The Mtstery Chronicles

by Joe Nickell

  Yet another example of the genuine anomaly was the Frog Boy, although any of various deformities could qualify one for the sobriquet. There was “El Hoppo” (previously mentioned, whom I met in 1969). Although the sideshow banner depicted a youth with a frog’s hindquarters, in actuality “Hoppy” was a grey-bearded man in a wheelchair, who had spindly limbs and a distended stomach. To make himself look more froglike, he wore green leotards (Nickell 1995, 221-22). Among others, there was Otis Jordan, an African-American who had (according to one of his many admirers) the body of a four-year-old but a normal head with “a noble, scholarly face” (Meah 1998, 56). Beginning in 1963, he performed as “Otis the Frog Boy”; part of his routine was to roll, light, and smoke a cigarette using only his lips. When his act was shut down in 1984, after a woman complained about the exhibition of disabled persons, Otis moved to Coney Island, where he continued his act with the more politically correct billing, “The Human Cigarette Factory” (Bogdan 1990, 1, 279-81; Taylor 1998, 55-61).

  As with human “frogs,” other examples of genuine anomalies were also imaginatively interpreted: “The Caterpillar Man,” also known as “Prince Randian, the Hindu Living Torso”; “The Mule-Faced Woman,” Grace McDaniels, who had facial tumors; various persons who had vestigial feet and hands attached to the torso, such as “Sealo the Seal Boy” and “Dickie the Penguin Boy” (who, his banner proclaimed, “Looks and Walks Like a Penguin”); and many others (Fiedler 1993, 23, 168-70, 291; Johnson, Secreto, and Varndell 1996, 68, 126; Taylor 1997, 95).

  A second subclass of the “born” oddity is what is known in carny parlance as the “anatomical wonder,” that is, “a sideshow performer, usually perceived as a human oddity, but more a working act” (Taylor 1997, 91). A good example is James Morris, who performed with Barnum and Bailey for many years. He could stretch the skin of his cheek eight inches and pull his chest skin to the crown of his head. Morris was only one of many who were styled “The Elastic Skin Man” (or Woman). Others who had the same harmless condition, known as cutis hyper-elastica, were billed as “The India Rubber Man” or similar designation (although that term probably more often referred to a contortionist) (Drimmer 1991, 307; Taylor 1998, 95). Other anatomical wonders included “Popeye, the Man with the Elastic Eyeballs,” who could cause one or both of his eyes to protrude to an incredible degree. Charles Tripp, “The Armless Wonder,” teamed up with Eli Bo wen, “The Legless Wonder,” to perform amusing stunts like riding a bicycle built for two (Drimmer 1991, 87-93; Johnson, Secreto, and Varndell 1996, 48).

  The second main category of oddities—what Gresham termed “’made’ freaks”—is typified by tattooed persons. That sideshow genre was popularized after a Russian explorer’s visit to the Marquesas Islands in 1804. He discovered a French deserter named Jean Baptiste Cabri who had married a native woman and been extensively tattooed. Cabri returned with the explorer to Moscow, where he launched a theatrical career, then toured Europe, regaling audiences with exaggerated tales (Johnson, Secreto, and Varndell 1996, 101-2).

  Probably the most unique of the tattooed men and women (both eventually appeared on sideshow banners) was Horace Ridler, a British prep-school-educated ex-army officer who was down on his luck and decided to transform himself into a circus star. His idea was to become tattooed all over with zebra-like stripes—a process that took a year beginning in 1927. Claiming that he had been forcibly tattooed by New Guinea savages, “The Great Omi, The Zebra Man,” eventually became “one of the highest paid circus performers in the world” (Gilbert 1996, 104; Bogdan 1990, 255-56).

  Other “made” freaks include a “crucified man,” Mortado, who had had his hands and feet pierced surgically. In the holes he concealed capsules of “blood” that spouted forth when spikes were pounded through them. Later, using a specially designed chair with plumbing fixtures, he became Coney Island’s “Mortado the Human Fountain.”

  Then there were the “gaffed”—faked—freaks. Such manufactured oddities included phony Siamese twins like Adolph and Rudolph. A circa-1899 photograph reveals that they lacked the close resemblance of identical twins (which conjoined persons always are). In fact, a harness concealed under their specially devised suit held Rudolph so that he seemed to grow from Adolph’s waist (Bogdan 1990, 8; Reese 1996, 190). Fake “Alligator” girls and boys were created by painting their bodies with a weak solution of glue; after allowing it to dry, they twisted and flexed to create a cracking effect that simulated ichthyosis (Meah 1996, 120).

  Sometimes gaffing was done to enhance a true oddity. A good example was William Durks, whose deformity led him to be billed as “The Man with Two Faces” (among other appellations). In addition to a cleft palate, Durks had an eye and nostril on either side of a growth in the center of his face. He later enhanced the effect by using makeup to add an extra central “eye” and two “nostrils,” becoming “The Man with Three Eyes.” Actually Durks was one-eyed, his other being vestigial (Taylor 1997, 40-47).

  In packaging their exhibits, showmen typically exaggerated claims and fabricated backgrounds. For example, dwarfs and midgets had inches subtracted from their height, and giants often wore lifts and tall hats to enhance theirs, which was inflated by as much as 12 inches (Bogdan 1990, 95-97).

  Wonder-Workers

  After human oddities, the second major category of sideshow performers consists of those who exhibit a special skill. They include sword swallowers, who must learn to conquer the gag reflex in order to swallow not only swords—like Edith Clifford (b. 1884), “Champion Sword Swallower of the World”—but also umbrellas and lit neon tubes (Hou-dini 1920, 147-51; Mannix 1951, 96-101).

  Other performers in this class are the fire eaters and fire breathers (who sip flammable liquid and spew it across a torch to produce great fireballs). Then there are performers of various “torture” acts: the Human Pincushion (who sticks needles through the flesh); the Human Blockhead (who hammers spikes up the nose); and others, including “fakirs” who lie on beds of nails. Other wonder-workers are snake charmers (whose act might consist of little more than wrapping a large snake about the body [again see Figure 11-1]); contortionists like “Huey the Pretzel Man”; and numerous “Strong Men” and women, including Louis Cyr, whom Houdini (1920, 221) suggested was “the strongest man in the known world at all-around straight lifting.” In this strongman subcategory were William Le Roy (b. 1873), “The Human Claw-Hammer,” who could extract a nail driven through a two-inch plank using only his teeth; and Madame Rice, “The Most Diminutive Lady Samson in the World” (Taylor 1997, 91-96; Johnson, Secreto, and Varndell 1996, 78; Houdini 1920, 223-24; Bogdan 1990, 265).

  Illusions

  A third major class of sideshow features is represented by what is known as an “illusion show.” An example—as old as it is effective—is a transformation effect such as girl-to-gorilla, skeletal-corpse-to-living-vampire, and so on (Taylor 1997, 93, 94). In 1969, on a break from my stint as a carnival pitchman, I joined spectators in a sideshow tent to see “Atasha the Gorilla Girl” standing, apparently, at the rear of a cage. As a voice chanted, “Goreelyagoreelyagoreelya, ATASHA, goreelya!” Atasha’s features were slowly transformed into those of a large gorilla. Suddenly, it rushed from the unlocked(!) cage and lunged toward the crowd, sending some spectators screaming from the exit—an occurrence that helped draw the next tip (Nickell 1970, Teller 1997).

  Of course, the effect was a magician’s trick. Often the bally talker slyly noted that the “Gorilla Girl”—or the “victim” in another illusion termed “The Headless Woman”—was in “a legerdemain condition.” Other illusions commonly featured in sideshows were “The Girl in the Fish Bowl” (wherein a living “mermaid” appears in apparent miniature in a goldfish bowl) and “Spidora, the Spider Girl” (which consisted of a living human head atop an arachnid’s body) (Taylor 1997, 21, 93, 94).

  An illusion of early vintage that was especially popular around the end of the nineteenth century was an effect known to magicians and carnys as a “blade box.�
�� A young woman would lie in a box that was then intersected with a number of blades (Figure 11-3). The secret? To learn that, one paid an extra charge (another form of aftercatch called a ding) to come up on the platform and peer inside the box. To provide extra incentive to the male spectators, the magician might reach in and pull out his assistant’s costume! The spectators were thus fooled twice, since the costume was an extra one (“Science” 1997; Taylor 1997, 92).

  Animals

  Still another major type of sideshow exhibit features animals. While the premier acts are shown under the circus Big Top, midways and carnivals often have sideshow animal presentations. In 1972 in Toronto, I visited an all-animal ten-in-one. It included a three-legged sheep, touted as “Nature’s Living Tripod,” and various alleged hybrids (zebra/donkey, turkey/chicken, dog/raccoon). These did not match their banner portraits, which showed the front half of one attached to the rear of another, but merely resembled a blend of features. There was also a ram with four horns, a sheep and a cow with five legs each, and other oddities.

  FIGURE 11-3. Carny showman Bobby Reynolds presents a blade-box illusion at New York’s Erie County Fair, 1999. (Photograph by the author.)

  As billed, the “World’s Smallest Horse” was a “preserved exhibit” (a fetus pickled in ajar!), and the “World’s Largest Horse” was indeed in “photographic form.” To distinguish the living exhibits from such “curios” (as I describe them in the next section), banners still typically feature the screaming word “ALIVE.”

  With the decline of the ten-in-one in the 1980s—due to their high overhead and the fact that the exhibition of human oddities could provoke complaints—individual animal and illusion exhibits became the mainstay. One was the “Giant Rat” show that I witnessed at the Kentucky State Fair (see Figure 11-4). In such exhibits the giant creature was either of two types of South American aquatic rodents, usually the capybara (which belongs to the guinea pig family) (Taylor 1997, 20, 93; Encyclopedia Britannica 1960).

  FIGURE 11-4. “Giant Rat,” an individual sideshow feature at many carnivals. Note the word “ALIVE.” (Photograph by the author.)

  Curios

  A fifth and last category of sideshow exhibits is reserved for any inanimate object, including preserved human or animal specimens. Bar-num’s “Feejee mermaid” is one (albeit gaffed) example. Another is any of the various sideshow mummies, such as one alleged to be of John Wilkes Booth that was exhibited throughout the first half of the twentieth century (Quigley 1998, 69).

  Curios I have paid admission to see include the bullet-riddled car of outlaws Bonnie and Clyde; a “sasquatch” (actually a rubber fake) “safely frozen in ice” (Nickell 1995, 230); and a concrete copy of the famous hoaxed petrified man that was billed as “the Cardiff Giant, ten feet four inches.” Although the fine print on the bottom of the banner confessed, “This is a facsimile,” the talker promised, “He’s a big son of a gun!”

  Exit This Way

  Most ten-in-ones featured an extra attraction (or blowoff), typically curtained from view, that functioned like an aftercatch to the entire show. For an extra fee, one might see a five-legged horse or an illusion like the Headless Woman (Mannix 1951, 45; Bogdan 1990, 103-4).

  Often a spectator would ask of an exhibit, “Is it real?” Showman Ward Hall responded for carnys everywhere: “Oh, it’s all real. Some of it’s really real, some of it’s really fake, but it’s all really good” (Taylor 1997, 81). Echoing the sentiment was legendary showman Bobby Reynolds, whose traveling “International Circus Sideshow Museum & Gallery” featured a huge banner ballyhooing “The Really Real Frog Band! Real Frogs!” Outfitted with miniature clarinets, drums, and other instruments is a band of stuffed amphibians. Did Reynolds get any complaints from the tip? “No. They’d look at it, they’d say, ’Do these frogs play?’ and I’d say, ’Well, they used to.’ Are they real frogs?’ ’They’re real frogs.’ ’Why don’t they play?’ ’They’re dead’” (Taylor 1997, 22-23).

  Carnys developed an us-versus-them attitude that derived from the hostility they frequently encountered from “rubes” (the locals). In the carnival subculture, outsiders could be targets for rigged games, shortchanged ticket sales, and other scams (Bogdan 1990, 88-89). For those forewarned—like readers of this introduction to sideshows— there was, and is, much to learn from and appreciate in carnivals.

  REFERENCES

  Bogdan, Robert. 1990. Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

  Drimmer, Frederick. 1991. Very Special People. New York: Citadel Press.

  Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1960. s.v. “capybara.”

  Fiedler, Leslie. 1993. Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Self. New York: Doubleday.

  Gilbert, Steve. 1996. Totally tattooed. In Freaks, Geeks & Strange Girls: Sideshow Banners of the Great American Midway, edited by Randy Johnson, Jim Secreto, and Teddy Varndell, 101-5. Honolulu: Hardy Marks Publications.

  Gresham, William Lindsay. 1953. Monster Midway. New York: Rinehart.

  Harris, Neil. 1973. Humbug: The Art of P. T. Barnum. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

  Houdini, Harry.[1920] N.d. Miracle Mongers and Their Methods. Reprinted Toronto: Coles.

  Johnson, Randy, Jim Secreto, and Teddy Varndell. 1996. Freaks, Geeks & Strange Girls: Sideshow Banners of the Great American Midway. Honolulu: Hardy Marks Publications.

  Mannix, Dan. 1951. Step Right Up! New York: Harper & Brothers.

  Meah, Johnny. 1996. Notes on alligator skinned people. In Freaks, Geeks & Strange Girls: Sideshow Banners of the Great American Midway, edited by Randy Johnson, Jim Secreto, and Teddy Varndell, 120-25. Honolulu: Hardy Marks Publications.

  ———— . 1998. The Frog Prince. In James Taylor’s Shocked and Amazed! On and Off the Midway, vol. 5, 54-61. Baltimore: Dolphin-Moon Press/Atomic Books.

  Nickell, Joe. 1970. Magic in the carnival. Performing Arts in Canada 7, no. 2 (May): 41-42.

  ————. 1995. Entities. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books.

  Parker, Mike. 1997. The World’s Most Fantastic Freaks. London: Hamlyn.

  Quigley, Christine. 1998. Mummy Dearest. In James Taylor’s Shocked and Amazed! On and Off the Midway, vol. 5, 65-69. Baltimore: Dolphin-Moon Press/Atomic Books.

  Reese, Ralph. 1996. The art of gaffing freaks. In The Big Book of Freaks, edited by Gahan Wilson et al., 189-91. New York: Paradox Press.

  “Science of Magic.” 1997. Documentary on Discovery Channel, aired 30 November.

  Taylor, James. 1997. James Taylor’s Shocked and Amazed! On and Off the Midway, vol. 4. Baltimore: Dolphin-Moon Press/Atomic Books.

  ———— . 1998. James Taylor’s Shocked and Amazed! On and Off the Midway, vol. 5. Baltimore: Dolphin-Moon Press/Atomic Books.

  Teller [of Penn and Teller, magicians]. 1997. Gorilla girl. In James Taylor’s Shocked and Amazed! On and Off the Midway, vol. 4. Baltimore: Dolphin-Moon Press/Atomic Books.

  12

  ‘Mothman’ Solved!

  Investigating on Site

  The ill-fated 2002 movie The Mothman Prophecies, based on a book of the same title (Keel 1975), focused on a “flying monster” that plagued the Point Pleasant, West Virginia, area for a year, beginning in November 1966. In addition to giant-bird sightings, the tale involved alien contacts, Men in Black, a tragic bridge collapse, and other elements (Nickell 2002). In April 2002 I was able to make an investigative trip to Point Pleasant, spending a few days there. 1 came back with some interesting and illuminating information on the case.

  Pranklore

  A popular legend of the Point Pleasant area holds that “Mothman” was the creation of a prankster. Supposedly, a local man dressed in a Halloween costume had hidden at the abandoned munitions complex known as the TNT area, about five miles north of Point Pleasant, and had scared young couples by jumping out at their cars at night.

  But this local legend is not credible, in my opinion. For one thing, knowledgeable area residents call attention to
the fact that there have been several different claimants of the prankster title. For example, Rush Finley (2002), who with his wife, Ruth, owns the historic Lowe Hotel where I stayed, told me there were “at least half a dozen people” who now claim responsibility for the pranks, supposedly done when they were teenagers. Finley is echoed by Charlie Cline (2002), manager of the music store Criminal Records, who thinks many are “jumping on the bandwagon” in this regard. Cline has heard several such stories.

  Another reason this explanation is not credible (except perhaps for later, bandwagon or copycat pranks) is that the appearance of such a trickster is not at all compatible with the original eyewitnesses’ descriptions of the creature, especially with regard to its glowing red eyes (as we shall see presently).

  Costumed prankster or not, there were Mothman hoaxes. Rush Finley told me how some construction workers had used helium from welding tanks to make balloons from sheet plastic and tied red flashlights to them one night. Thus weighted, these Mothmen did not soar high but only drifted over the treetops.

  Still other pranks and hoaxes occurred following the first wave of sightings. The spring of 1967 brought a number of UFO reports that were described in local newspapers and involved both misidentification of mundane phenomena and deliberate hoaxing. Some of the UFOs were soon identified as commercial or military planes (notably a U.S. C-119 “flying boxcar” on a training mission from Columbus, Ohio). However, a private plane with a “prankster pilot” was reported to have been “gliding back and forth across the river for several nights” to frighten locals. On one occasion, however, according to a newspaper account, the pilot came too close to a hilltop and was suddenly forced “to cut his engines on.” (See newspaper clippings in Sergent and Wamsley 2002.)