The Sideshow Series
Francesco Lentini, The Great Lentini
2000 | wood, leather, fabric, paint, cord | 20” x 20” x 71”
Francesco Lentini was born in Italy in 1889 with three legs and two penises (and an extra thumb at the junction of his third leg and his spine). One account says that his parents were so horrified by his physical additions that they had nothing to do with him, leaving him to be raised by an aunt and uncle. As a child, he was unhappy with his physical characteristics. So, his new parents took him to a home for disabled children. There he saw people who couldn't even walk, much less play soccer like he did. After that, he had a much better attitude. In fact, he wrote of the incident, “From that time to this I have never complained. I think life is beautiful and I enjoy living it.” By all accounts, he was a very pleasant and kind man. He moved to the U.S. and showed in many carnivals, including his own. He was known as the “Three Legged Wonder” and the “King of Freaks.” He died in 1966 at 78 years of age. He was survived by his wife, Helen, and several children.
Prince Randian and Johnny Eck
2001 | wood, leather, fabric, paint, cord | 23” x 16” x 72”
Prince Randian came to the U.S. from British Guiana in 1889. He was a sideshow attraction for 45 years, married and had five children. He was 63 years old when he died. He got along by doing everything with his lips. He could build things, shave and even roll a cigarette. His method of ambulation consisted of wiggling his hips and shoulders in a sort of rolling, caterpillar-like movement. If you would like to see him in action, rent the 1932 Tod Browning movie, Freaks. A picture from the set of that movie, in which Johnny Eck also appeared, was the inspiration for my sculpture to contain both figures on one platform.
Johnny Eckhardt was born August 27, 1910, along with his twin brother Robert, who was "normal.” They were great co-conspirators and spent almost their entire lives together. Johnny died in 1991. In later years he was a recluse in his Baltimore home and became a painter. He was incredibly agile just getting around on his hands. Also see Freaks to see him in motion—he was wonderfully graceful and fast. Johnny was also cheerful and had quite a good sense of humor.
Robert Wadlow
2001 | wood, leather, fabric, paint, metal, glass | 16” x 16” x 72”
Robert Pershing Wadlow was the tallest man who ever lived at 8’ 11½”. He was the only human oddity in this series who was not content with the way he was. All he wanted was to be a totally normal man, but his hands were too huge to even hold a pencil—a serious hindrance during his time in business college. The stand of this sculpture is natural oak instead of being painted, since Wadlow refused to be dressed in costume when he exhibited—he always wore a standard (albeit huge) suit. Wadlow was also a Mason and the tallest Boy Scout who ever lived. He died at only 22 years of age. Since a pituitary giant has disproportionately long limbs, his nerves couldn’t quite get messages from his feet all the way up to his brain. So, when one of the new leg braces he was wearing rubbed a raw area on his leg, it became infected before he even knew. He died from the resulting infection.
Julia Pastrana
2001 | wood, leather, fabric, paint, ribbon, beads | 13” x 13” x 69”
Julia Pastrana was a bearded lady, originally from Mexico, who traveled the world exhibiting herself. She was a voracious reader and an accomplished dancer. She married her manager, Theo Lent, and died from complications of the birth of their child. The baby was also hairy and died within hours of his birth. The figure in this sculpture wears a replica of a costume Julia embroidered herself. Strangely, after her death, her husband had her mummified and kept exhibiting her. The mummy has recently been found in a medical museum in Sweden, and her family is trying to repatriate it to a decent burial in Mexico.
Baby Thelma
2002 | wood, leather, fabric, paint, metal | 16” x 16” x 72”
Baby Thelma was a 655 lb. “fat lady.” I chose her for my sideshow, since during her childhood my mother met Thelma. Mom was spending the night with a friend, and the family went to the carnival that night. She became very distressed in the sideshow tent and was crying her eyes out. When she got to Thelma, the fat lady took her up on her platform, gave her an autographed photo, and was generally sweet to her. The butterflies on the stand symbolize Thelma’s beautiful soul.
William Henry Johnson—Zip the What Is It?
2002 | wood, leather, fabric, paint, cord | 18” x 13” x 72”
Zip was a microcephalic (or pinhead) who toured extensively with P.T. Barnum. When he first began exhibiting, he was often in a cage as the “Monkey Man.” Although he later showed without the cage, he was partial to the furry suit and continued to wear it. He took up the violin to gain more attention when exhibiting. He also carried around a popgun with which to shoot other performers who were getting too much attention. Microcephaly is often associated with mental retardation, but Zip’s last words (to his sister) supposedly were, “Well sis, we sure fooled them all.” He is the partial basis for Bill Griffith’s wonderful comic strip, Zippy the Pinhead.
Horace Ridler, The Great Omi
2002 | wood, leather, fabric, paint, metal, beads, sequins | 19” x 19” x 73”
Horace was born a wealthy, upper-class Englishman in 1892. While in the British army, he reached the rank of major and was decorated for bravery for his service in the Desert Mountain Corps in Africa. Upon his return to Britain, he squandered his inheritance and decided the way to make money was to become a self-made freak. After 150 hours, 500 sittings and $3,000 (this was in the 1920s) with tattoo artist George Burchett, he was transformed into the “Great Omi,” tattooed from head to toe. Later, his similarly tattooed wife joined the act as “The Omette.”
Alejandra Podesta, the Dwarf Equestrienne
2002 | wood, leather, fabric, paint, metal, beads, sequins | 19” x 19” x 75”
Alejandra starred in the 1994 Italian/Argentinian movie, I Don’t Want to Talk About It. She played Charlotte, a dwarf girl whose mother refused to acknowledge her daughter’s “difference.” Her mother even went to the point of destroying neighborhood yard gnomes and buying her daughter a full-sized horse for her birthday. The town’s wealthiest man, played by Marcello Mastroianni, falls madly in love with the charming and intelligent dwarf. They have a happy marriage, until the circus comes to town. After so many years of denying who she truly is, Charlotte finally runs off with the circus.
Minnie Woolsey, Koo-Koo the Bird Girl
2002 | wood, leather, fabric, paint, metal, glass | 17” x 15” x 73”
Minnie was born in 1880 and appeared in the infamous 1932 Tod Browning movie, Freaks. She was also called the “Blind Girl From Mars.” It seemed that she had Seckel’s Syndrome (also called “bird-headed dwarfism”), which is characterized by short stature, beak-like nose, large ears, sparse hair and teeth, intellectual disability, and club foot. She was also almost blind.
Eng and Chang Bunker
1998 | wood, fabric, leather | 18” x 21” x 72”
The reason we call conjoined twins “Siamese twins” is because of these two men. Chang and Eng were born in Siam, present day Thailand, in 1811. They were joined by a five-inch ligature at the breastbone, and, until their mother trained them to stretch the cord by facing away from each other, were practically face to face. However, they grew fairly normally and learned to get around gracefully. With a curiosity to see the world, they began to exhibit themselves worldwide. The “double boys” finally settled in North Carolina, taking sisters as their wives. They spent three days at one brother’s house, then three at the other’s for the rest of their lives. Between them, they had 21 children! To this day, approximately 150 people in that area of North Carolina can claim direct lineage to the brothers. At the end of their lives, Chang, who had earlier had a stroke (and was a heavy drinker) died. Eng called for a doctor, but was dead before the man got there. The popular legend is that he died of fright at being chained to a corpse, but autopsy revealed that Chang actually had most of the circulatory system in his body, leaving Eng with not enough circulation to survive on his own.
This piece is not necessarily part of the Sideshow series because it was done several years before Lentini, but I consider it the basis for the whole series and the beginning of my interest in sideshow history.