WEBVTT - Sideshow 9: Born This Way 0:00:06.880 --> 0:00:10.719 Todd was nervous. He hadn't been enthusiastic about the project 0:00:10.720 --> 0:00:14.480 that Universal Studios had handed him, but it paid the bills. 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:17.680 Truth be told, he was just glad to have a job. 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:21.480 The nineteen thirties might have been the golden age of Hollywood, 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:24.200 but that was partly because America was in the throes 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:28.800 of the Great Depression. Escapism was becoming a favorite American pastime. 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:33.199 Theaters opened across the country, and the film industry thrived 0:00:33.320 --> 0:00:37.760 during the economic collapse. But Todd was also a superstitious man, 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:40.599 so when he learned that the Roxy Theater in New 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:45.040 York City wanted to release his film on Friday, he 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:48.199 urged them to change the date. In the end, the 0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:52.920 Roxy granted Todd his wish. On Thursday, February twelfth of 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:57.240 nineteen thirty one, movie goers packed sidewalks outside of the theater, 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:01.000 hoping to snag tickets to his latest creation. For eighty 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:04.480 five minutes that night, the audience found themselves transported to 0:01:04.560 --> 0:01:07.880 a mountaintop in Europe. They were immersed in a powerful 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:14.160 visual spectacle, complete with clever cinematography, haunting soundscapes, and Bella 0:01:14.240 --> 0:01:19.160 Lagosi's legendary method acting how legendary you ask, Well, when 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:22.000 he died, he was buried in a black silk cape, 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:25.880 just like his character in the film. And of course, 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:30.200 Dracula was a smashing success. The film forever changed the 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:33.920 movies and the monsters we see there. It's reported, in fact, 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:38.040 that numerous people in the opening night audience fainted from fright. 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:42.080 While it's hard to imagine now, scary movies were major 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:45.360 risks for studios back then, but in large part due 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:51.000 to dracula success, movie makers realized something important. Fear makes money. 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:55.440 It was true then and it's still true today. The 0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:59.840 psychological effects of fight or flights can be intoxicating, after all, 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:03.560 and who doesn't love a good adrenaline and dopamine brain cocktail, right, 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:07.040 It's a trick of evolution. We like to be scared 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:12.160 in tightly controlled settings. That is. In two thousand, Dracula 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:15.560 was inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:19.840 of Congress. This was not, however, Todd Browning's first film 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:24.760 to be given that honor. A much more controversial flick 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:27.480 of his was given the same treatment, a movie that 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:32.000 featured a very special individual, a crossover actor who bridged 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:34.760 both the world of the side Show and the world 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:39.040 of the silver screen. A much beloved man who went 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:46.280 by a single name, Schlitze. I'm Aaron Manky, and welcome 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:59.680 to this side show. Everyone has gaps in their history, 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:02.800 moments they can't recall, or other pieces of time that 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:06.320 they've chosen to forget. I do, and you do, whether 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:08.920 you are consciously aware of it or not. These have 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:12.200 been left on the cutting room floor of our lives. 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:15.880 So resurrecting other people's stories, especially when they're long gone, 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:19.679 creates a very particular kind of challenge. Sometimes all that's 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:22.120 left of them is a fragment of a diary or 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:25.040 an unset letter. Other times we can trace their names 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:28.080 to a passenger list or a guest book at a hotel, 0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:31.359 or maybe we have an old photo album with missing 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:35.000 images or a few stray pieces of celluloid. And we 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:38.000 never know the complete story of what was happening outside 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:41.640 of this frame, but we can guess. What we do 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:44.960 know is this, Like many of the performers who fell 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:48.120 into the gravitational pull of the American Side Show, a 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:52.320 great deal of Schlitze's life is undocumented. Those early years, 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:57.160 it seems, have held tightly to their secrets. One theory 0:03:57.200 --> 0:03:59.400 tells us that he was born to a prominent Texan 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:03.240 family and then kept in their attic for twenty five years. 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:06.680 Another says he hailed from New Mexico. More than likely, though, 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:08.800 he was born in the Bronx in New York in 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:11.960 nineteen o one, and if the sleuths are correct, he 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:17.359 had another name first, Simon Metz. We also know something else. 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:20.599 He was born with a severe case of microcephaly, a 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:24.800 neurodevelopmental disorder that gave his skull a pointed shape. He 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:29.359 had a limited cognitive capacity and a sunny nature. We 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:32.479 like to think that his first few years were relatively happy, 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:35.280 and we'd hope for this for any kid, but it's 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:38.880 in his childhood. Historians believe that he was sold to 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:41.840 the side show. It seems the old joke of selling 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:44.760 your little brother to the circus has very deep and 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:49.159 very dark real life roots, but it wasn't uncommon. In fact, 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:53.520 sideshow managers often recruited new acts from vulnerable families. They 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:55.280 made it seem like they were doing the family a 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:58.120 favor or acting in their best interest, and there may 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:01.240 have been some truth to this. At a time when 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:04.440 social services to poor families were limited, and those with 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:09.440 a typical neurological functions had fewer resources. Living was hard. 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:12.400 There's an argument to be made that for some the 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:16.680 side show was a saving grace. Simon began his life 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:19.440 on the road with Stephen and Augusta Mills in nineteen 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:22.960 o nine. It's here that he became someone totally new. 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:28.400 His first incarnation would be Schlitzy the Aztec. Sometimes he 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:30.880 was dressed as a girl. At other times he wore 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:35.040 a fur body suit posed as a half human half monkey, 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:39.600 one of nature's honest experiments with the brain the size 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:42.719 of a golf ball. He was marketed as savage and 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:47.159 would sometimes be displayed behind bars. Part of Schlitze's act 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:50.680 was answering questions posed by the showman. He did simple 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:53.720 math and card tricks. He was billed as wild so 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:57.000 that those feats would seem even more impressive. At the time, 0:05:57.040 --> 0:06:00.800 America was still fascinated by ideas of evolution and the 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:04.240 search for the missing link, a favorite trope of Barnum's, 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:07.919 and the legacy that he left behind, Let's See quickly 0:06:07.960 --> 0:06:11.440 gained the adoration of his fellow performers. While his work 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:14.680 largely consisted of him being jeered at. It was also 0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:17.560 on the side show circuit that he found his chosen family, 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:20.520 and even though his speech was limited, he gave that 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:25.440 love back in kind. In schlets was sold to a 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:28.560 man named Ted Metz no relation that we know of, 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:32.760 who operated the Frequatorium at the Dreamland side show at 0:06:32.760 --> 0:06:36.040 Coney Island. There, he and a fellow performer who had 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:38.920 also been born with microcephaly, a fellow by the name 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:43.080 of Zip, performed a musical duet together. But schlet See 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:45.560 wouldn't stay on the East Coast for long. You see, 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:48.880 his manager was based in California and soon decided that 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:51.000 they were going to take their show to that side 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:54.640 of the country. It seems the Coney Island boardwalks weren't 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:57.760 big enough for him. No, he was going to go 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:03.280 west to Hollywood, in fact, because Schlitze wanted to become 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:16.200 a star. Todd Browning had once been a living corpse. 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:19.480 When he was sixteen, he fell in love and joined 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:23.000 the Manhattan Fair and Carnival Company. He worked as a 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:27.000 snake eater and escape artist, a clown, and even a contortionist. 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:30.680 His famous corpse act, though involved him being buried alive, 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:33.800 for up to forty eight hours at a time. It's 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:35.760 fair to say that he had done it all. So 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:40.640 after Dracula's commercial success and critical acclaim, Todd Browning decided 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:43.000 that he would work on something a bit closer to home. 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:45.240 He had an idea that he'd been thinking about for 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:48.240 a long time, and when he pitched it to MGM, 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:50.880 they gave him their blessing. But they wanted him to 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:54.600 film his concept as a horror movie, so that's what 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:57.440 they were going to get. It would be a movie 0:07:57.520 --> 0:08:02.000 about seduction, murder, and revenge, all set upon the backdrop 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:06.040 of the side show, and Todd wanted real performers in 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:08.480 his cast. I think it's safe to say that he 0:08:08.520 --> 0:08:12.000 had good intentions, but that, as they say, is what 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:14.800 the road to Hell is paved with. It was through 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:18.120 Hollywood Small Network that Todd met Schlitze and they took 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:21.480 a liking to each other immediately. He was cast alongside 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:26.120 sideshow performers from across the country, Johnny Eck the Half Boy, 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:30.840 Prince Randy and the Human Caterpillar, Pete Robinson the Living Skeleton, 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:35.880 Olga the Bearded Woman, and Cuckoo the bird Girl. The 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:39.079 movie was named Freaks and it was the first Hollywood 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:42.559 production for many of the performers involved. Now, of course, 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:45.000 that title is a word that has certainly fallen out 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:47.800 of fashion since then. Scholars believe that it comes from 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:52.440 an old English word meaning something unusual or fancy. But 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:55.760 by the mid eighteen hundreds, the phrase freak of nature 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:59.880 had become a popular advertising slogan within side shows. In fact, 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:02.800 many in the community at the time, the term freak 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:05.360 was worn as a badge of honor. For a lot 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:08.439 of these performers. Their shows allowed them to make an 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:11.160 honorable living. It gave them a chance to travel, to 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:14.760 be employed, and to find family. But as we'll see, 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:18.240 Todd's film in many ways helped us cement the word 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:23.560 as something a bit more sinister in mainstream America. As 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:27.520 filming began in November of nine, the side show performers 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:31.280 came to the set. Several MGM employees and actors, having 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:34.680 never seen folks with such a spectrum of physical conditions, 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:40.000 were overwhelmed nauseated. Even among this weak, stomached group was 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:43.840 none other than f Scott Fitzgerald, who, while also drinking heavily, 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:48.200 apparently vomited after seeing conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:51.760 in the studios dining hall. After this, the side show 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:55.679 performers were banished to an outside table. The film had 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:58.960 a remarkably quick production schedule. It wrapped in just a 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:01.560 month and prom mirrored a little over a month after 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:04.680 that to a tittering crowd in San Diego. But just 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:08.440 halfway through the preview people got up and ran out. 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:13.280 You might be asking why, Well, one newspaper wrote, and 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:19.160 I quote for pure sensationalism, freaks tops any picture yet produced. 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:23.640 It's more fantastic and grotesque than any shocker ever written. 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:26.720 One woman in the audience, who had been pregnant at 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:30.600 the time, apparently threatened to sue MGM, claiming the film 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:34.600 had induced a miscarriage and the film was indeed violent. 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:37.840 So the studio decided to recut it as an attempt 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:41.200 to salvage it. But these new editorial decisions meant to 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:45.040 rectify the problem, ended up creating a new monster because 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:49.439 it fundamentally changed the story and the message. You see, 0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:53.080 Todd's goal had been to critique social intolerance, the exact 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:56.000 kind of social intolerance that had played out on his set. 0:10:56.520 --> 0:10:59.560 That in the widely distributed recut. Moments that let the 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:03.720 freaks shine and showcase their humanity were lost, and scenes 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:07.559 where the quote normal humans revealed themselves to be disgusting 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:11.760 creatures were similarly removed. The studio even tried to counter 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:15.360 the revulsion felt by the public with a new advertising blitz, 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:20.199 What about abnormal people? Their posters asked, they have lives too. 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:23.640 In the end, MGM resorted the old tricks of the 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:27.559 side show trade. They published new show bills that emphasized 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:31.079 the incredible strangeness of the characters, and even included some 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:34.360 of the same warnings that Barnum and his contemporaries had used. 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:39.520 Warning the ad said children positively not admitted adults not 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:42.720 in normal health are advised not to see this picture. 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:48.000 Offended reviewers responded by voicing their complaints. Major outlets called 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:53.200 the film unkind and brutal, loathsome obscene, grotesque, and bizarre. 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:57.280 One review even said that anyone who considers this entertainment 0:11:57.280 --> 0:12:00.600 should be placed in the pathological ward in some hospital. 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:04.680 It is not fit to be shown anywhere. In the end, 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:08.360 the film was a complete and total flop. It recorded 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:11.960 a loss that would amount to almost three million dollars today. 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:14.840 But looking back, we can glimpse the canary in the 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:19.000 coal mine. It seems that maybe, just maybe, the times 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:23.520 were changing, and Schlitze was that the center of it all. 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:37.600 Freaks had failed in the theaters, but it succeeded in 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:41.240 getting people talking. Schlitz thankfully had the benefit of a 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:44.160 career beyond Hollywood. He took to the road once more, 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:48.640 covering territory that certainly makes me envious, criss crossing North America, 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:51.959 writing the rails and finding friends and good fortune along 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:55.240 the way. He had witnessed the popularity of sideshows peak 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:57.840 in his lifetime, but he would also get mixed up 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:02.120 in the institution's demise. In nineteen thirty six, Schlitze's manager, 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:05.040 Ted Mets, took over management for the side show of 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:07.560 a New Circus, and it was during his year's touring 0:13:07.600 --> 0:13:10.760 with them that Schlitze men a man named George Surtees. 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:14.640 That same year, George and his wife Dottie became Schlitze's 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:19.000 legal guardians, becoming in effect both Schlitze's parents and managers, 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:21.520 and he continued to tour with them well into the 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:25.280 nineteen forties, joining a group of performers that included the 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:29.719 Three Legged Frank Lentini and Grady Styles the Lobster Boy. 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:33.679 By the mid nineteen fifties, other carnival companies began exhibiting 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:37.559 Schlitzi lookalikes, at times even giving their knockoffs the exact 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:41.719 same name. Honestly, the practice was true side show energy. 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:45.359 If ever, there was some elements were added to Schlitze's 0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:47.679 act along the way, because, as you know by now, 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:50.040 part of the side show game was to stay relevant. 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:54.440 In one advertisement from July of nineteen sixty two, Schlitze 0:13:54.440 --> 0:13:58.439 was billed as the oldest human side show attraction in America. 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:01.680 The article even claimed that he was first exhibited at 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:05.120 the Buffalo World's Fair in nineteen o one, when President 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:10.160 McKinley was assassinated. By this time, though, attitudes towards sideshow 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:14.600 acts and human oddities in particular, we're changing. In March 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:18.359 of nineteen sixty two, officials in San Bernardino County, California, 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:21.600 closed down two different side show exhibits at the National 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:24.920 Orange Show. Police cited a law from the eighteen hundreds 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:30.000 that prohibited exhibiting deformed persons for profits, and Schlitze's act 0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:34.680 became collateral damage during that same decade, Schlitze was exhibited 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:38.040 as the last of the Aztecs. The problem, of course, 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:41.480 was that the Bakersfield area of California, where Schlitzy was 0:14:41.520 --> 0:14:44.200 spending time on the carnival circuit, was home to a 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:49.040 significant population of Mexican Americans who strongly objected to Schlitze's 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:53.000 as tech title. More and more, it was becoming increasingly 0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:56.600 difficult for human oddity acts to get permission to perform, 0:14:56.960 --> 0:14:59.720 and there was a general growing distaste for such shows 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:03.280 even when they were permitted. Some side shows eliminated these 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:07.120 acts altogether and focused instead on the self made freaks, 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:10.480 the snake charmers, the knife throwers, and the flame eaters. 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:15.040 Others made the switch to pictures of human oddities, including Schlitze, 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:18.920 instead of the real thing. The tectonic plates of culture 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:21.920 were shifting. The only world Schlitze had ever known was 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:26.000 slowly being taken away from him, his friends, his chosen family, 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:28.920 even his ability to make a living. He was in 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:31.760 his sixties at this point, but he wasn't ready to quit, 0:15:32.080 --> 0:15:37.520 at least not willingly. In April of nineteen sixty, George died, 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:40.880 leaving his daughter legally in charge of Schlitze. She had 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:43.960 always disliked him, maybe the only person who had, it seems, 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:46.000 and she didn't know how to care for someone with 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:49.000 his special needs, so she decided to put him away, 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:53.760 having him institutionalized at the Los Angeles County Hospital. And 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:56.960 I can't imagine how hard this must have been for him. 0:15:56.960 --> 0:15:59.920 Schlitze was a deeply social person who had spent his 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:03.880 life around other people on stage and among friends, and 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:07.160 now he was all alone. But in a small world 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:09.920 twist of fate, it just so happened that Bill Unk's 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:13.560 sword swallower worked as an orderly at the very same 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:16.520 hospital during the off season, and one day, as Unks 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:20.240 was cleaning a hallway, he heard a familiar catchphrase, someone 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:24.280 repeating over and over you see, you see, and he 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:28.560 recognized the voice and the phrase immediately as Schlitze, and 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:32.160 when Unks found him, he was nearly catatonic. Unks quickly 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:34.880 discovered that his friend had been there for seven months. 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:38.360 He wanted to help, and figured the only way to 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:40.640 do so was to get Schlitze out of the hospital 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:43.360 and back onto the circuit. With Unk's help, he was 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:45.880 able to leave and returned to the side show in 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:50.880 late nineteen sixty and with that, finally he was back 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:55.920 among family, which brings us full circle. I think you see. 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:58.000 While there are valid critiques to be made about the 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:02.720 inherent dehumanization of the formers in quote Freak Shows, there 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:05.840 is also a complicated tension in Schlitzey's life story that 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:09.399 calls for a closer, more nuanced look, because when his 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:12.520 parents sold him to the side show, they quite possibly 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:16.280 provided him with the happiest and most independent life possible 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:19.560 for someone like him at the time. It was that 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:24.280 same lack of options that led George's daughter to institutionalize Schlitze, 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:27.480 an option that ended up making him deeply unhappy. Even 0:17:27.560 --> 0:17:29.640 the doctors of the hospital knew that if he stayed 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:32.720 there rather than being released, it's possible that he would 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:36.480 have died from heartbreak. But thankfully that's not where we're 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:40.080 going to leave him today. Picture this. We're in MacArthur 0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:42.879 Park in Los Angeles, sitting on a bench in the 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:46.720 setting sun. The sky has that golden pink glow broken 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:49.880 up by rows of palm trees, and the air is warm. 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:53.159 It's nineteen seventy and schlitze now lives close by with 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:57.159 his caretaker. As the sun sets on his life, and 0:17:57.200 --> 0:17:59.360 it's there that he could be found feeding the animals 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:02.920 with handful of sunflower seeds. All of the ducks, according 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:06.720 to him, were named tam Robert, and all of the pigeons, 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:10.719 he said, were called Alan bar Allen. The Spanish speaking 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:13.920 locals of the park called him raton Cito, a pet 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:17.200 name meaning little mouse. Sometimes they would even buy him 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:20.280 a treat. And it's there, in a place where he 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:23.199 was loved and happy, that he would live out the 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:36.359 rest of his days. Schlitzi passed away quietly in his 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:40.760 old age, but today he lives on in Hollywood. As 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:43.600 the decades ticked by the same impulse that brought folks 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:46.080 to the side show was now driving them to the theater. 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:50.160 Movie attendants increased with every passing decade, and it's easy 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:52.720 to see why people didn't have to wait for circus 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:55.640 trains to roll through town anymore. In the same way 0:18:55.640 --> 0:18:58.960 that Barnum and his cronies had constantly reinvented their acts, 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:02.200 Hollywood had begun making money by churning out news stories 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:06.879 with the same actors again and again and again. In 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:10.800 nineteen sixty two, Freaks was screened at the Venice Film Festival, 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:14.560 but this time to highly critical reviews. Enough had changed 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:18.199 culturally in those thirty intervening years that new audiences were 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:20.680 able to see the film in a fresh light. As 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:24.040 the kids say these days, it hit just a bit differently. 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:28.240 Looking back, critics now recognized the film and its early 0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:31.919 reception as a cultural touchstone, a snapshot of a moment 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:35.600 in time, and freaks reappearance also meant a resurgence of 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:40.560 interest in and appreciation for Schltzie and cemented him within 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:45.800 the broader consciousness of pop culture. In Freaks was selected 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:48.400 by the National Film Registry as one of the most 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:52.760 influential films of all time, six years before Dracula was 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:56.439 given the same honor, which is somewhat ironic, and that 0:19:56.520 --> 0:19:59.240 it was the success of Dracula that made it possible 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:01.760 for Todd Brown to make Freaks in the first place. 0:20:02.240 --> 0:20:06.719 In return, Freaks had more or less ruined his career, 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:20.080 but thankfully notch Letsie's. We hope you've enjoyed this little 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:23.400 bit of movie history so far. It's fascinating just how 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:26.679 connected today's world of entertainment is to the side shows 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:30.640 of the past, for better or for worse. But we're 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:33.520 not done just yet. Stick around through this brief sponsor 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:36.480 break to hear one more tale of the side show. 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:49.359 It was their smallest Sunday crowd yet, roughly a quarter 0:20:49.440 --> 0:20:52.639 of a million people. Coney Island had opened to the 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:57.280 public just two years before in and the subway line 0:20:57.320 --> 0:21:00.680 had finally extended far enough to bring the Maths out 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:04.360 of the city. Sometimes more than a million people might 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:08.680 show up to lounge in the sun. Seven year old 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:12.520 Irene Reynolds was one of those people. She and her 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:16.040 family had planned to take full advantage of their beach day. 0:21:16.080 --> 0:21:19.480 Even though the skies above were gray. It was going 0:21:19.520 --> 0:21:21.840 to be a chance for everyone to kick their feet up, 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:29.520 to relax, to play. Irene never intended to drown. According 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:32.840 to eyewitness accounts, The wave that came for her was 0:21:33.000 --> 0:21:37.360 huge and quick. It crested and slammed, sweeping her off 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:41.000 her feet and dragging her under, allowing only a moment 0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:45.160 for her screams to escape, and when Zip heard them, 0:21:45.160 --> 0:21:50.600 he turned and he began to run. Zip, who was 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:55.119 born William Henry Johnson, was a local celebrity. He was 0:21:55.160 --> 0:21:58.240 a fixture at Coney Island's Dreamland side Show that year, 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:02.600 and just like let's see, he had been born with microcephaly. 0:22:03.680 --> 0:22:07.280 He was a small man. During his time with P. T. Barnum, 0:22:07.440 --> 0:22:11.520 he was often marketed as the missing Link. He later 0:22:11.600 --> 0:22:14.560 made his way to Coney Island and his character evolved 0:22:14.560 --> 0:22:18.159 there Over the years. It's been said that he never spoke, 0:22:18.440 --> 0:22:20.920 and that his careful adherence to his vow of silence 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:26.760 helped prolong his career. But on this day, words didn't matter, 0:22:27.480 --> 0:22:31.560 only speed. He quickly made it to the shoreline and 0:22:31.640 --> 0:22:35.040 into the water, diving through the waves to reach Irene. 0:22:35.480 --> 0:22:38.200 He grabbed her and he pulled her back onto the sand. 0:22:39.119 --> 0:22:42.000 Within a few moments she had come to coughing and 0:22:42.080 --> 0:22:46.800 sputtering and convulsive, back to life. If Zip hadn't already 0:22:46.840 --> 0:22:52.399 been a local hero, he sure was now. Zip, the 0:22:52.400 --> 0:22:56.479 newspapers reported, almost wilted under the cheers of the crowd, 0:22:57.280 --> 0:23:01.840 and honestly, I can't blame him. Years later, it would 0:23:01.880 --> 0:23:04.600 be estimated that he had been seen in person by 0:23:04.640 --> 0:23:08.280 more people than anyone else who would ever lived, close 0:23:08.359 --> 0:23:12.959 to one hundred million folks. By some accounts, his career 0:23:13.080 --> 0:23:18.320 was long and illustrious and highly successful. In fact, Zip 0:23:18.320 --> 0:23:22.720 will go on to perform well into his sixties, his 0:23:22.800 --> 0:23:25.280 hallmark silence was one of the things that set him 0:23:25.320 --> 0:23:29.440 apart from everyone else. But some Starcus veterans believe that 0:23:29.520 --> 0:23:33.040 this was a creation of Barnum's, but one that Zip 0:23:33.160 --> 0:23:39.240 stuck to for his whole life. So who was he really? 0:23:40.320 --> 0:23:42.800 Was he a man who had been exploited for six 0:23:42.920 --> 0:23:46.679 decades or was he a true method actor, committed to 0:23:46.760 --> 0:23:51.119 his form and to always staying in character. Did he 0:23:51.200 --> 0:23:54.480 have a deep understanding of how to market himself and 0:23:54.520 --> 0:23:56.560 what it would take for him to be a rousing 0:23:56.720 --> 0:24:03.000 success us. A year after Irene's rescue, Zip died at 0:24:03.080 --> 0:24:07.720 New York's Bellevue Hospital. As a story goes, his sister 0:24:07.840 --> 0:24:10.800 was at his bedside as he lay dying, and in 0:24:10.840 --> 0:24:15.240 his final moments he turned to her. He had something 0:24:15.280 --> 0:24:19.919 to say. Well, he told her, we fooled them for 0:24:19.960 --> 0:24:31.480 a long time. Huh. Side Show was written by Robin 0:24:31.560 --> 0:24:35.240 Minat with narration by me Aaron Mankey research for the 0:24:35.280 --> 0:24:39.000 series was by Robin Minator, Taylor Haggard Dorn, and Sam Alberty, 0:24:39.280 --> 0:24:43.600 with production assistants from Josh Thayne, Jesse Funk, Alex Williams 0:24:43.600 --> 0:24:46.600 and Matt Frederick Grim and Mile Presents was created in 0:24:46.680 --> 0:24:49.560 partnership with I Heart Radio. You can learn more about 0:24:49.600 --> 0:24:52.200 this show and everything else from Grim and mild Over 0:24:52.320 --> 0:24:56.320 at Grim and mild dot com, and, as always, thanks 0:24:56.320 --> 0:25:23.240 for listening. Boo old old