Speaker 1: This episode contains material the baby disturbing to some listener.
Speaker 1: Discretion is advised. The midwife screamed, she hadn't been ready
Speaker 1: for this. We can imagine her blood slicked hands passing
Speaker 1: the child over to its mother, and we can see
Speaker 1: that mother, exhausted and frantic, looking down at her newborn
Speaker 1: baby in horror. What was she going to do? What
Speaker 1: could she do? And what had she done to deserve this?
Speaker 1: The records tell us that the baby was severely malformed.
Speaker 1: It appeared to have been born with the head of
Speaker 1: an animal, a cat in fact, and so the mother's
Speaker 1: private tragedy quickly morphed into a public accusation of beast
Speaker 1: reality and a trial that ended in a guilty verdict.
Speaker 1: She had brought a monster into this world, after all,
Speaker 1: and she would suffer the consequences for it. As the
Speaker 1: story goes, the woman was tied to allow matter in
Speaker 1: Leiden's town square and burned alive. Today, a retrospective diagnosis
Speaker 1: tells us that the baby likely had an encephali, a
Speaker 1: rare condition which often results in a missing brain and
Speaker 1: a malformed skull. But Thomas Bartolin, the fellow who originally
Speaker 1: documented the story in six didn't know this. Thomas was
Speaker 1: an anatomist, but how could he a man with more
Speaker 1: knowledge of a human body than most have agreed with
Speaker 1: the judge's verdict. Wasn't he supposed to know better? The
Speaker 1: answer was not. Then around the same time, a book
Speaker 1: series was published called and I've warned you this is
Speaker 1: a mouthful here The Midwives Book or the Whole Art
Speaker 1: of Midwiffery discovered, directing childbearing women how to behave themselves
Speaker 1: in their conception, breeding, bearing, and nursing of children. In
Speaker 1: six books. The message was clear, a mother was solely
Speaker 1: responsible for anything that happened in her him. As people
Speaker 1: across space and time have grappled with our place in
Speaker 1: the world, the roles of sex and reproduction have played
Speaker 1: a large part. Pregnancy and birth have been things long
Speaker 1: shrouded in myth and mystery, and for a long time
Speaker 1: we've been getting a lot of what we know about
Speaker 1: it wrong. And where there's mystery, people have a natural
Speaker 1: inclination to fill in the gaps, to make order out
Speaker 1: of chaos, especially when this chaos is made of our
Speaker 1: own flesh and blood. I'm Aaron Manky, and welcome to
Speaker 1: the side show. This new discovery had an ominous air
Speaker 1: to it. The pair of conea formed tablets spoke of calamity,
Speaker 1: thought to have been carved in Mesopotamia around seven BC.
Speaker 1: They claimed to hold the key to predicting the future.
Speaker 1: When archaeologists translated the tablets two columns, they discovered something surprising,
Speaker 1: though it was about childbirth. The left side talked about
Speaker 1: congenital defects, while the right side drew upon corresponding prophecies
Speaker 1: related to those features. A missing right hand, for example,
Speaker 1: predicted an earthquake. An infant without a tongue was set
Speaker 1: to foretell the ruin of the home. Missing ears meant
Speaker 1: that the country might soon be pitched into mourning, and
Speaker 1: a royal child with a face of a lion was
Speaker 1: said to signify that the king would have no rival.
Speaker 1: For millennia, human abnormalities have been a mystery drawings from
Speaker 1: our primitive ancestors have documented these malformations since the dawn
Speaker 1: of time. Across history, these births have meant different things
Speaker 1: in different places, and were frequently interpreted through the lens
Speaker 1: of superstition. Hinduism is home to multilimbed gods and goddesses,
Speaker 1: while the ancient Greeks spoke of hybrid offspring between humans
Speaker 1: and gods. In the sixth century, is A Door of
Speaker 1: Seville tried to articulate reasons for these abnormalities, which he
Speaker 1: believed were supernatural in origin. By the Dark Ages and
Speaker 1: with the rise of Christianity, major belief systems were shifting.
Speaker 1: The human and the divine were entangled. Many blamed outbreaks
Speaker 1: like the Black Death on a wrathful god. Demons too
Speaker 1: became scapegoats. The devil was believed to take the form
Speaker 1: of animals and could impregnate women with monstrous offspring at will.
Speaker 1: And we need to remember that before doctrine and anatomy
Speaker 1: were more than experimental trades, and before huge technological leaps
Speaker 1: helped us unlock the body secrets, these fields were greatly
Speaker 1: influenced by folklore and myth. Over time, though science became
Speaker 1: codified into a discipline. Scientific study became very serious business
Speaker 1: for a very serious professional class, and as it did,
Speaker 1: the field of teratology took shape. It's an old Greek term,
Speaker 1: with terra meaning a sign sent by the gods or
Speaker 1: a monster. In simple terms, teratology was the scientific study
Speaker 1: of marvels and abnormalities. Specifically those related to the human body.
Speaker 1: It would only make sense then, that this new mix
Speaker 1: of new science and old superstition would make for a
Speaker 1: potent cultural cocktail. People were hungry for knowledge, those born
Speaker 1: with physical defects were seen as commodities for studying and collecting.
Speaker 1: Gerardist Rolick and his son Wilhelm were two such collectors
Speaker 1: in the nineteenth century. They were pioneers in the field
Speaker 1: of vertebrate teratology. They had animal specimens and human fetuses
Speaker 1: of all kinds, to the tune of thousands jars of
Speaker 1: conjoined twins, articulated and diseased skeletons, you name it, they
Speaker 1: had it. After William's death, that collection was turned into
Speaker 1: a permanent exhibit, and it still exists today. Housed at
Speaker 1: the Diversity of Amsterdam. The collection now contains over twenty artifacts.
Speaker 1: It's most recent items added in nineteen fifty. The ethics
Speaker 1: of this feels a bit fuzzy, I know, and the
Speaker 1: collections very existence invites a difficult question. How do we
Speaker 1: decide if a body is to be put to rest
Speaker 1: or put on display? But rest assured not every specimen
Speaker 1: at the crossroads of science and superstition was destined for
Speaker 1: a glass jar or a curio cabinet. In fact, there
Speaker 1: were far less fatal ways of viewing a number of curiosities,
Speaker 1: and they were just as interesting. The neighbors had begun
Speaker 1: to talk. The community of Rossolini, on the island of
Speaker 1: Sicily was by all definitions a pretty medieval village. The
Speaker 1: streets were tightly gritted and lined with sun faded stone
Speaker 1: buildings at small church squares. It was the sort of
Speaker 1: quaint Italian town that would look great on a postcard.
Speaker 1: It was early summer in the eighteen eighties when Giovanna
Speaker 1: went into labor. Different accounts say different things that this
Speaker 1: was her first birth or her sixth. Regardless, we know
Speaker 1: this to be true. She gave birth in her to
Speaker 1: room home on Via Granadi Noavi, and undoubtedly had hopes
Speaker 1: for her baby. She and her husband were farmers, and
Speaker 1: in an agricultural community such as Rossellini, there was always
Speaker 1: more work to be done. In addition to an extra
Speaker 1: set of hands, Giovanna and her husband got an extra leg.
Speaker 1: Their child, Francesco Lentini, came into the world healthy, strong,
Speaker 1: and having half absorbed his twin in utero. Their two
Speaker 1: bodies had fused as one, and because of that, Little
Speaker 1: Francesco was born with three legs, four ft and sixteen toes.
Speaker 1: His family read his arrival as a curse. Reports say
Speaker 1: that his father called his appearance and act of God.
Speaker 1: Their neighbors didn't quite know what to think. They simply
Speaker 1: spoke of him as the marvel, and naturally the community
Speaker 1: tried to figure out where to lay the blame. Some
Speaker 1: said that his mother had visited a carpenter where she
Speaker 1: had laid eyes on a three legged stool. That was enough,
Speaker 1: they said, to irrevocably harm the child, a folk belief
Speaker 1: known as maternal impression. Around the same time Frank was born,
Speaker 1: Scottish physician J. W. Ballantine was busy working on debunking
Speaker 1: the idea that maternal impression was a cause for birth defects.
Speaker 1: Yet centuries of superstition weren't going to fade overnight. Frank
Speaker 1: would grow up in Roussellini with a nickname the Little Monster.
Speaker 1: He would tie his extra limb back and out of
Speaker 1: the way, but he knew he wasn't fooling anyone. It
Speaker 1: made it hard for him to play games with the
Speaker 1: other children, and he hated it. He could run and
Speaker 1: swim and bike well enough, but he still felt different.
Speaker 1: In fact, Frank's extra leg didn't stop him from doing
Speaker 1: much at all, but he still felt the weight of
Speaker 1: its presence, and his father did everything within his power
Speaker 1: to find a solution for his appearance. He had heard
Speaker 1: a rumor of a mysterious doctor in the Republic of Malta,
Speaker 1: a physician who worked at an institute for children with
Speaker 1: physical ailments, so they went to find him. But their
Speaker 1: consultation wouldn't be what they hoped for. The doctors determined
Speaker 1: that an operation to remove the third leg would prove
Speaker 1: far too risky. It was fused to frank spine, after all,
Speaker 1: and cutting it off could potentially result in paralysis. They
Speaker 1: just didn't want to risk it. But what young Frank
Speaker 1: saw at this institution was a site that would stay
Speaker 1: with him forever. The children there appeared happy. But how
Speaker 1: could this be? He thought. He looked at himself, and
Speaker 1: then he looked back at them. They two were living
Speaker 1: with bodies that the rest of the world looked upon
Speaker 1: with pity and disgust, and yet they were full of joy.
Speaker 1: What did they know that he didn't? He would later
Speaker 1: write the visit to the instant tutition was the best
Speaker 1: thing that ever happened to me. From that time to
Speaker 1: this I've never complained. I think life is beautiful and
Speaker 1: I enjoy living it. Not long after returning home from
Speaker 1: that trip, Frank came into contact with Vincenzo Megano, a
Speaker 1: traveling showman. He was smitten with Frank's figure and quickly
Speaker 1: hatched a plan with Frank's parents that would bring them
Speaker 1: all to America, to Bridgeport, Connecticut, in fact, to the
Speaker 1: home of P. T. Barnum. They knew an opportunity when
Speaker 1: they saw one. Soon the East Coast papers were peppered
Speaker 1: with news of Frank's arrival. The headlines transformed him into
Speaker 1: the greatest medical wonder of all time and the great Lentini.
Speaker 1: People were drawn in by the promotional posters, but stayed
Speaker 1: for his charm. He was ultimately accessible to his audience,
Speaker 1: eliciting their questions and replying with candor. He even sold
Speaker 1: his story in a small souvenir chap book. By nineteen
Speaker 1: o seven, he was married to a woman named Teresa
Speaker 1: Murray of Massachusetts, said to be a beautiful actress from
Speaker 1: a well to do family. Together they had four children
Speaker 1: and by all accounts, it was a happy time. A
Speaker 1: year after their marriage, Frank and his new wife returned
Speaker 1: to Rossellini. Spirits were high for the carnival season, and
Speaker 1: the whole town turned out for the prodigal son's return.
Speaker 1: But this time his old neighbors, the ones who had
Speaker 1: once called him the little monster, demonstrated a change of heart.
Speaker 1: They showed their support for him by wearing their own
Speaker 1: three legged trousers. If you're going to concoct a plan
Speaker 1: on how to make people better, I suppose Southern Illinois
Speaker 1: is as good as any place to do it. Or
Speaker 1: so the proprietors of the nineteen twenty Perry County Fair
Speaker 1: thought when they announced that they would be hosting a
Speaker 1: Better Baby contest. The babies would be judged based on
Speaker 1: their looks and their smarts. Why plan for better stock,
Speaker 1: they asked, and let the human race deteriorate. This contest
Speaker 1: was part of a larger trend that aimed to educate
Speaker 1: people on how to raise healthier children. But we can
Speaker 1: look back in hindsight and see more sinister shades. You see,
Speaker 1: only certain kinds of babies were allowed to enter. If
Speaker 1: you were African American or Native American or an immigrant, well,
Speaker 1: you were automatically disqualified. This question of how to make
Speaker 1: better babies was on everyone's mind too. America was seeing
Speaker 1: a huge influx of immigrants, Social morays were being upended,
Speaker 1: and ways of life were changing. Social order some felt
Speaker 1: needed maintenance. The theory of eugenics was a natural outgrowth
Speaker 1: of teratology. As opposed to how to keep from birthing monsters,
Speaker 1: it asked how to optimize genetics with the plans of
Speaker 1: birthing perfect babies. The idea took hold with some of
Speaker 1: the most prominent thinkers of the day, Aiming to eradicate
Speaker 1: what they called bad genes. They talked a lot about
Speaker 1: s elect of breeding. The idea, unfortunately, was also a
Speaker 1: big hit. This resulted in forced sterilizations, laws about who
Speaker 1: people could marry, pedigree registration and tracking, and, in the
Speaker 1: case of Nazi Europe, inspired the final solution. And what
Speaker 1: didn't you know it? But none other than the Great
Speaker 1: Lentini also received top billing at that same Perry County fair.
Speaker 1: He was a newly minted U S citizen and proudly assimilated.
Speaker 1: One only has to wonder what he thought about all
Speaker 1: of this. You see Eugenicists had a habit of using
Speaker 1: sideshow performers bodies as proof of their subpar genes, often
Speaker 1: lobbying for their sterilization. It's almost certain that someone with
Speaker 1: Frank's condition may have been killed at birth. Only centuries after.
Speaker 1: Even still, Frank was busy touring and building his career.
Speaker 1: He reworked his chat book and continued to sell it,
Speaker 1: always adding to it and refining the story of his life.
Speaker 1: In it, Frank answered the anticipated questions about his own genes.
Speaker 1: No had no ancestors that he knew of who had
Speaker 1: similar conditions, and all his siblings were, in his own words,
Speaker 1: ordinary appearing people. Frank wrote, often people look at me
Speaker 1: and pass the remark, isn't that too bad? But I
Speaker 1: am here to tell you that there are lots of
Speaker 1: people in the world who are a great deal worse
Speaker 1: off than I am, who have far less to live for,
Speaker 1: and who have but a fraction of the pleasure that
Speaker 1: I get out of life. Frank also used his booklet
Speaker 1: as an opportunity to soapbox on his own ideas of reproduction.
Speaker 1: Over the years, he had become increasingly interested in health
Speaker 1: and hygiene, while so many of his peers in the
Speaker 1: side show industry ended up as anatomical specimens. Frank was different.
Speaker 1: Now he was the one observing, synthesizing, and teaching about
Speaker 1: the human body. There was one chapter in which he
Speaker 1: summarized the steps of fetal development. Scientists were beginning to
Speaker 1: understand more about what happens in utero. Blaming birth defects
Speaker 1: on things like maternal impression. Exes and curses were by
Speaker 1: then largely going out of fashion. It's often said that
Speaker 1: we live out our adult lives in reaction to our childhood,
Speaker 1: and we can wonder if Frank's keen interest in procreation
Speaker 1: and morality had anything to do with his early traumatic years.
Speaker 1: For his part, Frank performed into his old age. He
Speaker 1: was a darling of the press, often being profiled under
Speaker 1: such headlines as mother Nature stacked the deck against Lentini,
Speaker 1: but he took the hand he got, played it out,
Speaker 1: and he's been a winner in his pursuit of happiness.
Speaker 1: We can imagine that sideshow visitors loved him because he
Speaker 1: felt exceptional in the way he was self governed. He
Speaker 1: carried himself as an optimist, pursuing happiness and a quote
Speaker 1: normal life that may have otherwise been denied to some
Speaker 1: of his fellow performers. He retired old and jolly to Sonny, Florida.
Speaker 1: Whether he settled in Miami or Gibson Town, a favorite
Speaker 1: wintering spot of fellow sideshow performers, is still up for debate.
Speaker 1: Each likes to claim him as their own. You see,
Speaker 1: Frank's was an immigrant success story of the highest regard.
Speaker 1: There's a sign on Ellis Island that says, I was
Speaker 1: told that in America the streets are paved with gold.
Speaker 1: When I got here, I found out three things. One,
Speaker 1: the streets are not paved with gold. To the streets
Speaker 1: were not paved at all, And three I had to
Speaker 1: pave them. But if the American dream was ever really
Speaker 1: more than just a myth, Frank was one of the
Speaker 1: lucky few who found it. And that was one story,
Speaker 1: one myth, one bit of hearsay passed down over the
Speaker 1: years that he truly wanted to believe in. The bulk
Speaker 1: of Frank's career coincided with a larger cultural shift. During
Speaker 1: his time, the general public began to view different physical
Speaker 1: appearances not as a form of entertainment, but rather as
Speaker 1: belonging to fully actualized people. Afflicted by disease and disorder.
Speaker 1: Whispers swirled and built into a roar, and by the
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties there were calls from outside the side show
Speaker 1: world to affirm the dignity of the performers by way
Speaker 1: of shutting down the side shows. Frank was at the
Speaker 1: center of the storm of sensibilities. He was among those
Speaker 1: who opposed these changes. He advocated for the rights of
Speaker 1: freaks to perform, arguing that this was the only way
Speaker 1: many of them could make a living. But while the
Speaker 1: wider world attempted to open up opportunities for them outside
Speaker 1: the show, there were some straight facts that were ignored.
Speaker 1: Not all of them felt exploited. Some like Frank, actually
Speaker 1: wanted to work there, and with well meaning folks taking
Speaker 1: away their ability to perform, while they were effectively stripped
Speaker 1: of their livelihoods, but still there would be a reason
Speaker 1: to celebrate. In two thousand sixteen, Rossolini residents through a
Speaker 1: festival the dress code three legged pants. Of course, they
Speaker 1: were there to kick off pun intended naturally. The Frank
Speaker 1: Lentini Memorial Day to quote celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of
Speaker 1: the death of America's most famous three legged man. He
Speaker 1: would be a day of first for Frank's descendants, the
Speaker 1: first time many of them met each other. The town
Speaker 1: was set to debut a portrait of him entitled Frank Lentini,
Speaker 1: King of Wonders. They would do tours of his childhood home,
Speaker 1: as well as cooking lessons featuring regional dishes, and the
Speaker 1: final event on the dockets a keynote really was a
Speaker 1: talk entitled the Value of Diversity. Frank, we can imagine
Speaker 1: would have been very pleased. Indeed, I hope today's tour
Speaker 1: through the side Show helped you see birth and life
Speaker 1: in a whole new way. Kids come in all shapes
Speaker 1: and sizes, after all, and they all have their own
Speaker 1: unique challenges to overcome, which is why I think Frank's
Speaker 1: story is such a powerful one to hear. But we're
Speaker 1: not done just yet. If you stick around through this
Speaker 1: brief sponsor break, my teammate Robin Miniature, will tell you
Speaker 1: one more tale about the side Show. They were dressed
Speaker 1: in doll outfits, born so early that these were the
Speaker 1: only clothes that would fit their tiny bodies. In the
Speaker 1: daily battle of life and death at Coney Island. These
Speaker 1: babies were on the front line, and they were in
Speaker 1: good company. Inside the infantry um, a team of nurses
Speaker 1: and starched white uniforms tended to their incubators by foot
Speaker 1: tall machines birth of steel and glass, and warm air.
Speaker 1: Each gave the infants a place to rest and a
Speaker 1: place to be on stage. Visitors paid twenty five cents
Speaker 1: to come take a look. They would file through with
Speaker 1: their hot dogs and bend over the guard rails to
Speaker 1: look at the babies under glass. Each of them clocked
Speaker 1: in and no more than two or three pounds. They
Speaker 1: were barely larger than the palm of your hand, and
Speaker 1: while the medical establishment had dismissed the infants as weaklings,
Speaker 1: Martin Cooney wasn't willing to give up so easily. Doctors
Speaker 1: would often keep quiet on the issue of premature birth
Speaker 1: due to the high mortality rate, but Cooney felt that
Speaker 1: he could not only educate the public with his exhibit,
Speaker 1: but he could also save lives. Incubators were originally crafted
Speaker 1: and used for chicken eggs, but it wasn't until the
Speaker 1: nineteenth century that they were first used for humans. But
Speaker 1: they were expensive and experimental and didn't solve the problem
Speaker 1: of a fragile child who kneaded round the clock care,
Speaker 1: so where hospitals fell short, Martin and his staff stepped in.
Speaker 1: They took on the most desperate of cases, providing care
Speaker 1: until the child was fit to go home or the
Speaker 1: boardwalk closed for the season. Martin debuted his project at
Speaker 1: the eighteen nine Industrial Exhibition of Berlin, before taking the
Speaker 1: show on the road. He made an appearance at Queen
Speaker 1: Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in London and eventually made his way
Speaker 1: to Omaha, Nebraska. Failing to gain much traction there, he
Speaker 1: took his exhibit to Coney Island and They're on the Boardwalk.
Speaker 1: From the beginning of his career until ninety three, he
Speaker 1: saved over of the eight thousand premature babies he took in.
Speaker 1: But Martin was no doctor. In fact, he lied about
Speaker 1: his birthplace, and he changed his name more than once.
Speaker 1: A lot of his early life is a bit of
Speaker 1: a mystery. In true showman fashion, he had created his
Speaker 1: own story. But this is what we know to be true.
Speaker 1: Here is a man who changed the phase of neonatal
Speaker 1: care and did more for the field and these families
Speaker 1: than anyone else had up until that point. In nineteen
Speaker 1: o one, the Boston Medical Journal had asked if it
Speaker 1: was even and a quote worthwhile to try to save
Speaker 1: these premature lives. A famous propaganda film later circulated that
Speaker 1: encouraged people to quote kill the defectives, save the nation,
Speaker 1: the better baby contests, remember them. We're all part of
Speaker 1: this larger cultural movement that asked the question who deserved
Speaker 1: to live? The Infantorium closed down for good in nineteen
Speaker 1: forty three, the same year that Cornell Hospital in New
Speaker 1: York City opened up the first neo natal unit, which
Speaker 1: meant that those babies had somewhere to go after Martin
Speaker 1: was gone, and some of these babies they're still alive today.
Speaker 1: For the price of his care, parents paid not a cent.
Speaker 1: All expenses were heard by selling tickets to the general
Speaker 1: public who were hungry to see something they had never
Speaker 1: seen before, and in the process they funded something even
Speaker 1: more valuable. Hope Side Show was written by Robin Minat
Speaker 1: with narration by me Aaron Mankey. Research for the series
Speaker 1: was by Robin Minator, Taylor Haggard Dorn, and Sam Alberty,
Speaker 1: with production assistants from Josh Than, Jesse Funk, Alex Williams,
Speaker 1: and Matt Frederick. Grim and Mile Presents was created in
Speaker 1: partnership with I Heart Radio. You can learn more about
Speaker 1: this show and everything else from Grim and mild Over
Speaker 1: at Grim and mild dot com, and, as always, thanks
Speaker 1: for listening. Open a