Adapted from The University of Sheffield, National Fairground Archive website:
English showman Tom Norman is best-known, and made notorious through his exhibiting of Joseph Merrick, “The Elephant Man.” Though only a short chapter in his long career, his affiliation with Merrick, and his scurrilous depiction in the Frederick Treves autobiography, and the David Lynch film, have marred the reputation of a man who otherwise led an interesting and colorful life.
Norman was born Thomas Noakes on May 7, 1860 in Dallington Sussex, the eldest of 17 children. He claims he first became involved in show business at 15 years old when he went into partnership with a showman who had a penny gaff shop– the English version of a store show– in Islington, exhibiting a Mademoiselle Electra, an electric woman act.
The first definitive record we have for a showman called Norman is from the Agricultural Hall in Islington, the venue for an English, so-called World’s Fair. The fair included the “Smallest People In the World,” a Giant Boy aged seventeen, Williams’s Ghost Show, Chittock and Testo’s Dog and Monkey Circus, and Mander’s Huge Collection of Wild Beasts. Norman’s show was his Performing Fishes, which reputedly could not only talk but play the pianoforte.(!) He also exhibited the French Artillery Giant Horse.
By the 1870s Norman had exhibited Eliza Jenkins the “Skeleton Woman,” and the “Balloon-Headed Baby.” Around this same time Norman exhibited a geek act, i.e. “the woman who bit live rat heads off. ” He tells us this in his autobiography:
In 1882 he was performing at the Royal Agricultural Hall when P. T. Barnum was in the audience. After the show an impressed Barnum pointed to the large silver King Albert chain which he wore and proclaimed Norman “The Silver King.” The name stuck.
By 1883 he had thirteen penny gaff shops throughout London including locations such as Whitechapel, Hammersmith and Croydon and Edgeware Road. At this time Norman came into contact with Joseph Merrick through a showman called George Hitchcock who proposed that Norman take over the London management of the Elephant Man. This episode in Norman’s life is shrouded in controversy as Sir Frederick Treves the surgeon who rescued Merrick blackened the character of Norman in his autobiography. In actuality the Merrick was managed by Norman for only a few months. When the London shop was closed by the police, Merrick was placed in the hands of Sam Roper a traveling showman.
Tom Norman’s career over the following ten years saw him managing a troupe of midgets, exhibiting the famous “Man in a Trance” show at Nottingham Goose Fair, exhibiting Mary Anne Bevan the “World’s Ugliest Woman,” John Chambers “The Armless Carpenter,” and Leonine “The Lion Faced Lady.”
In 1896 Tom married Amy Rayner at the Royal Agricultural Hall and their marriage lasted until his death in 1930. Their first son Tom was born in 1899 and was soon followed by Hilda, Ralph, Jimmy, Nelly, Arthur, Amy , Jack, Daisy and George. Soon after the birth of his first son, Tom became an auctioneer. His most famous sale was in 1905 when he organized the disposal of Lord George Sanger’s Zoo at Margate.
Norman continued to travel with his shows and maintain his penny gaff shops in London while basing the auctioneering side of the business at his family home the Manor House Dallington. His sons Tom, Ralph, Jimmy, Arthur and George had inherited their father’s showmanship. Ralph Van became known as Hal Denver and travelled throughout Europe and America as a Wild West performer, George and Arthur found fame as clowns in many of the world’s greatest circuses, and Tom and Jim Norman remained on the fairground.
By 1915 Norman was slowly retiring from the fairground business, keeping up his auctioneering business, buying and selling show caravans and dealing in horses for circuses and pantomimes. After the end of the first World War, Tom became restless again and appeared at the Olympia Circus in 1919 with Phoebe “The Strange Girl” and exhibited at Birmingham, and the Dreamland Margate in 1921. Tom then returned to the venue where he had first started when he presented shows at the Royal Agricultural Hall, Christmas Fair throughout the 1920s but living in semi-retirement at the family base in Beddington Lane, Croydon.
He died in Croydon on August 24 1930. The following tribute was published in the World’s Fair:
English showman Tom Norman is best-known, and made notorious through his exhibiting of Joseph Merrick, “The Elephant Man.” Though only a short chapter in his long career, his affiliation with Merrick, and his scurrilous depiction in the Frederick Treves autobiography, and the David Lynch film, have marred the reputation of a man who otherwise led an interesting and colorful life.
Norman was born Thomas Noakes on May 7, 1860 in Dallington Sussex, the eldest of 17 children. He claims he first became involved in show business at 15 years old when he went into partnership with a showman who had a penny gaff shop– the English version of a store show– in Islington, exhibiting a Mademoiselle Electra, an electric woman act.
The first definitive record we have for a showman called Norman is from the Agricultural Hall in Islington, the venue for an English, so-called World’s Fair. The fair included the “Smallest People In the World,” a Giant Boy aged seventeen, Williams’s Ghost Show, Chittock and Testo’s Dog and Monkey Circus, and Mander’s Huge Collection of Wild Beasts. Norman’s show was his Performing Fishes, which reputedly could not only talk but play the pianoforte.(!) He also exhibited the French Artillery Giant Horse.
By the 1870s Norman had exhibited Eliza Jenkins the “Skeleton Woman,” and the “Balloon-Headed Baby.” Around this same time Norman exhibited a geek act, i.e. “the woman who bit live rat heads off. ” He tells us this in his autobiography:
“Dick Bakers wife, who used to be with me and gave I think now, the most repulsive performance, that I have ever had or seen, during the whole of my long career. it consisted of Mrs Baker, putting her naked hand into a cage, fetch out a live rat and proceed to bite its head off.”
In 1882 he was performing at the Royal Agricultural Hall when P. T. Barnum was in the audience. After the show an impressed Barnum pointed to the large silver King Albert chain which he wore and proclaimed Norman “The Silver King.” The name stuck.
By 1883 he had thirteen penny gaff shops throughout London including locations such as Whitechapel, Hammersmith and Croydon and Edgeware Road. At this time Norman came into contact with Joseph Merrick through a showman called George Hitchcock who proposed that Norman take over the London management of the Elephant Man. This episode in Norman’s life is shrouded in controversy as Sir Frederick Treves the surgeon who rescued Merrick blackened the character of Norman in his autobiography. In actuality the Merrick was managed by Norman for only a few months. When the London shop was closed by the police, Merrick was placed in the hands of Sam Roper a traveling showman.
Tom Norman’s career over the following ten years saw him managing a troupe of midgets, exhibiting the famous “Man in a Trance” show at Nottingham Goose Fair, exhibiting Mary Anne Bevan the “World’s Ugliest Woman,” John Chambers “The Armless Carpenter,” and Leonine “The Lion Faced Lady.”
In 1896 Tom married Amy Rayner at the Royal Agricultural Hall and their marriage lasted until his death in 1930. Their first son Tom was born in 1899 and was soon followed by Hilda, Ralph, Jimmy, Nelly, Arthur, Amy , Jack, Daisy and George. Soon after the birth of his first son, Tom became an auctioneer. His most famous sale was in 1905 when he organized the disposal of Lord George Sanger’s Zoo at Margate.
Norman continued to travel with his shows and maintain his penny gaff shops in London while basing the auctioneering side of the business at his family home the Manor House Dallington. His sons Tom, Ralph, Jimmy, Arthur and George had inherited their father’s showmanship. Ralph Van became known as Hal Denver and travelled throughout Europe and America as a Wild West performer, George and Arthur found fame as clowns in many of the world’s greatest circuses, and Tom and Jim Norman remained on the fairground.
By 1915 Norman was slowly retiring from the fairground business, keeping up his auctioneering business, buying and selling show caravans and dealing in horses for circuses and pantomimes. After the end of the first World War, Tom became restless again and appeared at the Olympia Circus in 1919 with Phoebe “The Strange Girl” and exhibited at Birmingham, and the Dreamland Margate in 1921. Tom then returned to the venue where he had first started when he presented shows at the Royal Agricultural Hall, Christmas Fair throughout the 1920s but living in semi-retirement at the family base in Beddington Lane, Croydon.
He died in Croydon on August 24 1930. The following tribute was published in the World’s Fair:
There are very few showmen who have not met the famous showman’s auctioneer, “The Silver King”, He has been a conspicuous and charismatic figure in our business for the past half a century and has conducted more showman’ sales than any other auctioneer in the country. During his fifty years with us, he has endeared himself to all sections from the humblest to the highest. He was a charming personality with a commanding appearance that left a lifetime impression upon anyone that he met. All his life he has been a showman and as such he died.