“It Is The Front Of The Show That Gets The Dough”
That maxim of the sideshow business from it’s earliest days– either originally coined by banner painter E.H. Caldwell, or at least popularized by him– tells us all we need to know as to why sideshow banners must lie so well, and so often.
To put it another way– and to paraphrase showman Kroger Babb– the sideshow banner is “the sizzle that sells the steak.”
In this article I hope to show various banners and the reality behind their performers.
(To be continued).
Changing races? Prince Randion as depicted on a 1920 Johnny J. Jones Show sideshow banner (Cat.#1385), and as he really looked (Cat.#418). Did making Prince Randion a white man sell more tickets? The promoters of this show certainly thought so.
Largest Boy In The World (Cat.#1727) as shown on the banner looks as though he might explode. The real boy, Baby Louis, is quite large, but nothing so extreme as the artist would have us think. Also, it is doubtful that the boy in the photo is 7 years old
Huey, i.e. Hugh Bailey, is shown sitting in a wheelchair below his sideshow banner on Walter Wanous’ show in 1976.
