WEBVTT - Sideshow 10: Monster Medicine 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.960 This episode contains material the baby disturbing to some listener. 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:15.160 Discretion is advised. The midwife screamed, she hadn't been ready 0:00:15.200 --> 0:00:18.680 for this. We can imagine her blood slicked hands passing 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:21.319 the child over to its mother, and we can see 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:25.600 that mother, exhausted and frantic, looking down at her newborn 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:29.360 baby in horror. What was she going to do? What 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:33.360 could she do? And what had she done to deserve this? 0:00:34.720 --> 0:00:37.680 The records tell us that the baby was severely malformed. 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:39.879 It appeared to have been born with the head of 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:43.479 an animal, a cat in fact, and so the mother's 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:47.479 private tragedy quickly morphed into a public accusation of beast 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:51.120 reality and a trial that ended in a guilty verdict. 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:54.600 She had brought a monster into this world, after all, 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:57.760 and she would suffer the consequences for it. As the 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:00.320 story goes, the woman was tied to allow matter in 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:06.320 Leiden's town square and burned alive. Today, a retrospective diagnosis 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:09.240 tells us that the baby likely had an encephali, a 0:01:09.319 --> 0:01:12.520 rare condition which often results in a missing brain and 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:17.080 a malformed skull. But Thomas Bartolin, the fellow who originally 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:22.480 documented the story in six didn't know this. Thomas was 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:25.320 an anatomist, but how could he a man with more 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:28.400 knowledge of a human body than most have agreed with 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:32.160 the judge's verdict. Wasn't he supposed to know better? The 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:36.520 answer was not. Then around the same time, a book 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:39.399 series was published called and I've warned you this is 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:43.119 a mouthful here The Midwives Book or the Whole Art 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:48.200 of Midwiffery discovered, directing childbearing women how to behave themselves 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:53.040 in their conception, breeding, bearing, and nursing of children. In 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:57.240 six books. The message was clear, a mother was solely 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:01.720 responsible for anything that happened in her him. As people 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:04.520 across space and time have grappled with our place in 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:07.919 the world, the roles of sex and reproduction have played 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:11.280 a large part. Pregnancy and birth have been things long 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:14.560 shrouded in myth and mystery, and for a long time 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:16.960 we've been getting a lot of what we know about 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:21.760 it wrong. And where there's mystery, people have a natural 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:25.200 inclination to fill in the gaps, to make order out 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:30.520 of chaos, especially when this chaos is made of our 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:36.200 own flesh and blood. I'm Aaron Manky, and welcome to 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:51.519 the side show. This new discovery had an ominous air 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:55.560 to it. The pair of conea formed tablets spoke of calamity, 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:59.720 thought to have been carved in Mesopotamia around seven BC. 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:02.720 They claimed to hold the key to predicting the future. 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:07.840 When archaeologists translated the tablets two columns, they discovered something surprising, 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:11.800 though it was about childbirth. The left side talked about 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:16.440 congenital defects, while the right side drew upon corresponding prophecies 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:20.359 related to those features. A missing right hand, for example, 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:24.000 predicted an earthquake. An infant without a tongue was set 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:27.359 to foretell the ruin of the home. Missing ears meant 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:30.280 that the country might soon be pitched into mourning, and 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:33.600 a royal child with a face of a lion was 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:36.600 said to signify that the king would have no rival. 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:41.640 For millennia, human abnormalities have been a mystery drawings from 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:45.680 our primitive ancestors have documented these malformations since the dawn 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:49.240 of time. Across history, these births have meant different things 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:53.040 in different places, and were frequently interpreted through the lens 0:03:53.160 --> 0:03:58.160 of superstition. Hinduism is home to multilimbed gods and goddesses, 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:01.960 while the ancient Greeks spoke of hybrid offspring between humans 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:05.080 and gods. In the sixth century, is A Door of 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:09.480 Seville tried to articulate reasons for these abnormalities, which he 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:14.120 believed were supernatural in origin. By the Dark Ages and 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:17.839 with the rise of Christianity, major belief systems were shifting. 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:22.440 The human and the divine were entangled. Many blamed outbreaks 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:25.960 like the Black Death on a wrathful god. Demons too 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:29.039 became scapegoats. The devil was believed to take the form 0:04:29.080 --> 0:04:33.320 of animals and could impregnate women with monstrous offspring at will. 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:37.359 And we need to remember that before doctrine and anatomy 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:41.839 were more than experimental trades, and before huge technological leaps 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:45.480 helped us unlock the body secrets, these fields were greatly 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:49.839 influenced by folklore and myth. Over time, though science became 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:54.400 codified into a discipline. Scientific study became very serious business 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:57.960 for a very serious professional class, and as it did, 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:01.880 the field of teratology took shape. It's an old Greek term, 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:05.280 with terra meaning a sign sent by the gods or 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:10.200 a monster. In simple terms, teratology was the scientific study 0:05:10.240 --> 0:05:15.599 of marvels and abnormalities. Specifically those related to the human body. 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:18.359 It would only make sense then, that this new mix 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:21.880 of new science and old superstition would make for a 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:26.600 potent cultural cocktail. People were hungry for knowledge, those born 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:31.359 with physical defects were seen as commodities for studying and collecting. 0:05:32.720 --> 0:05:36.320 Gerardist Rolick and his son Wilhelm were two such collectors 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:39.200 in the nineteenth century. They were pioneers in the field 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:43.480 of vertebrate teratology. They had animal specimens and human fetuses 0:05:43.520 --> 0:05:47.080 of all kinds, to the tune of thousands jars of 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:52.200 conjoined twins, articulated and diseased skeletons, you name it, they 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:56.200 had it. After William's death, that collection was turned into 0:05:56.320 --> 0:05:59.760 a permanent exhibit, and it still exists today. Housed at 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:04.799 the Diversity of Amsterdam. The collection now contains over twenty artifacts. 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:09.400 It's most recent items added in nineteen fifty. The ethics 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:11.960 of this feels a bit fuzzy, I know, and the 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:16.359 collections very existence invites a difficult question. How do we 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:18.400 decide if a body is to be put to rest 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:23.359 or put on display? But rest assured not every specimen 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:26.840 at the crossroads of science and superstition was destined for 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:30.200 a glass jar or a curio cabinet. In fact, there 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:33.880 were far less fatal ways of viewing a number of curiosities, 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:47.880 and they were just as interesting. The neighbors had begun 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:51.800 to talk. The community of Rossolini, on the island of 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:55.719 Sicily was by all definitions a pretty medieval village. The 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:59.320 streets were tightly gritted and lined with sun faded stone 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:02.640 buildings at small church squares. It was the sort of 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:05.760 quaint Italian town that would look great on a postcard. 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:09.520 It was early summer in the eighteen eighties when Giovanna 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:13.760 went into labor. Different accounts say different things that this 0:07:13.840 --> 0:07:17.120 was her first birth or her sixth. Regardless, we know 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:19.640 this to be true. She gave birth in her to 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:24.000 room home on Via Granadi Noavi, and undoubtedly had hopes 0:07:24.040 --> 0:07:27.280 for her baby. She and her husband were farmers, and 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:30.960 in an agricultural community such as Rossellini, there was always 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:33.480 more work to be done. In addition to an extra 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:37.640 set of hands, Giovanna and her husband got an extra leg. 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:42.160 Their child, Francesco Lentini, came into the world healthy, strong, 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:46.600 and having half absorbed his twin in utero. Their two 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:49.760 bodies had fused as one, and because of that, Little 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:54.520 Francesco was born with three legs, four ft and sixteen toes. 0:07:55.360 --> 0:07:58.800 His family read his arrival as a curse. Reports say 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:01.880 that his father called his appearance and act of God. 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:05.080 Their neighbors didn't quite know what to think. They simply 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:09.200 spoke of him as the marvel, and naturally the community 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:11.800 tried to figure out where to lay the blame. Some 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:14.160 said that his mother had visited a carpenter where she 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:17.840 had laid eyes on a three legged stool. That was enough, 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:21.840 they said, to irrevocably harm the child, a folk belief 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:26.040 known as maternal impression. Around the same time Frank was born, 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:30.280 Scottish physician J. W. Ballantine was busy working on debunking 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:33.720 the idea that maternal impression was a cause for birth defects. 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:39.080 Yet centuries of superstition weren't going to fade overnight. Frank 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:42.640 would grow up in Roussellini with a nickname the Little Monster. 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:45.560 He would tie his extra limb back and out of 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:48.559 the way, but he knew he wasn't fooling anyone. It 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:50.480 made it hard for him to play games with the 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:53.920 other children, and he hated it. He could run and 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:56.800 swim and bike well enough, but he still felt different. 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:00.240 In fact, Frank's extra leg didn't stop him from doing 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:02.440 much at all, but he still felt the weight of 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:05.679 its presence, and his father did everything within his power 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:08.960 to find a solution for his appearance. He had heard 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:12.160 a rumor of a mysterious doctor in the Republic of Malta, 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:14.960 a physician who worked at an institute for children with 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:19.040 physical ailments, so they went to find him. But their 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:22.360 consultation wouldn't be what they hoped for. The doctors determined 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:24.880 that an operation to remove the third leg would prove 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:28.320 far too risky. It was fused to frank spine, after all, 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:32.080 and cutting it off could potentially result in paralysis. They 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:35.160 just didn't want to risk it. But what young Frank 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:38.120 saw at this institution was a site that would stay 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:41.880 with him forever. The children there appeared happy. But how 0:09:41.880 --> 0:09:44.680 could this be? He thought. He looked at himself, and 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:47.280 then he looked back at them. They two were living 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:49.400 with bodies that the rest of the world looked upon 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:53.720 with pity and disgust, and yet they were full of joy. 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:58.080 What did they know that he didn't? He would later 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:01.080 write the visit to the instant tutition was the best 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:03.720 thing that ever happened to me. From that time to 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:07.520 this I've never complained. I think life is beautiful and 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:11.360 I enjoy living it. Not long after returning home from 0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:14.839 that trip, Frank came into contact with Vincenzo Megano, a 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:19.000 traveling showman. He was smitten with Frank's figure and quickly 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:21.439 hatched a plan with Frank's parents that would bring them 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:25.560 all to America, to Bridgeport, Connecticut, in fact, to the 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:29.559 home of P. T. Barnum. They knew an opportunity when 0:10:29.559 --> 0:10:32.679 they saw one. Soon the East Coast papers were peppered 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:36.160 with news of Frank's arrival. The headlines transformed him into 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:40.800 the greatest medical wonder of all time and the great Lentini. 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:44.560 People were drawn in by the promotional posters, but stayed 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:48.280 for his charm. He was ultimately accessible to his audience, 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:52.360 eliciting their questions and replying with candor. He even sold 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:56.200 his story in a small souvenir chap book. By nineteen 0:10:56.240 --> 0:10:58.480 o seven, he was married to a woman named Teresa 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:02.120 Murray of Massachusetts, said to be a beautiful actress from 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:05.080 a well to do family. Together they had four children 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:08.320 and by all accounts, it was a happy time. A 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:11.440 year after their marriage, Frank and his new wife returned 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:15.080 to Rossellini. Spirits were high for the carnival season, and 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:18.120 the whole town turned out for the prodigal son's return. 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:21.400 But this time his old neighbors, the ones who had 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:25.560 once called him the little monster, demonstrated a change of heart. 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:29.480 They showed their support for him by wearing their own 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:41.240 three legged trousers. If you're going to concoct a plan 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:44.839 on how to make people better, I suppose Southern Illinois 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:47.720 is as good as any place to do it. Or 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:51.000 so the proprietors of the nineteen twenty Perry County Fair 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:53.400 thought when they announced that they would be hosting a 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:56.680 Better Baby contest. The babies would be judged based on 0:11:56.679 --> 0:12:00.400 their looks and their smarts. Why plan for better stock, 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:05.000 they asked, and let the human race deteriorate. This contest 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:07.440 was part of a larger trend that aimed to educate 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:10.240 people on how to raise healthier children. But we can 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:13.720 look back in hindsight and see more sinister shades. You see, 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:16.640 only certain kinds of babies were allowed to enter. If 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:20.920 you were African American or Native American or an immigrant, well, 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:25.040 you were automatically disqualified. This question of how to make 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:28.920 better babies was on everyone's mind too. America was seeing 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:33.040 a huge influx of immigrants, Social morays were being upended, 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:36.720 and ways of life were changing. Social order some felt 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:41.920 needed maintenance. The theory of eugenics was a natural outgrowth 0:12:41.920 --> 0:12:46.000 of teratology. As opposed to how to keep from birthing monsters, 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:49.120 it asked how to optimize genetics with the plans of 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:52.760 birthing perfect babies. The idea took hold with some of 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:56.040 the most prominent thinkers of the day, Aiming to eradicate 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:59.720 what they called bad genes. They talked a lot about 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:03.240 s elect of breeding. The idea, unfortunately, was also a 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:07.760 big hit. This resulted in forced sterilizations, laws about who 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:11.760 people could marry, pedigree registration and tracking, and, in the 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:16.199 case of Nazi Europe, inspired the final solution. And what 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:18.319 didn't you know it? But none other than the Great 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:22.560 Lentini also received top billing at that same Perry County fair. 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:26.640 He was a newly minted U S citizen and proudly assimilated. 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:29.360 One only has to wonder what he thought about all 0:13:29.400 --> 0:13:32.480 of this. You see Eugenicists had a habit of using 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:37.120 sideshow performers bodies as proof of their subpar genes, often 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:41.160 lobbying for their sterilization. It's almost certain that someone with 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:44.920 Frank's condition may have been killed at birth. Only centuries after. 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:48.800 Even still, Frank was busy touring and building his career. 0:13:49.200 --> 0:13:51.680 He reworked his chat book and continued to sell it, 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:55.199 always adding to it and refining the story of his life. 0:13:55.520 --> 0:13:59.120 In it, Frank answered the anticipated questions about his own genes. 0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:02.480 No had no ancestors that he knew of who had 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:06.160 similar conditions, and all his siblings were, in his own words, 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:11.240 ordinary appearing people. Frank wrote, often people look at me 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:14.520 and pass the remark, isn't that too bad? But I 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:16.480 am here to tell you that there are lots of 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:18.800 people in the world who are a great deal worse 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:21.160 off than I am, who have far less to live for, 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:23.840 and who have but a fraction of the pleasure that 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:27.800 I get out of life. Frank also used his booklet 0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:31.720 as an opportunity to soapbox on his own ideas of reproduction. 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:35.120 Over the years, he had become increasingly interested in health 0:14:35.160 --> 0:14:37.840 and hygiene, while so many of his peers in the 0:14:37.880 --> 0:14:42.320 side show industry ended up as anatomical specimens. Frank was different. 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:46.880 Now he was the one observing, synthesizing, and teaching about 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:50.120 the human body. There was one chapter in which he 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:53.880 summarized the steps of fetal development. Scientists were beginning to 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:57.760 understand more about what happens in utero. Blaming birth defects 0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:01.880 on things like maternal impression. Exes and curses were by 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:05.840 then largely going out of fashion. It's often said that 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:09.239 we live out our adult lives in reaction to our childhood, 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:12.720 and we can wonder if Frank's keen interest in procreation 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:16.800 and morality had anything to do with his early traumatic years. 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:20.400 For his part, Frank performed into his old age. He 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:23.440 was a darling of the press, often being profiled under 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:27.640 such headlines as mother Nature stacked the deck against Lentini, 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:30.240 but he took the hand he got, played it out, 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:32.800 and he's been a winner in his pursuit of happiness. 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:36.120 We can imagine that sideshow visitors loved him because he 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:39.080 felt exceptional in the way he was self governed. He 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:43.560 carried himself as an optimist, pursuing happiness and a quote 0:15:43.760 --> 0:15:46.720 normal life that may have otherwise been denied to some 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:51.880 of his fellow performers. He retired old and jolly to Sonny, Florida. 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:55.800 Whether he settled in Miami or Gibson Town, a favorite 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:59.960 wintering spot of fellow sideshow performers, is still up for debate. 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:03.800 Each likes to claim him as their own. You see, 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:07.400 Frank's was an immigrant success story of the highest regard. 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:10.960 There's a sign on Ellis Island that says, I was 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:13.800 told that in America the streets are paved with gold. 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:16.760 When I got here, I found out three things. One, 0:16:17.160 --> 0:16:20.280 the streets are not paved with gold. To the streets 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:23.080 were not paved at all, And three I had to 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:26.280 pave them. But if the American dream was ever really 0:16:26.320 --> 0:16:28.680 more than just a myth, Frank was one of the 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:33.120 lucky few who found it. And that was one story, 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:36.760 one myth, one bit of hearsay passed down over the 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:50.440 years that he truly wanted to believe in. The bulk 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:54.920 of Frank's career coincided with a larger cultural shift. During 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:58.320 his time, the general public began to view different physical 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:02.240 appearances not as a form of entertainment, but rather as 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:06.600 belonging to fully actualized people. Afflicted by disease and disorder. 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:10.760 Whispers swirled and built into a roar, and by the 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:13.720 nineteen fifties there were calls from outside the side show 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:17.280 world to affirm the dignity of the performers by way 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:20.520 of shutting down the side shows. Frank was at the 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:23.520 center of the storm of sensibilities. He was among those 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:26.920 who opposed these changes. He advocated for the rights of 0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:30.680 freaks to perform, arguing that this was the only way 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:33.520 many of them could make a living. But while the 0:17:33.560 --> 0:17:37.120 wider world attempted to open up opportunities for them outside 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:40.120 the show, there were some straight facts that were ignored. 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:44.919 Not all of them felt exploited. Some like Frank, actually 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:48.040 wanted to work there, and with well meaning folks taking 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:51.800 away their ability to perform, while they were effectively stripped 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:55.760 of their livelihoods, but still there would be a reason 0:17:55.840 --> 0:18:00.879 to celebrate. In two thousand sixteen, Rossolini residents through a 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:06.080 festival the dress code three legged pants. Of course, they 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:09.960 were there to kick off pun intended naturally. The Frank 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:15.080 Lentini Memorial Day to quote celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:18.960 the death of America's most famous three legged man. He 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:21.639 would be a day of first for Frank's descendants, the 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:24.160 first time many of them met each other. The town 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:27.800 was set to debut a portrait of him entitled Frank Lentini, 0:18:28.320 --> 0:18:31.800 King of Wonders. They would do tours of his childhood home, 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:36.119 as well as cooking lessons featuring regional dishes, and the 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:39.399 final event on the dockets a keynote really was a 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:44.240 talk entitled the Value of Diversity. Frank, we can imagine 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:55.360 would have been very pleased. Indeed, I hope today's tour 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:58.119 through the side Show helped you see birth and life 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:00.919 in a whole new way. Kids come in all shapes 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:03.119 and sizes, after all, and they all have their own 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:06.520 unique challenges to overcome, which is why I think Frank's 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:09.720 story is such a powerful one to hear. But we're 0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:12.159 not done just yet. If you stick around through this 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:15.440 brief sponsor break, my teammate Robin Miniature, will tell you 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:28.200 one more tale about the side Show. They were dressed 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:32.119 in doll outfits, born so early that these were the 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:35.919 only clothes that would fit their tiny bodies. In the 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:39.480 daily battle of life and death at Coney Island. These 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:42.960 babies were on the front line, and they were in 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:48.200 good company. Inside the infantry um, a team of nurses 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:52.720 and starched white uniforms tended to their incubators by foot 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:56.360 tall machines birth of steel and glass, and warm air. 0:19:57.080 --> 0:20:01.080 Each gave the infants a place to rest and a 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:05.800 place to be on stage. Visitors paid twenty five cents 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:08.480 to come take a look. They would file through with 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:10.840 their hot dogs and bend over the guard rails to 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:14.320 look at the babies under glass. Each of them clocked 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:17.360 in and no more than two or three pounds. They 0:20:17.359 --> 0:20:20.520 were barely larger than the palm of your hand, and 0:20:20.600 --> 0:20:24.440 while the medical establishment had dismissed the infants as weaklings, 0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:29.280 Martin Cooney wasn't willing to give up so easily. Doctors 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:32.040 would often keep quiet on the issue of premature birth 0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:35.359 due to the high mortality rate, but Cooney felt that 0:20:35.440 --> 0:20:38.240 he could not only educate the public with his exhibit, 0:20:38.720 --> 0:20:44.080 but he could also save lives. Incubators were originally crafted 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:46.960 and used for chicken eggs, but it wasn't until the 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:50.840 nineteenth century that they were first used for humans. But 0:20:50.960 --> 0:20:54.600 they were expensive and experimental and didn't solve the problem 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:57.440 of a fragile child who kneaded round the clock care, 0:20:58.000 --> 0:21:01.399 so where hospitals fell short, Martin and his staff stepped in. 0:21:01.760 --> 0:21:04.880 They took on the most desperate of cases, providing care 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:08.119 until the child was fit to go home or the 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:12.679 boardwalk closed for the season. Martin debuted his project at 0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:17.280 the eighteen nine Industrial Exhibition of Berlin, before taking the 0:21:17.320 --> 0:21:19.960 show on the road. He made an appearance at Queen 0:21:20.040 --> 0:21:23.880 Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in London and eventually made his way 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:27.720 to Omaha, Nebraska. Failing to gain much traction there, he 0:21:27.840 --> 0:21:31.200 took his exhibit to Coney Island and They're on the Boardwalk. 0:21:31.320 --> 0:21:35.000 From the beginning of his career until ninety three, he 0:21:35.200 --> 0:21:40.000 saved over of the eight thousand premature babies he took in. 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:44.720 But Martin was no doctor. In fact, he lied about 0:21:44.720 --> 0:21:47.200 his birthplace, and he changed his name more than once. 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:49.439 A lot of his early life is a bit of 0:21:49.440 --> 0:21:54.399 a mystery. In true showman fashion, he had created his 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:57.560 own story. But this is what we know to be true. 0:21:57.960 --> 0:22:00.840 Here is a man who changed the phase of neonatal 0:22:00.920 --> 0:22:04.719 care and did more for the field and these families 0:22:05.320 --> 0:22:10.520 than anyone else had up until that point. In nineteen 0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:13.440 o one, the Boston Medical Journal had asked if it 0:22:13.600 --> 0:22:17.800 was even and a quote worthwhile to try to save 0:22:17.920 --> 0:22:22.800 these premature lives. A famous propaganda film later circulated that 0:22:22.960 --> 0:22:27.399 encouraged people to quote kill the defectives, save the nation, 0:22:28.280 --> 0:22:32.520 the better baby contests, remember them. We're all part of 0:22:32.560 --> 0:22:37.200 this larger cultural movement that asked the question who deserved 0:22:37.200 --> 0:22:41.080 to live? The Infantorium closed down for good in nineteen 0:22:41.160 --> 0:22:44.399 forty three, the same year that Cornell Hospital in New 0:22:44.440 --> 0:22:47.720 York City opened up the first neo natal unit, which 0:22:47.760 --> 0:22:50.280 meant that those babies had somewhere to go after Martin 0:22:50.400 --> 0:22:55.040 was gone, and some of these babies they're still alive today. 0:22:55.080 --> 0:22:57.880 For the price of his care, parents paid not a cent. 0:22:58.640 --> 0:23:01.840 All expenses were heard by selling tickets to the general 0:23:01.880 --> 0:23:05.160 public who were hungry to see something they had never 0:23:05.200 --> 0:23:09.879 seen before, and in the process they funded something even 0:23:10.160 --> 0:23:17.919 more valuable. Hope Side Show was written by Robin Minat 0:23:18.200 --> 0:23:21.679 with narration by me Aaron Mankey. Research for the series 0:23:21.760 --> 0:23:25.280 was by Robin Minator, Taylor Haggard Dorn, and Sam Alberty, 0:23:25.320 --> 0:23:29.560 with production assistants from Josh Than, Jesse Funk, Alex Williams, 0:23:29.640 --> 0:23:32.639 and Matt Frederick. Grim and Mile Presents was created in 0:23:32.720 --> 0:23:35.600 partnership with I Heart Radio. You can learn more about 0:23:35.600 --> 0:23:38.240 this show and everything else from Grim and mild Over 0:23:38.320 --> 0:23:42.280 at Grim and mild dot com, and, as always, thanks 0:23:42.359 --> 0:24:09.720 for listening. Open a