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Speaker 1: Tell me about yourself. Oh that's a loaded question. What's

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Speaker 1: what's going on? Let's yeah, just just the Fringe Festival.

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Speaker 1: I guess I'm working on that, watching shows the artists

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Speaker 1: when this airs. This is the last couple of days

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Speaker 1: that's right for the Atlanta Fringe Festival Virtual, and we

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Speaker 1: have the Audio Festival. We're the only festival to have

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Speaker 1: an audio program, so we have twenty two free podcasts

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Speaker 1: and radio dramas. So I'm excited about that I can

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Speaker 1: finally listen to some of those shows once all this

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Speaker 1: is over. And our audio director Jessica says it's the

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Speaker 1: best year yet. We've been doing it for almost ten

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Speaker 1: years now, so that's saying a lot. Look, some people

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Speaker 1: have said they want to get us to know us

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Speaker 1: better personally through the podcast, And if you're gonna get

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Speaker 1: to know Diana better personally, you're going to learn about

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Speaker 1: the Atlanta Fringe Festival. That her existence very true anyway.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, that's all and work in this and some

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Speaker 1: nice comments on the internet about the shows. Lovely feedback.

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Speaker 1: I got the different episodes we've put out, so that's nice.

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Speaker 1: We got some great feedback from our our chiropractor today.

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Speaker 1: True I love our chiropractor. Yes, we go to the

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Speaker 1: body Well. If you're in Atlanta, go to the Body

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Speaker 1: Well and Glenwood um Dr Dr Aaron Jayden. We love them.

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Speaker 1: And they were just saying, they were like, we listened

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Speaker 1: to it and we love it. It was so exciting

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Speaker 1: to like creek someone in the wild. Yeah, and we

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Speaker 1: all felt better and we went home. It's true. I

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Speaker 1: do feel better right now. So anyway, that's our free

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Speaker 1: commercial for the Body Well. And but no, they are

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Speaker 1: really awesome. I'm not I'm not above talking about things

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Speaker 1: I like to do, places I like to go without

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Speaker 1: a you know, an official sponsorship whatever. You know what

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Speaker 1: else I like? Uh, Taco Bell, get your fourth meal

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Speaker 1: at Taco Bell. Think outside the bun, Think outside the bun.

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Speaker 1: That's that's is that the one right now? Now, Live Moss,

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Speaker 1: Live Moss. It might be Living be the last one

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Speaker 1: I heard. I don't know. Anyway, if they're looking for

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Speaker 1: a new Spooks person, you know, Live Moss talk go Bell.

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Speaker 1: But welcome back to the show. Welcome back to the show. Everybody. Hello,

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Speaker 1: We're so glad you're here. Of course, we've got another

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Speaker 1: stellar story to tell today. Honestly, this one's gonna tug

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Speaker 1: a little, it's gonna get those heart strings and it's

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Speaker 1: gonna pluck them like a like a symphony harp, like

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Speaker 1: we're transitioning to a fancy party scene in a movie.

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Speaker 1: This story did actually make me tear up a little bit,

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Speaker 1: but in a good way. So is a sweet one.

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Speaker 1: I know we've had some some cynical stories going on

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Speaker 1: lately too, and this one is there's there's darkness, but

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Speaker 1: at least the people are good people that we're talking about,

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Speaker 1: which is a rarity and ridiculous romances because we're finding

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Speaker 1: but nine miles south of Tampa, Florida, just off Route

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Speaker 1: forty one, there is a place called Gibsonton. Now it's

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Speaker 1: affectionately referred to as GiB Town, and once upon a time,

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Speaker 1: this place was a refuge for circus workers, particularly those

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Speaker 1: performed in the side show. In the golden days of

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Speaker 1: the American traveling carnival, give Town was the go to spot.

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Speaker 1: It was perfectly situated. They have warm winter weather, so

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Speaker 1: rides could be repaired, big cats could be trained, Carneys

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Speaker 1: could trade tips and games or even rides, and just

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Speaker 1: have somewhere to winter. I guess when they're off the season. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they said, those big cats need to be trained every

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Speaker 1: day or else they forget. Yeah, and you don't want

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Speaker 1: to lie in forgetting, all right, whereas the elephants only

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Speaker 1: need to be training one because they never forgot, because

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Speaker 1: they never forget. Hopefully, um, today, I think we got

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Speaker 1: the big cats and the elephants out of carnivals right well,

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Speaker 1: and abuses and circuses will be explored in this episode.

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Speaker 1: But let's talk about two folks who changed gibsons In

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Speaker 1: from a small encampment to a full fledged town. They

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Speaker 1: were known as the world's strangest married couple. Al and

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Speaker 1: Genie Tomini. Hey the French condition. Well, Elia and Diana

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Speaker 1: got some stories to tell. There's no match making a

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Speaker 1: romantic tips. It's just about pridiculous relationship love. It might

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Speaker 1: be any type of person at all, and abstract cons

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Speaker 1: that don't a concrete wall. But if there's a story

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Speaker 1: with a second glance, ridiculous roles. A production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio So. Al Tomani was born in February of

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Speaker 1: nineteen twelve. He was one of seven children, and he

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Speaker 1: was born weighing fifteen pounds, which, if I understand, my

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Speaker 1: baby science correctly is large. I was just thinking about

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Speaker 1: his mom. Do you think it was a C section

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Speaker 1: or do you think she like naturally pushed a fifteen

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Speaker 1: pound pound baby out? I don't know, because that would

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Speaker 1: be hello, a large baby. I mean for people like

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Speaker 1: me who if you asked me how much an average

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Speaker 1: baby ways, I would say between one and thirty pounds.

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Speaker 1: What's what's not wrong? Yeah? Yeah, it's like people are like,

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Speaker 1: my kid finally, my kid just said her first words,

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Speaker 1: and I'm like, okay, so she's either eight months or five.

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Speaker 1: I'm not sure where there bit lands. I don't hold

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Speaker 1: it in my head. So why don't you tell us

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Speaker 1: what's what's the what's the baby size? Well? I weighed

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Speaker 1: six pounds I think when I was born, But I

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Speaker 1: think an average baby size it's like eight. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: think I think ten is kind of like a big baby.

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Speaker 1: Like you're like, I had a big baby. It is

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Speaker 1: ten pounds, you know, They're like, oh, ship ten pounds,

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Speaker 1: Like I think, okay, so fifteen pounds, very large baby.

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Speaker 1: And I didn't stop there. His parents were Italian Americans,

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Speaker 1: and by the age of twelve, Al was taller than

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Speaker 1: his father. His father was six ft one, So that's

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Speaker 1: saying something. Now. He had a great grandfather back in

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Speaker 1: Italy who was also apparently abnormally tall, but still, I mean,

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Speaker 1: this kid was huge. So they took him to a

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Speaker 1: position to see what was going on. Nineteen twelve. I

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Speaker 1: guess technology is there. They do some X rays, they

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Speaker 1: run some tests, they determine his pituitary gland was working

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Speaker 1: overtime excessive growth hormone, so alt to me. He grew

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Speaker 1: to a height of According to the Guinness Book World Records,

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Speaker 1: he topped out at seven foot four inches, and he

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Speaker 1: took on work as a side show performer where he

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Speaker 1: claimed height of eight foot four And that's a lot

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Speaker 1: of people always referred to him as being eight foot four,

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Speaker 1: but what I read was that he exaggerated that and

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Speaker 1: nobody cared because he was such a nice guy. He

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Speaker 1: billed himself as the tallest man in the world, and

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Speaker 1: he weighed three hundred and fifty six pounds and he

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Speaker 1: wore size twenty seven shoes. What Big and Tall store

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Speaker 1: existed in nineteen whatever too? Oh yeah, I mean he

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Speaker 1: had to have everything custom made. In nineteen sixteen, a

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Speaker 1: girl was born in Blufton, Indiana, named Bernice Evelyn Smith.

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Speaker 1: She was also one of seven children, but she was

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Speaker 1: born without legs and her arms were twisted, with a

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Speaker 1: mild deformity in her hands, but without a lot of trouble,

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Speaker 1: she learned to walk on her hands with ease. She

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Speaker 1: became quiet acrobatic at an early age. In American side show,

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Speaker 1: author Mark Hartzman says she began walking on her hands,

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Speaker 1: timing ladders, and doing other ordinary things extraordinarily without legs,

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Speaker 1: and at age three, her parents started touring her all

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Speaker 1: over the country to perform in fairs as the Living

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Speaker 1: Half Girl, and it seemed to be something she liked.

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Speaker 1: She really enjoyed it. She would later write, I was

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Speaker 1: born just as you see me now, with no sign

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Speaker 1: or semblance of lower limbs. Despite this so called handicap,

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Speaker 1: I am able to do almost anything any other girl

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Speaker 1: can do, and was able to complete my education before

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Speaker 1: entering show business. And I mean that's pretty impressive. Like,

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Speaker 1: it's very impressive. Uh, you know, I think living in

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Speaker 1: a time that was probably very difficult for someone with

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Speaker 1: such an abnormality physically. She talks about being in a

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Speaker 1: world that was not built for someone like her, and

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Speaker 1: she had to kind of learn on her own how

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Speaker 1: to navigate it and seemed to do a pretty amazing job.

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Speaker 1: Seemed to enjoy touring. Again, from what we say, from

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Speaker 1: what we know from context, it seems like her parents

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Speaker 1: really cared about her, her mother at least, and seemed

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Speaker 1: to kind of enjoy taking advantage of an opportunity that

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Speaker 1: few others had when she didn't have the same opportunities

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Speaker 1: as so many others. For what it's worth, when she

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Speaker 1: was thirteen, her mother died while Bernice was appearing in

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Speaker 1: a show in Paris, Texas, and her father had actually

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Speaker 1: left the family years earlier, but he and his girlfriend

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Speaker 1: showed up after the funeral to take care of Bernice

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Speaker 1: and her brothers. But then one day he took off

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Speaker 1: again and the girlfriend tried to care for them. WHI

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Speaker 1: which this poor girl friend is like, I never wanted

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Speaker 1: seven children, and I have seven kids by this dude

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Speaker 1: who just left me, left the kids once and then

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Speaker 1: dating me, was like, hey, come on, we gotta go

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Speaker 1: take care of my seven kids. And she's probad of

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Speaker 1: like I guess okay, I mean, yes, yes, you know what.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna put myself in the head space where this

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Speaker 1: is this is what we're doing. Yes, we're going to

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Speaker 1: go help out your seven children. Let's do it. And

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Speaker 1: then gets down there and he's like, by the way,

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Speaker 1: you're going to do this by then dipped and she's

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Speaker 1: like what what. So Unsurprisingly, Bernice and her brothers were

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Speaker 1: eventually placed in an orphanage. Pretty dismal places, I believe,

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Speaker 1: I say, I mean, I guess I only saw little

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Speaker 1: or Finnanny. That's the extent of my understanding of probably

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Speaker 1: not a great place, and probably especially not a great

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Speaker 1: place for poor Bernice. It did seem like it would

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Speaker 1: be difficult to find her at home, but at age fifteen,

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Speaker 1: she was adopted by a woman named Lizzie Weeks. Lizzie

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Speaker 1: Weeks is this week's villain of the Week. We'll tell

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Speaker 1: you about Lizzie Weeks. It's believed that Lizzie Weeks only

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Speaker 1: adopted her for the potential profit because Bernice was immediately

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Speaker 1: put back on the road and exhibited. And you might think, well, sure,

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Speaker 1: but she enjoyed that. That was her space. That's what

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Speaker 1: her mom did for her parents did. Yeah, she you know,

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Speaker 1: this is her life and she was finally getting back

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Speaker 1: to it. Except Lizzie would lock Bernice away when she

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Speaker 1: wasn't performing, so that people wouldn't see her without paying, or,

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Speaker 1: as Bernice put it, so as not to quote, ruined

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Speaker 1: people's appetites boo. Lizzie Weeks she was notoriously psychologically abusive

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Speaker 1: to Bernice, and she basically flipped this whole enjoyable lifestyle

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Speaker 1: that she had into pretty much a punishing chore. I

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Speaker 1: think it was more of and here's where we're going next,

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Speaker 1: and this is what you're gonna do, and you're gonna

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Speaker 1: do what I say, and you're gonna sit in that

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Speaker 1: room and you're not gonna come out until I say

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Speaker 1: you can. I mean, talk about one side of the

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Speaker 1: coin of the other in terms of exploitative, abusive experience

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Speaker 1: for someone who's even though she was young, I think

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Speaker 1: she had some sense of pride and ownership over herself

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Speaker 1: and what she was doing and why she was doing it.

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Speaker 1: And you you, you've got to imagine that once Lizzie

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Speaker 1: takes over, it just becomes filled with shame and sadness

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Speaker 1: right well, And you have to think too that, like

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Speaker 1: Lizzie saying, this ship eats stuff about ruining people's appetites,

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Speaker 1: I don't think that Bernice was here and that at

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Speaker 1: home before Lizzie weeks, because they clearly were like to

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Speaker 1: you know, trying to make life as normal as possible

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Speaker 1: for her, you know what I mean, They're like, we'll

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Speaker 1: walk on your hands and we'll do normal things. We

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Speaker 1: want you to learn, we want you to cook, we

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Speaker 1: want to clean, you know, and not saying, oh, you're

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Speaker 1: a freak who's going to ruin people's appetites. I'll tell

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Speaker 1: you what speculation station. I bet that Lizzie wouldn't have

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Speaker 1: put the work in, Like if Bernice had been born

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Speaker 1: to Lizzie, she wouldn't have bothered trying to help her learn,

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Speaker 1: like she probably would have unped her an orphanage or worse.

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Speaker 1: And it was only because Bernice already knew how to

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Speaker 1: walk and get around and do these shows and stuff

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Speaker 1: that Lizzie was like chitching, I could make some money here.

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Speaker 1: She may have even had some name recognition, but maybe

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Speaker 1: or at least not name recognition, but just her act

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Speaker 1: might have had some you know, that might have come

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Speaker 1: up in the Orphanage too when she went in. You know,

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Speaker 1: I might have said like, oh, yeah, she used to

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Speaker 1: do these side show performances. And Lizzie was like, oh,

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Speaker 1: really right, which I wondered about that too, if the

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Speaker 1: orphanage was using it as like a selling point because

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Speaker 1: they knew it would be hard to place her. If

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Speaker 1: they were like, by the way, this is a star.

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Speaker 1: You know, It's not like you're taking on a burden

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Speaker 1: or you're bringing home a Jean Benet of your very own.

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Speaker 1: So at this point, Lizzie decided to change Bernice's name.

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Speaker 1: She wanted to call her Genie g E n I

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Speaker 1: E Magic. I guess. I don't know why she thought

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Speaker 1: Genie was was a good name, but anyway, she ordered

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Speaker 1: a new sign to be painted with this name on it,

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Speaker 1: but the artist misspelled it, and Lizzie, you know, didn't

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Speaker 1: want to pay for another sign. She's like, I'm not

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Speaker 1: going to pay for this ship twice. Um, So she

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Speaker 1: just went with it. So Bernice's name became Genie j

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Speaker 1: E A N I E. Now, at nineteen, Genie had

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Speaker 1: grown to her full height of two ft five inches

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Speaker 1: and the show that Lizzie had Genie in was being

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Speaker 1: taken to the Great Lakes Exposition of nineteen thirty six

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Speaker 1: in sun Cleveland, Ohio. This was a huge fair, uh,

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Speaker 1: This was celebrating Cleveland's centennial, the hundredth birthday as an

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Speaker 1: incorporated city, and it was meant to boost this city

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Speaker 1: that had been hit really hard by the Depression, similar

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Speaker 1: to Chicago's World's Fair a few years earlier, not quite

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Speaker 1: as big, but still it drew in four million people

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Speaker 1: in the first year, and then in the second year

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Speaker 1: seven million people came from around the world. We don't

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Speaker 1: do we don't do fairs like this anymore, don't. We

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Speaker 1: just don't would I know, because they last for months

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Speaker 1: and months or years in some cases, they're just us

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Speaker 1: was two seasons and it's so cool. They like build

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Speaker 1: the World's Fair. They built a whole bunch of buildings

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Speaker 1: and they had an entire island that they built. I mean,

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Speaker 1: we don't do ship like that. This this incredible testament

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Speaker 1: to like human ingenuity and creativity and just what we

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Speaker 1: can accomplish if we put our minds to it. And

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Speaker 1: I guess that's so digital now that that's it's not

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Speaker 1: showcased the same way. I guess people have seen so

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Speaker 1: many big buildings they're not that impressed by it anymore.

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Speaker 1: But still, I mean, I just and we have expos

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Speaker 1: you know, like E three for electronics and things like that,

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Speaker 1: where they do sort of show off. But man, I

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Speaker 1: would love just a good old fashioned World's fair. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: where you're like seeing feats of architecture and invention, weird

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Speaker 1: food that you never had before. And let's talk about

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Speaker 1: the Great Lakes Exposition and what we're missing today by

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Speaker 1: not having one. Yeah, there was a Streets of the

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Speaker 1: World exhibit. Sounds a lot like Epcot Center at Disney

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Speaker 1: World has like food, entertainment, goods for sale from over

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Speaker 1: forty countries. They had cafes and bazaars inspired by the

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Speaker 1: countries they represented. Cleveland had a foreign born population, and

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Speaker 1: they held a contest where they told them, you know,

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Speaker 1: build a market in the style of your home country,

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Speaker 1: and they gave away some prize for the winning one,

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Speaker 1: and then of course you were allowed to sell your

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Speaker 1: own goods and food and everything in there too. At

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Speaker 1: first I heard about this, and I was like, oh,

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Speaker 1: they had a Streets the World exhibit like that was

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Speaker 1: probably just a bun to race the stereotypes, but it was,

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Speaker 1: as far as I can tell, it wasn't. It was

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Speaker 1: actually people from countries building their own markets. It sounds

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Speaker 1: kind of like we wanted to do this when we

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Speaker 1: were in New York, the U N Like each of

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Speaker 1: the embassy has had an open house where you went

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Speaker 1: and they had like food and entertainment from their country. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we didn't get to do it, but I thought it

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Speaker 1: was such a cool idea and it would be even cooler.

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Speaker 1: It's like out you know, you were like seeing a

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Speaker 1: street modeled like or a market modeled like, you know

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Speaker 1: where you'd never normally would never experience that. Yeah, they

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Speaker 1: had these big business exhibits like Sherwin Williams and good

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Speaker 1: Year in General Electric and Rockefeller, Standard Oil Company, Firestone.

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Speaker 1: They were all there big time for automotive and oil

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Speaker 1: and engineering and all that electricity and like all these

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Speaker 1: weird you know, just innovations, electrifying innovations. I'm sure they

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Speaker 1: had all kinds of Standard Oil had had this whole

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Speaker 1: big exhibit and they handed out these souvenir maps of

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Speaker 1: the city they had printed up. And General Electric was

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Speaker 1: promoting its new invention, the fluorescent light bulb. Oops bad,

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Speaker 1: And you could go take a ride on the Goodyear blimp.

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Speaker 1: Step right up, folks, come on down and take a

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Speaker 1: ride on the good Year Blimp. See your house from here,

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Speaker 1: riding the Goodyear Blimp as hires the sky. Get up

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Speaker 1: there and this zippy zepplin will take you as high

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Speaker 1: as your knickerbockers. We're sen Yeah, take a ride on

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Speaker 1: the Goodyear blimp. Believe three dollars, three dallas? What do

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Speaker 1: you think? I am a rackfellas? It was a lot.

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Speaker 1: I guess three dollars was like three dollars. I mean

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Speaker 1: nineteen what what years? Let me look three dollars calculating

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Speaker 1: transfer we three dollars in ninety six was the equivalent

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Speaker 1: of fifty seven dollars tonight, My god, would you pay

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Speaker 1: fifty seven dollars to ride on a blimp? You would

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Speaker 1: have to pay me fifty seven dollars to ride in

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Speaker 1: a blimp unless you're in an alternate timeline on a

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Speaker 1: TV show, because that's always blimp plane. If you've got

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Speaker 1: a sci fi alternate reality boom blimps in the sky, blimps,

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Speaker 1: that's it's shiny ear buildings and blimps in the sky. Well. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there was an aquacade put on ballet water shows. That

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Speaker 1: sounds so cool. It stretched down to Lake Erie. It

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Speaker 1: had a five thousand seat theater and restaurant where you

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Speaker 1: could eat and watch water performances like synchronized swimming or diving.

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Speaker 1: Signed me up, Debbie Snook wrote in an article in

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Speaker 1: The Plane Dealer about the fair and says Olympic champion

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Speaker 1: swimmers Eleanor Holme and Johnny Tarzan Wismaller performed while local

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Speaker 1: high schoolers sang in an elaborately dressed chorus. Just the

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Speaker 1: community being built here so great. You've got the high schoolers,

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Speaker 1: you've got the local population building things, you've got the

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Speaker 1: local well, local businesses. Well that's what they said. They were. Like.

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Speaker 1: The business presence ranged from like Standard Oil, which rented out,

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Speaker 1: or Firestone. I think each of them rented out a

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Speaker 1: whole building. Two you know, local shops were just put up,

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Speaker 1: you know, four by four tent and put a table out.

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Speaker 1: Just as an event planner, I am scared of this event,

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Speaker 1: but I also like think it's so cool and it

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Speaker 1: would be so cool to like build something like that

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Speaker 1: for people. There were a lot of celebrities there. I mean,

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Speaker 1: in addition to the swimmers, you had Jesse Owens, who

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Speaker 1: of course was the black track and field athlete who

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Speaker 1: had one in six at the Olympics in Berlin and

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Speaker 1: really stuck it to Hitler by taking on four gold medals.

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Speaker 1: Side note, Jesse Owens also secured the first sponsorship for

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Speaker 1: an African American athlete. It was for some shoes in Berlin.

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Speaker 1: It was like the company that would later become Adidas.

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Speaker 1: I believe went to him when he got there and

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Speaker 1: was like, hey, will you wear these shoes? And he

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Speaker 1: was like, all right, fine. There's a there's a lot

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Speaker 1: of history to the Jesse Owens Berlin Olympics that I

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Speaker 1: stumbled across. It's not for this episode, but but check

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Speaker 1: it out because it's a wild story. Very cool to

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Speaker 1: be able to stick it to Hitler without actually like

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Speaker 1: a gun or something like. It's like, I'm just going

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Speaker 1: to be really good at something and you're gonna wish

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Speaker 1: I wasn't at first Hitler. Like after the one of

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Speaker 1: the first victories, Hitler came out and he would only

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Speaker 1: shake hands with the German athletes, and the Olympic committee said, okay,

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Speaker 1: by the way, next time, you either have to shake

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Speaker 1: hands with everyone or don't come at all. And he

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Speaker 1: didn't show up. He was a petty bitch. Let me

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Speaker 1: just say that about Hitler. I'm going to have a

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Speaker 1: hot take about Hitler. He was a jerk. He first folks,

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Speaker 1: not big Hitler fans on this podcast, thank you very much,

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Speaker 1: and we're not ashamed to say it. Fuck that guy. Well,

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Speaker 1: other celebrities at the Great Lakes Expedition Jimmy Durante, who

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Speaker 1: was a big vaudeville star at the time, as well

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Speaker 1: as Mine Heart rob A who was a famous performer

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Speaker 1: with dwarf is um who he was already well known,

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Speaker 1: but he would later become very well known as the

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Speaker 1: coroner in the Munchkin City in the Wizard of Oz. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I did want to We brought up mine hurt Robbie,

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Speaker 1: and I just want to put a side note in

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Speaker 1: here as well, because we're talking about the side show.

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Speaker 1: But in September, there's an organizational called the Little People

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Speaker 1: of America and it's the world's largest and oldest dwarf

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Speaker 1: is M support organization, and they put out a statement

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Speaker 1: advocating to abolish the M word when referring to people

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Speaker 1: with Dwarfism. They say it was never coined as an

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Speaker 1: official term. It was just used as a label to

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Speaker 1: refer to people of short stature who were on display

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Speaker 1: for curiosity and sport, and it basically evolved into a

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Speaker 1: derogatory slur. And the community says, don't use that word,

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Speaker 1: but they do prefer to be referred to as dwarfs,

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Speaker 1: little people, people of short stature, people having dwarf is

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Speaker 1: um or simply and most preferably by their given name.

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Speaker 1: So that was just a little FACTOIDA picked up during

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Speaker 1: the research that I thought to be nice to share

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Speaker 1: here what we're talking about, because especially when you're researching,

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Speaker 1: they do use the M word quite frequently, do Yeah, us,

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Speaker 1: That's how they were build um in these shows and

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Speaker 1: stuff like that, so it's important we will not use

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Speaker 1: it so right, Honestly, I thought for the longest time

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Speaker 1: that dwarf was derogatory and then learned that no, that's

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Speaker 1: actually dwarf is um is the actual name of of

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Speaker 1: the condition, and that dwarf is an acceptable term. So

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Speaker 1: but back to the fair, Yes, because I'm not done

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Speaker 1: seeking out about this event. President f DR visited twice.

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Speaker 1: The second time he brought Eleanor and she it said,

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Speaker 1: she made a beeline for the gardens. Sounds like her um.

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Speaker 1: In the center of the entire event was the midway,

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Speaker 1: and they were rides, automobiles on display, the gardens that

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Speaker 1: Eleanor Roosevelt visited, and a hall of progress. Step right up, sup,

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Speaker 1: right up to the Hall of Progress. You've never seen

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Speaker 1: so many marvels in one place. There's a million things here,

404
00:21:55,040 --> 00:21:58,760
Speaker 1: modern technology that will blow you and my modern technology,

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Speaker 1: that's right? What are you gotten? Well, for example, we

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00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:04,440
Speaker 1: got the Ohio Bells telephone. You can make a free

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Speaker 1: long distance call while other people listen to your private conversation.

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Speaker 1: Oh there's nothing I like more than other people listening

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Speaker 1: in on my telephone calls. Is this what the future's

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Speaker 1: got to be like? Yeah, that's gonna be a whole

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Speaker 1: thing called clubhouse. Hey, you you haven't seen a television? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: television like that like me seeing a telephone. Well, if

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Speaker 1: you come to the Hall of Progress, you'll find out

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Speaker 1: why you're wrong. Not a kid five tons later for

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Speaker 1: most and steel is another amazing things that your eyes

416
00:22:38,160 --> 00:22:43,440
Speaker 1: can behold a real street today. How about a solar

417
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Speaker 1: powered light bulb? Have you ever seen anything so amazing?

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Speaker 1: I got a question about the solar powered light bulb.

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Speaker 1: If if the sun is out, I don't feel like

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Speaker 1: I need the lightbulb. No refunds for the Hall of Progress.

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Speaker 1: Well Snook writes that the rest of the fair basically

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Speaker 1: ranged somewhere between the every day and the fantastical, between

423
00:23:06,760 --> 00:23:11,800
Speaker 1: Victorian innocence and dance hall sleas sles, Like anytime you

424
00:23:11,800 --> 00:23:13,640
Speaker 1: get a bunch of Americans in one place, you're gonna

425
00:23:13,720 --> 00:23:16,600
Speaker 1: get some sleeves. They had snake shows. There was a

426
00:23:16,720 --> 00:23:20,280
Speaker 1: submarine on display as well as a four thousand pound

427
00:23:20,480 --> 00:23:25,040
Speaker 1: aerial bomb. They had monkeys driving cars, and they had

428
00:23:25,080 --> 00:23:28,639
Speaker 1: I think probably the most impressive exhibit there is little

429
00:23:28,720 --> 00:23:33,080
Speaker 1: boxing cats. They had little satin jackets and little tiny

430
00:23:33,119 --> 00:23:35,560
Speaker 1: boxing gloves and they played a little They had a

431
00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:39,520
Speaker 1: little third round knockout little kitty cats. Listen, I'm just saying,

432
00:23:39,560 --> 00:23:42,479
Speaker 1: like when Logan Paul fought Floyd Mayweather, if they had

433
00:23:42,560 --> 00:23:47,919
Speaker 1: had a cat's boxing event, I bet a lot of

434
00:23:47,960 --> 00:23:51,159
Speaker 1: people would have switched over a couple of cats go

435
00:23:51,200 --> 00:23:54,320
Speaker 1: at it. I'm in I would watch that. They had

436
00:23:54,320 --> 00:23:57,639
Speaker 1: a working farm or working oil refinery. They even brought

437
00:23:57,680 --> 00:24:01,200
Speaker 1: in Abraham Lincoln's deathbed sometimes with these spars too. I

438
00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:02,640
Speaker 1: kind of laugh for him, Like do you think they

439
00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:05,359
Speaker 1: started with like the World of a Thousand wonders, and

440
00:24:05,400 --> 00:24:07,840
Speaker 1: then they got to like nine hundred and they were

441
00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:09,960
Speaker 1: like running out of ideas. Something how about I don't

442
00:24:09,960 --> 00:24:14,080
Speaker 1: know somebody's deathbed, find somebody's deathbed, Lincoln, so that's good.

443
00:24:14,119 --> 00:24:16,200
Speaker 1: The other sure, sure, yeah, we know where that is.

444
00:24:16,600 --> 00:24:20,080
Speaker 1: But somewhere amidst all the panoply and the cavalcade, a

445
00:24:20,160 --> 00:24:23,560
Speaker 1: man's head poked up above the crowd, the tallest man

446
00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:26,640
Speaker 1: in the world, al to many. He'd come along there

447
00:24:26,680 --> 00:24:29,520
Speaker 1: with his show, to the enormous festival, and he was

448
00:24:29,560 --> 00:24:32,760
Speaker 1: actually relatively new to show biz at this time. Carnival

449
00:24:32,760 --> 00:24:35,800
Speaker 1: lifestyle was was uncomfortable for him. He was having a

450
00:24:35,800 --> 00:24:40,720
Speaker 1: hard time fitting in, and I wondered, harder than usual, right, see,

451
00:24:40,800 --> 00:24:43,680
Speaker 1: but I imagine he's got a hard time fitting in everywhere,

452
00:24:43,680 --> 00:24:45,680
Speaker 1: and then the carnival was no different. I mean, still,

453
00:24:46,040 --> 00:24:48,119
Speaker 1: you'd have to get used to this idea of being

454
00:24:48,240 --> 00:24:51,680
Speaker 1: kind of gawked at and being a product in a way.

455
00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:53,879
Speaker 1: But one day he was preparing for the crowds to

456
00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:56,600
Speaker 1: start pouring into the fair and he looked down and

457
00:24:56,720 --> 00:24:59,480
Speaker 1: far below him he saw two beautiful eyes staring back

458
00:24:59,520 --> 00:25:02,680
Speaker 1: up at him. It was Genie, and she thought he

459
00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:06,439
Speaker 1: was so kind and she knew this world so well

460
00:25:06,600 --> 00:25:09,800
Speaker 1: she grew up in it, so she offered to help him,

461
00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:13,320
Speaker 1: and the two formed an immediate friendship, and they ended

462
00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:16,040
Speaker 1: up performing together side by side for a whole season

463
00:25:16,119 --> 00:25:19,360
Speaker 1: of The Great Lights Exposition, and before long they had

464
00:25:19,400 --> 00:25:21,800
Speaker 1: fallen madly in love with each other. Talk about a

465
00:25:21,840 --> 00:25:25,240
Speaker 1: meat cute, right, I mean opposites attracting all the all

466
00:25:25,280 --> 00:25:28,159
Speaker 1: the cliches are there. All you needed was one of

467
00:25:28,200 --> 00:25:31,800
Speaker 1: them tripping. It's a little just to show that she's

468
00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:34,080
Speaker 1: at They bump into each other and dropped their books

469
00:25:34,480 --> 00:25:35,920
Speaker 1: like both go down to pick them up. I guess

470
00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:38,040
Speaker 1: that wouldn't have happened. I guess not. They would not

471
00:25:38,600 --> 00:25:41,520
Speaker 1: be hard to bump into al There's a great single

472
00:25:41,560 --> 00:25:43,960
Speaker 1: page flyer from one of their later shows, and it

473
00:25:44,040 --> 00:25:47,720
Speaker 1: briefly talks about their life. It says quote at the

474
00:25:47,760 --> 00:25:51,240
Speaker 1: time they decided to marry, they were besieged by publicity

475
00:25:51,320 --> 00:25:54,600
Speaker 1: hounds who begged them to hold a public wedding, pointing

476
00:25:54,600 --> 00:25:58,520
Speaker 1: out the numerous advantages to this procedure. It was not

477
00:25:58,840 --> 00:26:02,719
Speaker 1: just the press bothering them. When Lizzie Weeks saw the

478
00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:05,680
Speaker 1: two were in love, she got dollar signs in her eyes.

479
00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:08,200
Speaker 1: If they were ever out of them and immediately began

480
00:26:08,280 --> 00:26:10,520
Speaker 1: formulating a plan for how to make money off of them,

481
00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:13,680
Speaker 1: the Giant and the half girl. Yeah, this was just

482
00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:19,440
Speaker 1: opportunity knocking for the most opportunistic person in the world. Yeah,

483
00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:26,760
Speaker 1: Lizzie weeks reeks, Lizzie links true. Lizzie reeks of cruelty

484
00:26:27,119 --> 00:26:35,080
Speaker 1: and oppression avarice. Yeah, Lizzie sucks. What here She is

485
00:26:35,119 --> 00:26:38,400
Speaker 1: trying to take advantage of a guy who's arguably eight

486
00:26:38,440 --> 00:26:42,480
Speaker 1: ft tall, and he wasn't having it. He didn't want

487
00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:45,840
Speaker 1: Lizzie controlling Genie anymore, and he certainly wasn't about to

488
00:26:45,920 --> 00:26:48,320
Speaker 1: let her take control of him. I'd like to see

489
00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:52,840
Speaker 1: her try, quite honestly, So, avoiding both Lizzie and the press,

490
00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:56,920
Speaker 1: Alan Jeannie slipped away one night after the fair had closed,

491
00:26:57,320 --> 00:26:59,919
Speaker 1: and they drove about two hours up the coast of

492
00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:02,680
Speaker 1: Lake Erie to the small town of Ripley, New York,

493
00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:06,159
Speaker 1: and there they married on September five o'clock in the

494
00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:08,440
Speaker 1: morning by a justice of the peace. They were able

495
00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:11,800
Speaker 1: to take a brief honeymoon up in beautiful Niagara Falls.

496
00:27:12,560 --> 00:27:15,000
Speaker 1: Have you been to Niagara Falls? Man? I went when

497
00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:17,520
Speaker 1: I was a very young kid because we lived not

498
00:27:17,720 --> 00:27:19,840
Speaker 1: too far from there and upstate New York. Yeah, it

499
00:27:19,880 --> 00:27:22,119
Speaker 1: looks cool. I'd like to go one day. It's on

500
00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:24,800
Speaker 1: the list. Let's go, and we're gonna go check out

501
00:27:24,840 --> 00:27:29,399
Speaker 1: Niagara Falls and we will be right back. And we're

502
00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:33,040
Speaker 1: back from the Niagara Falls and it was beautiful. So

503
00:27:33,080 --> 00:27:35,600
Speaker 1: after their honeymoon, they made their way back and they

504
00:27:35,640 --> 00:27:38,399
Speaker 1: graciously finished out the season at the Great Lakes Exposition.

505
00:27:38,640 --> 00:27:42,080
Speaker 1: But as the season came to an end, who comes

506
00:27:42,160 --> 00:27:46,440
Speaker 1: up to them but Lizzie Weeks, and she brings them

507
00:27:46,440 --> 00:27:49,280
Speaker 1: a written list of their next stops, and she says,

508
00:27:49,440 --> 00:27:51,760
Speaker 1: here's where we got one, and here's where we're gonna

509
00:27:51,760 --> 00:27:54,040
Speaker 1: I do. And he here's the money we're gonna make,

510
00:27:54,280 --> 00:27:56,600
Speaker 1: and here's the money I'm gonna make. And here's the

511
00:27:56,680 --> 00:28:00,600
Speaker 1: dangy little money you're gonna make. And Al reaches out.

512
00:28:00,640 --> 00:28:03,800
Speaker 1: He takes that list up and he just crumples it

513
00:28:03,840 --> 00:28:07,280
Speaker 1: in his giant hand, throws it to the ground, and

514
00:28:07,400 --> 00:28:19,560
Speaker 1: he and Jeannie left Lizzie Weeks behind for good. Yes,

515
00:28:19,960 --> 00:28:22,520
Speaker 1: there's an interview with Jeannie that we found in a

516
00:28:22,520 --> 00:28:25,760
Speaker 1: short film called GiB Town. It's on Vimeo by Melissa

517
00:28:25,920 --> 00:28:28,959
Speaker 1: Edmond and Jeannie says in that video. We had so

518
00:28:29,080 --> 00:28:32,080
Speaker 1: much in common. I had an interview asked me recently,

519
00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:34,320
Speaker 1: why did you get married? And I thought that was

520
00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:37,560
Speaker 1: just about the stupidest question I ever heard. That's such

521
00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:40,040
Speaker 1: a sweet old lady thing to say about. That's just

522
00:28:40,080 --> 00:28:44,120
Speaker 1: about the stupidest question I ever heard. And she said, See,

523
00:28:44,160 --> 00:28:47,600
Speaker 1: we worked together, we played together, we did everything together.

524
00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:51,920
Speaker 1: We were together night and day. Cute. They were a

525
00:28:51,960 --> 00:28:54,720
Speaker 1: real special couple. They went on to get the biggest

526
00:28:54,800 --> 00:28:57,280
Speaker 1: job in the sideshow world at the time, which was

527
00:28:57,320 --> 00:28:59,920
Speaker 1: the Ringling Brothers Circus. They toured with them for a

528
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:02,520
Speaker 1: while and eventually went on to start their own show,

529
00:29:02,680 --> 00:29:07,560
Speaker 1: and they toured successfully as the world's strangest married couple,

530
00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:11,440
Speaker 1: Giant and half Girl. So the carnival industry was doing

531
00:29:11,480 --> 00:29:13,760
Speaker 1: well in America at this time. The side show itself

532
00:29:13,800 --> 00:29:17,000
Speaker 1: had originated in Europe a long time earlier, but there

533
00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:20,360
Speaker 1: was a boost in America in the late thirties and

534
00:29:20,400 --> 00:29:23,640
Speaker 1: early forties. And if you want to guess why people

535
00:29:23,760 --> 00:29:27,200
Speaker 1: with physical abnormalities had to flee Europe in the late

536
00:29:27,240 --> 00:29:30,440
Speaker 1: thirties and early forties, right back that fucking ass whole

537
00:29:30,440 --> 00:29:33,000
Speaker 1: we were talking about earlier and we're not ashamed to

538
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:40,000
Speaker 1: say it's Adolf fucking Hitler. The Nazis had chased, of course,

539
00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:43,120
Speaker 1: anyone they deemed to be different away out of Europe,

540
00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:45,520
Speaker 1: and a lot of them fled here. There's a story

541
00:29:45,560 --> 00:29:50,000
Speaker 1: about an Icelandic giant who his entire team of dwarf

542
00:29:50,040 --> 00:29:53,360
Speaker 1: harmonica players that he used to tour with had been

543
00:29:53,440 --> 00:29:56,280
Speaker 1: murdered by the Nazis, and he too ended up in

544
00:29:56,440 --> 00:29:59,640
Speaker 1: gip Town. And they yeah, they wanted to kill anyone

545
00:29:59,720 --> 00:30:03,880
Speaker 1: with abilities mental or physical, and also old people for

546
00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:05,840
Speaker 1: a lot. For a while they were had a program

547
00:30:05,840 --> 00:30:08,520
Speaker 1: where they would euthanize old people because they were useless

548
00:30:08,600 --> 00:30:14,000
Speaker 1: to society. Nazis man but as the war ended, European

549
00:30:14,040 --> 00:30:17,600
Speaker 1: weapons manufacturers also shifted their production lines to things like

550
00:30:17,720 --> 00:30:21,440
Speaker 1: carnival rides, which how cute to go from building guns

551
00:30:21,440 --> 00:30:23,480
Speaker 1: and bombs and tanks to being like, how about an

552
00:30:23,600 --> 00:30:27,640
Speaker 1: entertainment thing? You imagine, if you think about it at all,

553
00:30:27,840 --> 00:30:30,880
Speaker 1: that job would be pretty miserable. Like if you go

554
00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:32,800
Speaker 1: to work and you're like, what am I doing? I'm

555
00:30:32,840 --> 00:30:36,360
Speaker 1: literally making murder machines. There's no way that doesn't have

556
00:30:36,400 --> 00:30:38,800
Speaker 1: an impact on you psychologically and to be able to

557
00:30:38,840 --> 00:30:43,440
Speaker 1: go from that too. No, I'm building the scrambler. I'm

558
00:30:43,440 --> 00:30:46,600
Speaker 1: building the gravitron. All this together tied in with a

559
00:30:46,600 --> 00:30:48,920
Speaker 1: population of folks coming out of the depression that we're

560
00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:52,040
Speaker 1: looking for affordable and unique entertainment. I mean we can

561
00:30:52,080 --> 00:30:54,360
Speaker 1: try and relate to that now coming out of the pandemic,

562
00:30:54,440 --> 00:30:57,760
Speaker 1: or just like, just give me something besides streaming television.

563
00:30:58,320 --> 00:31:00,600
Speaker 1: I does need anything to go out do. I'll give

564
00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:02,800
Speaker 1: you ten bucks to show me whatever you got. And

565
00:31:02,800 --> 00:31:05,280
Speaker 1: and it meant a big carnival scene. That was a

566
00:31:05,320 --> 00:31:08,000
Speaker 1: great activity for families and they had a little boost

567
00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:12,160
Speaker 1: there and post depression era. Now that flyer that we

568
00:31:12,200 --> 00:31:15,600
Speaker 1: talked about earlier from Alan Jeannie's show Inside, it has

569
00:31:15,640 --> 00:31:19,160
Speaker 1: these questions usually asked, which I guess it's a frequently

570
00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:22,440
Speaker 1: asked question day. What if we had qu a s

571
00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:26,560
Speaker 1: now instead of f a ques qua qua makes sense

572
00:31:26,600 --> 00:31:29,680
Speaker 1: because that's in French? What in French? I agree? Okay,

573
00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:32,440
Speaker 1: you heard it here. Everybody switch it. If you have

574
00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:34,400
Speaker 1: an f a q, switch it to a qu a

575
00:31:34,560 --> 00:31:37,360
Speaker 1: because we're calling it the qua. It makes perfect sense.

576
00:31:37,360 --> 00:31:39,720
Speaker 1: And I'll fight anybody who says otherwise. As my new

577
00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:44,280
Speaker 1: most passionate stance in the world right after hitt least

578
00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:48,680
Speaker 1: fucking sucks. Okay, that seems like a good priority to Yeah,

579
00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:51,480
Speaker 1: but underneath that it's f a Q should be qu

580
00:31:51,560 --> 00:31:54,400
Speaker 1: a al right. Questions usually asked if Alan Jeanie Tomini

581
00:31:55,040 --> 00:31:58,840
Speaker 1: are his shoes special made? This was my question, so well,

582
00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:02,320
Speaker 1: yes they are. They our factory made at the cost

583
00:32:02,360 --> 00:32:10,360
Speaker 1: of thirty dollars. Prepare thirty dollars well, in calculating transferably

584
00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:15,720
Speaker 1: five hundred and seventy two dollars. What am I iconogye?

585
00:32:17,320 --> 00:32:19,720
Speaker 1: How does it feel to be a giant? He says,

586
00:32:19,760 --> 00:32:22,440
Speaker 1: it's a living being like this, but it's a nuisance

587
00:32:22,640 --> 00:32:24,680
Speaker 1: trying to be made comfortable in a world made for

588
00:32:24,760 --> 00:32:27,760
Speaker 1: smaller individuals. Yeah. I know he didn't have this problem,

589
00:32:27,800 --> 00:32:32,040
Speaker 1: but imagine Al on a plane kind of fold himself

590
00:32:32,080 --> 00:32:34,880
Speaker 1: into one of those teeny little seats and coach. Do

591
00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:39,760
Speaker 1: they enjoy good health? Yes, both are exceptionally healthy. Does

592
00:32:39,920 --> 00:32:43,920
Speaker 1: Genie do all her own housework and cooking? Yes, whenever

593
00:32:43,960 --> 00:32:45,840
Speaker 1: she is in her own home. What a what A

594
00:32:46,520 --> 00:32:49,640
Speaker 1: what a wife? Question? You know? Well, I wanted to

595
00:32:49,680 --> 00:32:52,680
Speaker 1: know if his shoes are thirty dollars a pair, how

596
00:32:52,760 --> 00:32:56,200
Speaker 1: much money is he making as a side show attraction,

597
00:32:56,360 --> 00:33:00,680
Speaker 1: and it's pretty there's a pretty wide spectrum of payments

598
00:33:00,840 --> 00:33:04,600
Speaker 1: for sideshow acts. I didn't have an easy time finding

599
00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:07,400
Speaker 1: exactly what people were paid in the thirties and forties

600
00:33:07,440 --> 00:33:10,440
Speaker 1: for sideshow. A lot of it was from earlier, in

601
00:33:10,480 --> 00:33:13,400
Speaker 1: the eighteen forties and fifties, so all this is from

602
00:33:13,400 --> 00:33:16,360
Speaker 1: those times. P. T. Barnum, for example, in the eighteen

603
00:33:16,400 --> 00:33:18,920
Speaker 1: forties was paying as much as a hundred and fifty

604
00:33:18,960 --> 00:33:21,920
Speaker 1: dollars a week to some of his sideshow acts. Um

605
00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:25,320
Speaker 1: for example, there was a dwarf named Charles Sherwood Stratton.

606
00:33:25,400 --> 00:33:28,920
Speaker 1: He was billed as General Tom Thumb. And when Stratton retired,

607
00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:31,719
Speaker 1: according to The Rise and Fall of Circus Freak Shows

608
00:33:31,760 --> 00:33:35,400
Speaker 1: by Zachary Crockett, he was living in the most esteemed

609
00:33:35,440 --> 00:33:38,320
Speaker 1: neighborhood in New York. He owned a yacht, and he

610
00:33:38,440 --> 00:33:42,440
Speaker 1: dressed in the nicest clothing he could buy, not bad. P. T.

611
00:33:42,560 --> 00:33:47,040
Speaker 1: Barnum's highest paid act was the tattooed man George Constantinis,

612
00:33:47,600 --> 00:33:51,120
Speaker 1: who earned more than a thousand dollars a week, and

613
00:33:51,160 --> 00:33:54,560
Speaker 1: Crockett writes that while he was fortunate, many freaks were not,

614
00:33:55,280 --> 00:34:00,160
Speaker 1: and upon Costantinus's death in eighteen he donated about half

615
00:34:00,200 --> 00:34:02,640
Speaker 1: of his fortune to other freaks who were not as

616
00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:06,440
Speaker 1: well paid, and Crockett notes to that P. T. Barnum

617
00:34:06,480 --> 00:34:10,520
Speaker 1: is still criticized for exploiting people with abnormalities or disabilities

618
00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:13,279
Speaker 1: by putting him in his side show and making them

619
00:34:13,280 --> 00:34:16,440
Speaker 1: into freaks or whatever. But he also paid them very handsomely,

620
00:34:16,840 --> 00:34:18,800
Speaker 1: and some of his acts made as much as sports

621
00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:22,480
Speaker 1: stars make today, so he was creating millionaires over here.

622
00:34:22,800 --> 00:34:26,200
Speaker 1: But Barnum's English counterpart was a guy named Tom Norman.

623
00:34:26,880 --> 00:34:30,240
Speaker 1: His most famous exhibition was Joseph Merrick, who was sometimes

624
00:34:30,320 --> 00:34:33,560
Speaker 1: called the Elephant Man. His exhibit with Merrek was shut

625
00:34:33,600 --> 00:34:36,400
Speaker 1: down after only a few weeks, and Merrick was taken

626
00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:39,240
Speaker 1: by a surgeon named Frederick Trieves to live in a hospital,

627
00:34:39,719 --> 00:34:42,719
Speaker 1: and trieves Is memoir said that Tom Norman was a

628
00:34:42,800 --> 00:34:47,279
Speaker 1: drunk who exploited Merrick, but in Norman's autobiography he said

629
00:34:47,280 --> 00:34:49,560
Speaker 1: he was giving people good jobs and the ability to

630
00:34:49,600 --> 00:34:53,040
Speaker 1: be independent, whereas once Merrick was in the hospital, he

631
00:34:53,160 --> 00:34:56,359
Speaker 1: remained a freak on display, but with no control over

632
00:34:56,400 --> 00:35:00,080
Speaker 1: who and when he was viewed. So a lot of

633
00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:04,000
Speaker 1: I mean this is I think a common conversation that's

634
00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:10,720
Speaker 1: happening around this whole world. A lot is exploitation versus opportunity,

635
00:35:11,360 --> 00:35:15,120
Speaker 1: you know, and edit largely depends on their management on

636
00:35:15,320 --> 00:35:17,960
Speaker 1: the show that they were in the circumstances of it.

637
00:35:18,280 --> 00:35:20,920
Speaker 1: A lot of these people seemed to do well and

638
00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:24,360
Speaker 1: be proud of their work, and the argument comes up

639
00:35:24,400 --> 00:35:26,920
Speaker 1: a lot that again, this was a time when it

640
00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:30,520
Speaker 1: was very difficult for a person with any disability to

641
00:35:30,640 --> 00:35:33,240
Speaker 1: get any job at all. In fact, there's an article

642
00:35:33,320 --> 00:35:35,799
Speaker 1: written by Kim Kelly called Before the A d A.

643
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:39,160
Speaker 1: There was the Freak Show, and she is someone who

644
00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:43,160
Speaker 1: has extrodactility, which is also known as lobster claw syndrome.

645
00:35:43,680 --> 00:35:46,720
Speaker 1: She went by Greta the Lobster Girl in her circles

646
00:35:46,719 --> 00:35:49,200
Speaker 1: where she was a performer at Coney Island, and this

647
00:35:49,280 --> 00:35:52,000
Speaker 1: is very recent she's been. This article is present day,

648
00:35:52,080 --> 00:35:54,320
Speaker 1: and she mentions that up until the nineteen forties and

649
00:35:54,440 --> 00:35:57,640
Speaker 1: especially during its Victorian heyday, the side show was one

650
00:35:57,640 --> 00:36:00,480
Speaker 1: of the only sources of gainful employment of allable to

651
00:36:00,600 --> 00:36:03,640
Speaker 1: people like her who had an unusual or extreme physical

652
00:36:03,719 --> 00:36:07,080
Speaker 1: or cognitive disability. She said, some people were able to

653
00:36:07,120 --> 00:36:10,640
Speaker 1: hold down quote normal jobs, but for many the only

654
00:36:10,760 --> 00:36:13,759
Speaker 1: other options were to rely on charity, or to live

655
00:36:13,760 --> 00:36:18,160
Speaker 1: in poverty, or to be institutionalized. So there there's an

656
00:36:18,239 --> 00:36:20,560
Speaker 1: argument that the so called freak show or the side

657
00:36:20,560 --> 00:36:24,520
Speaker 1: show was a really fantastic opportunity for people to make

658
00:36:24,560 --> 00:36:27,960
Speaker 1: a living and and be really independent, and some of

659
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:30,880
Speaker 1: them made a lot of money. But of course I

660
00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:34,320
Speaker 1: think for every P. T. Barnum, there's a Lizzie Weeks,

661
00:36:35,400 --> 00:36:37,920
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of opportunists taking advantage of people

662
00:36:37,960 --> 00:36:41,160
Speaker 1: and abusing people. And then of course, you know, you

663
00:36:41,160 --> 00:36:45,000
Speaker 1: can talk about how that's great, We're glad everyone's making

664
00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:47,040
Speaker 1: money everything, but what it is the long term effects

665
00:36:47,120 --> 00:36:50,440
Speaker 1: of being constantly put on display and galked at, and

666
00:36:50,440 --> 00:36:54,360
Speaker 1: of course this whatever this disability is or whatever is

667
00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:58,400
Speaker 1: different about you to you know, the average populace that

668
00:36:58,600 --> 00:37:02,040
Speaker 1: you're putting on display. You can't take that off, right,

669
00:37:02,080 --> 00:37:05,160
Speaker 1: you can't clock out, and so great if you can

670
00:37:05,360 --> 00:37:08,920
Speaker 1: charge for it sometimes, but you know, it's not like

671
00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:12,279
Speaker 1: something that is only your job. I think that's part

672
00:37:12,280 --> 00:37:15,640
Speaker 1: of the difference to and worth noting too that inside

673
00:37:15,680 --> 00:37:19,440
Speaker 1: shows were also just black people sometimes because they were black,

674
00:37:19,600 --> 00:37:22,839
Speaker 1: or someone from another country because they were foreign. Um

675
00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:28,400
Speaker 1: intersects people just heavily tattooed, pierced. So it really partly

676
00:37:28,680 --> 00:37:32,560
Speaker 1: what's hard about side shows is that, yes, the people

677
00:37:32,600 --> 00:37:35,160
Speaker 1: in them were making money. It was gainful employment for

678
00:37:35,239 --> 00:37:38,319
Speaker 1: them where there was none otherwise. But it also kind

679
00:37:38,320 --> 00:37:42,920
Speaker 1: of cemented in the public's mind how to feel about

680
00:37:43,560 --> 00:37:45,520
Speaker 1: other bodies, do you know what I mean? Like they

681
00:37:45,560 --> 00:37:47,560
Speaker 1: were like, oh, you're a freak, and I get to

682
00:37:47,600 --> 00:37:49,680
Speaker 1: look at you. If I pay money and feel better

683
00:37:49,719 --> 00:37:55,480
Speaker 1: about myself someone's different than me, then that's a spectacle, yes, exactly.

684
00:37:55,880 --> 00:37:59,640
Speaker 1: And and being abnormal in any type of way like

685
00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:04,440
Speaker 1: skin color, gender differences, stuff like that. So it makes

686
00:38:04,440 --> 00:38:07,720
Speaker 1: it kind of a hard conversation because, as you were saying,

687
00:38:08,560 --> 00:38:11,720
Speaker 1: it's hard to hate on gainful employment for people when

688
00:38:11,960 --> 00:38:14,560
Speaker 1: at a time when you know you would be considered

689
00:38:14,760 --> 00:38:18,080
Speaker 1: I think like the Nazis thought a useless person to society,

690
00:38:18,520 --> 00:38:20,280
Speaker 1: and a lot of at least for a lot of people,

691
00:38:20,320 --> 00:38:22,640
Speaker 1: they would be like put them out of their misery,

692
00:38:22,680 --> 00:38:25,440
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Um, even with people like

693
00:38:25,560 --> 00:38:28,920
Speaker 1: Genie who were showing that they could lead pretty normal lives,

694
00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:31,120
Speaker 1: you know. So it makes it tough because it did

695
00:38:31,320 --> 00:38:34,200
Speaker 1: while it was making it easier for the people at

696
00:38:34,200 --> 00:38:36,600
Speaker 1: the time to be alive and make their money and

697
00:38:36,760 --> 00:38:39,000
Speaker 1: go about their time. I think it kind of made

698
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:41,319
Speaker 1: things harder for people like that in the future, do

699
00:38:41,360 --> 00:38:43,520
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? We have to work against

700
00:38:43,560 --> 00:38:46,360
Speaker 1: a lot of what got cemented in people's brains because

701
00:38:46,400 --> 00:38:48,919
Speaker 1: of circus shows. And I don't know if Kelly would

702
00:38:48,960 --> 00:38:52,600
Speaker 1: agree with me, because she's a current day performer, so

703
00:38:52,960 --> 00:38:55,680
Speaker 1: you know, right well, she heard that article and you

704
00:38:55,719 --> 00:38:57,600
Speaker 1: should take a minute to read it because it gets

705
00:38:57,719 --> 00:39:01,359
Speaker 1: very deep into that dichotomy. And she, yeah, definitely put

706
00:39:01,400 --> 00:39:05,680
Speaker 1: her voice above mine in this opinion. And the main

707
00:39:05,760 --> 00:39:07,920
Speaker 1: thing that she I think kind of gets to because

708
00:39:07,920 --> 00:39:11,440
Speaker 1: she's talking about the American Disabilities Act being formed in

709
00:39:12,840 --> 00:39:17,040
Speaker 1: and saying that what's really great about it now is that,

710
00:39:17,320 --> 00:39:21,200
Speaker 1: unlike back then, there are other opportunities for people with

711
00:39:21,239 --> 00:39:24,879
Speaker 1: physical and cognitive disabilities. It's not like it was back then.

712
00:39:24,880 --> 00:39:29,000
Speaker 1: I mean, through medical science and through an investment in accessibility,

713
00:39:29,040 --> 00:39:32,080
Speaker 1: there's a lot more options now. You're not so relegated

714
00:39:32,120 --> 00:39:33,839
Speaker 1: to well, if you want to make money, you got

715
00:39:33,840 --> 00:39:36,359
Speaker 1: to go to the side show, you know. So, Um,

716
00:39:36,400 --> 00:39:40,440
Speaker 1: while there's certainly many strides yet to be taken, it

717
00:39:40,520 --> 00:39:44,320
Speaker 1: has come a long way since nine, so complicated history

718
00:39:44,360 --> 00:39:48,320
Speaker 1: of side shows aside, Let's get back to Alan Jeanie. Yes,

719
00:39:48,640 --> 00:39:51,560
Speaker 1: but one of the most supportive elements of you know,

720
00:39:51,640 --> 00:39:54,080
Speaker 1: this world at the time was that it was a

721
00:39:54,160 --> 00:39:57,560
Speaker 1: very tight knit community and a very supportive community of

722
00:39:57,600 --> 00:40:01,560
Speaker 1: each other. And one spring, after spending winter with Al's family,

723
00:40:01,880 --> 00:40:04,560
Speaker 1: which they did most winters when they were you know,

724
00:40:04,600 --> 00:40:06,360
Speaker 1: the the circuit would kind of shut down in the

725
00:40:06,400 --> 00:40:09,400
Speaker 1: cold months, and so they would go rest with Al's family,

726
00:40:09,640 --> 00:40:14,280
Speaker 1: and Jeanie one day basically said, Hey, did you marry

727
00:40:14,280 --> 00:40:20,759
Speaker 1: your brothers or did you marry me? She laid it out.

728
00:40:21,680 --> 00:40:23,759
Speaker 1: So they toured again for the warmer months. But the

729
00:40:23,800 --> 00:40:28,759
Speaker 1: next winter they went down to where else, Gibsons in Florida. Yeah,

730
00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:31,600
Speaker 1: and this was that community. I mean, there's this article

731
00:40:31,640 --> 00:40:34,040
Speaker 1: I found in the Corpus Christie Color Times from nineteen

732
00:40:34,120 --> 00:40:36,680
Speaker 1: fifty seven by a guy named Jack Denton that talks

733
00:40:36,680 --> 00:40:39,719
Speaker 1: about Gibsonson. He's talking to Eddie LeMay, who discovered the

734
00:40:39,719 --> 00:40:43,280
Speaker 1: town in nineteen twenty seven. This guy was a carnival

735
00:40:43,320 --> 00:40:46,560
Speaker 1: concessionaire and he did the peanuts and cracker jacks and

736
00:40:46,600 --> 00:40:48,600
Speaker 1: funnel cakes. Yeah, and when he went down there, it

737
00:40:48,640 --> 00:40:50,440
Speaker 1: was nothing but a dirt road, but he would go

738
00:40:50,480 --> 00:40:53,919
Speaker 1: fishing on the Alphaia River and it was unlike any

739
00:40:53,920 --> 00:40:56,600
Speaker 1: other fishing he'd ever had, and he loves it, so

740
00:40:56,640 --> 00:40:58,839
Speaker 1: he keeps coming back here. And then during the year

741
00:40:58,920 --> 00:41:00,879
Speaker 1: he'd go back on the carnival full circuit and tell

742
00:41:00,880 --> 00:41:02,680
Speaker 1: everybody about it. Hey, you got to come down to

743
00:41:02,760 --> 00:41:05,759
Speaker 1: this place in Florida. It's just south of Tampa Is.

744
00:41:05,800 --> 00:41:07,680
Speaker 1: It's right on the river, and the folks in the

745
00:41:07,719 --> 00:41:10,280
Speaker 1: area we're all good natured and friendly, and so everybody

746
00:41:10,360 --> 00:41:12,759
Speaker 1: is like, yeah, if if Eddie says so, we'll go

747
00:41:12,800 --> 00:41:15,640
Speaker 1: down there. So other folks from the carnival circuit would

748
00:41:15,680 --> 00:41:17,879
Speaker 1: come during the winter months and visit him and stay

749
00:41:17,920 --> 00:41:20,839
Speaker 1: there with him and his wife, and eventually they would

750
00:41:20,840 --> 00:41:23,880
Speaker 1: start bringing their own trailers down and parking them nearby.

751
00:41:23,960 --> 00:41:28,440
Speaker 1: And years passed and gradually this place becomes a central

752
00:41:28,560 --> 00:41:31,880
Speaker 1: hub for carnival folk and Alan Jeanie would eventually go

753
00:41:32,040 --> 00:41:37,040
Speaker 1: every year, and in Alice thirty four, Genie's thirty, and

754
00:41:37,080 --> 00:41:39,719
Speaker 1: they adopt their first daughter, Judy, and they were able

755
00:41:39,760 --> 00:41:42,040
Speaker 1: to keep touring for a few years, but in nineteen

756
00:41:42,080 --> 00:41:45,200
Speaker 1: fifty they decided to retire to Gibsonson and focus on

757
00:41:45,280 --> 00:41:49,000
Speaker 1: raising their family. This might coincide with around the time

758
00:41:49,320 --> 00:41:52,120
Speaker 1: that side shows started to be pretty unpopular in the

759
00:41:52,160 --> 00:41:55,080
Speaker 1: public carnivals in general. I think, yeah, they're starting to

760
00:41:55,200 --> 00:41:58,880
Speaker 1: feel like you shouldn't be talking at people for medical problems.

761
00:41:58,920 --> 00:42:00,719
Speaker 1: And then I think the medical science was kind of

762
00:42:00,760 --> 00:42:03,080
Speaker 1: catching up, being like, this is not a freakish thing.

763
00:42:03,120 --> 00:42:05,520
Speaker 1: It's just a condition and we can treat it, you know,

764
00:42:05,600 --> 00:42:07,960
Speaker 1: So it started to be a little bit unpopular. I

765
00:42:07,960 --> 00:42:09,640
Speaker 1: think in addition to that, I mean, you're talking about

766
00:42:09,680 --> 00:42:13,279
Speaker 1: moving into the nineteen fifties and movie theaters very like,

767
00:42:13,360 --> 00:42:16,680
Speaker 1: there's this whole other option for entertainment that was probably

768
00:42:16,880 --> 00:42:20,480
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say probably cheaper. That's a guest on my part,

769
00:42:20,480 --> 00:42:22,800
Speaker 1: but I think so, you know, kind of an easier

770
00:42:22,800 --> 00:42:25,720
Speaker 1: in and out sort of activity to do with your family.

771
00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:28,480
Speaker 1: And of course, the technological marvel in its own right,

772
00:42:28,560 --> 00:42:33,200
Speaker 1: so every movie you see is fascinating, So you know,

773
00:42:33,280 --> 00:42:36,239
Speaker 1: that's that's beginning to take away from that level of

774
00:42:36,320 --> 00:42:38,600
Speaker 1: entertainment and television as well. I think, well, I don't

775
00:42:38,600 --> 00:42:40,520
Speaker 1: know about you, but I just go for the newsreels.

776
00:42:41,920 --> 00:42:43,920
Speaker 1: We're going to take a quick break and we'll be

777
00:42:44,000 --> 00:42:48,200
Speaker 1: right back after this Welcome Back to the show. Al

778
00:42:48,480 --> 00:42:52,080
Speaker 1: also loved fishing, and like Eddie LeMay, he found the

779
00:42:52,080 --> 00:42:55,480
Speaker 1: fishing on the Alfaia River to be unlike anywhere else

780
00:42:55,560 --> 00:42:58,600
Speaker 1: he'd been. So he snatched up a little piece of

781
00:42:58,640 --> 00:43:01,879
Speaker 1: property right on the water and he converted some old

782
00:43:01,960 --> 00:43:05,880
Speaker 1: shacks into this modern trailer camp, and he and Jeannie

783
00:43:05,880 --> 00:43:08,680
Speaker 1: built and opened a restaurant and fishing lodge. And they

784
00:43:08,680 --> 00:43:11,239
Speaker 1: weren't sure what to call it, so they had their

785
00:43:11,280 --> 00:43:14,600
Speaker 1: friend Franklin Tini, who was known as the three Legged Wonder,

786
00:43:14,800 --> 00:43:18,480
Speaker 1: and he suggested the Giants Camp, and the name stuck.

787
00:43:18,719 --> 00:43:21,560
Speaker 1: They called it the Giants Camp, and they marked it

788
00:43:21,680 --> 00:43:25,400
Speaker 1: by one of Al's enormous cowboy boots. They nailed it

789
00:43:25,440 --> 00:43:28,040
Speaker 1: to a nearby road sign. I hope they gave some

790
00:43:28,080 --> 00:43:33,040
Speaker 1: money for that. That's a two roads mean, my god,

791
00:43:33,200 --> 00:43:36,160
Speaker 1: And it's actually more like five seventy two, because how

792
00:43:36,239 --> 00:43:40,279
Speaker 1: useful is the other boots friend. That's true too, So

793
00:43:40,560 --> 00:43:44,080
Speaker 1: they've got the Giants Camp. In nineteen fifty four, they

794
00:43:44,239 --> 00:43:47,480
Speaker 1: decided to adopt a second daughter, and actually later she

795
00:43:47,520 --> 00:43:50,080
Speaker 1: would discover her biological parents and go to live with them,

796
00:43:50,080 --> 00:43:53,000
Speaker 1: but they did raise her for for a while. What

797
00:43:53,080 --> 00:43:57,560
Speaker 1: was a casual camping spot for circus travelers, was turning

798
00:43:57,640 --> 00:44:02,400
Speaker 1: into a bustling community, and Alan Genie invested heavily into

799
00:44:02,520 --> 00:44:05,920
Speaker 1: that community. They took their savings and earnings from the

800
00:44:05,920 --> 00:44:09,440
Speaker 1: Giants camp and they bought an ambulance and donated it

801
00:44:09,480 --> 00:44:12,640
Speaker 1: to the town. Al became the president of the town's

802
00:44:12,680 --> 00:44:16,680
Speaker 1: Chamber of Commerce. He helped design and build the community hall.

803
00:44:17,280 --> 00:44:19,880
Speaker 1: He was also the town's fire chief, and his friend,

804
00:44:19,960 --> 00:44:23,400
Speaker 1: Colonel Caspar Balsam, was sworn in as the deputy sheriff,

805
00:44:23,400 --> 00:44:25,960
Speaker 1: who was only three ft tall. I love that that

806
00:44:26,040 --> 00:44:28,279
Speaker 1: they were best friends and one was the fire chief

807
00:44:28,280 --> 00:44:32,160
Speaker 1: and one was the deputy sheriff. I think it's amazing,

808
00:44:32,239 --> 00:44:35,799
Speaker 1: like Alan Genie's life together. I mean that their life

809
00:44:35,800 --> 00:44:38,719
Speaker 1: together is amazing just in general. Like you look at

810
00:44:38,719 --> 00:44:41,400
Speaker 1: the pictures of them, and you're so cute. Also, by

811
00:44:41,440 --> 00:44:45,000
Speaker 1: the way, Genie was beautiful and Al was super handsome.

812
00:44:45,520 --> 00:44:48,839
Speaker 1: So go look at pictures of them when they got married,

813
00:44:48,840 --> 00:44:51,160
Speaker 1: because they're super cute. Yes, this was a couple of

814
00:44:51,480 --> 00:44:54,600
Speaker 1: care looking good. Yeah they look good. They're very forties looking,

815
00:44:54,640 --> 00:44:58,719
Speaker 1: you know, very yes, definitely, but they're very cute. Yeah

816
00:44:58,760 --> 00:45:01,239
Speaker 1: they were, And and I just think their life together

817
00:45:01,320 --> 00:45:03,160
Speaker 1: so fascinating, and it was over and over again. You

818
00:45:03,160 --> 00:45:04,879
Speaker 1: know that that you talked to their daughters or even

819
00:45:04,920 --> 00:45:08,600
Speaker 1: there's even interviews with Jeannie. They just had a normal life,

820
00:45:09,480 --> 00:45:11,600
Speaker 1: if there is such a thing, like Judy says in

821
00:45:11,640 --> 00:45:14,000
Speaker 1: this interview, when your father is a giant and your

822
00:45:14,000 --> 00:45:16,640
Speaker 1: mother is two foot six with no legs, outsiders might

823
00:45:16,680 --> 00:45:19,000
Speaker 1: think you've got a weird family or home life. But

824
00:45:19,040 --> 00:45:21,200
Speaker 1: my mother got us up for breakfast and cooked her

825
00:45:21,280 --> 00:45:23,880
Speaker 1: us in the morning and did launtry all day. She

826
00:45:23,920 --> 00:45:25,840
Speaker 1: went to school as a as she called it, a

827
00:45:25,880 --> 00:45:29,080
Speaker 1: homeroom mother, and made cookies and everything. She drove her

828
00:45:29,080 --> 00:45:31,920
Speaker 1: own car. And my father was a normal guy. He

829
00:45:31,960 --> 00:45:34,280
Speaker 1: was in the Lions Club and the Mason's and the shrine.

830
00:45:34,600 --> 00:45:36,920
Speaker 1: Like we said, he was a community leader. Uh. They

831
00:45:36,960 --> 00:45:40,440
Speaker 1: were the just such central figures in their town, and

832
00:45:40,480 --> 00:45:42,680
Speaker 1: they were always together, and they were just they had

833
00:45:42,719 --> 00:45:45,640
Speaker 1: such goodness to them. Jeannie describes raising the girls with

834
00:45:45,680 --> 00:45:48,799
Speaker 1: no trouble, though when she first adopted Judy, she was

835
00:45:48,840 --> 00:45:51,280
Speaker 1: so worried about what people would think about her raising

836
00:45:51,280 --> 00:45:53,480
Speaker 1: a child like that she couldn't do it, I guess,

837
00:45:53,560 --> 00:45:55,480
Speaker 1: or that it was weird for her to do it

838
00:45:55,600 --> 00:45:57,759
Speaker 1: or something. So anyway, she was all worried about that.

839
00:45:57,880 --> 00:46:01,000
Speaker 1: So she didn't officially adopt Judy until she was four

840
00:46:01,040 --> 00:46:04,040
Speaker 1: years old, which she did say in an interview that

841
00:46:04,200 --> 00:46:07,040
Speaker 1: was maybe foolish because until then someone could have come

842
00:46:07,040 --> 00:46:10,080
Speaker 1: along at any time and just taken her away. She

843
00:46:10,080 --> 00:46:12,759
Speaker 1: would carry Judy on her back, and when each of

844
00:46:12,800 --> 00:46:15,840
Speaker 1: her kids learned to walk, she said, it was quote

845
00:46:15,840 --> 00:46:18,480
Speaker 1: by standing behind me with their hands on my shoulders

846
00:46:18,520 --> 00:46:21,040
Speaker 1: and walking with me. And they all learned to get

847
00:46:21,040 --> 00:46:23,760
Speaker 1: around the same way I did, by climbing on furniture

848
00:46:23,760 --> 00:46:26,520
Speaker 1: and everything. I love it. I love it. Judy the

849
00:46:26,600 --> 00:46:28,960
Speaker 1: daughter that she didn't like traveling, she said, which they

850
00:46:28,960 --> 00:46:32,280
Speaker 1: did until she was about four. Remember, they retired in nine.

851
00:46:32,440 --> 00:46:34,880
Speaker 1: She said she missed her bed, but that even on

852
00:46:34,920 --> 00:46:38,040
Speaker 1: the road they had what she again called a normal life.

853
00:46:38,160 --> 00:46:40,160
Speaker 1: She said, Jennie would cook dinner, and at a certain

854
00:46:40,200 --> 00:46:41,799
Speaker 1: time you'd have to come in for dinner, just like

855
00:46:41,840 --> 00:46:46,320
Speaker 1: anybody else. She tells this cute story. Her father Al

856
00:46:46,520 --> 00:46:49,120
Speaker 1: would give her a dime and she was allowed to

857
00:46:49,160 --> 00:46:51,320
Speaker 1: go walk down to get a cone of French fries

858
00:46:51,640 --> 00:46:53,719
Speaker 1: in the fair, and she said she used to love

859
00:46:53,760 --> 00:46:56,120
Speaker 1: walking across the whole carnival, which she said felt like

860
00:46:56,160 --> 00:46:58,759
Speaker 1: a mile to go get her French fries, but that

861
00:46:58,840 --> 00:47:01,399
Speaker 1: was her treat, her favorite thing to do. I mean,

862
00:47:01,440 --> 00:47:04,240
Speaker 1: I would do that right now. Just let me walk

863
00:47:04,480 --> 00:47:07,000
Speaker 1: through a carnival to get French fries and then walk

864
00:47:07,080 --> 00:47:09,840
Speaker 1: back through the carnival with French fries. Now even better,

865
00:47:10,160 --> 00:47:13,319
Speaker 1: and just see all these like crazy people and just

866
00:47:13,400 --> 00:47:15,719
Speaker 1: people watch and see all the games. I mean, yeah,

867
00:47:15,840 --> 00:47:19,000
Speaker 1: that's not a bad day. And for a dime, sign

868
00:47:19,040 --> 00:47:21,359
Speaker 1: me up. And when you say crazy people, of course,

869
00:47:21,440 --> 00:47:24,160
Speaker 1: referring to the carnival goers, yeah, that's what it meant.

870
00:47:24,160 --> 00:47:29,279
Speaker 1: The Giants Camp, this is so fun to me. The

871
00:47:29,320 --> 00:47:32,960
Speaker 1: Giants Camp was a hub for friendly visitors. There was.

872
00:47:33,000 --> 00:47:34,880
Speaker 1: It was at a time when everyone took a Sunday

873
00:47:34,960 --> 00:47:38,560
Speaker 1: drive and Judy said they often drove here and their

874
00:47:38,600 --> 00:47:40,799
Speaker 1: home was like an open house for the holidays. Al

875
00:47:40,960 --> 00:47:44,160
Speaker 1: loved big parties and sometimes a hundred people would show up.

876
00:47:45,160 --> 00:47:48,280
Speaker 1: Um can I please go party at Alan Jeanie Toomanty's

877
00:47:48,520 --> 00:47:53,759
Speaker 1: My god, what a party? Hundred circus people? Yes, that

878
00:47:53,840 --> 00:47:56,160
Speaker 1: sounds awesome. And you know they're having like a fish

879
00:47:56,200 --> 00:47:59,000
Speaker 1: fry and stuff. I mean I don't like fish, but

880
00:47:59,040 --> 00:48:02,319
Speaker 1: I would still go. She said, I don't know why

881
00:48:02,400 --> 00:48:04,239
Speaker 1: that was a bonus for you that, but I'm just

882
00:48:04,320 --> 00:48:07,719
Speaker 1: meeting food and music. Somebody probably pulled out an instrument

883
00:48:07,840 --> 00:48:10,280
Speaker 1: and they played music, and I mean, you know, it's

884
00:48:10,280 --> 00:48:13,440
Speaker 1: a good time. Yeah, she said. Quote our home life

885
00:48:13,480 --> 00:48:17,040
Speaker 1: was wonderful. It was what everybody wishes. There's was no

886
00:48:17,160 --> 00:48:21,160
Speaker 1: taco divorce, no big fights, no drinking, no smoking, just

887
00:48:21,360 --> 00:48:24,880
Speaker 1: a family. I love it. The whole town kind of

888
00:48:24,920 --> 00:48:27,600
Speaker 1: like we said, it was just such a tight community

889
00:48:27,680 --> 00:48:30,640
Speaker 1: that you know, they affectionately referred to it as GiB Town.

890
00:48:30,680 --> 00:48:33,760
Speaker 1: That became the town's nickname, and they were GiB Towners,

891
00:48:33,760 --> 00:48:36,239
Speaker 1: and GiB Towners would pitch in. They would help each

892
00:48:36,280 --> 00:48:38,719
Speaker 1: other year round. They would build homes for each other,

893
00:48:38,760 --> 00:48:41,160
Speaker 1: they would cut each other's grass, and they would tend

894
00:48:41,200 --> 00:48:43,600
Speaker 1: to the sick and aid the needy. A woman named

895
00:48:43,640 --> 00:48:46,160
Speaker 1: Happy Dot black Hall, who Judy once refers to his

896
00:48:46,200 --> 00:48:49,440
Speaker 1: aunt Dottie. She was a six two pound woman and

897
00:48:49,520 --> 00:48:52,480
Speaker 1: she had also been in the side shows, and she

898
00:48:52,600 --> 00:48:55,239
Speaker 1: retired from the circuit as well. But she fell ill

899
00:48:55,719 --> 00:48:58,840
Speaker 1: briefly and Genie came over and managed a housekeep for

900
00:48:58,880 --> 00:49:01,040
Speaker 1: her until she was able to back up and about again,

901
00:49:01,120 --> 00:49:03,560
Speaker 1: this is just the whole mentality the town. They just

902
00:49:03,680 --> 00:49:06,520
Speaker 1: all were ready to help each other. I guess, you know,

903
00:49:06,600 --> 00:49:08,600
Speaker 1: having grown up in a world where nobody else was

904
00:49:08,680 --> 00:49:10,960
Speaker 1: necessarily going to help them, or at least having experienced,

905
00:49:11,040 --> 00:49:14,640
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of strange attitudes from they probably

906
00:49:14,680 --> 00:49:18,560
Speaker 1: weren't often able to rely on the kindness of strangers, right,

907
00:49:18,760 --> 00:49:23,680
Speaker 1: So they became close and they all shared this relatable experience.

908
00:49:23,920 --> 00:49:27,160
Speaker 1: I'm assuming Jack Dent describes give Town as a stop

909
00:49:27,160 --> 00:49:31,080
Speaker 1: and stare town as well, where tourists passing by couldn't

910
00:49:31,080 --> 00:49:33,600
Speaker 1: resist but to park their cars there and wander around

911
00:49:33,680 --> 00:49:36,120
Speaker 1: and marvel at people. He said, one time he was

912
00:49:36,120 --> 00:49:39,040
Speaker 1: at the Giants camp. Al, who also did TV repair,

913
00:49:39,600 --> 00:49:42,360
Speaker 1: was tinkering with his friend, Colonel Caper's TV set, and

914
00:49:42,400 --> 00:49:45,799
Speaker 1: this Midwestern couple came in and just stood there staring

915
00:49:45,920 --> 00:49:48,360
Speaker 1: and grinning, And you know, he asked Al about it,

916
00:49:48,400 --> 00:49:51,200
Speaker 1: and Al said, Oh, they just want to peek at

917
00:49:51,200 --> 00:49:55,520
Speaker 1: the giant. I don't mind. I'm peak proof m which

918
00:49:55,560 --> 00:49:58,480
Speaker 1: again just the disposition there. I feel like you have

919
00:49:58,560 --> 00:50:02,719
Speaker 1: to have to have that kind of thick skin. I guess. Yeah.

920
00:50:02,800 --> 00:50:05,200
Speaker 1: First of all, Ill can do everything. That was amazing

921
00:50:05,280 --> 00:50:08,279
Speaker 1: guy expiciing he's fixs and TVs, he's building stuff, a

922
00:50:08,320 --> 00:50:10,480
Speaker 1: real nineteen forties man's man, you know what I mean.

923
00:50:12,520 --> 00:50:15,120
Speaker 1: But I was definitely like, man, i'm home, Please don't

924
00:50:15,160 --> 00:50:17,400
Speaker 1: come here and point at me and ship. I'm just

925
00:50:17,440 --> 00:50:20,960
Speaker 1: trying to do my life. It's amazing. And you know,

926
00:50:21,000 --> 00:50:22,600
Speaker 1: we talked about that, and I think he just had

927
00:50:22,800 --> 00:50:27,560
Speaker 1: this incredible understanding of other people too. And they they

928
00:50:27,560 --> 00:50:30,120
Speaker 1: talk about the difference and the kind of the hierarchy

929
00:50:30,320 --> 00:50:34,120
Speaker 1: in the sideshow community too, and they did say that,

930
00:50:34,400 --> 00:50:38,000
Speaker 1: you know, if you were more attractive or you know,

931
00:50:38,080 --> 00:50:41,600
Speaker 1: the various differentiations would put you at a different place

932
00:50:41,920 --> 00:50:45,839
Speaker 1: on that scale. And I assume that Al, being just

933
00:50:46,080 --> 00:50:51,120
Speaker 1: a tall guy, probably experienced less direct discrimination and more

934
00:50:51,200 --> 00:50:54,080
Speaker 1: people just thinking he was pretty cool, you know, than

935
00:50:54,200 --> 00:50:56,799
Speaker 1: someone who might have had something people might say is

936
00:50:57,360 --> 00:50:59,600
Speaker 1: or a different disability that people say is right, like

937
00:50:59,719 --> 00:51:02,520
Speaker 1: lobs your clause right, that might that might receive a

938
00:51:02,600 --> 00:51:05,560
Speaker 1: much more, you know, a much harsher reaction from the crowd.

939
00:51:05,719 --> 00:51:08,279
Speaker 1: And so so it might have been different for Al

940
00:51:08,360 --> 00:51:10,480
Speaker 1: in this respect. But I but I do appreciate that

941
00:51:10,560 --> 00:51:13,960
Speaker 1: he for himself, he at least found a way to

942
00:51:14,000 --> 00:51:15,960
Speaker 1: take joy in it. He said, you know, these people

943
00:51:16,080 --> 00:51:18,520
Speaker 1: they come in there, they're they're delighted by me. So

944
00:51:19,000 --> 00:51:21,120
Speaker 1: you know, how angry can I get, like like in

945
00:51:21,120 --> 00:51:22,840
Speaker 1: this quote, like you know, you can peek at me

946
00:51:22,880 --> 00:51:25,120
Speaker 1: all you want. It doesn't bother me because you just

947
00:51:25,480 --> 00:51:28,239
Speaker 1: you've never seen anyone like me before, and you know,

948
00:51:28,440 --> 00:51:31,000
Speaker 1: maybe I'm making your day. I can't imagine that there

949
00:51:31,040 --> 00:51:34,360
Speaker 1: weren't sometimes where he just wanted some peace and quiet.

950
00:51:34,400 --> 00:51:35,719
Speaker 1: But that's sort of what GiB Town was for to

951
00:51:35,840 --> 00:51:37,920
Speaker 1: I mean, by and large, there weren't a lot of

952
00:51:37,920 --> 00:51:41,560
Speaker 1: tutorists there. It was intentionally kind of tucked away. Yeah.

953
00:51:41,600 --> 00:51:43,080
Speaker 1: I guess, as you say, if he was getting a

954
00:51:43,120 --> 00:51:46,960
Speaker 1: lot of jeers and like malicious comments, he might feel differently.

955
00:51:47,600 --> 00:51:49,839
Speaker 1: But as you say, there was just like I'm just

956
00:51:49,880 --> 00:51:52,440
Speaker 1: a big guy, So what are they going to say

957
00:51:52,440 --> 00:51:55,360
Speaker 1: to me? Just you're a big guy? So okay, fine.

958
00:51:55,800 --> 00:51:59,160
Speaker 1: Jeannie did get stars stared at too, but she also

959
00:51:59,160 --> 00:52:03,200
Speaker 1: didn't seem to care um. Judy tells a great story

960
00:52:03,680 --> 00:52:06,880
Speaker 1: about how Jennie would used to dine out with her

961
00:52:06,920 --> 00:52:10,239
Speaker 1: friend Francis O'Connor, who had no arms, and she said

962
00:52:10,440 --> 00:52:12,640
Speaker 1: everybody would be staring at mother when they walked in

963
00:52:12,719 --> 00:52:15,480
Speaker 1: because Francis would be wearing a cape and they would

964
00:52:15,480 --> 00:52:18,000
Speaker 1: sit at the table and everybody would be checking mother

965
00:52:18,080 --> 00:52:20,520
Speaker 1: out and Francis would be sitting there eating with her

966
00:52:20,560 --> 00:52:25,640
Speaker 1: feet and they didn't even notice. Do you think Francis,

967
00:52:25,760 --> 00:52:28,040
Speaker 1: they were like, thank God, Jeannie's here, I finally have

968
00:52:28,080 --> 00:52:33,760
Speaker 1: a meal and piece. And all the while this pair wasn'tseparable.

969
00:52:33,880 --> 00:52:36,919
Speaker 1: Genie and Al would be around town. Folks would see them.

970
00:52:37,640 --> 00:52:40,800
Speaker 1: Genie would be up on Al's shoulder or being carried

971
00:52:40,920 --> 00:52:45,080
Speaker 1: at his side, and they were just like again, just

972
00:52:45,239 --> 00:52:48,560
Speaker 1: I think that a town treasure. Everyone loved them well,

973
00:52:48,600 --> 00:52:50,480
Speaker 1: and one of those loves that you hope you find

974
00:52:50,480 --> 00:52:53,440
Speaker 1: in your lifetime. You know, definitely, definitely they were so

975
00:52:53,880 --> 00:52:57,120
Speaker 1: I mean just so unbelievably accepting of each other in

976
00:52:57,160 --> 00:52:59,319
Speaker 1: every way. They understood each other in a way that

977
00:52:59,360 --> 00:53:03,120
Speaker 1: you know, most other people wouldn't. And maybe because of

978
00:53:03,160 --> 00:53:07,279
Speaker 1: that very deep and special love, Al lived longer than

979
00:53:07,320 --> 00:53:10,440
Speaker 1: most o pituitary giants, but as many of them do,

980
00:53:10,600 --> 00:53:13,520
Speaker 1: he did experience health troubles as he grew older, though

981
00:53:13,560 --> 00:53:16,879
Speaker 1: he allegedly refused to show any pain. That's sadly though,

982
00:53:16,880 --> 00:53:19,800
Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty two, at fifty years old, he passed

983
00:53:19,840 --> 00:53:23,800
Speaker 1: away from complications of his condition. Jeannie continued to operate

984
00:53:23,840 --> 00:53:26,520
Speaker 1: the Giants Camp for decades, and in an interview in

985
00:53:26,560 --> 00:53:29,440
Speaker 1: the late nineties, she said, one reason I like to

986
00:53:29,480 --> 00:53:32,320
Speaker 1: stay here rather than selling this place and moving somewhere

987
00:53:32,719 --> 00:53:35,600
Speaker 1: is that I feel like he's right here too. Well.

988
00:53:35,640 --> 00:53:37,600
Speaker 1: I mean, when I'm down here at the Giants Camp,

989
00:53:37,640 --> 00:53:40,000
Speaker 1: I feel he's up at the house, and while I'm

990
00:53:40,040 --> 00:53:42,920
Speaker 1: at the house, I feel he's down here. So I

991
00:53:42,960 --> 00:53:45,520
Speaker 1: really missed him, and yet I feel comforted by him

992
00:53:45,520 --> 00:53:48,239
Speaker 1: being here, just as though he really were, which is

993
00:53:48,280 --> 00:53:52,600
Speaker 1: like wiping a tear away. And she lived until nine

994
00:53:53,840 --> 00:53:57,040
Speaker 1: and died just short of her eighty four birthday. In

995
00:53:58,920 --> 00:54:01,440
Speaker 1: Ward Hall, there's a guy called the King of the

996
00:54:01,480 --> 00:54:04,320
Speaker 1: Side Show. He gave an interview to The Guardian talking

997
00:54:04,360 --> 00:54:07,040
Speaker 1: about the acts that would bring people into the spotlight.

998
00:54:07,120 --> 00:54:09,520
Speaker 1: He said, of course I exploited them, and the more

999
00:54:09,560 --> 00:54:11,759
Speaker 1: I exploited them, the more money they made. And then

1000
00:54:11,760 --> 00:54:14,359
Speaker 1: he goes on to say that Elvis Presley also never

1001
00:54:14,360 --> 00:54:16,600
Speaker 1: would have been more than a Mississippi bar singer had

1002
00:54:16,640 --> 00:54:18,880
Speaker 1: he not been exploited. So it's one of those takes,

1003
00:54:18,920 --> 00:54:20,799
Speaker 1: you know, kind of like we said, going back to

1004
00:54:21,280 --> 00:54:25,120
Speaker 1: exploitation versus opportunity, and that seems to be the predominant

1005
00:54:25,160 --> 00:54:27,040
Speaker 1: argument that was going on back then, and you know,

1006
00:54:27,120 --> 00:54:29,440
Speaker 1: still seems to be kind of the discussion today. Again,

1007
00:54:29,480 --> 00:54:32,520
Speaker 1: at a time when there wasn't many other opportunities. This

1008
00:54:32,840 --> 00:54:34,840
Speaker 1: ended up being a great life for some people, like

1009
00:54:34,880 --> 00:54:37,000
Speaker 1: the Tamanes. Seemed to do really well for themselves and

1010
00:54:37,040 --> 00:54:40,759
Speaker 1: help a whole town come to life. But had she

1011
00:54:40,920 --> 00:54:44,600
Speaker 1: stayed with Lizzie Weeks, she might have had a very different,

1012
00:54:45,040 --> 00:54:48,880
Speaker 1: much less enjoyable experience a lot earlier. Maybe died a

1013
00:54:48,920 --> 00:54:51,360
Speaker 1: lot earlier. It's hard to say, but Ward Hall, he

1014
00:54:51,440 --> 00:54:54,880
Speaker 1: died in eighteen but he still has the world of

1015
00:54:54,920 --> 00:54:59,560
Speaker 1: Wonders in give Town, which features sword swallowers and fire

1016
00:54:59,600 --> 00:55:04,240
Speaker 1: eater and human blockheads, something called the Hollywood Divas of Danger,

1017
00:55:04,440 --> 00:55:11,160
Speaker 1: which I'm sell me a ticket. They also have a

1018
00:55:11,320 --> 00:55:14,800
Speaker 1: strong Lady, which I guess is something to be seen.

1019
00:55:15,080 --> 00:55:19,719
Speaker 1: I guess strong is such a funny way to put

1020
00:55:19,760 --> 00:55:21,920
Speaker 1: it to me, because it's like a strong lady in

1021
00:55:22,000 --> 00:55:26,080
Speaker 1: like eighteen forty would be like lifting ten pounds, like

1022
00:55:26,360 --> 00:55:29,960
Speaker 1: what you know, I know, but I just mean the

1023
00:55:30,000 --> 00:55:32,319
Speaker 1: way they think about when back in the day they'd

1024
00:55:32,360 --> 00:55:35,040
Speaker 1: be strong ladies. You know, ladies can't lift ship, you

1025
00:55:35,040 --> 00:55:37,719
Speaker 1: know what I mean. But today there's like women bodybuilders

1026
00:55:37,719 --> 00:55:40,239
Speaker 1: who who are insanely strong. So I just wonder how

1027
00:55:40,280 --> 00:55:44,360
Speaker 1: how strong is this strong lady? And the Tamany family

1028
00:55:44,560 --> 00:55:48,640
Speaker 1: still reside in gip Town. Alan Jeannie's great grandson alex

1029
00:55:48,800 --> 00:55:52,440
Speaker 1: Xander Marrow those are three different names. Um. He was

1030
00:55:52,480 --> 00:55:55,520
Speaker 1: born in and in the year two thousand and three,

1031
00:55:55,560 --> 00:55:58,759
Speaker 1: he officially became the youngest confirmed sword swallower in the

1032
00:55:58,840 --> 00:56:03,080
Speaker 1: United States. He swallowed his first sword before an audience

1033
00:56:03,120 --> 00:56:07,240
Speaker 1: of international media only four hours after swallowing his first

1034
00:56:07,320 --> 00:56:11,240
Speaker 1: coat hanger as practice, and the record was later beaten

1035
00:56:11,239 --> 00:56:14,600
Speaker 1: by a younger kid, of course, which that kind of sucks,

1036
00:56:14,719 --> 00:56:17,200
Speaker 1: Like you can never have a second go at your

1037
00:56:17,239 --> 00:56:20,359
Speaker 1: record of being the youngest person to do something, right,

1038
00:56:20,400 --> 00:56:23,120
Speaker 1: Like if you're the fastest and then somebody beats you,

1039
00:56:23,120 --> 00:56:25,680
Speaker 1: you can try again and beat them. But if you

1040
00:56:26,040 --> 00:56:28,960
Speaker 1: can't go back and be younger, no, you sure can't.

1041
00:56:29,160 --> 00:56:32,200
Speaker 1: That's when you only get one shot at and until

1042
00:56:32,280 --> 00:56:36,279
Speaker 1: someone beats you, you always beat yourself every time you try. Yeah,

1043
00:56:36,320 --> 00:56:38,440
Speaker 1: you can't ever, you can't ever break your own record.

1044
00:56:38,840 --> 00:56:43,279
Speaker 1: Alex Xandermorrow is currently known as the Junior Torture King

1045
00:56:43,520 --> 00:56:46,880
Speaker 1: and his grandmother Alan Jeannie's daughter Judy built him his

1046
00:56:47,000 --> 00:56:49,799
Speaker 1: first bed of nails. Talk about a legacy, you talk

1047
00:56:49,840 --> 00:56:52,080
Speaker 1: about a legacy, which, by the way, thanks to the

1048
00:56:52,080 --> 00:56:54,640
Speaker 1: Fringe Festival, we do know some circus performers are so

1049
00:56:55,560 --> 00:56:57,400
Speaker 1: And I asked my friend Adam once, who does a

1050
00:56:57,440 --> 00:57:00,239
Speaker 1: bed of nails, Like, so, what's the trick? And he is,

1051
00:57:00,360 --> 00:57:02,840
Speaker 1: there is no trick. You just walk on or you

1052
00:57:02,920 --> 00:57:05,479
Speaker 1: just lay on a bed of nails, like and it's true,

1053
00:57:05,520 --> 00:57:07,960
Speaker 1: he walked on glass and yeah, his feet were super

1054
00:57:07,960 --> 00:57:09,719
Speaker 1: bloody and stuff. I don't know why I thought there

1055
00:57:09,760 --> 00:57:12,560
Speaker 1: was a trick to it. I thought there's no way

1056
00:57:12,719 --> 00:57:15,799
Speaker 1: a person would do that and it didn't hurt be

1057
00:57:15,760 --> 00:57:18,080
Speaker 1: you just build up callouses. I guess there's a little well,

1058
00:57:18,120 --> 00:57:20,000
Speaker 1: there's a little bit of math to the bed of nails.

1059
00:57:20,040 --> 00:57:22,920
Speaker 1: They have to be spaced a certain you know, if

1060
00:57:22,920 --> 00:57:25,600
Speaker 1: they're too far apart, like if you lay down on

1061
00:57:25,760 --> 00:57:28,320
Speaker 1: three nails, they're going to go through you. But if

1062
00:57:28,320 --> 00:57:30,840
Speaker 1: you if they're close enough together, your body weight is

1063
00:57:30,880 --> 00:57:34,280
Speaker 1: dispersed amongst them and your skin want puncture. But you know, yeah,

1064
00:57:34,560 --> 00:57:37,640
Speaker 1: I've seen Adam do it. He's pretty amazing. He's fantastic.

1065
00:57:37,760 --> 00:57:42,720
Speaker 1: Yea low, low quality entertainment. And from Adam's group thimble

1066
00:57:42,800 --> 00:57:46,880
Speaker 1: Rig also Jen who is a blockhead. There's no trick

1067
00:57:46,920 --> 00:57:50,200
Speaker 1: to that. She just hammers nails into her nose. Oh

1068
00:57:50,240 --> 00:57:53,160
Speaker 1: my god, it's so uncomfortable. She performed at our wedding.

1069
00:57:53,320 --> 00:57:56,439
Speaker 1: She did, yeah, yeah, yeah, and it was as well

1070
00:57:56,480 --> 00:58:01,160
Speaker 1: as Jason stilt walkers sker and a fire breather and

1071
00:58:01,000 --> 00:58:03,440
Speaker 1: a and he's a sword swallower he is so anyway,

1072
00:58:03,480 --> 00:58:05,800
Speaker 1: no trick to it. Just willing to put yourself through it,

1073
00:58:05,840 --> 00:58:09,120
Speaker 1: that's the trick. Yep. Again, Just a beautiful story about

1074
00:58:09,160 --> 00:58:12,560
Speaker 1: some wonderful people making the most of it, finding each

1075
00:58:12,600 --> 00:58:16,400
Speaker 1: other in this incredible way, and then just living this

1076
00:58:16,640 --> 00:58:21,160
Speaker 1: beautiful life together. Yeah. Against let's say, against all odds,

1077
00:58:21,160 --> 00:58:25,840
Speaker 1: but against odds. Definitely nice to have a story that's

1078
00:58:25,920 --> 00:58:29,640
Speaker 1: just nice. Just a nice romance. Two people who got

1079
00:58:29,640 --> 00:58:32,240
Speaker 1: along the whole time, right, One of them wasn't scheming

1080
00:58:32,280 --> 00:58:35,640
Speaker 1: on the other one. Nobody was stealing money or sleeping around,

1081
00:58:35,800 --> 00:58:40,680
Speaker 1: shopping anything off of the other person. Of course, as

1082
00:58:40,760 --> 00:58:45,200
Speaker 1: is typical, there's complications in the world. They existed in Uh,

1083
00:58:45,360 --> 00:58:47,280
Speaker 1: kind of tackled that a little bit here, and I'm

1084
00:58:47,280 --> 00:58:50,080
Speaker 1: sure people with a lot more insight than us have

1085
00:58:50,160 --> 00:58:52,160
Speaker 1: a lot more to say about it, but uh, but

1086
00:58:52,280 --> 00:58:54,760
Speaker 1: still a really fascinating subject to read up on. Check

1087
00:58:54,760 --> 00:58:56,760
Speaker 1: out some of the sources we talked about, because this

1088
00:58:56,880 --> 00:59:00,480
Speaker 1: is another story that you could just tangent forever. Yeah,

1089
00:59:00,520 --> 00:59:03,520
Speaker 1: into various other subjects. But right that was There was

1090
00:59:03,560 --> 00:59:05,840
Speaker 1: another book that we didn't cite because I didn't get

1091
00:59:05,880 --> 00:59:08,440
Speaker 1: around to reading it, but it was called The Circus Age,

1092
00:59:08,680 --> 00:59:12,120
Speaker 1: Society and Culture under the Big Top, and she wrote

1093
00:59:12,160 --> 00:59:15,520
Speaker 1: it because she was trying to explore how the circus

1094
00:59:15,600 --> 00:59:20,480
Speaker 1: basically sold colonialism to people, um, because it brought over

1095
00:59:20,520 --> 00:59:23,600
Speaker 1: like elephants and tigers and you saw things on it,

1096
00:59:23,680 --> 00:59:25,440
Speaker 1: you know, people read it on a howdah and stuff,

1097
00:59:25,440 --> 00:59:28,720
Speaker 1: and it was kind of like really helping people feel

1098
00:59:28,760 --> 00:59:31,840
Speaker 1: fine about that, I guess. So it's just a really

1099
00:59:31,920 --> 00:59:35,240
Speaker 1: interesting snapshot of like Victorian and in turn of the

1100
00:59:35,280 --> 00:59:42,040
Speaker 1: century society and definitely propaganda, definitely marketing because the way

1101
00:59:42,040 --> 00:59:44,520
Speaker 1: that they sold these shows and everything. So it's just

1102
00:59:44,840 --> 00:59:48,800
Speaker 1: a really interesting little subsection of history. Well, I hope

1103
00:59:48,800 --> 00:59:50,360
Speaker 1: you guys love this story as much as we did

1104
00:59:50,800 --> 00:59:53,080
Speaker 1: uh you guys hold a special place for the Tomaines

1105
00:59:53,080 --> 00:59:55,800
Speaker 1: in your heart. I guess go see the Junior Torture

1106
00:59:55,840 --> 00:59:59,680
Speaker 1: King or whoever near give town or seeing touring. Um,

1107
00:59:59,720 --> 01:00:01,480
Speaker 1: I mean I'd go see that. And I see that

1108
01:00:01,600 --> 01:00:04,640
Speaker 1: Hollywood Deeve is a danger too for real. I'm into that.

1109
01:00:05,840 --> 01:00:09,600
Speaker 1: So yeah, anyway, support your local circus as long as

1110
01:00:09,640 --> 01:00:12,360
Speaker 1: they're being supportive. Yeah, as long as they're cool and

1111
01:00:12,400 --> 01:00:16,000
Speaker 1: not doing animal cruelty or abusing anyone or locking them

1112
01:00:16,000 --> 01:00:17,840
Speaker 1: away so you can't see them without paying that kind

1113
01:00:17,840 --> 01:00:20,600
Speaker 1: of thing. But yeah, there's uh yeah, not much else

1114
01:00:20,720 --> 01:00:23,800
Speaker 1: to say. Yeah that that's Alan Jeanie too many and

1115
01:00:23,840 --> 01:00:26,480
Speaker 1: they had a true love indeed, and we have a

1116
01:00:26,520 --> 01:00:29,760
Speaker 1: true love for hearing from you, our listener. Yeah, reach

1117
01:00:29,760 --> 01:00:31,600
Speaker 1: out to us, guys. We've we've been hearing a little

1118
01:00:31,600 --> 01:00:34,240
Speaker 1: bit more from you. I tell you, it makes our day.

1119
01:00:34,280 --> 01:00:36,120
Speaker 1: Every time we get a comment or or an email

1120
01:00:36,200 --> 01:00:38,840
Speaker 1: or even just a follow on Instagram from learning personal

1121
01:00:38,840 --> 01:00:42,000
Speaker 1: accounts for or ridic romance. We do run into if

1122
01:00:42,000 --> 01:00:44,040
Speaker 1: we're in a separate room. Do you run into the room.

1123
01:00:44,040 --> 01:00:46,000
Speaker 1: Did you see this comment? Oh we got a new

1124
01:00:46,040 --> 01:00:48,240
Speaker 1: review or whatever? So yes, I saw it. I'm cross

1125
01:00:48,240 --> 01:00:53,760
Speaker 1: stitching it. I'm making a sampler right. But yeah, we

1126
01:00:53,800 --> 01:00:56,920
Speaker 1: are romance at I Heart Media dot com yep, or

1127
01:00:56,920 --> 01:00:59,120
Speaker 1: you can find us on the socials. I'm at Oh great,

1128
01:00:59,200 --> 01:01:02,920
Speaker 1: it's Eli. I'm at Dianamite Boom, and we also have

1129
01:01:03,000 --> 01:01:05,400
Speaker 1: at ridict Romance. If you just want to follow the show,

1130
01:01:05,680 --> 01:01:08,360
Speaker 1: that's great. Thanks so much for tuning in. We will

1131
01:01:08,400 --> 01:01:12,360
Speaker 1: see you next time for our next episode. Thanks bye,

1132
01:01:13,800 --> 01:01:16,920
Speaker 1: so long, friends, it is time to go. Thanks so

1133
01:01:17,200 --> 01:01:21,360
Speaker 1: listening to our show. Tell your friends name's Uncle Sandance

1134
01:01:21,600 --> 01:01:24,000
Speaker 1: to listen to a show Ridiculous Rommance