In the early 19th century, the United States produced large circus performance groups. The lack of entertainment has made circus performances extremely popular. In the 1820s, a number of small Freak shows began to rise in the United States, and with the development of the circus began to make great strides in the 1840s.
In 1829, a pair of Conjoined twins Chang and Eng from Siam were brought to the United States by a Scottish merchant. Their appearance caused a great response and became the most representative person in the early deformity show. After a brief stay in the United States, the two were taken to the more developed United Kingdom for a tour, returning to the United States in 1931 and performing in the United States for a long time. Later they also acquired American citizenship and married and had children.
（1865）
According to the research of sociologist Robert Bogdan, a well-known scholar in the field, there are three main types of performers who engage in deformity shows. The first is born freaks, which refer to people who are born with physical abnormalities or develop special behaviors over the course of their lives. The second is the made freaks who do things to themselves that look different, like having a long beard. The third is graffed freaks. They would tuck their arms into tight shirts and pretend to be disabled. Or a woman with four legs whose extra legs actually belong to another person hidden.
In the development of the malformation show, there was a person who had to be mentioned - P.T. Barnum (Phineas Taylor Barnum). Barnum is the most famous manager in the deformity show industry, extremely good at marketing and hype.
P.T. Barnum (Phineas Taylor Barnum)
In 1835, Barnum bought a blind, almost completely paralyzed black slave girl. He advertised in the ad that the dying black woman, named Joyce Hess, was 161 years old and had been George Washington's childhood nanny. As soon as the advertisement came out, curious people bought tickets to listen to the old maid tell the story of "Little George". After the news spread, this anecdote was also known to more and more people, which also brought people to doubt the age of the old maid. In response to public opinion, Barnum announced that an autopsy would be conducted publicly after her death. In 1836, after the death of the poor slave girl, Barnum hired a doctor to perform an autopsy in the presence of 1,500 spectators (who all bought tickets to watch). The results of the autopsy showed that the black woman was no older than 80 years old at the time of her death. Barnum, who learned of the outcome, denied that the body belonged to "Washington's nanny," insisting that the real Joyce Hess was alive and was now touring Europe.
"Washington's Nanny" poster
In this outright scam, Barnum has made a lot of profits. Later, with his "clever" marketing, he concocted a series of deformed show plans.
In 1842, Barnum introduced the famous "General Tom Thumb" (General Tom Thumb). This is a dwarf boy who is only 5 years old and is only 25 inches (63.5 cm) tall. Barnum claimed to be 11 years old and gave him a stage name after the British fairy tale Thumb Tom Thumb. The little boy, whose real name was Stratton, was highly artistically gifted, and after training, his performances included singing, dancing, acting in burlesque and even imitating Napoleon. In 1844, Barnum took "Thumb General Tom" on a tour of England and Europe. Thanks to the outstanding performance, the performance was a great success and was even received by Queen Victoria.
Barnum and "Thumb General Tom"
"Thumb General Tom" plays Napoleon
At the time of the debut of "Thumb General Tom," Barnum also unveiled another famous scam, the Fijian Mermaid, a fake specimen stitched from the upper body and skin of a juvenile monkey. Barnum convinces the public through a series of lies that a ph.D. in biology caught the mermaid in South America and made a specimen, and it took him a lot of effort to get the specimen on display.
The Fijian mermaid later became a famous unidentified creature, and a large number of follower counterfeiters appeared. Not sure if the photo above is the version barnum shows
In the decades that followed, Barnum became the most famous manager by fabricating bizarre stories for his deformed show actors.
Dog-Faced Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced, real name Fedor Adrianovich Jeftichew Russia. In Barnum's propaganda, it came from a family of barbarians living in caves, requiring him to bark like a dog during performances. (Photo taken in the 1880s)
Myrtle Corbin joined Barnum's deformity show at the age of 13. (Photo taken in the 1880s)
Zip The Pinhead, real name William Henry Johnson. Barnum's gimmick for him was "the missing link in the evolutionary process." In the performance, it will drill out of the cage and imitate the primitive people. The performers of this deformity show with tapered heads are called Pinheads, and they suffer from intellectual disabilities and physical deformities due to Seckel syndrome.
Skeleton Man Isaac Sprague is 5 feet 6 inches (168 cm) tall and weighs only 43 pounds (19.5 kg) (1867)
Bearded Lady, whose real name is Annie Jones Elliot, suffers from hirsutism. (Photo taken in the 1880s)
Although there were curious exhibitions of deformities as gimmicks in Europe as early as the 17th century, it was not until the United States in the mid-19th century that the deformity show rose on a large scale and spread to Europe (mainly Britain). According to Robert Bogdan's research, the deformity show began in the 1840s and reached its peak in the thirty or forty years at the turn of the century. As the times progressed, this kind of immoral performance against human nature basically disappeared in the 1940s.
The deformed show, which was originally an "appendage" of the circus, did not continue like the circus. In the course of a century, it went from the beginning, to the glory, and finally to the complete decline. This kind of performance full of curiosity, hostility and ridicule was eventually abandoned by civilization, and now we can only look for the savagery and madness of the past in every photo.
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