OLD SIDE SHOWS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22720, 5 November 1935, Page 18

OLD SIDE SHOWS

AND STRANGE PEOPLE WHEN BARNUM FLOURISHED REAL FREAKS AND FALSE Many changes have taken place during the course of years in the attractions provided by the side shows at the agricultural show, says a writer in the Melbourne Age, The freaks of Nature, such as the Siamese Twins, the Living Skeleton, the Boneless Wonder, the Bearded Lady, the dwarfs and giants, the twoheaded calf, and the six-legged sheep have ceased to exist, or at least the showmen and their public are convinced that their day is over. Most of the side shows at the show this year have invited patrons to exercise their skill in games in which it is easier to lose than to win. The origin of the side show was the peep show. “ Lord ” George Sanger, the most famous English showman of the Victorian era, gives in his book, “ Seventy Years a Showman,” an interesting account of his experiences as a child in the days of the peep show. His father, who fought at the_ Battle of Trafalgar on Nelson’s flagship, the Victory, and was severely wounded in boarding an enemy ship, was retired from the navy on a pension of £lO a year, and then made a fresh start in life as a showman. While serving in the navy ho had acquired some skill in “ hanky panky and conjuring from two strolling conjurers who were among his shipmates, and he began his career as a showman by fitting up a small peep show. “This was nothing more than a large box, carried on the back, containing some movable and very gaudy pictures, and having six peep holes fitted with fairly strong lenses,” writes his son. “ When a pitch was made, the box was placed on a folding trestle, and the public was invited to walk up and see the show. My father was an excellent talker. He could ‘patter’ in the most approved style, especially about the Battle of Trafalgar, scenes of which formed one of the staple features of his little show. In his white smock frock, beaver hat, knee breeches with worsted stockings and low-buckled shoes a costume he never varied to the day of his death—the tall,, handsome, well-set-up young fellow attracted much attention. " LIVING CURIOSITIES.” After his marriage he launched out on a larger scale, purchasing a caravan in which to travel about the country from one fair to another. “He procured new pictures and made a bigger peep show, and resolved on additional attractions in the way of living curiosities. To obtain these was the difficulty, but he was equal to the occasion, and very soon was travelling with ‘Madame Gomez, the tallest woman in the world, 3 and laraec Ahmee and Orio Rio, the savage cannibal pigmies of the Dark Continent. This description sounds very imposing, but those ‘ living curiosities ’ were not all that they seemed. My father had taken a showman’s licence in introducing these novelties to the public. This often involves a judicious economy of the truth. First, as to Madame Gomez. She had nothing foreign about her but the name, nor was she very remarkable as a giantess. Art, however, aids where Nature stops short, and this is where my father came in. Madame was exhibited on a raised platform in the travelling booth, and when the company was assembled the curtains were pulled aside and she stepped forward from a mass of draperies at the back. Her actual height, which might have been nearly six feet, was added to by her high heels and cork raisers in her shoes, and —note the point—her dresses were made very full and long. “ Seen from the audience, she certainly looked very tall, and my father would ‘patter’ to the audience, in this style: ‘ This, ladies and gentlemen, is Madame Gomez, admitted to be the tallest woman the world has ever seen. So admirably, however, is she proportioned that her great height does not immediately impress the observer. In order, therefore, to assure you that there is no deception I will ask the tallest gentleman in the company to ascend the platform. You will then see that he has not 'the slightest difficulty in passing under madame’s extended arm.’ THE TEST. The tallest man would soon be picked out, and as he ascended the steps to the small platform Madame would pull her long dresses aside and draw backwards as if to make room. In making this movement she imperceptibly gained a little step or dais, cunningly concealed by the back draperies. This dais added at least seven inches to her height; while the long dress fell around her in seemingly perfect fit. The arm test was, of course, always easily passed under these conditions, and the spectators invariably went away satisfied there was no deception.”

There was a similar little juggling with the truth in regard to Tamee Ahmee and Orio Rio, the savage cannibal pigmies. They were really two rather intelligent mulatto children, their mother being a negress and their father an Irishman. My father had got them from their mother at Bristol, and they were aged respectively ten years and nine years. Feathers, beads, and carefullyapplied paint gave them the necessary savage appearance, and the “ patter ” did the rest. “ Ladies and Gentlemen,: — Those wonderful people are fully grown, being, in fact, each over 30 years of age. They were captured by Portuguese traders in the African wilds, and are incapable of ordinary human speech. Their food consists of raw meat, and if they can capture a small animal they tear it to pieces alive with their teeth, eagerly devouring its flesh and drinking its blood.” Thus was the tale told, and the credulous country folks were mightily impressed. So successful, indeed, was the whole show that rivals on the road hated my father bitterly, complaining that when he was about he took all the money.

Before he was six years of age, George Sanger, the sixth child of his parents, was doing the “ patter ” for his father’s new peep show. “It was an enormous improvement on the one wherewith my father started life on the road,” he writes. “To my childish mind it was indeed ‘ the greatest show on earth,’ and some of the proudest hours of my existence came in this year, when I was allowed in my shrill treble to call the attention of the fair-going crowds to its glories. It had 20 glasses, so that 20 persons could see the views at the same time, the pictures being pulled up and down by strings. At night it was illuminated by a row of tallow candles, set before the pictures and the observer, and requiring very regular snuffing. Tragedies were always strong points with peep shows, and one of our attractions at that time was a series of scenes representing the ‘Murder in the Bed Barn.’ ‘Walk up! Walk up! ’ I would pipe, ‘and see the only correct views of the terrible murder of Maria Martin. They are historically accurate and true to life, depicting the death of Maria at the hands of the villain Corder, in the famous Red Barn. You will see how the ghost of Maria appeared to her mother on three successive nights at the bedside, leading to the discovery of the body and the arrest of Corder at Eveley Grove House, Brentford, seven miles from London.’ When we had our row of spectators getting their pennyworths

from the peep holes, I would describe the various pictures as they were pulled into view. The arrest of Corder was always given special prominence, as follows:—‘The arrest of the murderer Corder as he was at breakfast with the two Miss Singleton. Lee, the officer, is seen entering the door and telling Corder of the serious charge against him. Observe the horrified faces of the ladies, and note also so true to life are these pictures that even the saucepan is shown upon the fire, and the minute glass upon the table, timing the boiling of the eggs! * ” HUMAN FREAKS. Many of the so-called freaks of Nature exhibited by showmen of a preceding generation were frauds, but some wore genuine. To understand the attraction such exhibitions and peep shows had for the general public it is necessary to remember that very little in the way of public entertainment was provided. Sports and games had not been developed to anything like the extent that they have since been, and not only were there no films or wireless, but even the theatre was frowned upon by the churches, and therefore was tabu to most families. Nevertheless, it seems incredible that 800,000 people paid to see Mile. Bois de Cheyne, the bearded lady, when she was exhibited in England in 1852-53. She was a Swiss girl, having been born at Veersoix in 1831. At the age of eight years she had a beard of two inches, which increased to five inches by the time she was 14. When she was exhibited in London she was 22 years of age, and had a strong black beard and thick hair on her arms and back. She married a French artist, M. Clofullia, and their first child, a boy, was covered with hair at birth. Barnum engaged the bearded lady to appear at his museum in New York in 1853, and as usual he adopted enterprising methods of drawing public attention to the latest attraction of the museum. He induced a man named William Carr to take legal proceedings for the return of the 25 cents (one shilling) he had paid for admission to see the bearded lady, the claim for refund resting on the contention that the lady was a man. This gave Barnum the opportunity „of putting doctors and her husband in the witness box to prove she was a woman. THE RECORD. No human freak has ever approached the record of the famous dwarf General Tom Thumb as a money spinner. But there was nothing extraordinary about this dwarf, and his success as a public attraction over a long period of years was due to the skilful showmanship of Barnum. When Barnum first saw Tom Thumb (his real name was Charles Sherwood Stratton) at/Bridgeport, Connecticut, U.S.A., where the dwarf lived with his parents, the boy was five years of age, weighed 15lb, and measured two feet one inch in height. Barnum engaged the boy for exhibition at his museum at New York, but as he was doubtful whether a dwarf would prove much of an attraction, the engagement was for only four weeks, at a salary of 3 dollars (12s 6d) a week), plus board and lodging for the child and his mother. Barnum advertised the child as being 11 years old, in order to create the impression that his email size was more abnormal than was actually the case. He also advertised him-as having been imported from England at great expense, as in those days Americans had not begun to boost themselves and preferred importations from England to local products. It was Barnum who christened the dwarf Tom Thumb (after the dwarf in Charles Pcrrault’e fairy story), gave him the title of general, and dressed him in a military uniform as a miniature Napoleon. His weight increased to 251 b at 25 years of age, and eventually he reached a height of 3 feet 4 inches.

Barnum boomed Tom Thumb so effectively in New York that he proved a decided attraction, and the engagement was renewed for a year at 7 dollars (29) a week. The salary was increased to 25 dollars (£5) when Tom Thumb’s parents a\Vakened to the value of their son to Barnum, and subsequently the salary was raised to 50 dollars (£10). The dwarf sang songs in a piping treble, danced and told stories. He had the pert manner of a forward child, and this added to the attractions of the midget for adults. After two years in New York Barnum took him to England in 1844, where the enterprising showman succeeded in getting a command from Queen Victoria to bring the midget to Buckingham Palace. The Queen took a fancy to Tom Thumb, and he appeared at Buckingham Palace three timeg_ to amuse the children. This made the dwarf famous throughout England, and enormous crowds thronged to see him at the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, where he was publicly exhibited by Barnum at a shilling a head. And society hostesses vied with one another to secure the dwarf at their parties to entertain guests —at ten guineas an evening. When Barnum took the midget on tour to France, Belgium and Spain he was received by the monarchs of these countries. By that time the dwarf’s parents had fully awakened to his financial value, and the tour was conducted on a basis of equal shares between Barnum and them. It was said that the net proceeds of the tour of Great Britain and the Continent, which lasted three years, reached £150,000. When Barnum took the midget back to America he advertised him extensively as having teen received by all the crowned heads of Europe, and this added greatly to the midget’s fame, and his drawing power.