A
freak show is an exhibition of rarities, "freaks
of nature" — such as unusually tall or short humans, and people
with
both male and female secondary
sexual characteristics or other extraordinary diseases and
conditions — and performances that are expected to be shocking to
the viewers. Heavily
tattooed or
pierced people have sometimes been seen in
freak shows, as have
fire-eating and
sword-swallowing acts.
History
Freak shows were popular in the United States from around 1840 to
the 1970s, and were often, but not always, associated with
circuses and
carnivals. Some shows also exhibited
deformed animals (such as two-headed cows, one-eyed pigs, and
four-horned goats) and famous hoaxes, or simply "science gone
wrong" exhibits (such as deformed babies).
Changes in popular culture and entertainment led to the decline of
the freak show as a form entertainment. As previously mysterious
anomalies were scientifically explained as
genetic mutations or
diseases, freaks became the objects of sympathy
rather than fear or disdain.
Today,
Michigan
law forbids
the "exhibition [of] any deformed human being or human monstrosity,
except as used for scientific purposes". However, in many
states in the USA and in other countries abroad one can still see
freak shows at carnivals and state fairs, in bars and nightclubs,
and on daytime television talk shows.
Historical timeline
The exhibition of human oddities can be seen as far back as
recorded history:
- 1630s: Lazarus Colloredo,
and his parasitic twin brother, John Baptista, who was attached at
Lazarus' sternum, tour Europe.
- 1704–1718: Peter
the Great collects human oddities at the Kunstkammer
in what is now St. Petersburg, Russia.
- 1738: The exhibition of an exhibit who "was taken in a wook at
Guinea; 'tis a female about four feet high in every part like a
woman excepting her head which nearly resembles the ape."
- Late 18th century: The science of teratology changed the belief that freaks were
evil omens and the work of Satan or witches. Instead, people
believed the theory that freaks were part of God's great order of
creatures.
- 1810–1815: Saartjie Baartman
(aka "Hottentot Venus") exhibited in England and
France.
- 1829: Chang and Eng, "the
original Siamese twins", were
exhibited in America.
- 1839: J.G. Milligan writes "curiosities of medical experiments"
in which freaks are described.
- 1844: P. T. Barnum arrives
in London to exhibit Tom Thumb,
the famous midget.
- 1860: Hiram and Barney Davis are presented as Wild Men of Borneo. The guide book for
Barnum American museum list 13 human curiosities. Zip the Pinhead begins his six-decade career
with Barnum.
- 1870–1890: Dime museums are at the
height of their popularity, with the freakshow as the main
attraction.
- 1876: Wild men of Borneo, wild Australian children, man-eating
fiji mermaids, and the woman are
exhibited at the first World's Fair in
Philadelphia.
- 1880:
First freakshow at Coney
Island
.
- 1881: The Conjoined Tocci Twins are exhibited in Vienna, billed
as "The Greatest Wonder of Nature".
- 1884: Freak recruiting becomes a career and full time
occupation.
- 1889: British medical journal describes Myrtle Corbin, the "four-legged girl", and
verifies that both sets of reproductive organs as workable and
capable of birthing children.
- 1890: The Jones twins, Siamese twins joined at buttocks and
sharing a rectum die on carnival tour at fifteen months old.
- 1893: At the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago a woman
with a parasitic twin was shown in a stage show as a result of her
father's abuse of alcohol.
- Late 19th century: The theory that freaks are biological
throwbacks to earlier races of humans and apes is introduced. The
theory of maternal impression
attributes traumatic or significant events experienced by the
pregnant woman as an explanation for deformities.
- Early 20th century: The resurgence of Mendel’s law of genetics coupled with Darwin's Origin of Species introduced the
idea that freaks could "taint the gene pool".
- 1904: Silbey devises the "Ten-In-One"
show and creates jobs for talkers.
- 1908: An article in Scientific
American introduces concept of freak exhibitions being inhumane
and barbaric.
- 1915: San Francisco exposition includes a midget village and
dime museum freakshow.
- 1922: "Professor" Sam Wagner starts the World's Circus freak show at Coney
Island. General public can read articles in popular press
explaining the diseases behind oddities.
- 1925: Freaks can be seen performing on the vaudeville stage.
- 1932: Tod Browning's Pre-Code-era film Freaks tells the
story of a traveling freakshow. The use of real freaks in the film provoked
public outcries and was widely unsuccessful until its re-release at
the 1962 Cannes Film
Festival
.
- 1933:
Chicago
Expo
features a pit show with a "live two-headed baby"
in a jar of formaldehyde.
- 1940: The three-legged man, Frank
Lentini, opens a freakshow.
- 1950: Historical sideshow died as public demands freaks be
given "dignity" and not exhibited, at this time many went into
institutions or on the welfare system.
- 1952: The "Human Torso" is still on exhibit.
- 1960: Albert-Alberta Karas (two
siblings, each half man, half woman) exhibits with Bobby Reynolds
on sideshow tour.
- 1972: At north fair Sealo and the dwarf Pete Terhune confront
charges against them for exhibiting themselves. The charges equated
freakshows with pornography
- 1980s: Bobby Reynolds is arrested for exhibiting pickled punks.
- 1983: Coney Island USA, founded by Dick D. Zigun, opens
Sideshows by the Seashore, starting a sideshow revival in Coney
Island.
- 1984: Freak show performer Otis Jordan (the frog boy) is barred
from exhibiting himself at the New York State Fair on the basis
that the exhibition of human oddities is exploitative. Barbara
Baskin, a "disability rights activist," led this fight and Otis was
out of a job for two years before he beat the case and could
perform again.
- 1992:
Grady Stiles (the lobster boy) is shot
in his home in Gibsonton,
Florida
.
- 1996: Chicago shock-jock Mancow Muller presented Mancow's Freak
Show at the United Center in the Summer of 1996, to crowd of
30,000. The show included Kathy Stiles and her brother Grady III as
the Lobster Twins. {Mancow Muller (with John Calkins) Dad, Dames,
Demons & a Dwarf Regan Books 2004 pp. 121, 137-147}
- 1998: The Brazilian TV show "Ratinho Livre", whose main
performer was Carlos "Ratinho" Massa, became a kind of freak show,
exhibiting mainly children with serious physical anomalies, such as
hundreds of facial tumors (Eleandro, the Elephant Boy), tails,
amputations, et cetera. Later, near 2000, the Brazilian justice
prohibited such appearances on TV shows.
- 2000–2008: Ken Harck's Brothers Grim Sideshow debuted at the
Great Circus Parade in Milwaukee, WI in the summer of 2000. The
Milwaukee run included a fat lady and bearded lady Melinda Maxi, as
well as self made freaks The Enigma and Katzen. In later years the
show has included Half-boy Jesse Stitcher and Jesus "Chuy" Aceves the Mexican Werewolf Boy. Bros.
Grim toured with the Ozz Fest music festival in 2006 and 2007.
- 2005: "999 Eyes Freakshow" founded, touting itself as the "last
genuine traveling freakshow in the United States." 999 Eyes
portrays freaks in a very positive light, insisting that "what is
different is beautiful." Freaks include Black Scorpion.
- 2005: "The King of the Sideshow" Ward Hall continues exhibiting
fairground shows after over 60 years in the business.
Lobster Boy known as the Black
Scorpion.
- 2007: Wayne Schoenfeld bring
together several sideshow performers to "The L.A. Circus Congress
of Freaks and Exotics," to photograph sideshows folks for "Cirque
Du Soleil - Circus of the Past." In attendance were: Bill Quinn,
the halfman; Percilla, the fat lady; Mighty Mike Murga the Mighty
Dwarf; Dieguito El Negrito, a wildman; fireeaters; sword
swallowers, and more.
- 2008:Black Scorpion
joins the cast of Coney Island's Sideshows by the Seashore.
Modern freak shows
The entertainment appeal of the traditional "freak shows" is
arguably echoed in numerous programmes made for television. Thus
Extraordinary
People on
Five or
BodyShock on
Channel 4
show the life of severely disabled or deformed people, and can be
seen as the modern equivalent of the circus freak shows. However in
order to make the shows respectable, the subjects are usually
portrayed as heroic and attention is given to their family and
friends and the way they help them overcome their disabilities. On
The Guardian, Chris Shaw however
comments that "one man's freak show is another man's portrayal of
heroic triumph over medical adversity" and carry on with "call me
prejudiced but I suspect your typical twentysomething watched this
show with their jaw on the floor rather than a tear in their
eye".
Similarly,
Stephen Fry attacked
Channel 4 documentaries such as "The Man With A
Nose Growing Out Of His Bottom" or "The Girl With 14 Nipples"
claiming that "[the channel] was in danger of descending into a
'freak show'."
In media
- Freaks, Tod
Browning's 1932 film, centers on the people in a freak show who
wreak their revenge on the able-bodied circus-performing couple who
exploit them.
- Katherine Dunn's novel Geek Love deals with a family of genetically
engineered circus freaks.
- Freaked, a 1993 comedy film about mutated victims to an amoral
entrepreneur.
- The song Devil
Baby by Mark Knopfler deals
with freaks and freakshows.
- The book Cirque Du
Freak, by Darren Shan.
- Tom Waits' song Table Top Joe is based
on the life of freak show performer Johnny
Eck.
- Twiztid's album Freekshow.
- Silverchair's album Freak Show.
- Britney Spears' song "Freakshow"
from her album Blackout
- Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun, is told from the
standpoint of a wounded WWI soldier who requests to be put in a
freak show to demonstrate the monstrosties of war.
- There is a song called "Freakshow" by the industrial metal band
Dimension f3h.
- John Renshaw had a sports radio show called "The Freak Show" on
810 AM in Kansas City.
- A fanmade video entitled "Dark Woods Circus", created using the
Japanese program Vocaloid, features several
Vocaloid characters as freakshow
performers; namely a straitjacket-wearing cannibal, a 'deformed
diva', and a two-headed person.
- Progressive rock bank Pendragon released a song called "The
Freak Show" in 2009 Pure album
- The 1997 Pittsburgh Pirates were nicknamed "The Freak Show" due
to their ability to compete for the National League Central
Division Title while possessing an unspeakably low, $9 million pay
roll.
- The 6th series of TV show South Park
featured an episode entitled Freak
Strike which commented on the appearance of people with rare
disorders on the talk show Maury.
See also
Read also
- Martin Monestier: Human Freaks, encyclopedic book on the Human
Freaks from the beginning to today. (In French: Les Monstres
humains: Oubliés de Dieu ou chefs-d'œuvres de la nature).
References
External links
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