WEBVTT - How Freak Shows Worked 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.960 This episode is brought to you by square Space. Start 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:06.440 building your website today at square space dot com. Enter 0:00:06.519 --> 0:00:09.600 our offer code stuff at check out to get ten 0:00:09.640 --> 0:00:14.040 percent off square Space. Build it beautiful. Welcome to you 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:23.480 Stuff you should know from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:26.799 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. This shout 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:31.160 out up you, Chuck, Priyan, Jerry, and this is stuff 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:34.159 you should know. You introd as if you were asleep 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:36.360 and I just walked by and poked you with a 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:39.320 bold cube and that's your first thing you do is 0:00:39.400 --> 0:00:41.479 you wake up and just go, hey, welcome to the podcast. 0:00:44.520 --> 0:00:49.440 How are you, sir man. I'm feeling fine, Yeah, good, 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:54.120 feeling fine. That's a Simpsons reference from what the Shining One? 0:00:54.360 --> 0:01:00.000 Oh yeah, the Shooting Classic. It's a good one. Um. 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:04.920 So a couple of quick matters of business, a little 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:07.920 c o A. At the beginning, we're talking about freak shows, 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:12.080 and we will be saying freaks and things like that. 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:17.160 That is obviously an antiquated term, um, but a lot 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:18.959 of there are a lot of quotes in here and 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:23.080 a lot of references to uh, freaks and midgets and 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:26.200 pin heads and all these awful terms that they used 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:29.200 to call these people that had, you know, physical deformities 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:33.840 and maladies. Um, so it's not us speaking. This is 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:38.680 a historic in historical context, Like we get the insensitivity. Yeah, 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:42.840 it's not. We're not We're not being insensitive. Here's uh 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:44.680 and we want to shout out if you. We used 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:47.440 a couple of house Stoff how stuff it works, How 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:50.880 stuff Works articles, as well as one from History Magazine 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:56.000 by Laura Grande Priceonomics Zachary Crockett wrote one and who 0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:58.280 I have to say, I'm a fan of that dude's work. Yeah, 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:00.800 it was a good artic prisonomics these and some really 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:05.440 interesting articles, agreed. And then one from human Marvels dot com, 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:11.320 which is just a good website by j tithonus now 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:18.040 announced right p E D in a U D. Yeah 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:20.160 that's a tough one. Now, yeah, I assume the D 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:25.160 is silent or maybe not. Maybe it's ped now pay 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:31.240 node node huh freaky and a couple of other places 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:34.200 we visited. So and everyone kind of says the same thing. 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:37.320 But it's a nice, well rounded thing. I think, Yeah, 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:39.400 well they I mean, we're talking about the history of 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:42.959 freak shows and there's only you know, one history. Yeah, 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:46.280 certain things happen, and we found we found very quickly 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:50.959 that like you can't extract um freak shows from P. T. 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:54.359 Barnum or vice versa. No, like they they they are 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:58.560 inextricably bound. But freak shows, um, you know Barnum was 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:01.840 working in the nineteenth century. But the concept of freak shows, 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:07.600 which um is basically someone who is a human curiosity, 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:09.960 and that could be someone who was born with a 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:14.800 genetic deformity, of physical deformity um, some sort of mental 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:21.839 incapacity um, or some people have turned themselves into human curiosity, 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:26.680 say through the wonder of tattooing or um learning to 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:29.240 swallow swords or something like yeah, or like these days 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:33.720 body modification like the gym Rose show or there's one 0:03:33.760 --> 0:03:38.160 in Coney Island still that does a like a traditional show. Yeah, 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:42.119 side show by the Seashore also a great song by 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:46.800 Luna Nice, one of my favorite bands. Um. So, the 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:50.080 the whole concept of this of having a human curiosity 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:54.960 and um basically charging gawkers to look at it, it 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:58.360 dates back quite a way, is um. Well, actually not 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:02.040 that far the sixteenth century. That's pretty far, I guess so. 0:04:02.080 --> 0:04:03.920 But you would think like, well, the Greeks or the 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:08.920 Romans did this, but apparently no everybody was fairly Um, 0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:11.880 from what I understand, everybody just kind of steered clear 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:15.480 of human curiosities to that point. Yeah, I think people 0:04:15.680 --> 0:04:18.800 feared them, right. They were locked away mainly because they 0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:21.919 thought it was some evil curse or punishment from God. 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:24.920 And this wasn't someone you wanted to consort with. Else 0:04:25.120 --> 0:04:27.400 you might bring back, bring down the wrath of God 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:30.040 upon yourself. That's right. But like you said, in the 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:32.279 late fifteen, hundreds of people started to say, you know 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:36.600 what I'm curious about, um, someone with hair growing all 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:40.240 over their face. I'm curious about the human curiosity exactly. 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:41.960 And I know I don't Chuck, I want to say, 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:45.360 I don't think it's coincidence that about this time, science 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:49.880 was starting to spread throughout Europe. So the idea that um, 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:52.440 this was God's breath was was taking a bit of 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:56.279 a back seat to uh, this is a human condition 0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:59.479 of some sort, yes, but not so far down the 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:02.559 road of science, to where there was this intermediate period 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:05.240 where they were got Dad, And as we'll find out later, 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:08.880 science would eventually take part in ending the sideshows right 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:11.479 created them and it ended them. Yeah, it's kind of 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:13.960 neat good way to look at it. Uh so one 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:17.080 of the first UM viewings or one of the first 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:20.280 people put on display and you know this is also 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:23.640 going to be well, we'll get into it later, but 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:26.680 the morality of this is very up and down with 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:30.400 exploiting people and these people that would normally be locked 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:35.040 away actually having super lucrative careers long lasting made them 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:38.719 rich well. Plus also, UM, I think one of the authors, 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:42.599 I think it was Crockett points out that, UM, there 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:45.840 early on, if you were in a freak show, there 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:48.760 was a good chance that um, you had been abandoned 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:51.560 by your parents, became a ward of the state and 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:55.919 adopted by somebody who just ruthlessly exploited you and maybe 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:59.400 barely took care of you. But one thing you can 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:01.839 definitely say to his credit, as Barnum came into it 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:06.320 and basically normalized or created an industry out of freak 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:10.400 shows or four freak shows, UM, conditions definitely changed and 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:14.479 the exploitation seems to have less in some way. Yeah. 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:18.479 I think that with the big names like Norman and Barnum, 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:21.760 I think they were all manner of minor side shows 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:24.920 that probably didn't treat them as well. Uh, And usually 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:30.000 Barnum and Norman bought their curiosities from those minor side shows, 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.760 lesser show exactly. So we're tking about Tom Norman out 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:37.000 of England. Yeah, they were basically counterparts. Yeah, and what 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:39.880 we'll get into them back to one of the earliest 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:44.720 um quote unquote freaks was a man named Lazarus Colorado 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:50.360 not Colorado, who was a conjoined twin. He had a brother, Johannes, 0:06:50.839 --> 0:06:53.720 who was upside down on his chest and technically it 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:58.640 was a parasitic twin to Lazarus. Oh, not conjoined twins. 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:03.120 They were conjoined. But Johannes like didn't eat, okay, he 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:07.040 um he could, He didn't speak, he never opened his eyes, 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:09.080 and apparently the only way you could get a physical 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:11.000 reaction out of him was if you rubbed his chest. 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:13.880 That would make him squirm like quaide and total recall 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:17.560 very much got you. So. Uh. He went on tour, 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:21.560 performed before King Charles the First in the early sixteen forties. 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:25.640 But it was not a big deal. It wasn't a 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:29.560 super lucrative. Side shows weren't really a thing at that point. No, 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:32.520 but this guy was saying, Uh, you guys are gonna 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:35.240 ostracize me. Well, I'm going to charge you to look 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:37.640 at me then, and I'm going to support myself and 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:41.000 my brother doing this. Yeah, he did it himself. It's 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:42.960 not clear whether he worked with a manager or not 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:46.880 or a promoter, but he definitely um made his own 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:49.440 choice to go do this, Yes, exactly. And he was 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:53.640 apparently an otherwise handsome man. That's how everyone described him, 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:57.840 which I think probably for the court Um or Europe 0:07:57.840 --> 0:08:00.920 who who came and looked at him, uh, probably just 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:03.280 made it even more mind boggling, you know. But he's 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:06.760 a good guy right right, you know. Uh, P T. 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:08.760 Barnum and I think we should do in a whole 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:11.920 podcast on PT Barnam at some point to really close 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:14.160 out the circus suite. Well, then we shouldn't mention him 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:21.119 again in the show. No Barnum as as a teenager, Uh, 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:23.480 he always had a penchant for making money. He was 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:26.320 one of those magnets sort of weird ways. Uh. He 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:30.560 ran his own lottery as a teenager um in Connecticut 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:32.160 and he said, here's what I'll do. I can just 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:37.959 sell these tickets. I'll give out prizes in varying levels 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:45.720 from dollars on down to like CS and U yeah 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:48.040 and um. But it was very well thought out for 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:50.800 a teenager. He wasn't just like just one prize. He 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:54.760 spread it out so he would entice people to play more. Uh. 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:56.320 And he actually made a lot of money from it 0:08:56.440 --> 0:08:59.400 until they outlawed the lottery. He was making like eleven 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:02.920 grand in today's dollars a week as a teenager. Yeah, 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:06.280 nineteen not bad. But then Connecticut and the rest of 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:09.480 the country said no more lotteries for now. Um, we'll 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:12.120 bring that back up later though, don't you worry, TB 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:17.440 C and Um. He had to find other ways to 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:20.480 make work, moved to New York City and in eighteen 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:23.680 thirty five, UM, he had You know, England is where 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:25.280 a lot of this started. We'll talk about Norman in 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:27.720 a second, but he got his queue from England, said 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:30.079 here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna buy a person. 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:34.559 I'm gonna buy my first freak uh, this blind paralyzed 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:37.720 slave woman. And this is a hallmark of freak shows, 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:40.040 as I'm gonna make up a story about her that's 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:43.320 sensational and crazy, like a Ripley's believe it or not 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:47.200 kind of thing, right, and Embarnum in particular was well 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:50.720 known for just taking these things to the nth degree, like, sure, 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:53.920 no one's gonna buy that, but he could sell it 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:56.800 in such a way that people believed it because they 0:09:56.840 --> 0:10:02.280 were exponentially dumber back then. Uh. He the story for 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:04.480 her was that she was a hundred and sixty years old, 0:10:05.160 --> 0:10:08.360 was George Washington's nurse. Uh and you can pay to 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:11.040 see her, when in fact she was only eighty years old. 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:15.600 She was half that age. Yeah, and her name was 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:18.559 Joyce Heath, and she was just an old lady right. Yeah, 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:20.439 she was an old slave woman who was paralyzed and 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:23.880 blind and was being exploited by p. T. Barnum in 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:27.680 the year before her death. So she dies um, but 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:31.920 before then, like as he's touting her as this hundred 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:35.880 and six year old former nurse made to George Washington. Um, 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:38.520 that gets an initial reaction and then ticket sales drop, 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:42.440 and then PiZZ Barnum did something quite smart. He wrote 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:47.040 an anonymous letter to a Boston newspaper and accused himself 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:51.440 of being a fraud and saying that the the hundred 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:53.839 and sixty year old woman was a fake that she 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:58.640 was actually a machine, a robot made of whale skin 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:03.680 and it and ticket sales went right through the roof again. Man, 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:07.240 what a guy. There should be a good movie about him. 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:09.640 I can't believe there's not, like a modern one. I'm 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:13.120 sure there is, you know, surely, like the what's the one? 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:15.240 The Greatest Show on Earth was a movie? Right, and 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:18.120 Griffith movie or something. Yeah, that's what I mean. But 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:22.480 like Tom Cruise should play him, yeah, and should be 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:26.360 directed by Michael Bay Russell Crowe should No, not Russell Crowe. Well, 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:30.880 how about who could play p. T. Barnum? You know 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:33.080 who who? He would be good at it, but it'd 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:37.120 just be so him. Sam Rockwell, oh totally, he could 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:41.720 play anything. So I'd rather see somebody even broader playing him. Yeah, 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:46.800 I heard research look ahead, Gina. Who would end up 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:53.680 playing him is freaking Hugh Jackman. And yeah, yeah, because 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:58.479 he can do cartwheels. Yeah, what were you gonna say? Somebody? 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:00.440 It might have been during the Bill Gates interview, were 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:03.959 something yesterday that somebody said that no, it was unseen it. 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:08.880 Tom Hanks is the most trusted person in America. Like 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:11.400 for some poll found that like the most trusted person 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:13.720 in America is Tom Hanks. Were we on the list? 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:17.440 I don't think so. Sure you got it dressed on. 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:21.560 We're not even Also rans were never rans? Alright. So 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:26.520 he purchased that woman what was her name, joyce heth 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:30.080 j O I C E H E T H for 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:33.199 a thousand dollars and he made about that every week, 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:37.240 um from exploiting her. I imagined that she got very 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:40.480 little of that. Yeah, although you can't necessarily say that 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:44.600 I didn't see what she was paid, she was very 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:49.000 likely paid. And I'm she was probably fairly well taken 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:54.360 care of, especially considering um that she probably just And 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:57.040 this is based on how Barnum treated other people later 0:12:57.440 --> 0:13:02.839 in a documented manner. But um he I don't want 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:05.160 to say he rescued her from slavery because she went 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:08.439 from being a slave to being owned by somebody who 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:13.560 exhibited her. Um. But it's not a guarantee or a 0:13:13.600 --> 0:13:18.120 given that her situation got worse after she she was 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:22.520 purchased by Barnum. Right, does that make sense? Man? That 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:27.319 felt like a minefield? I was talking about slavery, human exploitation. 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:31.640 A blind woman who was also paralyzed. Good, good, luck 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:35.640 sir um his first big hoax after that or uh, well, 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:37.400 actually I guess it wasn't a hoax aside from the 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:39.880 made up story. But um, he had a real hoax. 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:43.360 That was a hoax. Well I hope sure, um, but 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:46.520 this was a hoax in two because it was nothing 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:49.400 about it was real. He was promoting something called the 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:54.240 Fiji Mermaid, which was basically rogue taxidermy as all it was. 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:56.959 That's exactly what it was. It was a creature with 0:13:57.000 --> 0:13:58.320 a head of a monkey and the tail of a 0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:02.000 fish that he bought from Japanese sailors. Well he didn't. 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:04.720 He got it from a sailor who bought it from right, 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:07.800 and actually it was Japanese fisherman. Yeah, and he well, 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:10.600 what's the difference. Well, they're like traditional they didn't necessarily 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:13.880 go to see they were like islanders and this is 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:18.079 like traditional art for them, folk art. So not a 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:21.800 sailor but fisherman. Right, that's that entry one oh one. 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:27.280 Sorry it's so fixated on things. Yeah. Uh. And he 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:31.720 leased it um for twelve fifty a week twelve dollars 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:36.120 and fifty cents um from from the owners have said 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:39.200 rogue taxidermy and he tried, he purnt up pamphlets and 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:42.240 tried to convince everyone it was some real thing. So 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:46.440 he he actually had a um A partner named Levi 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:51.200 what was Levi's name? He's definitely an overlooked guy, Levi Lyman. 0:14:51.760 --> 0:14:55.760 Can you imagine like being P. T. Barnum's partner, Like 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:58.080 you'd never be in the spotlight a right, So Levi 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:02.400 Lyman posed as a English doctor, a scientist who was 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:07.520 in possession of this mermaid, and UM P. T. Barnum 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:10.360 very publicly was trying to get his hands on the mermaid, 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:12.720 and this guy was very publicly resisting him because there 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:14.720 was a man of science and this was the real deal. 0:15:15.320 --> 0:15:18.120 And it helps just convince everybody, including the newspapers, that 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:22.800 like this is the genuine article, just Rubes Nation, a 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:26.400 world of Rubes. It seems like he ended up opening 0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:29.760 up a museum on Broadway in New York City, UM, 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:32.480 eighteen forties, you know, sort of you know, like a 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:34.680 Ripley's Believe it or not kind of thing. Curiosities and 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:39.040 weird things. Yeah, that's those his stock in trade. Uh. 0:15:39.040 --> 0:15:41.760 And then we should talk about his counterpart in England, 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:48.800 UM Tom Norman. Yeah, Tommy Norman, Tommy Norman. Uh. He 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:50.840 was named the Silver King and Barnum actually gave him 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:54.280 that name apparently after meeting him, and he said, boy, 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:57.440 what a huge silver showy silver watch you have there. 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:00.400 You're the Silver King. He goes, I am the Sill King. 0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:04.360 I've been waiting my whole life for somebody to notice exactly. 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:07.560 So he was doing the same thing in England. Uh. 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:11.200 And he he actually um, he toured with Joseph Merrick 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:15.680 the Elephant Man. Yeah, and he got um castigated by 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:18.160 a lot of people saying, you're exploiting this guy John 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:21.400 Merrick and h is it John or Joseph? What I 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:24.520 say John? Yeah? And it's like an ongoing thing. Oh 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:27.080 is it yeah, I can't remember if it's well, let's 0:16:27.080 --> 0:16:31.840 find out. No, it's Joseph for sure. Had just misspoke. Um. 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:35.440 He was attacked in specifically in a memoir by Dr 0:16:35.520 --> 0:16:41.320 Frederick Treeves uh called The Elephant Man and other Reminiscences. Uh. 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:42.960 And he shot back and he said, you know what, 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:46.480 I haven't mistreated Merrick, haven't abused him. Uh. He wasn't 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:48.880 forced to do anything. And he said, in fact, the 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:51.200 big majority of showmen are in the habit of treating 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:54.120 their novelties as human beings and in a large number 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:57.960 of cases as one of their own, not like beasts. Right. 0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:02.040 So uh, you know, the morality battle was being waged 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:05.119 even back then. Yeah. And I mean if you you 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:10.280 think about um, this time when people would go look 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:13.280 at people who had physical deformities and pay for it 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:16.720 and just look at him just standing there, you think, well, 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:20.040 the whole world was pretty evil and a moral at 0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:24.160 the time not necessarily true. There's a, um, a lot 0:17:24.200 --> 0:17:27.359 of people who railed against this stuff, like Frederick Treeve's 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:30.840 who was um. He was portrayed by Anthony Hopkins, right, 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:34.679 isn't that him? Yeah? He was in The Elephant Man 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:39.040 the movie? Was he actually Marrick's doctor? Dn't yeh man? 0:17:39.119 --> 0:17:43.560 That movie? Yeah? David Lynch god one of the best ever. Um. 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:46.639 And then there was an historian who at the time, 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:50.040 I think in like the eighteen sixties he wrote. His 0:17:50.119 --> 0:17:52.280 name was Henry Mayhew and in eighteen sixty when he 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:55.720 was British, he wrote that that these freak shows were 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:58.879 nothing more than human degradation. And he said something that 0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:02.080 stuck out to meet Chuck. He said that the men 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:05.280 who preside over these infamous places, know too well the 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:08.000 failings of their audience. And I think he really hit 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:11.359 the nail on the head by he wasn't accusing the 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:14.880 showman because I think he understood that most of these 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:20.119 people were just under contract, and he wasn't accusing the people, 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:24.159 the actual human curiosities, the freaks themselves. He was rightly 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:28.159 placing the blame for all this on the observers, the gawkers. 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:30.159 Like if there wasn't a market for it, they wouldn't 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:32.879 be doing it. Yeah, Like you're the one who is 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:35.520 having the moral failing. Who's paying to go see this 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:38.560 person who may or may not be exploited you don't know, 0:18:39.280 --> 0:18:43.639 And uh, it's really on you audience. Yeah, it's pretty 0:18:44.000 --> 0:18:45.600 Uh it's a lot of foresight for back then, I 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:47.800 thought so too. So it's not like the point was. 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:50.920 It's not like everybody was just going along with this. 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:53.160 People have had a problem with it basically the whole 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:56.480 time freak shows were around. All right, well, let's take 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:59.080 a break and we'll talk a little bit more about um, 0:18:59.160 --> 0:19:29.800 the evolution of the side show. Right after this, we're back. 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:36.800 I brought my pencil. What's up? Oh right, on man. 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:41.320 I didn't get that at first, do you. I'm impressed 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:45.719 that you did get it nice. Uh. That was from 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:50.639 Van Halen's popular song Hot for Teacher from and we 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:56.200 are now nineteen eighties DJs. Uh. So the side shows 0:19:56.200 --> 0:19:58.720 became a legitimate thing, a big way to make money. 0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:01.199 There were different kinds. Um. There was one called a 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:04.080 tin in one show, which I believed the sides side 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:07.720 show by the sea shore is today you did it 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:10.639 through my missing tooth. Uh. And that is when you 0:20:10.720 --> 0:20:14.520 have ten people on display on a platform at once 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:17.240 and people just walk by and look at them. It's 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:20.080 not like a performance. It's just there's a bearded lady, 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:23.320 there's the dog faced boy, there's the tattooed man, and 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:28.399 they're all of the standing there. That's a tin and one. Uh. 0:20:28.520 --> 0:20:31.639 They had things, and this was all too to drum 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:35.440 up more money. They would advertise something as an adults 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:38.560 only or a man only even performance. Right. Well, the 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:43.679 men only performance frequently had a stripper you know, yeah, um, 0:20:43.800 --> 0:20:47.919 or stuff that they thought that we're just like a 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:51.000 woman shouldn't see or children shouldn't see. I don't know 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:52.359 if it was as much of that as if it 0:20:52.440 --> 0:20:54.360 was to just trump up like, oh my god, it's 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:57.200 so bad that a woman can't see lay her eyes 0:20:57.280 --> 0:21:01.440 upon it. Um, I think it's all part of the show. Uh, 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:03.960 that's my feeling. At least. One of the things that 0:21:04.000 --> 0:21:08.400 they displayed were something called a pickled punk, which is awful, 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:12.840 especially when you find out what it is. Yeah, it's 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:17.480 basically a an abnormal fetus in a formalbe hyde in 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:20.159 a jar. And you could go by and look at 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:24.440 pickled punks and gawk at them for money. It's it's awful. Yeah, 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:29.159 this is what people did, like on Saturday night in Kansas. 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:32.840 So um, the the usually this this side shows of 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:37.000 the freak shows. At first, they were you would be 0:21:37.119 --> 0:21:42.520 some enterprising entrepreneur in some small town and you would 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:48.080 notice that a little youngster had um a third leg, okay, 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:51.199 and you your thought was, I can really make some 0:21:51.280 --> 0:21:53.399 money with this kid. So you go to their parents 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:57.080 and you'd say, I will give you of all of 0:21:57.080 --> 0:21:59.760 the earnings of your child if you let me take 0:21:59.840 --> 0:22:01.200 him on the road, and he will stay in the 0:22:01.240 --> 0:22:06.680 finest hotels and we're the best clothes as exactly, and uh, 0:22:07.080 --> 0:22:10.000 the he will become famous in the world, will love him, h, 0:22:10.240 --> 0:22:11.920 just let me handle it. I'm going to be as 0:22:11.920 --> 0:22:15.120 manager from now on. And the parents would very frequently, 0:22:15.200 --> 0:22:18.680 especially if they were poor, would say, that's great. Do 0:22:18.800 --> 0:22:21.920 that give me some money upfront though, by the way, yeah, 0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:24.240 especially because a lot of times some of these people 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:27.080 were a burden on their family because of their health condition, 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:29.640 so they were happy to be rid of them. That's 0:22:29.640 --> 0:22:32.600 all very sad, okay. So that's how that's how it 0:22:32.640 --> 0:22:35.040 definitely started out. And then and it went on like 0:22:35.080 --> 0:22:38.080 that um for a very long time as well. But 0:22:38.200 --> 0:22:40.639 once borne him and not a Norman and some of 0:22:40.680 --> 0:22:43.680 the other guys, the big guys came around, they would 0:22:43.680 --> 0:22:45.920 just basically keep an eye out for that kind of thing, 0:22:46.119 --> 0:22:48.600 or they would be approached by these guys who would 0:22:48.680 --> 0:22:52.560 essentially be middleman kind of like um, somebody who discovered 0:22:52.560 --> 0:22:56.639 a boy band selling their contract to a bigger record company. 0:22:56.680 --> 0:23:00.240 But this was with human curiosity, people with the third lagger, 0:23:00.359 --> 0:23:04.000 hyper trichosis or what have you. UM. And then Barnum 0:23:04.000 --> 0:23:07.400 would take him and would would just take whatever exaggerated 0:23:07.400 --> 0:23:09.919 origin story that they came with and just throw it 0:23:09.960 --> 0:23:13.360 out and come up with one ten times more uh. 0:23:13.400 --> 0:23:19.080 And after his uh George Washington's nurse made Joyce heth died, 0:23:19.200 --> 0:23:22.440 who was not George Washington's right. He started looking around 0:23:22.480 --> 0:23:26.600 for his next collaborator, if you could call him that, um, 0:23:26.640 --> 0:23:29.000 and he found out that he had a distant cousin, 0:23:29.040 --> 0:23:32.920 a fifth cousin UM named Charles Stratton, who had stopped 0:23:32.920 --> 0:23:37.840 growing when he was about two years old. Yeah. He 0:23:38.080 --> 0:23:42.480 he never completely stopped. He grew very slowly. He made 0:23:42.480 --> 0:23:44.520 it to like just over three feet I think by 0:23:44.520 --> 0:23:46.480 the time his death. Yeah. He died at forty five 0:23:46.520 --> 0:23:48.360 of a stroke and he was three point three five 0:23:48.400 --> 0:23:53.919 ft tall. Um, but grew so slowly. I mean you 0:23:53.960 --> 0:23:57.400 know he was He was General Tom Thumb, very famously 0:23:58.119 --> 0:24:02.520 renamed General Tom Thumb by his half fifth twice removed cousin. 0:24:03.080 --> 0:24:07.680 Uh pt what does that stand for? Even Paul Thomas 0:24:07.960 --> 0:24:12.720 Anderson bon uh So he said, you know what this 0:24:12.800 --> 0:24:16.280 is great. Um, you were a small person and you're 0:24:17.080 --> 0:24:19.440 cute as the dickens, So let me dress you up 0:24:19.640 --> 0:24:23.960 in little adult suits and you're my new sidekick. Yeah 0:24:24.160 --> 0:24:28.040