Clicko circus PHOTO Wild Dancing Bushman BARNUM AND BAILEY AFRICAN FANTASTIC

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Seller: memorabilia111 ✉️ (808) 100%, Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, US, Ships to: US, Item: 176299960764 Clicko circus PHOTO Wild Dancing Bushman BARNUM AND BAILEY AFRICAN FANTASTIC. A FANTASTICALLY RARE PHOTO OF  Clicko: The Wild Dancing Bushman MEASURING 3 1/4 X 5 INCHES . SMALL TEAR MIDDLE LEFT NOT AFFECTING IMAGE Shedding light on the life of Franz Taibosh, aka Clicko, this account describes his early years in South Africa, traces his Korana ancestry, and shows how bushmen from Africa became exhibits in Western show business. Offering in-depth knowledge of this documented star performer in the early 20th century, the book reveals how he danced and yelled on stage as the Wild Dancing Bushman for three decades in music halls, circuses, and freak shows. From misery under a vicious manager to fulfillment as a member of an American show business family, this chronicle of Franz Taibosh's life encounters immortalized showbiz tsars, university anthropologists, and real-life characters such as the original Zip the Pinhead.


Franz Taibosh was billed as Clicko or Clico the wild Dancing South African Bushman. He was of the Khorana people and skilled at traditional Khoisan step dancing. It was said he was found chasing an ostrich through the Kalahari desert. He would sometimes say that he wasn't comfortable going to sleep unless their were chimpanzees around. Clico: The Story of Franz Taaibosch BY MISS CELLANIA JUNE 1, 2015 Misconceptions about World War II In the heyday of the American freak show, some exhibitors tried to pass off certain acts as “educational,” because the people exhibited were from exotic, far-off lands. The educational content was virtually nil, however, as those exhibited were rarely what they were promoted as being. Such is the story of the man known as Clico, the Wild Dancing Bushman. The story went that Clico was chasing an ostrich through the Kalahari Desert when he injured his leg. Captain Paddy Hepston came to his rescue and nursed him back to health, “tamed” him by whipping him every day for six months, and then took him to Europe and made him a star. The truth was a little less dramatic, and a lot more believable. Clico was the stage name of Franz Taaibosch, a member of the Korana people of South Africa who worked as a house servant in Kimberly, South Africa. He was not “wild,” nor was he a Bushman (San), although his unknown mother, who died when he was young, may have been San. That could explain Taaibosch’s short stature (he was reportedly 4’ 3’ tall) while his brothers were much taller. One part of the hype surrounding Taaibosch’s exhibition was true: he was skilled in traditional Khoisan step-dancing. That talent caught Hepston’s eye. Paddy Hepston (or Epstein) had been in South Africa for 15 years and became a farmer after fulfilling his military duties. Hepston decided that he could take Taaibosch on tour and become wealthy as his manager. Taaibosch was probably born around 1870, as he was already middle-aged when Hepston took him to England in 1913. The exotic exhibition of Taaibosch, now called Clico, Clicko, or Klikko because of the clicking sounds of his Khoisan language, dressed in animal skins and dancing a wild African dance, was a big draw in Europe and England. We don’t know how willingly Taaibosch accompanied Hepston; as a house servant, he may have been up for the adventure or he may have been under terrifying duress—or some combination of the two in which he felt he had no choice. However, people in Kent, England, took note of the harsh way Hepston treated Taaibosch, beating him, berating him in Afrikaans, and forbidding him to speak English. The Anti-Slavery and Aborigines’ Protection Society opened an investigation. Reports on Taaibosch’s condition followed, with varying conclusions, some of which were biased by the investigator’s opinion of Clico as a “savage.” After years of wrangling over custody of Taaibosch, during which he performed in Cuba, Hepston eventually left the circus and exhibition business, and Frank Cook became Taaibosch’s guardian. In 1917, the two moved to America. Taaibosch worked in Ringling Brothers’ circus and at Dreamland in Coney Island in the 1920s and ’30s. He learned English and took to other sideshow performers as his family. In his act, he was billed as everything from a native of Madagascar to a Bushman to a Pygmy. He was even billed as the last remaining member of his tribe. He told the audience he didn’t feel comfortable sleeping unless there were chimpanzees with him, which was pure showmanship—chimpanzees don’t live in the Kalahari region of South Africa. Franz Taaibosch worked the sideshow circuit well into his old age. He retired from show business in 1939 and lived with Frank Cook’s widow and daughter, who had inherited guardianship when Frank died just a couple of years earlier. By then, Taaibosch was probably around seventy years old. His retirement did not last long, and he died in 1940. Was Taaibosch exploited? Undoubtably, although the argument could be made that his life as an exhibit in America was easier than it would have been as an African laborer under Boer rule. One could also argue the exact opposite: taking someone away from his family members and culture against his will does not improve his life. Taaibosch was one of many human “ethnographic” exhibits that highlighted cultures that were alien and exotic to the audience, even savage or, as many a showman hinted, “subhuman.” Taaibosch’s dancing was hailed as advanced art, but his value as a sideshow savage who played his role well trumped his dancing skill for the masses who paid to see the Bushman. Cape Town was a novel experience for me. I had lived and worked for many years in other African countries, but never inside South Africa. The university had advertised films that were connected somehow with Bushmen in the Kalahari, and I walked down the hill into the cavernous lecture hall where they were to be shown. Much to my surprise, the first film turned out to be an old black-and-white episode of the BBC’s ‘Face to face’ interviews conducted by the late John Freeman, acerbic editor of the New Statesman. The interviewee was a jovial and relaxed Carl Jung, the great psychologist. Once the film was over, the lights came up and a lecturer from the Carl Jung Institute in Zurich stood before us. I looked around the audience and saw a couple of hundred middle-class and middle-aged white people, nearly all wearing glasses, in woollen dresses and tweed jackets, and there were plenty of beards and bald pates. Though myself visibly white and middleaged, I was unused to finding myself in such company in Africa. I felt as if I did not belong—as if I had stumbled into the coven of some cult, or at least into the wrong performance. The lecturer launched into an account of one of the master’s dreams, on the night of 18 December 1913. It had been a fraught year for Carl Jung, breaking away from his mentor Sigmund Freud to develop his own ideas— ideas about dreams in particular. In March and April 1913 Jung had travelled to the United States, to give a paper at the New York Academy of Sciences. In August he had gone to London to give two papers: one at the Psycho-Medical Society on 5 August, rejecting Freud’s dream theory, and another—a recap of his New York paper—at the 17th International Congress of Medicine between 6 and 12 August 1913. The break with Freud was sealed. From about October 1913, Jung felt he was alone on a journey across an ocean turning to blood. Europe was in turmoil, with industrial strife from Cracow to Cardiff and rumours of pan-continental war in the offing. May 1912 newspapers had headlined ‘The coming Armageddon’. Jung’s particular concern was the bellicose stance adopted by the German empire. In his Swiss refuge on the edge of Lake Zurich, not far from the German border, Jung dreamed his most significant dream that night in December 1913. ‘I was with an unknown, brown-skinned man, a savage, in a lonely, rocky mountain landscape. It was before dawn; the eastern sky was already bright, and the stars were fading. Then I heard Siegfried’s horn sounding over the mountains …’ At this point Jung adds, ‘and I knew that we had to kill him’, later noting that ‘the small, brown-skinned savage’ had taken the initiative. Jung and this companion lay in wait with their rifles until Siegfried ‘appeared high up on the crest of the mountain’, the rays of the rising sun behind him. The great warrior was furiously driving a chariot—a sled made of dead men’s bones— down the mountainside. Together Jung and ‘the small, brown-skinned savage’ fired their guns at Siegfried, who plunged to his death on the crags below. Fresh rain then fell, wiping out all traces of the assassination. The resplendent Wagnerian figure of Siegfried, no doubt with shining breastplate and winged helmet, was easy enough to explain as a symbol of the aggressive Germanism that Jung realized he must kill within himself. Siegfried was drawn from the ‘amplificatory material’ of culture—myth and legend, art and literature. He could also have been the father figure whom Jung had just killed off—Freud. ‘The small, brown-skinned savage’ was more of a problem. Was he drawn from cultural symbolism or from personal experience? On reflection, Jung thought not. Psychoanalysis suggested ‘infantile or other early or primitive mental and emotional processes’ lying deep within the unconscious mind. Jung concluded that the small brown man was ‘an embodiment of the primitive shadow’ of a common human ancestry, an archetype surfacing from the collective unconscious memory of a primeval past thousands and thousands of years before. Jung’s voyage of discovery continued after the First World War with travels in North Africa, North America and East Africa, where he experienced key moments of self-realization in contact with ‘primitive’ peoples. But he never found anyone like his small brown man. Perhaps, the Zurich lecturer in Cape Town suggested, the small brown man—the living shadow of our primitive ancestor—had been found later in southern Africa by Laurens van der Post. (The lecturer now wanted to show us a film about Bushmen in the Kalahari.) Sitting in that lecture hall, I held my breath. I wanted to blurt out, ‘But I know who the small brown man was!’ Sampson-like, I would pull down the whole Jungian edifice—by exploding the ultimate archetype: Jung was in London in August 1913 and probably passed through Paris thereafter. Likewise a small brown man from South Africa, a Bushman dancer called Franz Taibosh, who first appeared in London music halls in June, attracting attention in academic circles. Letters about Taibosh by the Cambridge anthropologist W.L.H. Duckworth were published in The Times newspaper in October and November 1913—at the same time as Taibosh was appearing in a Paris circus. Duckworth had been present and had given a paper at the same London conference as Jung in August. Surely Jung could have heard or read about Taibosh and his demonstrations of simulated hunting, even if Jung—as we all do after reading Sunday newspapers—had deleted this item from conscious memory, only to dredge it up some months later in a dream. But I could not speak: my heart was beating too fast and I hesitated and lost the right moment. I could now see in my mind’s eye, not astonishment on the faces turned towards me, but bemusement as I stumbled through an explanation. The lecturer would have mercifully cut me short, telling me to come and see him afterwards. So I kept the drama in my skull to myself. Needing fresh air, I got up and left the hall. Later a member of the audience asked me why I had walked out so abruptly. Was it a protest, or had I felt ill? I found it difficult to explain. A few months later, I took the overnight train from Kimberley to Cape Town and booked myself into a second-class sleeping compartment. My fellow passengers were five men who were self-identified as Coloured (people of colour including Khoe and San), black (Bantu-speaking African), and white (of European ancestry). The middle-aged white Afrikaner disappeared after tipping the ticket inspector to find him a private couchette. A black youth, rather naïve, I mentally dubbed the Mother’s Boy. He told us that he had spent virtually his whole life closeted inside an affluent Soweto cantonment. Two of the Coloured men were tall and chubby, possibly schoolteachers or small businessmen, with bellies beginning to burst out of cheap three-piece suits. The third Coloured man was very short and slight and rather wizened, but evidently not more than thirty-five years old. The short man sat on the edge of his bunk and prattled on and on, in lilting Cape Afrikaans, to the continual amusement of all except the Mother’s Boy and myself who could not follow what he was saying. He occasionally turned to the two of us, and translated his jokes and stories into an English touched with the same singsong cadences. He told us that he was on his way home to Cape Town, after three or four years in the notorious Barberton jail of the eastern Transvaal. He had been jailed for smashing shop windows when drunk, and regretted that he had not given the magistrate a political excuse for doing so— as that would have got him released two years earlier under the amnesty for political crimes. Now, he was simply glad to be going home. Today was the first time in years that he had not been kicked around and continually disparaged as a ‘stupid Bushman’. He was obviously a man of intelligence and sensitivity, roughened but not defeated by the prison experience: a wounded man who found consolation in spontaneous humour. For the rest of the evening he kept us amused with a stream of jokes and comments on the pretentiousness of the New South Africa, shouted above the rattle of the train and punctuated by sips from a bottle of brandy—about blacks who thought they were whites, whites who pretended they were blacks, and Coloureds who were caught between. After a few hours of sleep, the commentary and the drinking resumed as the train slid and wound its way down from the escarpment mountains on to the plains of the Western Cape. I cannot recall now what he talked about; it was certainly of no great moment. But as I looked at this short brown man in the light of dawn, I knew that I had met someone like Franz Taibosh. A note on the term ‘Bushman’ Franz Taibosh fitted the Western stereotype of a Southern African Bushman in being short and brown-skinned, with a muscular body and wrinkled face. The word Bushman is actually extremely vague but has long been applied to people speaking Khoe and San languages whose recent ancestors lived by hunting and gathering. The English appear to have picked up the word Bushman (Bosman, Bosjeman, etc.) from Dutch people in South Africa. The word is not intrinsically insulting, but it can become so—like the words peasant and pagan for a country-person (from the French ‘paysan’), boor meaning small farmer in Dutch, heathen (i.e. heath people), and yokel being the name of a green woodpecker. Today, on the contrary, identity as Bushmen has been re-adopted as a badge of pride by some Khoe and San people in Namibia. Most Bushmen in Angola and northern Namibia speak Northern San languages, such as !Kung or Ju/’hoansi. Most Bushmen in Botswana and central Namibia speak Khoe languages, such as G/wi and Nharo. Bushmen within the present borders of the Republic of South Africa, such as the !Ko and Xam, used to speak Southern San languages. (The word Khoe means a person in Khoe languages; the word ‘San’ being given by Khoe-speakers to other people. Southern San people actually use the terms !Ui or Taa to refer to themselves as a person.) One or two thousand years ago some Khoe-speakers migrated southwards from the Kalahari, herding sheep and cattle as far as the Cape of Good Hope. They called themselves Khoekhoe (i.e. super-Khoe) to distinguish themselves from surrounding Southern San people. Early Dutch settlers gave Khoekhoe the insulting epithet of ‘Hottentots’, probably meaning stutterers. Franz Taibosh’s father was descended from the Korana clans of these Khoekhoe, but his mother was quite likely of San ancestry. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, also known as the Ringling Bros. Circus, was an American traveling circus company billed as The Greatest Show on Earth. It and its predecessor shows ran from 1871 to 2017. Known as Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, the circus started in 1919 when the Barnum & Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth, a circus created by P. T. Barnum and James Anthony Bailey, was merged with the Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows. The Ringling brothers had purchased Barnum & Bailey Ltd. following Bailey's death in 1906, but ran the circuses separately until they were merged in 1919. After 1957, the circus no longer exhibited under its own portable "big top" tents, instead using permanent venues such as sports stadiums and arenas. In 1967, Irvin Feld and his brother Israel, along with Houston Judge Roy Hofheinz, bought the circus from the Ringling family. In 1971, the Felds and Hofheinz sold the circus to Mattel, buying it back from the toy company in 1981. Since the death of Irvin Feld in 1984, the circus had been a part of Feld Entertainment, an international entertainment firm headed by his son Kenneth Feld, with its headquarters in Ellenton, Florida. With weakening attendance, many animal rights protests, and high operating costs, the circus performed its final show on May 21, 2017, at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum and closed after 146 years.[1] Contents 1 History 1.1 Predecessor circuses 1.2 Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus 1.3 Hartford circus fire 1.4 Feld family 1.5 Kid Rock lawsuit 2 Circus trains 3 Animal care and criticism 4 Film 5 See also 6 Notes 7 External links History Predecessor circuses Hachaliah Bailey appears to have established one of the earliest circuses in the United States after he purchased an African Elephant, whom he named "Old Bet", around 1806,[2][3] just 13 years after John Bill Ricketts first brought circus to America from Great Britain.[4][5][6] Barnum, who as a boy had worked as a ticket seller for Hachaliah Bailey's show, had run the Barnum's American Museum from New York City since 1841 from the former Scudder's American Museum building.[2][3] Besides building up the existing exhibits, Barnum brought in animals to add zoo-like elements, and a freak show.[7] During this time, Barnum took the Museum on road tours, named "P.T. Barnum's Grand Traveling American Museum".[7] The Museum burned down in July 1865.[8] Though Barnum attempted to re-establish the Museum at another location in the city, it too burned down in 1868, and Barnum opted to retire from the museum business. In 1871, Dan Castello and William Cameron Coup persuaded Barnum to come out of retirement as to lend his name, know-how and financial backing to the circus they had already created in Delavan, Wisconsin. The combined show was named "P.T. Barnum's Great Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan, and Hippodrome".[7] As described by Barnum, Castello and Coup "had a show that was truly immense, and combined all the elements of museum, menagerie, variety performance, concert hall, and circus", and considered it to potentially be "the Greatest Show on Earth", which subsequently became part of the circus's name.[9] Independently of Castello and Coup, James Anthony Bailey had teamed up with James E. Cooper to create the Cooper and Bailey Circus in the 1860s. The Cooper and Bailey Circus became the chief competitor to Barnum's circus. As Bailey's circus was outperforming his, Barnum sought to merge the circuses.[10] The two groups agreed to combine their shows on March 28, 1881.[11] Initially named "P.T. Barnum's Greatest Show On Earth, And The Great London Circus, Sanger's Royal British Menagerie and The Grand International Allied Shows United", it was eventually shortened to "Barnum and Bailey's Circus".[9] Bailey was instrumental in acquiring Jumbo, advertised as the world's largest elephant, for the show.[10] After Jumbo died, Barnum donated his taxidermied remains to Tufts University on whose Board of Trustees Barnum served as one of Tufts' first trustees. The Barnum Museum of Natural History opened in 1884 on the Tufts campus and Jumbo was a prominent part of the display. To this day the Tufts athletic mascot is Jumbo and its athletic teams are referred to as the "Jumbos". Barnum died in 1891 and Bailey then purchased the circus from his widow. Bailey continued touring the eastern United States until he took his circus to Europe. That tour started on December 27, 1897, and lasted until 1902.[10] Separately, in 1884, five of the seven Ringling brothers had started a small circus in Baraboo, Wisconsin.[12][13] This was about the same time that Barnum & Bailey were at the peak of their popularity. Similar to dozens of small circuses that toured the Midwest and the Northeast at the time, the brothers moved their circus from town to town in small animal-drawn caravans. Their circus rapidly grew and they were soon able to move their circus by train, which allowed them to have the largest traveling amusement enterprise of that time. Bailey's European tour gave the Ringling brothers an opportunity to move their show from the Midwest to the eastern seaboard. Faced with the new competition, Bailey took his show west of the Rocky Mountains for the first time in 1905. He died the next year, and the circus was sold to the Ringling Brothers.[7] Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Advertisement for the Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1900 Poster from 1898, advertising a "troupe of very remarkable trained pigs" Stock certificate for Barnum & Bailey, 1903 The Ringlings purchased the Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth in 1907 and ran the circuses separately until 1919. By that time, Charles Edward Ringling and John Nicholas Ringling were the only remaining brothers of the five who founded the circus. They decided that it was too difficult to run the two circuses independently, and on March 29, 1919, "Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows" debuted in New York City. The posters declared, "The Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows and the Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth are now combined into one record-breaking giant of all exhibitions." Charles E. Ringling died in 1926, but the circus flourished through the Roaring Twenties.[citation needed] John Ringling had the circus move its headquarters to Sarasota, Florida in 1927.[14] In 1929, the American Circus Corporation signed a contract to perform in New York City. John Ringling purchased American Circus, owner of five circuses, for $1.7 million.[15] In 1938, the circus made a lucrative offer to Frank Buck, a well-known adventurer and animal collector, to tour as their star attraction and to enter the show astride an elephant. He refused to join the American Federation of Actors, stating that he was "a scientist, not an actor." Though there was a threat of a strike if he did not join the union, he maintained that he would not compromise his principles, saying, "Don't get me wrong. I'm with the working man. I worked like a dog once myself. And my heart is with the fellow who works. But I don't want some ... union delegate telling me when to get on and off an elephant."[16] Eventually, the union gave Buck a special dispensation to introduce Gargantua the gorilla without registering as an actor. Frank Buck, star attraction, 1938 The circus suffered during the 1930s due to the Great Depression, but managed to stay in business. After John Nicholas Ringling's death, his nephew, John Ringling North, managed the indebted circus twice, the first from 1937 to 1943.[17] Special dispensation was given to the circus by President Roosevelt to use the rails to operate in 1942, in spite of travel restrictions imposed as a result of World War II. Many of the most famous images from the circus that were published in magazine and posters were captured by American Photographer Maxwell Frederic Coplan, who traveled the world with the circus, capturing its beauty as well as its harsh realities.[citation needed] North's cousin Robert took over the president of the show in 1943. North resumed the presidency of the circus in 1947.[17][18] Hartford circus fire John Ringling North (right) and Frank Buck, who was the circus's featured attraction in 1938 The Hartford circus fire occurred on July 6, 1944, in Hartford, Connecticut, during an afternoon performance that was attended by approximately 7,500 to 8,700 people. It was one of the worst fire disasters in the history of the United States. Although the Hartford Fire Department responded quickly, the fire was exacerbated by the fact that the canvas circus tent had been waterproofed with a mixture of highly flammable paraffin and gasoline.[19] During the ensuing panic, Emmett Kelly, the tramp clown, threw a bucket of water at the burning canvas tent, and a poignant photograph of his futile attempt was transmitted around the world as news spread of the disaster.[20] At least 167 people were killed in the disaster and hundreds more were injured. One of the dead, Little Miss 1565, was not positively identified until 1991.[21] Actor and theater director Charles Nelson Reilly, who was thirteen years old at the time, survived the fire and dramatized it in the film on his stage show, "The Life of Reilly". In a 1997 interview, Reilly said that he rarely attended the theater, despite being a director, since the sound of a large audience in a theater reminded him of the large crowd at the circus before the disaster.[22] In the following investigation, it was discovered that the tent had not been fireproofed. Ringling Bros. had applied to the Army, which had an absolute priority on the material, for enough fireproofing liquid to treat their Big Top, but the Army had refused to release it to them. The circus had instead waterproofed their canvas using an older method of paraffin dissolved in gasoline and painted onto the canvas. The waterproofing worked, but as had been repeatedly shown, it was horribly flammable.[23] Circus management was found to be negligent and several Ringling executives served sentences in jail. Ringling Brothers' management set aside all profits for the next ten years to pay the claims filed against the show by the City of Hartford and the survivors of the fire.[24] Feld family The post-war prosperity enjoyed by the rest of the nation was not shared by the circus as crowds dwindled and costs increased. Public tastes, influenced by the movies and television, abandoned the circus, which gave its last performance under the big top in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 16, 1956. An article in Life magazine reported that "a magical era had passed forever".[18] In 1956, when John Ringling North and Arthur Concello moved the circus from a tent show to an indoor operation, Irvin Feld was one of several promoters hired[25] to work the advance for select dates. Irvin Feld and his brother, Israel Feld, had already made a name for themselves marketing and promoting D.C. area rock and roll shows.[26] In 1959, Ringling Bros. started wintering in Venice, Florida.[13] In late 1967, Irvin Feld, Israel Feld, and Judge Roy Mark Hofheinz of Texas, together with backing from Richard C. Blum, the founder of Blum Capital, bought the company outright from North and the Ringling family interests for $8 million at a ceremony at Rome's Colosseum.[25][26][27][28] Irving Feld immediately began making other changes to improve the quality and profitability of the show. Irvin got rid of the freak show so as not to capitalize on others' deformations and to become more family orientated. He got rid of the more routine acts.[29] Circus Williams's elephants arriving in Rotterdam, 1961 In 1968, with the craft of clowning seemingly neglected and with many of the clowns in their 50s, he established the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College.[13][29] Circus Williams, a circus in Europe was purchased for $2 million just to have its star animal trainer, Gunther Gebel-Williams, for the core of his revamped circus. Soon, he split the show into two touring units, Red and Blue, which could tour the country independently.[29] The separate tours could also offer differing slates of acts and themes, enabling circus goers to view both tours where possible.[citation needed]. Also in 1968, Feld hired The King Charles Troupe, a unicycle club from The Bronx and the first ever African-American circus troupe, to perform unicycle basketball for 18 years with the circus. The company was taken public in 1969.[25] In 1970, Feld's only son Kenneth joined the company and became a co-producer.[30] The circus was sold to the Mattel company in 1971 for $40 million, but the Feld family was retained as management.[29] After Walt Disney World opened near Orlando, Florida, in 1971, the circus attempted to cash in on the resulting tourism surge by opening Circus World theme park in nearby Haines City, which broke ground on April 26, 1973.[29][31] The theme park was expected to become the circus's winter home as well as to have the Clown College located there.[31][32] Mattel placed the circus corporation up for sale by December 1973 despite its profit contributions, as Mattel as a whole showed a $29.9 million loss in 1972. The park's opening was then delayed until February 1974.[31] Venture Out in America, Inc., a Gulf Oil recreational subsidiary, agreed to buy the combined shows in January 1974, and the opening was further pushed back to 1975.[32] While the Circus Showcase for Circus World opened on February 21, 1974,[33] Venture Out placed the purchase deal back into negotiations, and the opening of the whole complex was moved to an early 1976.[34] In the 1980s, Ringling sued the American Broadcasting Company for airing a Schoolhouse Rock! episode titled "The Greatest Show On Earth", later known as "The Weather Show" due to the circus' slogan being used as a title for that episode.[citation needed] By May 1980, the company expanded to three circuses by adding the one-ring International Circus Festival of Monte Carlo that debuted in Japan and Australia.[29] The Felds bought the circus back in 1982[25] less Circus World. Irvin Feld died in 1984[35] and the company has since been run by Kenneth. In 1990, the Seminole Gulf Railway (who took over the rail line serving the Venice facility in 1987) could no longer support the show's train cars, which led the combined circus to move its winter base to the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa. In 1993, the clown college was moved from the Venice Arena to Baraboo, Wisconsin.[13] In 1995, the company founded the Center for Elephant Conservation (CEC).[36] Clair George has testified in court that he worked as a consultant in the early 1990s for Kenneth Feld and the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. He was involved in the surveillance of Jan Pottker (a journalist who was writing about the Feld family) and of various animal rights groups such as PETA.[37] After three years in Baraboo, the clown college operated at the Sarasota Opera House in Sarasota until 1998 before the program was suspended.[13] On February 26, 1999, the circus company started previewing Barnum's Kaleidoscape, a one ring, intimate, upscale circus performed under the tent;[38] designed to compete with similar upscale circuses such as Cirque du Soleil, Barnum's Kaleidoscape was not successful, and ceased performances after the end of 2000.[citation needed] Nicole Feld became the first female producer of Ringling Circus in 2004. In 2009, Nicole and Alana Feld co-produced the circus.[26] In 2001, a group led by The Humane Society of the United States sued the circus over alleged mistreatment of elephants. The suit and a countersuit ended in 2014 with the circus winning a total of $25.2 million in settlements.[39] On March 3, 2015, the circus announced that all elephants would be retired in 2018 to the CEC,[36] but Ringling reversed the decision and retired the elephants in May 2016.[40] Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth poster, c. 1899 CSX locomotives pulling the circus train out of St. Petersburg, Florida Circus train rolling through Safety Harbor, Florida Eight months after it retired the elephants, it was announced on January 14, 2017, that the circus would do 30 more performances, lay off more than 462 employees between March and May 2017 and then close.[41] The circus cited steeply declining ticket sales associated with the loss of the elephants combined with high operating costs as reasons for the closure, along with animal cruelty concerns.[41] On May 7, 2017, its "Circus Extreme" tour was shown for the last time at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island. The circus's last performance was its "Out of This World" tour at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on May 21, 2017.[39][42] Kid Rock lawsuit While having no operations in December 2017, Ringling Bros. sued American musician Kid Rock over use of the trademarked slogan, "The Greatest Show on Earth", which was his tour name. Kid Rock then decided to change the name to the "American Rock N Roll" tour.[43] Circus trains The circus maintained two circus train-based shows, one each on its Red Unit and Blue Unit trains.[39] Each train was a mile long with roughly 60 cars: 36 passenger cars, 4 stock cars and 20 freight.[44] Rolling stock belonging to the circus displayed the reporting mark "RBBX". The Blue and Red Tours presented a full three-ring production for two years each (taking off the month of December), visiting alternating major cities each year. Each train presented a different "edition" of the show, using a numbering scheme that dates back to circus origins in 1871—the first year of P.T. Barnum's show. The Blue Tour presented the even-numbered editions on a two-year tour (beginning each even-numbered year), and the Red Tour presented the odd-numbered editions on the same two-year tour (beginning each odd-numbered year).[citation needed] In the 1950s there was one gigantic train system comprising three separate train loads that brought the main show to the big cities. The first train load consisted of 22 cars and had the tents and the workers to set them up; the second section comprised 28 cars and carried the canvasmen, ushers and sideshow workers; the third section had 19 sleeping cars for the performers.[45] On January 13, 1994 the circus train, en route from St. Petersburg to a three-day stand in Orlando, derailed about four miles south of Lakeland near U.S. Highway 92. Several of the 150 to 200 train passengers were injured, and two were killed. Circus animals were shaken up but not injured. The heavier horses and elephants, which could derail the train if carried in the middle, were in the front cars. Lions, tigers, bears and other animals were at the back of the train. From 2003 to 2015 the circus also operated a truck-based Gold Tour presenting a scaled-back, single-ring version of the show designed to serve smaller markets deemed incapable of supporting the three-ring versions.[46] After May 21, 2017, the train and its cars were either auctioned off or sold to scrappers. In March 2018, Kirby Family Farms, a 501(c)(3) educational facility, located in Williston, Florida bought some of the cars to preserve history, which visitors can see and tour. As of December 2020, the North Carolina Department of Transportation is attempting to sell nineteen of the Ringling rail cars it purchased with an eye towards rebuilding them for commuter rail service. A federal grant to purchase new commuter rail cars rendered the Ringling rolling stock, mostly dormitory cars, redundant.[47] Animal care and criticism Many animal rights groups had criticized the circus for their treatment of animals over the years, saying that using them to perform is cruel and unnecessary.[39] Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey was investigated following the death of a lion who died from heat and lack of water while the circus train was traveling through the Mojave Desert.[48] In 1998, the United States Department of Agriculture filed charges against Ringling Bros. for forcing a sick elephant to perform.[49] Ringling paid a $20,000 fine.[50] In 2000, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and other animal groups sued the circus, alleging that it violated the Endangered Species Act by its treatment of Asian elephants in its circus.[51] These allegations were based primarily on the testimony of a circus barn worker. After years of litigation and a six-week non-jury trial, the Court dismissed the suit in a written decision in 2009, finding that the barn worker did not have standing to file suit. (ASPCA v. Feld Entm’t, Inc., 677 F. Supp. 2d 55 (D.D.C. 2009)).[52] Meanwhile, the circus learned during the trial that the animal rights groups had paid the barn worker $190,000 to be a plaintiff in the lawsuit. The circus then sued the animal rights groups under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act in 2007, accusing the groups of conspiracy to harm its business and other illegal acts.[51][52][53] In December 2012, the ASPCA agreed to pay the circus $9.2 million to settle its part of the lawsuit.[52] The 14-year course of litigation came to an end in May 2014 when The Humane Society of the United States and a number of other animal rights groups paid a $16  million settlement to the circus' parent company, Feld Entertainment.[54] From 2007 to 2011, the United States Department of Agriculture conducted inspections of the circus's animals, facilities, and records, finding non-compliance with the agency's regulations. The allegations, as brought forth by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) included videotapes of the head elephant trainer and the animal superintendent backstage repeatedly hitting elephants with bullhooks just before the animals would enter the arena for performances. A tiger trainer was videotaped beating tigers during dress rehearsals. An inspection report alleged that a female Asian elephant, Banko, was forced to perform at a show in Los Angeles despite a diagnosis of sand colic and observations that she appeared to be suffering abdominal discomfort. The inspection reports also cited splintered floors and rusted cages. Following these inspections and complaints filed with the USDA by PETA, the company agreed to pay a $270,000 fine, the largest civil penalty ever assessed against an animal exhibitor under the Animal Welfare Act.[55][56] In March 2015, Feld Entertainment announced it would stop using elephants in its shows by 2018, stating that the 13 elephants that were part of its shows would be sent to the circus's Center for Elephant Conservation, which at that time housed over 40 elephants.[57][58][59] Feld stated that this action was not a result of the allegations by animal rights groups, but rather due to the patchwork of local laws regarding whether elephants could be used in entertainment shows.[60] Some of those local laws referred to were bans against the use of bullhooks.[61] Subsequently, the retirement was moved up to 2016, and the final performances with elephants occurred on May 1, 2016, with "Red Unit" herd performing at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania,[62] and the "Blue Unit" herd performing later in the day at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island.[63] Seven tigers, six lions and one leopard were part of a convoy to temporarily move the animals out of Florida ahead of Hurricane Irma on September 5, 2017. One of them, a 6-year-old Siberian tiger named Suzy who had previously starred in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, escaped from a convoy of trucks transporting her from Florida to Memphis International Airport and was fatally shot by police after attacking a nearby dog.[64] Daniel Raffo and his tigers in "Over the Top" The Torres family performing in "Over the Top" Film In 1952, Paramount Pictures released the Cecil B. DeMille production The Greatest Show on Earth, which traced the traveling show through the setup and breakdown of performances during the 1951 season, the show's 81st Edition since 1871. The film starred Charlton Heston, Betty Hutton, James Stewart, and Emmett Kelly. After its 1952 release, the film was awarded two Academy Awards, including one for Best Picture. A television series of the same title, was inspired by the film, with Jack Palance in the role of Charlton Heston's character. Produced by Desilu Studios, the program ran on Tuesday evenings for thirty episodes on ABC during the 1963–1964 season. On August 17, 2011, 20th Century Fox announced that a biographical musical drama film entitled The Greatest Showman was in development.[65] Michael Gracey was set to direct, with Jenny Bicks and Bill Condon as writers.[66] Hugh Jackman plays P.T. Barnum, and produced the film,[65] with Michelle Williams portraying Barnum's wife, Charity.[67] Principal photography began in November 2016, and the film was released on December 20, 2017.[68] See also Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Barnum's Kaleidoscape William Washington Cole, a Barnum and Bailey business partner Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College Barnum and Bailey's Favorite John Robinson Circus A freak show is an exhibition of biological rarities, referred to in popular culture as "freaks of nature". Typical features would be physically unusual humans, such as those uncommonly large or small, those with intersex variations, those with extraordinary diseases and conditions, and others with performances expected to be shocking to viewers. Heavily tattooed or pierced people have sometimes been seen in freak shows, (more common in modern times as a sideshow act) as have attention-getting physical performers such as fire-eating and sword-swallowing acts.[1] Deformities began to be treated as objects of interest and entertainment, and the crowds flocked to see them exhibited. A famous early modern example was the exhibition at the court of King Charles I of Lazarus and Joannes Baptista Colloredo, two conjoined brothers born in Genoa, Italy. While Lazarus appeared to be otherwise ordinary, the underdeveloped body of his brother dangled from his chest. When Lazarus was not exhibiting himself, he covered his brother with his cloak to avoid unnecessary attention.[2] As well as exhibitions, freak shows were popular in the taverns and fairgrounds where the freaks were often combined with talent displays. For example, in the 18th century, Matthias Buchinger, born without arms or lower legs, entertained crowds with astonishing displays of magic and musical ability, both in England and later, Ireland.[3] A freak show in Rutland, Vermont in 1941 It was in the 19th century, both in the United States and Europe, where freak shows finally reached maturity as successful commercially run enterprises.[1] During the late 19th century and the early 20th century freak shows were at their height of popularity; the period 1840s through to the 1940s saw the organized for-profit exhibition of people with physical, mental or behavioral rarities. Although not all abnormalities were real, some being alleged, the exploitation for profit was seen as an accepted part of American culture.[4] The attractiveness of freak shows led to the spread of the shows that were commonly seen at amusement parks, circuses, dime museums and vaudeville. The amusement park industry flourished in the United States by the expanding middle class who benefited from short work weeks and a larger income. There was also a shift in American culture which influenced people to see leisure activities as a necessary and beneficial equivalent to working, thus leading to the popularity of the freak show.[5] The showmen and promoters exhibited all types of freaks. People who appeared non-white or who had a disability were often exhibited as unknown races and cultures. These “unknown” races and disabled whites were advertised as being undiscovered humans to attract viewers.[6] For example, those with microcephaly, a condition linked to intellectual disabilities and characterized by a very small, pointed head and small overall structure, were considered or characterized as “missing links” or as atavistic specimens of an extinct race. Hypopituitary dwarfs who tend to be well proportioned were advertised as lofty. Achondroplastic dwarfs, whose head and limbs tend to be out of proportion to their trunks, were characterized as exotic mode. Those who were armless, legless, or limbless were also characterized in the exotic mode as animal-people, such as “The Snake-Man”, and “The Seal man”.[7] There were four ways freak shows were produced and marketed. The first was the oral spiel or lecture. This featured a showman or professor who managed the presentation of the people or “freaks”. The second was a printed advertisement usually using long pamphlets and broadside or newspaper advertisement of the freak show. The third step included costuming, choreography, performance, and space used to display the show, designed to emphasize the things that were considered abnormal about each performer. The final stage was a collectable drawing or photograph that portrayed the group of freaks on stage for viewers to take home.[8] The collectable printed souvenirs were accompanied by recordings of the showmen's pitch, the lecturer's yarn, and the professor's exaggerated accounts of what was witnessed at the show. Exhibits were authenticated by doctors who used medical terms that many could not comprehend but which added an air of authenticity to the proceedings. Freak show culture normalized a specific way of thinking about gender, race, sexual aberrance, ethnicity, and disability.[9] Scholars[who?] believe that freak shows contributed significantly to the way American culture views nonconforming bodies. Freak shows were a space for the general public to scrutinize bodies different from their own, from dark-skinned people, to victims of war and diseases, to ambiguously sexed bodies.[9] People felt that paying to view these “freaks” gave them permission to compare themselves favorably to the freaks.[10] During the first decade of the twentieth century, the popularity of the freak show was starting to dwindle.[11] In their prime, freak shows had been the main attraction of the midway, but by 1940 they were starting to lose their audience, with credible people turning their backs on the show.[12] In the nineteenth century, science supported and legitimized the growth of freak shows, but by the twentieth century, the medicalization of human abnormalities contributed to the end of the exhibits' mystery and appeal.[12] Contents 1 P.T. Barnum 2 Tom Norman 3 Dime Museum 4 Circus 5 Disability 6 Historical timeline 7 Modern freak shows 8 In popular culture 9 See also 10 References 11 Further reading 12 External links P.T. Barnum P. T. Barnum was considered the father of modern-day advertising, and one of the most famous showmen/managers of the freak show industry.[13] In the United States he was a major figure in popularizing the entertainment. However, it was very common for Barnum's acts to be schemes and not altogether true. Barnum was fully aware of the improper ethics behind his business as he said, "I don't believe in duping the public, but I believe in first attracting and then pleasing them." During the 1840s Barnum began his museum, which had a constantly rotating acts schedule, which included The Fat Lady, midgets, giants, and other people deemed to be freaks. The museum drew in about 400,000 visitors a year.[14] P.T. Barnum's American Museum was one of the most popular museums in New York City to exhibit freaks. In 1841 Barnum purchased The American Museum, which made freaks the major attraction, following mainstream America at the mid-19th century. Barnum was known to advertise aggressively and make up outlandish stories about his exhibits. The façade of the museum was decorated with bright banners showcasing his attractions and included a band that performed outside.[13] Barnum's American Museum also offered multiple attractions that not only entertained but tried to educate and uplift its working-class visitors. Barnum offered one ticket that guaranteed admission to his lectures, theatrical performances, an animal menagerie, and a glimpse at curiosities both living and dead.[5] One of Barnum's exhibits centered around Charles Sherwood Stratton, the dwarf billed as "General Tom Thumb" who was then 4 years of age but was stated to be 11. Charles had stopped growing after the first 6 months of his life, at which point he was 25 inches (64 cm) tall and weighed 15 pounds (6.8 kg). With heavy coaching and natural talent, the boy was taught to imitate people from Hercules to Napoleon. By 5, he was drinking wine, and by 7 smoking cigars for the public's amusement. During 1844–45, Barnum toured with Tom Thumb in Europe and met Queen Victoria, who was amused[15] and saddened by the little man, and the event was a publicity coup.[16] Barnum paid Stratton handsomely – about $150.00 a week. When Stratton retired, he lived in the most esteemed neighborhood of New York, he owned a yacht, and dressed in the nicest clothing he could buy.[14] In 1860, The American Museum had listed and archived thirteen human curiosities in the museum, including an albino family, The Living Aztecs, three dwarfs, a black mother with two albino children, The Swiss Bearded Lady, The Highland Fat Boys, and What Is It? (Henry Johnson, a mentally disabled black man).[17] Barnum introduced the "man-monkey" William Henry Johnson, a microcephalic black dwarf who spoke a mysterious language created by Barnum and was known as Zip the Pinhead . In 1862, he discovered the giantess Anna Swan and Commodore Nutt, a new Tom Thumb, with whom Barnum visited President Abraham Lincoln at the White House. During the Civil War, Barnum's museum drew large audiences seeking diversion from the conflict. Barnum's most popular and highest grossing act was the Tattooed Man, George Costentenus. He claimed to be a Greek-Albanian prince raised in a Turkish harem. He had 338 tattoos covering his body. Each one was ornate and told a story. His story was that he was on a military expedition but was captured by native people, who gave him the choice of either being chopped up into little pieces or receive full body tattoos. This process supposedly took three months and Costentenus was the only hostage who survived. He produced a 23-page book, which detailed every aspect of his experience and drew a large crowd. When Costentenus partnered with Barnum, he began to earn more than $1,000 a week. His wealth became so staggering that the New York Times wrote, "He wears very handsome diamond rings and other jewelry, valued altogether at about $3,000 [$71,500 in 2014 dollars] and usually goes armed to protect himself from persons who might attempt to rob him." Though Costentenus was very fortunate, other freaks were not. Upon his death in 1891, he donated about half of his life earnings to other freaks who did not make as much money as he did.[14] One of Barnum's most famous hoaxes was early in his career. He hired a blind and paralyzed former slave for $1,000. He claimed this woman was 160 years old, but she was actually only 80 years old. This lie helped Barnum make a weekly profit of nearly $1,000. This hoax was one of the first, but one of the more convincing.[14] Barnum retired in 1865 when his museum burnt to the ground.[17] Though Barnum was and still is criticized for exploitation, he paid the performers fairly handsome sums of money. Some of the acts made the equivalent of what some sports stars make today.[14] Tom Norman Barnum's English counterpart was Tom Norman, a renowned Victorian showman, whose traveling exhibitions featured Eliza Jenkins, the "Skeleton Woman", a "Balloon Headed Baby" and a woman who bit off the heads of live rats—the "most gruesome" act Norman claimed to have seen.[18][19] Other acts included fleas, fat ladies, giants, dwarfs and retired white seamen, painted black and speaking in an invented language, billed "savage Zulus".[20] He displayed a "family of midgets" which in reality was composed of two men and a borrowed baby.[21] He operated a number of shops in London and Nottingham, and exhibited travelling shows throughout the country.[18] Most famously, in 1884, Norman came into contact with Joseph Merrick, sometimes called "the Elephant Man", a young man from Leicester who suffered from extreme deformities. Merrick arrived in London and into Norman's care. Norman, initially shocked by Merrick's appearance and reluctant to display him, nonetheless exhibited him at his penny gaff shop at 123 Whitechapel Road, directly across the road from the London Hospital.[18][22] Because of its proximity to the hospital, the shop received medical students and doctors as visitors.[23] One of these was a young surgeon named Frederick Treves who arranged to have Merrick brought to the hospital to be examined.[24] The exhibition of the Elephant Man was reasonably successful, particularly with the added income from a printed pamphlet about Merrick's life and condition. At this time, however, public opinion about freak shows was starting to change and the display of human novelties was beginning to be viewed as distasteful. After only a few weeks with Norman, the Elephant Man exhibition was shut down by the police, and Norman and Merrick parted ways.[25] Treves later arranged for Merrick to live at the London Hospital until his death in 1890. In Treves' 1923 memoir, The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences made Norman infamous as a drunk who cruelly exploited Merrick.[18][19] Norman counteracted these claims in a letter in the World's Fair newspaper that year, as well as his own autobiography.[18] Norman's opinion was that he provided Merrick (and his other exhibits) a way of making a living and remaining independent, but that on entering the London Hospital, Merrick remained a freak on display, only with no control over how or when he was viewed.[26] Dime Museum A different way to display a freak show was in a dime museum. In a Dime Museum, freak show performers were exhibited as an educational display of people with different disabilities. For a cheap admission viewers were awed with its dioramas, panoramas, georamas, cosmoramas, paintings, relics, freaks, stuffed animals, menageries, waxworks, and theatrical performances. No other type of entertainment appealed to such diverse audiences before.[27] In the 1870s dimes grew and grew, hitting their peak in the 1880s and 1890s, being available for all from coast to coast. New York City was the dime museum capital with an entertainment district that included German beer gardens, theaters, vendors, photography, studios, and a variety of other amusement institutions. New York also had more dime museums than any place in the world.[27][28] Freak shows were the main attraction of most dime museums during 1870—1900 with the human oddity as the king of museum entertainment.[29] There were five types of human abnormalities on display in dime museums: natural freaks, those born with physical or mental abnormalities, such as midgets and “pinheads”; self-made freaks, those who cultivated freakdom, for example tattooed people; novelty artists which were considered freaks because of their “freakish” performances such as snake charmers, mesmerists, hypnotists, and fire-eaters; non-western freaks, people who were promoted as exotic curiosities, for example savages and cannibals, usually promoted as being from Africa.[27] Most dime museums had no seats in the curio halls. Visitors were directed from platform to platform by a lecturer, whose role was to be the master of ceremonies. During his performance, the lecturer, also known as the “Professor,” held the audience's attention by describing the freaks displayed on the various stages. The lecturer needed to have both charisma and persuasiveness in addition to a loud voice. His rhetorical style usually was styled after the traditional distorted spiel of carnival barkers, filled with classical and biblical suggestions. Dime museum freak shows also provided audiences with medical testimonials provided by “doctors”, psychologists and other behavioral “experts” who were there to help the audience understand a particular problem and to validate a show's subject.[30] As the nineteenth century ended and the twentieth began there was a shift in popularity of the dime museum and it began its downward turn. Audiences now had a wide variety of different types of popular entertainment to choose from. Circuses, street fairs, world's fairs, carnivals, and urban amusement parks, all of which exhibited freaks, began to take business away from the dime museums.[31] Circus In the circus world, freak shows, also called sideshows, were an essential part of the circus. The largest sideshow was attached to the most prestigious circus, Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey, known as the “big one”. It was a symbol of the peak of the practice and its acceptance in American society.[32] It was at this time that single human oddities started joining traveling circuses during the early 1800s, but these shows were not organized into anything like the sideshows we know until the midcentury. During the 1870s it was common to see most circuses having freak shows, eventually making the circus a major place for the display of human oddities.[33] Most of the museums and side shows that had traveled with major circuses were owned during most of 1876. By 1880 human phenomena were now combined with a variety of entertainment acts from the sideshows. By 1890 tent size and the number of sideshow attractions began to increase, with most sideshows in large circuses with twelve to fifteen exhibits plus a band. Bands typically were made up of black musicians, blackface minstrel bands, and troupes of dancers dressed as Hawaiians. These entertainers were used to attract crowds and provide a festive atmosphere inside the show tent.[34] By the 1920s the circus was declining as a major form of amusement, due to competition such as amusement parks; movie houses and burlesque tours; and the rise of the radio. Circuses also saw a large decline in audience during the depression as economic hard times and union demands were making the circus less and less affordable and valuable.[32] Disability Freak shows were viewed as a normal part of American culture in the late 19th century to the early 20th century. The shows were viewed as a valuable form of amusement for middle-class people and were quite profitable for the showmen. Some scholars[who?] have argued that freak shows were also beneficial for people with disabilities, giving them jobs and a steady income, rather than being institutionalized for their disabilities. Other scholars[who?] have argued that the showmen and managers exploited freak show performers' disabilities just for profit.[35] Changing attitudes about physical differences led to the decline of the freak show as a form of entertainment towards the end of the 19th century. As previously mysterious anomalies were scientifically explained as genetic mutations or diseases, freaks became the objects of sympathy rather than fear or disdain. Laws were passed restricting freak shows for these reasons. For example, Michigan law forbids the "exhibition [of] any deformed human being or human monstrosity, except as used for scientific purposes".[36] During the start of the 20th century, movies and television began to satisfy audiences' thirst to be entertained. People could see similar types of acts and abnormalities from the comfort of their own homes or a nice theater, they no longer needed to pay to see freaks. Though movies and television played a big part in the decline of the freak show, the rise of disability rights was the true cause of death. It was finally viewed as wrong to profit from others' misfortune: the days of manipulation were done.[14] Though paid well, the freaks of the 19th century did not always enjoy the quality of life that this idea led to. Frank Lentini, the three-legged man, was quoted saying, "My limb does not bother me as much as the curious, critical gaze."[14] Although freak shows were viewed as a place for entertainment, they were also a place of employment for those who could advertise, manage, and perform in its attractions. In an era before there was welfare or worker's compensation, severely disabled people often found that placing themselves on exhibition was their only choice and opportunity for making a living.[37] Despite current values of the wrongness of exploitation of those with disabilities, during the nineteenth century performing in an organized freak show was a relatively respectable way to earn a living. Many freak show performers were lucky and gifted enough to earn a livelihood and have a good life through exhibitions, some becoming celebrities, commanding high salaries and earning far more than acrobats, novelty performers, and actors. The salaries of dime museum freaks usually varied from twenty-five to five hundred dollars a week, making a lot more money than lecture-room variety performers.[38] Freaks were seen to have profitable traits, with an opportunity to become celebrities obtaining fame and fortune. At the height of freak shows' popularity, they were the only job for dwarfs.[39] Many scholars have argued that freak show performers were being exploited by the showmen and managers for profit because of their disabilities. Many freaks were paid generously but had to deal with museum managers who were often insensitive about the performers' schedules, working them long hours just to make a profit. This was particularly hard for top performers since the more shows these freaks were in, the more tickets were sold.[40] A lot of entertainers were abused by small-time museum operators, kept to grueling schedules, and given only a small percentage of their total earnings. Individual exhibits were hired for about one to six weeks by dime museums. The average performer had a schedule that included ten to fifteen shows a day and was shuttled back and forth week after week from one museum to another.[38] When a popular freak show performer came to a dime museum in New York he was overworked and exploited to make the museum money. For example: Fedor Jeftichew, (known as "Jo-Jo, the Dog-Faced Boy") appeared at the Globe Museum in New York, his manager arranged to have him perform twenty-three shows during a twelve to fourteen hour day.[41] Historical timeline Madam Gustika of the Duckbill tribe smoking a pipe with an extended mouthpiece for her lips during a show in a circus. Her lips were stretched by the insertion of disks of incrementally increasing size, similar to some earrings used today. United States, New York, 12 April 1930. The exhibition of human oddities has a long history: 1630s Lazarus Colloredo, and his conjoined twin brother, Joannes Baptista, who was attached at Lazarus' sternum, tour Europe.[42] 1704–1718 Peter the Great collected human oddities at the Kunstkammer in what is now St. Petersburg, Russia.[43][clarification needed][example needed] 1738 The exhibition of a creature 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."[44] 1739 Peter the Great's niece Anna Ioannovna had a parade of circus freaks escort Mikhail Alekseyevich Galitzine and his bride Avdotya Ivanovna Buzheninova to a mock palace made of ice.[citation needed] 1810–1815 Sarah Baartman (aka "Hottentot Venus"), a Khoekhoe woman, was exhibited in Europe.[45] 1829–1870 “The Original Siamese twins” Chang and Eng Bunker were conjoined twin brothers who started performing in 1829. They stopped performing in 1870 due to Chang suffering a stroke.[46] 1842–1883 In 1842 Charles Sherwood Stratton was presented on the freak show platform as "General Tom Thumb". Charles was suffering from Hypopituitary dwarfism; he stopped performing in 1883 due to a stroke that led to his death.[47] 1849–1867 In 1849 Maximo and Bartola started performing in freak shows as “The Last of the Ancient Aztecs of Mexico”. Both performers had microcephaly and stopped performing in 1867 after they were married to each other.[47] 1860–1905 Hiram and Barney Davis were presented as the “wild men” from Borneo. Both brothers were mentally disabled. They stopped performing in 1905 after Hiram's death.[46] 1884 Joseph Merrick, exhibited as "The Elephant Man" by Tom Norman in London's East End.[48] 1912–1935 Daisy and Violet Hilton, conjoined twin sisters who started performing at the age of four in 1912. They grew in popularity during the 1920s to the 1930s performing dance routines and playing instruments. Stopped performing in 1935 due to financial troubles.[46] 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 the film was relegated to obscurity until its re-release at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival.[49] Two stars of the film were Daisy and Violet Hilton: conjoined sisters who had been raised being exhibited in freak shows.[50] 1960 Albert-Alberta Karas[51] (two siblings, each half man, half woman) exhibits with Bobby Reynolds on sideshow tour. 1991 Jim Rose Circus plays the Lollapalooza Festival, starting a new wave of performers and resurgence of interest in the genre.[citation needed] 1992 Grady Stiles (the lobster boy) is shot in his home in Gibsonton, Florida.[52] 1996 Chicago shock-jock Mancow Muller presented Mancow's Freak Show at the United Center in the middle of 1996, to a crowd of 30,000. The show included Kathy Stiles and her brother Grady III as the Lobster Twins.[53] 2000–2010 Ken Harck's Brothers Grim Sideshow debuted at the Great Circus Parade in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Milwaukee run included a fat lady and bearded lady Melinda Maxi,[clarification needed] 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 and Stalking Cat. Brothers Grim toured with the Ozz Fest music festival in 2006, 2007 and 2010.[54] 2005 "999 Eyes Freakshow" was 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.[55] 2007 Wayne Schoenfeld brought together several sideshow performers to "The L.A. Circus Congress of Freaks and Exotics," to photograph sideshow folks for "Cirque Du Soleil – Circus of the Sun." In attendance were: Bill Quinn, the halfman; Percilla, the fat lady; Mighty Mike Murga the Mighty Dwarf; Dieguito El Negrito, a wildman; Christopher Landry; fireeaters; sword swallowers, and more.[56][57] Modern freak shows The Black Scorpion performing in 2007 The entertainment appeal of the traditional "freak shows" is arguably echoed in numerous programmes made for television. Extraordinary People on the British television channel Five or BodyShock show the lives of severely disabled or deformed people, and can be seen as the modern equivalent of circus freak shows.[58][59] To cater to current cultural expectations of disability narratives, 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 carries 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".[60] In popular culture Freak shows are a common subject in Southern Gothic literature, including stories such as Flannery O'Connor's Temple Of The Holy Ghost,[61] Eudora Welty's Petrified Man and Keela the Outcast Indian Maiden,[62] Truman Capote's Tree of Night,[63] and Carson McCullers's The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.[64] The musical Side Show centers around Daisy and Violet Hilton and their lives as conjoined twins on exhibition.[65] American Horror Story: Freak Show also focuses on freak shows. Some of its characters are played by disabled people, rather than all of the disabilities being created through makeup or effects.[66] However, an article in The Guardian criticized the show, saying it perpetuated the term "freak" and the negative view of disability associated with it.[67] In J. K. Rowling's Wizarding World creative universe, the Circus Arcanus is a freak show for individuals with rare magical conditions and deformities, as well as a variety of magical animal species and hominids. The characters Nagini and Credence Barebone worked here during the 1920s, one, a Maledictus (a woman with a magical blood disease that leads to the turning of that individual into an animal for the rest of their life,) and the other, an Obscurial (a young person who develops a magical parasite that sometimes envelops and controls their body, caused via the suppression of magical powe
  • Theme: Dance
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  • Subject: Circus

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