; human fountains; Leikind, Bernard; live mice swallowing; Manfrede, Blaise; Marchand, Floram; Montero, Sebastian; Narishingha Swami; Norton, Mac; Owen, Paul; razor blades; stone eating; toxic substances/objects
Phillips, Calvin
Phillips, Ellis phocomelia
pickled exhibits; bouncers; of Dufour, Lou; fetuses; legalities of;
pickled punks; techniques,two-headed babies pickled punks. See pickled exhibits
pickpockets
Pictorial History of the American Carnival (McKennon)
pierced people; Hermann, Joe, “Amazing Mister Lifto,”; Hubbard, R. H. “Sheets,”; McGreggor, Harry; Mortado; Nielsen, Rasmus; and tattooed people; using pierced penis
Pigmy Village show
pigs
Pinchbeck, Christopher, Sr. “Pin Cushion Man,”
Pinetti
Pinon, Pasquel
pit
pitch card; of armless/legless wonders; of Barnum's midgets; of “living half woman,”; of “one-and-a-halfs,”; of Siamese twins; of snake charmer; of tattooed people
pitch concessions
pitch items; of armless/legless wonders; of bearded ladies; of Circassian beauties; of Corbin, Myrtle; for flea circuses; of “Great Waldo,”; of Siamese twins; of sword swallower; of tattooed people; of “wild man”/”wild woman,”
pitchman, xix
pit shows
Planka, Gertrude
plaster,
platform shows
plush
Poe, Edgar Allen
Polacsek, John
Pontico, Joe
Poobah the Fire-eating Dwarf
Pool, Thomas
popcorn
“Popeye.” See Noggins, Oscar “Popeye”; Perry, “Popeye”
Powell, Robert
Powers, Adelaide
Premanand
prestidigitation. See also magicians
pretzels
primordial midgets
“Princess Nanna,”
“Princess Olga.” See Barnell, Jane
“Princess Pauline.” See Musters, Pauline
privilege (concession)
“Prof. De Lenz, Magician” banner
“Professor, The.” See Shannon, Hug
“Prof. of Magic,”
“Prof. of Magic” banner
progerian midgets
psychic marvels; Fay, Eva; fortune-tellers; “Lady Yava, Mentalist,”; “Leona LaMar, the Girl with 1,000 Eyes,”; “Madame Bailey, the Girl with a Thousand Eyes,”; Mendell the Mentalist; mentalists; “Mlle. Corina, Mind Reader,”; “Mystic Reader,”; Pinetti; “Princess Nanna,”; “second sight” technique; Zancig, Julius
Psychic Secrets Revealed (NBC TV special)
P. T. Barnum: America's Greatest Showman (Kunhardt et al.)
“P. T. Barnum's Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan, Hippodrome & Circus,”; expansion of name. See also “Greatest Show on Earth, The”
“P. T. Barnum's Great Asiatic Caravan, Museum and Menagerie,”
Pulchinella
Pulex irritans (human flea). See also flea circuses
Punch and Judy puppet shows
Purdy, A. J.
Pygmies
Pyle, Walter L.
Pythonia
Quarrelsome Carrie. See Akers, Carrie
Radford, Benjamin
Rafael
Rahere (founder of Bartholomew fair and hospital)
railroads, shows traveling by
Rand, Sally
Randi, James “The Amazing,”
Randian, Prince
“Rasmus Nielsen Scandinavian Strong Man” banner
Ray, Fred Olen; and freak animals; and geeks; and “Giant Rat” show; and headless girl illusion
razor blade eating
Reagan, Dolly
“The Really Real Frog Band! Real Frogs!” banner
Reeder, Tyrone
Reese, Ralph
regurgitation at will
Reiss, Nat
Renn, Hank
Renton, Chuck and Al
Reynolds, Bobby; and “alligator” people; and blade box; the blowoff; Bobby Reynolds's International Circus Sideshow Museum & Gallery; and dancing rooster; and Durks, William (Bill); and extraterrestrial corpses; as fire eater; and flea circuses; as geek; and “Giant Rat” show; and “Gorilla Girl” gaff; and gorilla girl illusion; and human blockhead technique; and Laurello, Martin Joe; and mermaids; and phenomenal ingesters; and pickled exhibits; and shrunken heads; as talker; and tattooed people; and taxidermy, products of; and two-headed girl illusion
Rice, Dan
Richardson (fire-eater)
Richmond Theater (London)
Ricketts, John Bill
Ricketts’ Circus
ride jockeys
rides and amusements; advent of big; automatons; at Bartholomew Fair (London); carousels; Caterpillar; Ferris wheels; Ghost Mansion; Ghost Ride; Kiddie Autos; Loop-O-Plane; mirror houses; Moon Rocket; peep shows; roller coasters; Rollo-plane; Tilt-A-Wheel; Wall of Death; Wave Swinger; waxworks; weight guessing; Whip, the. See also games
Ridler, Horace
Ridley, Estelle
Rinaldo, Tom
Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus; “alligator” people; “Anatomical Wonder” at sideshow of; bearded lady at; the Bejanos at; Congress of Freaks sideshow; contortionists at; dwarfs at; and giants; Johnson, William Henry (microcephalic); Koo-Koo the Bird Girl at sideshow of; and “leopard” people; Lionel the Lion-Faced Man at; and “one-and-a-halfs,”; sideshows at
Ringling Brothers circus; Barnum & Bailey, purchase by; fat ladies; and giants; living skeletons; and “one-and-a-halfs,”; Ringling Brothers Classic & Comic Concert Company; sideshows at
Ringling Brothers Clown College
Ripley, Robert; Odditoriums
“Ripley's Believe It or Not,”; at Chicago Century of Progress fair; compendium; Museum in Hollywood; New York's world's fair; television show
“Ripley's Strange People in Person,”
Robbins, Todd
“Roberta-Robert/Hermaphrodite,”
Robert-Houdin, Jean Eugene
Robinson, John
Robinson, Pete
Robinson, William Ellsworth
Robinson Carnival Company
Rochmann, Dagomarr
Rogers, Bernie
Rogers, Joe
Rogers, Roy
roller coasters; Switchback Gravity Pleasure Railway
Rollo-plane
Roltair, Henry
Roma. See gypsies
Roman era, ancient; circuses of; menageries
Romanies. See gypsies
Rose, Jim. See also Jim Rose Circus Sideshow
Rosen, Dave
Roswell (N.Mex.)
roughies,
round top
Royal American Show
Royal Amphitheatre
Royal Circus
Royal Coburg Theatre
Royal College of Surgeons (London)
“Royal Family of Strange People: Freaks Past & Present, The” banner
“Rubber Face.” See Saylors, J. T.
“Rubber-Skinned Girl.” See Schmidt, Agnes
Rubber-Skinned Man. See Loose, Arthur
rubes
run
Russell, Marguerite
Rusty (living heads illusion performer)
Ruth the Acrobat, banner
Sackett, J. E., museum of
Sacred Hairy Family of Burmah
Sadhus, and beds of nails
St. Clair, Stoney
St. Helen, John
St. Louis World's Fair Expo (1904); Ferris wheel at
Sam Alexander's Sideshow
Samee, Ramo
Sami
Samson. See strongmen
San Francisco Mid-Winter Exposition (1894)
Santos-Dumont, Alberto
Sarah, Princess
Sasquatch
Saylors, J. T.
Scaliot, Mark
Schiffman, Nathaniel
Schlitzie and Athelia
Schmidt, Agnes
Schmidt, Otto; girl shows of
Schneider, Hanspeter
Schultz, Dutch, car of
Science Versus Miracles (Premanand)
Scientific American,
“scientific demonstrations,”
“scientific” Spanish pony
Scot, Reginald
Scudder, John
Seal Brothers Circus
“seal” or “penguin” people: Davis, Ruth; Dickie the Penguin Boy; Sealo the Seal Boy
Sealo the Seal Boy. See also Berent, Stanley
“second sight,”. See also psychic marvels
Secreto, Jim
Secrets of Magic: Ancient and Modern (Gibson)
Sedlmayr, Carl
Selbit, P. T.
Sells-Floto Circus sideshow
Seminole Cough Balsam
Serpentina; “Serpentina” banner
Serrano the Psychic Horse
Seurat, Claude
Seven Sutherland Sisters
Seven Sutherland Sisters Hair Grower
“Shadow Harry.” See Lewis, Harry V.
Shaller, Emma
Shannon, Hugh
sheep; rams
“Sheep with 4 Horns,”
Shelley, Mary
shell game
Shepp, Daniel B.
Shepp, James W.
shills (or shillabers)
Shinto walking on swords (Tsurigi Watari)
Shocked and Amazed (TV show)
shooting galleries
“Shooting Through a Woman” illusion
Shouse, John
Shreveport, Ind., fair at
shrunken heads; gaffed; tribal preparation
Siamese twins; Adolph and Rudolph (bogus); bogus; cause of; Chang and Eng; Chulkhurst, Mary and Eliza; Galyon, Ronnie and Donnie; Hilton, Daisy and Violet; in history; Millie-Christine sisters; the “original,”. See also “one-and-a-halfs
” Sibley, Walter K.
Sideshow Alive: On the Inside (TV show)
Side Show: My Life with Geeks, Freaks & Vagabonds in the Carny Trade (Bone)
sideshows: ancient examples; and Barnum, P. T.; decline of; defined; freak show as quintessential; front; middle ages; on the midway; Museum of World Oddities; as “outside shows” to circuses; and political correctness; showing genitalia; as “sideshows” to “outside shows,”; string show; as temporary shows; types/forms,. See also carnivals; grind show; individual sideshows; midway; single-O
“Side Show Science” (Scientific American)
“Side Show Tricks Explained” (A. B. Enterprises)
sidewall
Siegel, Alan
Siegel, Lee
Simmonds’ disease (hypophyseal cachexia)
Simms Great Shows
single-O; animal freaks; Atasha the Gorilla Girl; as blowoff; exotic animal exhibits; “frog boys,”; future of; gaffed oddities; girl in the goldfish bowl; as grind show; illusion show as; Percilla and Emmitt Bejano owning; pit shows; platform shows; Siamese twins; snakes in
Siphonaptera. See also flea circuses six-legged ram
Six Million Dollar Man, The (TV show)
“Skeleton Dude.” See Coffey, J. W.
“Skeleton Man,”
Skeptical Inquirer
Skinner, Kate
sleight-of-hand tricks
Slim the Shadow of Baltimore
sloughed
slough night
“Slug the Swordswallower.” See Lawrence, Paul
slum
“Smallest Horse, The,”
“Smallest Man in the World.” See Newman, Harry Glenn
Smith, Bunny
Smith, Harry
Smithsonian Institute
Snake Boy
snake charmers; “Amazon Snake Charmer,”; Arnold, Jane and Floyd “Tex,”; Briskey, Elise; Circassian beauties; cobras; Conchita; in the East; “Edna Blanche Snake Charmer,”; “Eeka and Giant Snakes,”; Ginger the Snake Charmer; Isoha, Saidor A.; Love, Bambi and Bunny; “Midget and the Monsters, The” show; Nevello, Millie; Newman, Glen; Pythonia; pythons/boa constrictors,; Serpentina; “Snake Trainer,”; Terhurne, Pete
“Snake Girl” banner
“snake girl” illusion
Snake Man. See Randian, Prince
snake-oil peddlers
************************snakes; biting heads off; wrestling with. See also snake charmers “Snake Trainer” banner
snake-wrestling
Snowden, Bruce
Sober Sue
Sonney, Louis
Sonntag, Ned
Sparks’ Show
special-effects performers: Bradley, Oscar; “eye-poppers,”; eye tricks; Holt, F. G.; Langevin, Alfred; Laurello, Martin Joe; Leather, John; “Man Without a Stomach,”; miscellaneous uses of anatomy; Mundial, Feria; Noggins, Oscar “Popeye,”; Perry, “Popeye,”; revolving head; “rubber neck” effect; Russell, Marguerite; Saylors, J. T.; “two-faced man” feat; Willard, Clarence E.
Spencer, Dave
Sphinx, The. See living heads illusion “spider girl” illusion. See Spidora illusion Spidora illusion; techniques spielers. See grinders Spindler, Konrad
Sprague, Isaac W.
Stall, George
Stebbings, “Couteau Gene,”
Stein, Gordon
Stein, Harvey
“Stella the Bearded Lady.” See Macgregor, Betty
Stencell, Al W.; and animals; and gorilla girl illusion; and illusion shows; and psychic marvels
Stepping Stones (Broadway show)
Step Right Up! (Mannix)
Steve McGrow Carnival
sticks (shills)
Stiles, Cathy
Stiles, Donna
Stiles, Grady, III
Stiles, Grady, Jr.
Stiles, Grady, Sr.
Stiles, Mary Teresa
stock
Stone, Lisa
stone eating
“Stone Man.” See Shouse, John
straitjacket, escaping from
“Strange as It Seems” show, New York World's Fair (1939); human blockhead at; human pincushions at
Strange Eeka “Strange Girls” banner
Strates, James E.
Strates Shows; buzz-saw illusion; Claude Bentley's Freak Circus
Stratton, Charles Sherwood; and Lavinia, courtship and marriage to; pretense of baby of; touring; visit to England. See also “General Tom Thumb”
“Stretch.” See Turner, Gary Stretch, Jack
string show; ten-in-one as type of
strongmen: breaking stone on chest; Fallon, Charlie; gaffed stunts; Nielsen, Rasmus; pierced people; using eyelids to pull weights; using pierced penis
suckers
Sullivan, Arthur
Sunday school show
Sunshine Studio (Witchita, Kans.)
“Surprising Camel, The” banner
Surtees, George
suspension illusion
Sutherland, Fletcher
Sutherland, Naomi. See also Seven Sutherland Sisters
“Suzy/Nature's Enigma” banner
“Suzy the Elephant Skin Girl.” See Vogel, Charlotte “Suzy”
“Svengali” card decks
Swan, Anna
Swan, Thomas
“Swedish Nightingale.” See Lind, Jenny
“Sweet Marie” banner
Swift, Bernice. See Tomaini, Jeanie
Switchback Gravity Pleasure Railway
“Sword Lady” illusion
swords, climbing a ladder of
sword swallowing; accidents with; in ancient times; Clifford, Edith; Cliquot, Chevalier; Deodota; Fritz, Delmo; and “gag reflex,”; Garneau, Mimi; Lawrence, Paul, “Slug the Swordswallower,”; Linton, Alex; Meah, Johnny; in medieval times; pamphlets on; Rafael; real sword swallowing; Robbins, Todd; safety procedures; Samee, Ramo; swallowing neon tubes; techniques/stunts; tricks with razor blades; the “Victorinas,”; Zerm, Patricia
Sydney Exposition ()
Syracuse (N.Y.); Syracuse Fair
taffy
Taggart, S. M.
talkers; Eagle, Nate; Elkins, Jack; Elliott, Richard; exaggerations of attractions; inside talker; Kelley, T. W. “Slim,”; outside talker; Reynolds, Bobby; Smith, Harry; for Spidora illusion; Waters, T. A.
talking horse
Tarver, J. G.
Tate's Curiosity Shop, Phoenix, Ariz.
tattoo artists: Burchett, George; O’Reilly, James; Taylor, Billy; Wagner, Charles “Tattooed Lady.” See Broadbent, Betty tattooed people; Arizona, Maude; Broadbent, Betty; Burgh, Emma de; Burgh, Frank de; Cabri, Jean Baptiste; Captain Billy; Constentenus, George; Djita the “Tattooed Oriental Beauty,”; Fulkerson, Lorett; Furella, Jean; in history; Hyland, Dick; La Belle Irene; Lawrence, Paul, “Enigma, The,”; Nielsen, Rasmus; O’Connel, James F.; and pierced people; Ridler, Horace; Rutherford, John; as snake charmer; tattoed men; tat-toed woman
tattooing; electric tattooing machine; tattoo artists
“Tattoo Queen” See Furella, Jean
taxidermy, products of; elephants; fake creatures of; jackelope; Wolpertinger
Taylor, Billy
Taylor, Bobbie
Taylor, James; and anatomical wonders; and “animal” people; and animals; and carnival, defined; and created oddities; and curios; and fire-eaters; and gaffed acts; and gaffed oddities; and human blockhead; and human oddities; and human pincushion; and illusion shows; and phenomenal ingesters; and special-effects performers; and sword swallowers; the ten-in-one
Tchatcha-em-ankh
teardown
Teller
Temple, Shirley, Kewpie dolls of
Temple of Wonders ten-in-ones; all-animal; bally platform; banner lines; the blowoff; at Coney Island; contemporary; decline of; fortune-tellers as part of; “four-in-one” pit show as forerunner; as freak show; illusion shows; inside; number of acts; the pit; show tent; titles of shows; as type of string show; types of acts
tents; “Barnum's Magic City,”; big top (hippodrome); blowdown; erecting; first traveling circus using; at “Greatest Show on Earth, The,”; grouping of for multiple acts; long, for first ten-in-ones; menageries in; penny arcades; round top; setting up; show tent; sidewalls
Terhurne, Norbert “Pete,”. See also Poobah the Fire-eating Dwarf
Texas Giant. See Ballard, Dave; Earle, Jack; Tarver, J. G.
Texas State Fair
Theatre of Natural Curiosity (New York)
Theodosius
“There's a sucker born every minute,”
the “Satanist.” See LaVey, Anton “thimble rig.” See shell game “This way to the Egress.” See “Egress, The” Thompson, Ann E. Leak
Thompson, C. J. S.; and giants; and Siamese twins
Thompson, La Marcus
three-card-monte
“Three-Eyed Man.” See Durks, William (Bill)
“Three-Legged Wonder.” See Lentini, Francesco A. “Frank” three-ring circus
Thurston, Howard
tightrope walkers
Tilt-A-Whirl
Tim the Human Pincushion. See Cridland, Tim
Tiny Brown tip
Tirko the Monkey Boy
Toby the Sapient Pig
Toddy, Ted
Tomaini, Al
Tomaini, Jeanie
Tom Thumb. See “General Tom Thumb”; Stratton, Charles Sherwood
Tom Ton
Tonight Show with Jay Leno (TV show)
Torrini (French conjurer)
torture box illusions; “Coffin Blade Box” illusion; cremation illusion; “No Middle Myrtle” illusion; sawing a woman in half; “Sword Lady” illusion; “Where Does the Head Go?” illusion
“Torture of India” banner
“Totally Tattooed” banne
Tracking Doctor Lonecloud (Whitehead
trailing (fire-eating trick)
transfer from the tongue (fire-eating trick)
Trenton State Fair (1954)
Treves, Frederick
Tripp, Charles
troupers
trouvéres (troubadours)
Trower, John
Troyes, France
“true” midgets
“Truth or Fiction” (Higley)
Tsurigi Watari
Tunison, Mademoiselle, of Long Island
turkey buzzards
“Turkey Horse,”
Turner, Gary
Turner
Terry
turning the tip,
“Turtle Man.” See Blackwelder, Emmitt “$25,000 Crystal Maze, or Palace of Mirrors,”
Twistina
“Two Curious Birds,”
“Two-Faced Man.” See Durks, William (Bill)
“2-Headed Girl” banner
two-headed girl illusion
“Two-Headed Mexican.” See Pinon, Pasquel
“Two-Headed Nightingale.” See Millie- Christine sisters
“Two-Headed Patagonian Giant,”
two-legged dog
“Two Leonardos.” See Hall, Ward; Leonard, Harry “Leonardo”
two-way joint
UFOs
“Unborn” show
Unchs, Bill “The Baron,”
“unicorns,”
United African Twins. See Millie- Christine sisters
United States Tent and Awning Company
“United Twins.” See Hilton, Daisy and Violet
University of Freiburg
Unzie the Australian Aboriginal Albino, “up and down” ride
Valentine, Henry
Valerius, John
Vampires, Zombies, and Monster Men (Farson)
Very Special People: The Struggles, Love and Triumph of Human Oddities (Drimmer)
vestigial twin. See “one-and-a-halfs” Victoria, Queen
“Victorinas.” See Hallworth, Joseph B.; Hallworth, Kitty (Fisher)
Viking Giant. See Petursson, Johann K.
vitiligo
Vivalla, Signor
Vogel, Charlotte “Suzy,”
Vosin (Parisian magic manufacturer)
“Votre Future” banner
Wadlow, Robert
Wagner, Charles
Waino and Plutano. See Wild Men of Borneo
Waldenburg, Saxony, taxidermic exhibits
walk-through
Wallace, James A. “Fingers,”
Wallace the untameable lion
Wall of Death (ride)
Walters, Fred
“Waltzing Dogs” banner
Wanous Family Show
Warren, J. C.
Warren, Lavinia; pretense of baby of
Warren, Minnie
Washington, Augustine
Washington, George
Washington, Mrs. Percy Pearl
Waters, T. A.
Waukesha Water Company
Wave Swinger (ride)
wax shows,. See alsowaxworks
waxworks
Ways of the Circus, The (G. Conklin)
weekly nut
Weiss, Alan
Weiss, Ehrich. See Houdini, Harry Wels, Byron G.
Welsh Brothers Circus sideshow
Wen (Chinese emperor)
West, Frank
whales
Wharton, John C.
“What Is It?” See Johnson, William Henry
wheel of fortune,xx
“Where Does the Head Go?” illusion
Whip, the (ride)
whip cracking
White, George
“White City,”. See also World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago 1893 )
Whitehead, Ruth Holmes
“White Mountain Giant Steer,”
Wild Australian Children (Hoomio and Iola),
“wild man” or “wild woman” acts; as drug addicts; killing chickens; Mexican Wild Man (George Stall); Strange Eeka; Wild Australian Children (Hoomio and Iola); Wild Men of Borneo; “wild women” acts; Woo Foo; Zoma
Wild Men of Borneo
“Wild West, Rocky Mountain, and Prairie Exhibition.” See Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show
Willard, Clarence E.
Willey, David
William and Mary, King and Queen
Williams, Betty Lou
Williams, Dotty
William the Conqueror
Wilson, Gahan
Wilson, Kenneth “Duke,”
Wing To
Winters, Joann. See Jolly Dolly
Wiseman, Richard
Woerhle, Felix
“Wolf Boys.” See Gomez, Danny and Larry
Wolpertinger
Woman's Building restaurant (Midway Plaisance)
“Wonderful Intelligent Goose,”
Woo Foo
Woolsey, Floyd
“Wooly Child.” See Gilbert, Grace
working acts; anatomical wonders; beds of nails,xxi, breaking stone on chest; broken glass, walking on; electric marvels; gaffed acts; human blockheads; human pincushions; knife throwing; molten lead, withstanding; phenomenal ingesters; snake charmers,xx, swords, climbing a ladder of; sword swallowing,xxi. See also fire eating
“World Famous International Circus Sideshow Museum, The,”
World of Wonders sideshow (Hall & Christ)
World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago 1893); concessions; Ferris wheel for; “Hopp the Frog Boy” at; Houdini at; Midway Plaisance
World's Fair (New York 1939); animal freaks at; Fakertorium at; “Ripley's Believe It or Not,”; “Strange as It Seems” show
“World's Greatest Fake,”
“World's Greatest Mystery Show.” See Demon of Doom, The, illusion show
“World's Largest Horse,”
“World's Largest Pig,”
“World's Most Weird Living Humans from Africa's Darkest Depths.” See “Genuine Monster-Mouthed Ubangi Savages”
“World's Only Living Half Girl.” See Tomaini, Jeanie
“World's Smallest Cow,”
“World's Smallest Horse,”
“World's Smallest Man.” See Norwood, Carl
“World's Smallest Man” banner
“World's Smallest Side Show,”
“World's Smallest Woman,”
“World's Strangest Girls!” banner
“World's Strangest Married Couple.” See Bejano, Emmitt; Percilla the Monkey Girl
World's Tallest Traveling Salesman. See Earle, Jack Wrestling Fat Girls. See Carlson sisters Wright brothers
Wright's Indian Vegetable Pills
Wyant, Christopher
Wyatt, David “Snap,”; African witch doctor banner; “Alligator Girl” banner; “Freaks” banner; “Rubber Skin Man” banner; “Strange Girls” banner; Tirko the Monkey Boy banner; “World's Strangest Girls!” banner
Yankee Robinson Show
“Ye Globe in the ould Baily,”
York, Dennis
York, Pa., fair
Young, Morris N.
Zahara (gorilla girl)
“Zalumma Agra, ‘Star of the East’,”
Zambora the Gorilla Girl
Zamora the Torture King. See Cridland, Tim
Zancig, Julius
Zanobia, Zana
Zeleke, Zula
Zeno the Ape Man
Zercon
Zerm, Patricia
Zimmerman (giant)
“Zip.” See Johnson, William Henry
Zobedia Zoe
“Zoe Meleke: Biographical Sketch of the Circassian Girl,”
Zoledod
Zoma
“Zoma Depraved” banner
“Zoma the Sadist” banner
“zonkey” (half zebra-half donkey)
Zoological Institute (New York)
Zribeda
Zulu, Millie
Zwinge, Randall James Hamilton. See Randi, James “The Amazing”