FREAKS
"I may look crooked and out of style, but I greet the world with a grand old smile"
-- Robert Huddleston "The Pony Boy"
Those who chose to call themselves Freaks-- and made a living at it-- were and are just as happy overall as you and me. As Diane Arbus once said:
"Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats.”
"Born-Freaks" were the royalty of the sideshow, standing above the "Made-Freaks" and Working-Acts in earning power and status. As performers and people they were a society set apart, a society that earned respect for changing its liabilities into assets.
From the texts written in Latin, Ambrose Paré's Monstres et Prodiges (1573), Licetus Fortunius' De Monstrorum Caussis, Natura, et Differentiis...(1634), and Ulisse Aldrovandi's Monstrorum Historia (1642), the classic images of Freaks had jumped from the hidden pages to become in the late 19th and early 20th Century entertainment for the masses.
The freakshow amused, educated, and often intentionally horrified.
FREE IMAGES
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FREAKS
- BEASTS
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FEATS
- Acrobats (37)
- Bag Puncher (2)
- Bicycle & Unicycle Acts (5)
- Buried Alive/Suspended Animation (3)
- Contortionists (26)
- Daredevils (37)
- Equilibrists (14)
- Funambulists (10)
- Fire Acts (35)
- Human-Fish (1)
- Iron Skull (7)
- Knife Throwers (6)
- Mechanical Man/Living Doll/Robot Man/Living Statue (3)
- Sharpshooters (5)
- Strong Folk (40)
- Whip-Crackers (1)
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WORKING ACTS
- Bed of Nails/Nail Board (9)
- Circassians (72)
- Electric, Magnetic, X-Ray Acts (7)
- Ethnic Curiosities (45)
- Fakirs (30)
- Glass Eaters (4)
- Gurners and Grimacers (10)
- Human Blockhead (2)
- Human Ostrich (7)
- Human Pincushions (10)
- Hunger Artists (23)
- Regurgitators and Water Spouters (14)
- Snake Acts (84)
- Sword-Box (1)
- Sword Ladders (10)
- Sword Swallowers (88)
- Tattooed People (112)
- Wild Folk (98)
- NOVELTY/VARIETY
- ODDBALLS
- EXHIBITS
- SIDESHOW
- DIME MUSEUM
- CARNIVAL
- CIRCUS
- VAUDEVILLE
- SEX ! ! !
- MISC.
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MORE
- Freak and Novelty Performer Advertising (14)
- The Unknown Performers (2)
- Showmen & Promoters (61)
- Balloons and Airships (1)
- Banners & Banner Painters (47)
- Confections, Snacks and Refreshments (11)
- Fortune Tellers, Psychics, Spirtualists, Mindreaders (15)
- Punch & Judy, Puppets, Marionettes (11)
- Trade Publications (13)
- Funhouse, Dark Ride, Spook Show (2)
Performers in this category
- Alice Bounds, "The Bear Girl"
- Sadie Williams Anderson
- Angelo Rossitto
- Ann E. Leak
- Annie Jones
- Ashbury Benjamin
- Chang and Eng Bunker
- Baricassen
- Betty Lou Williams
- Bingo
- Captain Rudolf Ivanovich
- Chief Debro and wife Miss Olof Krarer, Esquimaux Lady
- Colon T. Updike "Boy With The Horse's Mane"
- Clarence Dale "The Big Head Boy"
- Delina Rossa
- Mildred D. Durks
- Jack Earle
- Johnny Eck
- Eddie Masher
- Elizabeth Green "The Stork Woman"
- Ella Harper
- Ernie & Len
- Forrest Layman
- Dudley Foster
- Frank Lentini
- Freddie Esele
- Mademoiselle Gabrielle
- Gaddah, "The American Elephant Man"
- George Lippert
- George Williams
- Gondio and Apexia
- Benjamin G. Green "The Alligator Man"
- Happy Jack Eckert
- Carrie Holt
- Howard "The Lobster Boy"
- Robert Huddleston
- Irma Loustau
- Jean and Jacques Libbera
- Jo Jo "The Russian Dog-Faced Boy"
- Jones' Twins
- Jose de Leon
- Julia Pastrana
- Koo Koo "The Bird Girl"
- Krao
- Laloo
- Lewis Love
- Lionel "The Lion Faced Boy"
- Lucia Zarate
- Lucy Elvira Jones
- Lya Graf
- Mademoiselle Darwina
- Martha Morris
- Maxine Mina
- May-Joe
- Grace McDaniel
- Robert Owen Melvin
- Mignon, the Penguin Girl
- Millie-Christine McKoy
- Milo, "The Mule-Faced Boy"
- Myrtle Corbin
- Nicodemus
- Otis Jordan
- Percy Pape
- Percilla Bejano
- Johann K. Petursson
- Piramal & Sami
- Prince Ma-Ho
- Princess Wee Wee
- Jennifer Quigley
- Radica Doodica
- Prince Randion
- Roy Bard
- The Sacred Hairy Family of Burmah
- Sam Alexander
- Sam Alexander
- Serpentina
- Siah Khan
- Soopromanien Munsamy
- Stella MacGregor
- Grady Stiles
- Tiny Tasha
- Tocci Brothers
- Jeanie Tomaini
- Catherine McDonald
- William Durks
- John Williams
- Zandau
- Zip "What-Is-It"
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