Speaker 1: The farm hands knew that the Old Testament had spoken
Speaker 1: about a race of giants, but Cardiff, New York was
Speaker 1: a very long way from the Promised Land. So you
Speaker 1: can imagine their surprise on that cool October morning in
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty nine when the men accidentally unearthed a petrified
Speaker 1: body of a massive ten foot tall man. He laid
Speaker 1: flat on his back, as pale and chalky as soft plaster.
Speaker 1: It was easy for the workers to recall the Bible
Speaker 1: story of Goliath being struck down by David slingshot. The
Speaker 1: resemblance in their mind was striking. The laborers couldn't believe
Speaker 1: their luck. They thought it was a weird and wonderful discovery,
Speaker 1: and they set off to let the world know. But
Speaker 1: none of this was by happenstance or happy accident. No,
Speaker 1: it was all part of a heavily choreographed and brilliantly
Speaker 1: engineered plan drummed up by a fellow named George Hull,
Speaker 1: one that involved a handful of years, a couple of
Speaker 1: thousand dollars, and a big chunk of gypsum. You see,
Speaker 1: George was a skeptic by nature. He didn't believe in God.
Speaker 1: He certainly didn't believe in the Bible and definitely didn't
Speaker 1: believe in giants. This life was all there was, he thought,
Speaker 1: and anyone trying to convince people otherwise were fraudsters. So
Speaker 1: George came up with an idea to hoodwink the faithful,
Speaker 1: and he picked the perfect time too. Charles Darwin had
Speaker 1: just published his Origin of Species, and the world as
Speaker 1: we knew it had been thrown into flux. George roped
Speaker 1: in a cast of characters, a Chicago marble dealer, some sculptors,
Speaker 1: and a distant relative by the name of Stub Newell.
Speaker 1: The latter just happened to own a farm in upstate
Speaker 1: New York, which would prove to be the perfect resting
Speaker 1: place for a faux fossil. Visitors soon began pouring onto
Speaker 1: the property. Men left to work, and women brought their
Speaker 1: babies along. They showed up to the farm in droves,
Speaker 1: trying to catch a glimpse of this fossilized giant. Stubb
Speaker 1: erected a big white tent and charged admission. Soon businessmen
Speaker 1: and investors came knocking, all wanting a piece of the action.
Speaker 1: And while the experts and naysayers certainly had a few
Speaker 1: things to say. Stubb stuck by his story this was
Speaker 1: the real deal. Inspired by the publicity, P. T. Barnum
Speaker 1: tried to buy the giant, but when Stubb turned him down,
Speaker 1: Barnum changed plans and simply made his own copy of it.
Speaker 1: And when that new handcrafted petrified giant corpse was ready,
Speaker 1: he put it on display in his American Museum in
Speaker 1: New York City. That first fraud gave way to others too,
Speaker 1: and soon even more copies were cropping up. But ultimately
Speaker 1: the story unraveled when a guilt ridden sculptor decided to
Speaker 1: come clean, and the Cardiff Giant was eventually put into storage,
Speaker 1: where it would languish for years to come. This time,
Speaker 1: at least, the skeptics had won the day, and it
Speaker 1: demonstrates that universal truth that everyone loves a good narrative.
Speaker 1: It's part of our nature as humans to look for
Speaker 1: story and to cling onto it for dear life. Story
Speaker 1: helps us anchor ourselves in reality, and it gives us
Speaker 1: something that most people can never get enough of, hope,
Speaker 1: But for many that's never anything more than just a dream.
Speaker 1: Hope is a wonderful target to aim for, after all,
Speaker 1: that's why they call it shooting for the stars, but oftentimes,
Speaker 1: happily ever after is too far out of reach, and
Speaker 1: few individuals throughout history have had farther to stretch for
Speaker 1: their lofty goals than one person in particular. But despite
Speaker 1: a life filled with challenges and obstacles that would make
Speaker 1: most of us give up and settle for less, she
Speaker 1: managed to do the impossible. I'm Aaron Manky, Welcome to
Speaker 1: the Side Show. Stealing a horse and wagon was an
Speaker 1: impressive feat, especially since the culprits were both just a
Speaker 1: hair over two ft tall. Mercy and her sister Minnie
Speaker 1: had just wanted to go for a joy ride, so
Speaker 1: when a peddler stopped by their family home in Middleborough, Massachusetts,
Speaker 1: the sisters saw their chance. They climbed up into the
Speaker 1: driver's seat and took the reins in their tiny fists.
Speaker 1: But they underestimated the horsepower in front of them and
Speaker 1: never thought that the beast might make a break for it.
Speaker 1: So when their older brother finally found them a mile
Speaker 1: from home, he gave them a piece of his mind.
Speaker 1: Despite the lecture, though they couldn't help us squeal with glee.
Speaker 1: And these antics were part and parcel for the tiny
Speaker 1: package that was Mercy Lavinia Warren Bump. By all accounts,
Speaker 1: she was a completely unremarkable baby. She made her world
Speaker 1: debut on Halloween of eighteen forty one, the fifth child
Speaker 1: in her family. Born to parents who were seasoned in
Speaker 1: matters of birthing and rearing, the Bump family was made
Speaker 1: of solid Yankee stock, comprised of folks descended from not two,
Speaker 1: but five Mayflower passengers, and by all accounts they eked
Speaker 1: out a quiet New England existence, one dictated by the
Speaker 1: church bells and the seasons, with each change in the
Speaker 1: weather a cause for celebration or a warning sign of
Speaker 1: things to come. As her first year went on, Mercy's
Speaker 1: parents noticed something unusual about her. It seemed, in the
Speaker 1: strangest of ways, that she had simply stopped growing. They
Speaker 1: kept a watchful eye as one year turned to the next.
Speaker 1: What she lacked in size she made up foreign spirits,
Speaker 1: growing into a tiny, yet precocious child. But even so,
Speaker 1: the smallest and youngest Bump was able to keep up
Speaker 1: with the rest. She went to school and did her chores,
Speaker 1: all with the help of a small step ladder her
Speaker 1: father had built for her. And when her sister Minnie
Speaker 1: arrived seven years later. The family recognized something in her,
Speaker 1: she too, was going to stay small. Looking back, historians
Speaker 1: think it's likely that both sisters suffered from a pituitary
Speaker 1: disorder resulting from their ancestors in her marrying. Mercy graduated
Speaker 1: from school at sixteen and remained in the schoolhouse to teach.
Speaker 1: She was universally adored. It said that her students would
Speaker 1: pick her up and carry her over deep puddles and
Speaker 1: ferry her along on a sled during the snowfall. Life
Speaker 1: and all it offered Mercy was good, so when her cousin,
Speaker 1: George Wood showed up at the family's home after her
Speaker 1: first year on the job, she didn't take much interest
Speaker 1: in the offer that he put on the table. George
Speaker 1: was working for the Spalding in Rogers North American Circus,
Speaker 1: an outfit that floated show boats along the Ohio and
Speaker 1: Mississippi Rivers. He had seen the great success of P. T.
Speaker 1: Barnum's General Tom Thumb, another proportional dwarf, and thought that Mercy,
Speaker 1: all thirty two inches of her, could likewise be destined
Speaker 1: for the stage. But George's idea of showcasing Mercy wasn't
Speaker 1: a novel idea. In fact, there is a long global
Speaker 1: history of people living with dwarf is um being sought
Speaker 1: after for entertainment. They loom large in folklore and myths worldwide,
Speaker 1: with pictorial histories found across ancient cultures. Powerful rulers were
Speaker 1: said to have collected little people like baseball cards, as
Speaker 1: if they were mere two dimensional characters and not living,
Speaker 1: breathing humans. History tells us that for upwards of five
Speaker 1: thousand years, they were often held in some degree of bondage,
Speaker 1: thought of as property, and fulfilled the roles of either
Speaker 1: servant or entertainer. But as the world changed and courts declined,
Speaker 1: people with dwarfism began appearing at fairs, taverns, and other
Speaker 1: venues where folks of all kinds went to seek a
Speaker 1: reprieve from their daily lives. By the time George's offer
Speaker 1: came to Mercy, it was an era when women were
Speaker 1: expected to be good wives and mothers. Did she want
Speaker 1: to give up her quiet life, one in which she
Speaker 1: was safely tucked into her little town, for a life
Speaker 1: aboard a floating circus cruising along the banks of the
Speaker 1: American frontier. Did she want to say yes to something more.
Speaker 1: It turns out that she did so with her parents
Speaker 1: blessing Mercy decided to make a go of it. She
Speaker 1: had the privilege of making this choice, something that not
Speaker 1: many women around her did, and with that she re
Speaker 1: christened herself with her two middle names for the stage,
Speaker 1: and in doing so, she was reborn as a star.
Speaker 1: Lavinia Warren. It was eighteen sixty and the floating palace
Speaker 1: was never going to outsail the war doct in New Orleans.
Speaker 1: The Mississippi River waters ran beneath her, a watery spine
Speaker 1: binding the shores of a fracturing nation. Lavinia and her
Speaker 1: troop had a good run, but George began to feel uneasy.
Speaker 1: Abraham Lincoln had recently been elected president and won the
Speaker 1: electoral College by less than forty percent of the popular vote.
Speaker 1: More significantly, he didn't win a single Southern state. The
Speaker 1: country was picking sides, and each was taking up arms
Speaker 1: to prove it. Georgia Lavinia decided to make a run
Speaker 1: for the north, booking the first train out of town
Speaker 1: to Vicksburg, Mississippi. Their car ferried both people and ammunition alike.
Speaker 1: What they didn't know then is that Vicksburg would go
Speaker 1: on to witness one of the bloodiest sieges of the
Speaker 1: impending war, but for now, the cousins were just trying
Speaker 1: to get through and get home. With rest on her mind,
Speaker 1: Lavinia had planned to ride out the Civil War back home,
Speaker 1: but that was before one of P. T. Barnum's men
Speaker 1: came knocking. Barnum had her tales of Lavinia's success on
Speaker 1: the show boats and wanted her to join his ranks. However,
Speaker 1: to his surprise, she categorically refused, but Barnum wouldn't take
Speaker 1: no for an answer. He invited Lavinia and her parents
Speaker 1: to visit his sprawling estates in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he
Speaker 1: continued to court her with the lure of a weekly
Speaker 1: salary and the promise of far flung adventures. And you
Speaker 1: know what, Lavinia had a change of heart, so she agreed.
Speaker 1: Barnum got right to work. He ordered up reams of
Speaker 1: fabulous dresses and jewels, designing a wardrobe fit for a
Speaker 1: tiny queen. By spinning his stories, working his magic, and
Speaker 1: emptying his bank account, he was going to mold Lavinia
Speaker 1: from a show girl into a celebrity. But to understand
Speaker 1: his impulse, we have to look closer at this moment.
Speaker 1: The previous generation of Americans had fought for freedom from
Speaker 1: the English crown, but Queen Victoria's influence was so strong
Speaker 1: that it crossed the pond, and upper crust Americans took note.
Speaker 1: Had she been alive today, she probably would have been
Speaker 1: a social media influencer. And Victorian America was changing too.
Speaker 1: The cities were growing, the fires of industry burning hot,
Speaker 1: and social settings that were once rigid began to tremble.
Speaker 1: The ideals of the Victorian Age brought a sense of
Speaker 1: control to white, middle and upper class Americans as the
Speaker 1: country around them changed. Decked Out in corsets and pearls,
Speaker 1: top hats and tails, they enacted the rituals they thought
Speaker 1: would keep them safe and empowered and lavinia while Barnum
Speaker 1: saw her as the perfect canvas upon which to craft
Speaker 1: the ideal Victorian aristocrat, one who could be kept stateside
Speaker 1: for their own viewing pleasure. Of course, the night of
Speaker 1: her official entrance to high society took place at New
Speaker 1: York City's magnificent St. Nicholas Hotel, and it's was dazzling.
Speaker 1: She dripped with charm and diamonds, dressed in a get
Speaker 1: up that would cost over fifty two dollars today, and
Speaker 1: the press went wild. She was suddenly a diminutive debutante
Speaker 1: of the highest regard. The New York Commercial Advisor called
Speaker 1: Lavinia one of the most extraordinary little ladies at any
Speaker 1: time scene in this age of extraordinary beings. The New
Speaker 1: York Tribune wrote extensively about Lavinia, noting her to be
Speaker 1: bright and sweet, eyes, brilliant and intelligent, her form faultless,
Speaker 1: and her manner to be that of a woman of
Speaker 1: the world. And The New York Sun was bold enough
Speaker 1: to suggest that she could even challenge the riotously successful
Speaker 1: career of Charlie s Stratton, otherwise known as General Tom Thumb.
Speaker 1: Charlie had signed on with Barnum at an early age
Speaker 1: and had become a global sensation, and Charlie, as the
Speaker 1: story goes, was quite smitten with Barnum's new star. He
Speaker 1: took Barnum aside and asked him to play matchmaker. Charlie
Speaker 1: even promised exclusive rights to publicize their wedding if Barnum
Speaker 1: were to foot the bill. Ever, the step ahead, Barnum
Speaker 1: began planting the seeds with Lavinia. Their courtship began in
Speaker 1: earnest Charlie got to work wooing Lavinia the moment she
Speaker 1: stepped off the train to visit him in Bridgeport, where
Speaker 1: he picked her up in a miniature carriage. Over the
Speaker 1: course of the afternoon, Lavinia spoke of her upcoming trip
Speaker 1: to Europe. So Charlie got bold and asked would it
Speaker 1: be more proper for them to go as man and wife? Surprisingly,
Speaker 1: Lavinia said yes. On February tenth, eighteen sixty three, curious spectators,
Speaker 1: all bundled up in yards of wool and furs, flooded
Speaker 1: the sidewalks. In the pews of Grace Church on Broadway.
Speaker 1: Guests waited anxiously. Everyone who was anyone was there. Congressmen
Speaker 1: rubbed shoulders with governors, Captains of industry stood flanked by
Speaker 1: their wives, all seated among worry newspaper editors. Barnum accepted
Speaker 1: no bribes for the invitations that we know of, although
Speaker 1: it's said that many tried. After all, who didn't want
Speaker 1: to be at the social event of the season. The
Speaker 1: oregan blared and the ceremony began. Next crane toward the aisle,
Speaker 1: trying to catch a glimpse of the wedding party, guests,
Speaker 1: who were compelled to giggle at the spectacle of it all,
Speaker 1: soon fell in line, a hush reverence falling over the audience.
Speaker 1: Lavinia and Charlie ascended to the altar. Clymina said, of
Speaker 1: small stairs, to a special platform built just for them.
Speaker 1: They were young, wealthy, and famous. They held each other's
Speaker 1: hands and kissed, and for the first time in three years,
Speaker 1: the New York Times ran something other than news of
Speaker 1: the Civil War on the front page. Yes, they were small,
Speaker 1: but it was clear that their love was mighty. Lavinia said,
Speaker 1: I do, and with that they were ready to take
Speaker 1: on the world. I can't think of a worse way
Speaker 1: to mix business and pleasure than by setting off on
Speaker 1: a honeymoon tour. But Lavinia and Charlie did just that. Now,
Speaker 1: while the idea of a honeymoon might conjure visions of
Speaker 1: sunsets and sandy beaches, these two had a different idea
Speaker 1: in mine. They were off to the White House. That's right.
Speaker 1: They went down to Washington, d C. A city full
Speaker 1: of crime, vice, and malaria. Not exactly my idea of romance,
Speaker 1: but to each their own. Mary Todd Lincoln had extended
Speaker 1: an invitation to the Stratton's. Maybe she felt she was
Speaker 1: in competition with Queen Victoria's friendship with Charlie, or maybe
Speaker 1: Barnum pressured her into it. Regardless of how it all
Speaker 1: came to be, what we do know is that the
Speaker 1: First Family pulled out all the stops. On Friday, February
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty three, Lavinia and Charlie were greeted with a
Speaker 1: proper white house reception by the Lincoln's. The newlyweds suited
Speaker 1: up in their full wedding attire for an audience of dignitaries.
Speaker 1: Lavinia had a bouquet of fresh orange blossoms and strings
Speaker 1: of pearls around her neck. The newspapers reported the scene
Speaker 1: to be quite a vision, with the specter of a
Speaker 1: gangly Lincoln, all in black, bending at the waist to
Speaker 1: shake Charlie's hand and kiss Lavinia's cheek. It was said
Speaker 1: that there was even a striking resemblance between Mary Todd
Speaker 1: and Lavinia if you could scale them to an equal
Speaker 1: eyes that is, whispers floated throughout the room. Some audience
Speaker 1: members were amused, others were ashamed. The pretense of this
Speaker 1: visit was a dignified one, but we have to notice
Speaker 1: There were echoes of the past that filled the east
Speaker 1: room at that moment, as two little people were presented
Speaker 1: to the head of the highest office in the land.
Speaker 1: Soon after their White House visit, they joined Lavinia's sister
Speaker 1: Minnie and her husband George, and set off touring. But
Speaker 1: travels took them across New England, up into Canada, down south,
Speaker 1: and across the Midwest talk about the ultimate double date.
Speaker 1: The troop soon bunked down at a hotel in Louisville, Kentucky,
Speaker 1: where Lavinia spent some time chatting with her neighbor across
Speaker 1: the hall. He shared with her his pain in what
Speaker 1: the South was experiencing. He was distraught but determined to help,
Speaker 1: and she listened intently. As they parted ways, he handed
Speaker 1: her assigned photograph that she would go on to carry
Speaker 1: with her. It may seem strange now, but as a
Speaker 1: famous theater actor John Wilkes Booth had his own fans.
Speaker 1: It would be in Europe that spring when they learned
Speaker 1: of Lincoln's assassination and the war's end. Lavinia was an
Speaker 1: utter shock, and when asked by a British reporter about
Speaker 1: her relationship with Booth, she ended up giving them that
Speaker 1: signed photograph, it ran in the newspaper, the first photo
Speaker 1: of the president's assassin to appear in the British press.
Speaker 1: Over the next few years, the four friends continued to
Speaker 1: cross the world and back again, two pairs of pre
Speaker 1: eminent global emissaries of their day. When it was all
Speaker 1: said and done, their travels added up to a distance
Speaker 1: that could have circumnavigated the globe twice, with a bit
Speaker 1: of mileage to spare. But home is often where they
Speaker 1: craved to be. I'm not gonna lie to you. It
Speaker 1: was sometimes tense between Charlie and Lavinia, as he wished
Speaker 1: for retirement and she wished for adventure. Their permanent residence
Speaker 1: sat on an eight one acre plot back in Lavinia's hometown.
Speaker 1: It was all theirs, every last inch of it, complete
Speaker 1: with its rapper porch, mansward roof, chimneys and dormers. It
Speaker 1: was more than they could ever dream of and certainly
Speaker 1: exactly what they needed. They outfitted their newly built place
Speaker 1: with furniture made in miniature, including a pint sized grand
Speaker 1: piano and a shrunken billiards table. Visitors to the house
Speaker 1: today can still find remnants of their personal renovations. A
Speaker 1: small soapstone sink and a small staircase in the back.
Speaker 1: At one point there was a cast iron stove measuring
Speaker 1: two feet tall for their guests, though they always had
Speaker 1: on hand average sized furniture and plates. They were global
Speaker 1: celebrities living in a small town after all, and frequently
Speaker 1: found themselves playing host to long nights of entertainment. And
Speaker 1: it's here, after a life of travel, adoration, and near missus,
Speaker 1: that Charlie would die in three He was forty five,
Speaker 1: taken at a young age by a stroke. Surely he
Speaker 1: had many roads behind him, but he still had the
Speaker 1: world ahead of him. In Lavinia was devastated. She haunted
Speaker 1: the halls of her house, unmoored with life, making a
Speaker 1: little less sense without her general. On the day of
Speaker 1: Charlie's funeral, twenty three horse drawn carriages and ten thousand
Speaker 1: mourners made their way to Mountain Grove Cemetery. The air
Speaker 1: was heavy with the weight of this enormous finality. She
Speaker 1: had made a career out of being the center of attention,
Speaker 1: but this was a performance she didn't want to be
Speaker 1: a part of. As Charlie was lowered into the earth,
Speaker 1: Lavinia collapsed moments later, someone tenderly picked her up and
Speaker 1: carried her to a carriage. One last funeral dirge filled
Speaker 1: the air, and then with a sudden jolt, the horses
Speaker 1: hold away. The Victorian age is often defined by death,
Speaker 1: and Lavinia's life was no exception, especially being an generation
Speaker 1: who lived and loved through the war. She had lost
Speaker 1: so many already, and now her husband was gone to
Speaker 1: she was stuck between two worlds, life on the road
Speaker 1: and life in the home. It was in straddling this
Speaker 1: line that she was unlike almost any other Victorian woman
Speaker 1: she knew, and it was in this tension that she
Speaker 1: felt most alone. But as they say, the show must
Speaker 1: go on. She soon remarried to another proportional dwarf by
Speaker 1: the name of Count Primo Magre, who she and Charlie
Speaker 1: had met on the road years before. They continued performing
Speaker 1: together alongside the count's brother, But where Lavinia and her
Speaker 1: crew had once held court with royals and presidents, they
Speaker 1: now began finding themselves scraping together itineraries and descending into
Speaker 1: the bellies of cedi er venues. They spent some time
Speaker 1: starring in the Lily Peucia Midget Village, a Coney Island
Speaker 1: attraction featuring over three h little persons recruited from various
Speaker 1: side shows. Picture it as an early twentieth century, real
Speaker 1: world social experiment. The sets, built to look like fifteenth
Speaker 1: century Nuremberg, of course, featured a theater, circus, a firehouse,
Speaker 1: and a beach with lifeguard towers. It was here that
Speaker 1: performers acted out their mundane, everyday life, and audiences came
Speaker 1: to watch. In the village, the actors were stripped of
Speaker 1: their individual identities and folded into a homogeneous group. They
Speaker 1: were being sold as one fictitious race of little people.
Speaker 1: If you've seen The Wizard of Oz or Charlie and
Speaker 1: the Chocolate Factory, you've caught a glimpse of this new
Speaker 1: mythology coming to life. As you can imagine, this was
Speaker 1: all pretty demeaning. The luster of this life and the
Speaker 1: opportunities that presented were waning. The curtains were finally drawing
Speaker 1: to a close. Lavinia had been one of America's first celebrities,
Speaker 1: loved by the public until they found newer, shiny or entertainments,
Speaker 1: but in nineteen nineteen, on the cusp of her eighth
Speaker 1: decade of life, she fell ill and died on November.
Speaker 1: By then, Lavinia had become one of the most photographed
Speaker 1: people in the world. An obituary claimed that more people
Speaker 1: knew of her than any other woman in the entire country.
Speaker 1: In an amazing way, she had really done it all.
Speaker 1: But what made Lavinia a star was certainly complicated. She
Speaker 1: played the part of the ideal Victorian woman in miniature,
Speaker 1: a human doll dressed to the nines. This was quite
Speaker 1: literally her whole act. Barnum knew that with the right
Speaker 1: aesthetic trappings, he could transform her to his benefit, yes,
Speaker 1: and maybe even to her own. It was a transformation
Speaker 1: that allowed her to climb higher than any step ladder
Speaker 1: could have allowed. She was a hero, a celebrity, and
Speaker 1: the biggest star of her day. But when she was
Speaker 1: buried beside Charlie's life size monument, her simple headstone bore
Speaker 1: the only title that she felt most proud of. It's
Speaker 1: simply read His wife. Lavinia Warren's life and adventures clearly
Speaker 1: proved that big things often come in small packages. The fame,
Speaker 1: the wealth, and those millions of adoring fans all stand
Speaker 1: as definitive proof that she really had reached the top
Speaker 1: of the world. But there were others like her, and
Speaker 1: their lives were no less extraordinary. And if you stick
Speaker 1: around through this brief sponsor break, this season's writer and
Speaker 1: lead producer, Robin Miniter, will take you on that journey.
Speaker 1: Thomas was built as three ft tall and three ft broad,
Speaker 1: although this was possibly the least interesting thing about him.
Speaker 1: A native son of Brooklyn, New York, Thomas Dilward was
Speaker 1: a showman and a show stopper, A fellow who could sing, dance, fiddle, contort,
Speaker 1: and act. He was sometimes billed as the African Tom Thumb.
Speaker 1: But whereas Charlie Stratton was accepted in the courts of Europe,
Speaker 1: Dillward embraced a more sinister legacy. Right around the time
Speaker 1: Thomas was born, in the eighteen thirties, America's social landscape
Speaker 1: was feeling a new squeeze whore in working class immigrant
Speaker 1: families struggled to get by, hardly benefiting from any association
Speaker 1: with the dominating Anglo social classes. This, though, was about
Speaker 1: to change. There are a few stories that float around,
Speaker 1: but this is the most popular one. A traveling actor
Speaker 1: by the name of Thomas Rice was said to have
Speaker 1: watched an elderly, decrepit black man singing and dancing while
Speaker 1: working at a horse table. He took notes and practiced
Speaker 1: his mimicry. Rice took inspiration from the man's jarring movements,
Speaker 1: his Southern twang, and his dark skin. He wrote a
Speaker 1: few musical lines, and then he burned some cork. He
Speaker 1: smudged the inky black ash across his face in his hands,
Speaker 1: put on some raggedy clothes, and created what would become
Speaker 1: a monster in the American imagination, a character by the
Speaker 1: name of Jim Crow. And with that American minstrel shows
Speaker 1: were born. And it was through these shows that white
Speaker 1: minstrel actors tried to codify blackness. By doing this, they
Speaker 1: attempted to grasp at any thread of social control that
Speaker 1: might be available to them and to create a foil,
Speaker 1: a foil to their own whiteness, which was purely fabricated
Speaker 1: and purely cruel. This attempt to define the markers of
Speaker 1: being black led to the creation of stereotypes, flattening the
Speaker 1: experience of black folks through the creation of harmful caricatures
Speaker 1: for entertainment and profit. But the history of these minstrel
Speaker 1: shows in the American side show is inextricably linked, and
Speaker 1: it's partially due to P. T. Barnum and his Great
Speaker 1: American Museum. It's true that Barnum trafficked and oddities, inanimate
Speaker 1: and animate alike. The bulk of his acts focused on
Speaker 1: people with physical deformities, and his inclusion of black folks
Speaker 1: right alongside them exposed underlying social prejudices. Blackness and disability
Speaker 1: were starting to be cast in the same light. Thomas
Speaker 1: was an interesting case study. Though his act his body
Speaker 1: existed at the intersection of a head spinning identity. He
Speaker 1: was a black person living with dwarfism, traveling and entertaining
Speaker 1: in the years before the Civil War. He dressed in
Speaker 1: drag and even took on the name Japanese Tommy as
Speaker 1: a way to trick audiences who would otherwise not pay
Speaker 1: to see a black man perform. In fact, he was
Speaker 1: one of the only black actors to travel with a
Speaker 1: white troop. He stated audiences of all colors and shapes,
Speaker 1: and even came up with a turn of phrase that
Speaker 1: you can still hear in conversation today, hunky dory. The
Speaker 1: phrase was first found in Russell bart It's Seven Dictionary
Speaker 1: of Americanisms, and it means everything is all right, but
Speaker 1: knowing Thomas's story, It's easy to wonder was it really?
Speaker 1: Sideshow was written by Robin Minater, with production, narration, and
Speaker 1: audio editing by me Aaron Mankey research for the series
Speaker 1: was done by Robin Minater, Taylor Haggerdorn, and Sam Alberty.
Speaker 1: Grim and Mild Presents was created in partnership with I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. You can learn more about this show and
Speaker 1: everything else going on from Grim and mild over at
Speaker 1: Grim and mild dot com and, as always, thanks for listening.