KRAO – The Missing Link

Darwin’s theory of evolution – and man’s implied ascendancy from an ape-like creatures – is controversial. When it was first introduced to the public, most people though the idea was preposterous. Until the apparent ‘missing link’ between man and ape appeared in a Philadelphia dime museum.
Krao was born is Siam, modern day Thailand, in 1876. From birth, the girl was completely covered with hair, including a mane-like track of hair flowing down her back from between her shoulder blades. She was discovered at the age of six by a promoter exuberantly named the Great Farini. Farini took the girl on a successful tour of Europe before starting a tour in the United State. While the dime museum was a starting point, it wasn’t long before Krao was a sought after marvel featured by the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus.
While often called ‘The Ape Woman’ Krao was principally advertised as ‘Darwin’s Missing Link’. To all those who saw her, she was proof of Darwin’s ideas. It was claimed, somewhat ridiculously, that Krao was of a race of tree dwelling, ape-like people but many bought the story – including noted naturalists and scientists. Numerous papers were written on Krao and her role as Darwinian proof. In the 1896 tome Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine, the authors noted her many ape qualities including her ‘prehensile feet’. In reality Krao was a young woman of above average intelligence who was both well read and multilingual. She just happened to suffer from an advanced form of hypertrichosis.
Unlike Julia Pastrana, Krao was fortunate in that she was never exploited. She performed and displayed herself in her own terms for most of her adult life. She was free to do as she pleased and spent the last 20 years of her life in a private apartment, entertaining guests and neighbors with her cooking and charming personality.

Krao never married, although she had admirers, and she passed due to influenza on April 16th, 1926.

Images: Krao later inlife.

THE HILTON SISTERS – Chained For Life

Contrary to popular belief, outright exploitation was not very common in sideshow. The majority of human marvels displayed themselves for their own reasons and quite often reaped massive financial and personal rewards for doing so. However, of the few performers who were exploited against their will, the tale of Daisy and Violet Hilton ranks as one of the worst.

Daisy and Violet were conjoined twins born in Brighton, England on February 5, 1908. The sisters were born pygopagi, joined at the posterior. The sisters shared no internal organs and all that was truly uniting them was bone, muscle and skin. Their birth name was Skinner however their impoverished and unmarried mother, Kate, could not fathom the responsibilities involved in raising a pair of girls joined. She sold the twins to her boss and midwife Mary Hilton.
Williams instantly saw potential profit in the twins.
According to many sources, including the autobiography written by the Hilton sisters in 1942, Mary Hilton was a strict, physically abusive, exploitive and corrupt human being. The twins were ‘trained’ and ‘groomed’ to sing and dance in the vaudeville tradition. While this training was in progress the horrific abuse and dehumanizing continued. When the girls finally began touring, they were seen as little more than possessions by the Hiltons.
The twins proved to be hugely successful and the toured extensively beginning at the age of three. On stage, the pair likely looked like dolls, their blond hair in curls and bows on their shoes. Violet played the piano while Daisy played the violin.
Billed as ‘The United Twins’, their tours of Germany, Australia and the USA often saw record crowds. The twin brought in enormous amounts of money. Mary Hilton kept every penny.
When Mary finally died in Birmingham, Alabama, the guardianship of the twins fell to Mary’s daughter Edith and Edith’s husband, Meyer Meyers. They were even worse than Mary as they controlled every movement the twins made. They also proved to be poor agents as they insisted on keeping the girls ‘dolled up’ as little girl well past the age it was acceptable. Critics took notice and the twins were allowed to grow up, but only a little.
The mistreatment and corruption continued under the dictatorship of Edith. Edith purchased a mansion in San Antonio with the money the twins earned as a headquarters as the twins spent much of the 1920’s touring the United States on vaudeville circuits. It was on these circuits that they met Bob Hope and their dear friend Harry Houdini. Their popularity, at this point was near its peak and as a result they became subject to scandal.
The twins had befriended their advance agent, William Oliver. Oliver’s wife Mildred was suspicious of the relationship and accused William of improper acts. A postcard from the twins signed to William ‘with love’ prompted Mildred to file for divorce and sue the twins for $250,000. Oddly enough, this frivolous lawsuit was the catalyst for the Hilton’s freedom.
During a visit to San Antonio lawyer, Martin J. Arnold, the truth came out. As the Meyer’s were out of the room the Hilton sisters told the lawyer of their life of abuse and captivity. The lawyer was flabbergasted and immediately took on the twins’ case. He took the twins into protective custody.
In April of 1931 Judge W.W. McCrory awarded a large sum of money – some reports say as much as $100,000, to the sisters and granted the pair their freedom.
The girls had spent 21 years in abject slavery.
Daisy and Violet became citizens of the United States and returned to show business. They hosted their own show, ‘The Hilton Sisters’ Revue’, and stared in the 1932 film Freaks.
Everything seemed to be perfect in the life of the Hilton sisters; however the pair soon began to self destruct. Due to too many years of solitude, suppression and deprivation the girl wallowed in excess. They had numerous affairs, legal problems, clashes with that media and a couple of short publicity marriages. Their popularity nosedived. In 1950, the sisters appeared in their final film Chained for Life. It flopped and the pair further failed in an attempted food franchise. By the 1960’s the pair were nearly penniless.
The Hiltons’ last public appearance was at a drive-in movie theater in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1962. Their tour manager abandoned them there, as the tour was a failure and he was tired of losing money. He left them without any money or transportation and the twins simply decided to settle in Charlotte. A kind grocery store manager hired the sisters to work in his shop, where they checked and bagged groceries.
On January 6, 1969, the twins failed to report for work and were found dead in their pious home. They had no surviving family.
Despite the sad end to their lives, the memory of the Hilton sisters still lives on. In 1997, a Broadway musical loosely based on the sisters’ lives, Side Show, with lyrics by Bill Russell and music by Henry Krieger, received four Tony nominations.

PRINCE RANDIAN – The Human Caterpillar

The man who would become Prince Randian was born in 1871 in Demerara, British Guiana to Indian slave parents.Despite being born without arms or legs he was incredibly self sufficient.
Randian was brought to the US in 1889 and, while he performed at many dime shows and museums, he gained most of his fame performing for P. T. Barnum. In front of the large crowds Barnum provided Randian demonstrated the ease in which he was able to shave, paint, write and even roll cigarettes. Not only was he able to roll a cigarette, he was also able to pull a match from its box, strike it, and light his freshly rolled cigarette.
Randian had many nicknames during his career. Randian’s typical costume consisted of a striped wool garment and his main mode of transportation was writhing about on the ground in a worm-like fashion. These two visuals led to his most common nickname – ‘The Human Caterpillar’ – and he went on to appear in a variety of carnivals and sideshows, including Coney Island, for a forty five year stint.
Randian had a role in the 1932 film freaks, in which he demonstrates his cigarette rolling skills and utters a single unintelligible line. Oddly enough, it is said that he spoke several languages including Hindi, French, English and German.
By all accounts, he was a bright and charming man with a great sense of humor. Both of these talents helped him land a wife and make use of his one remaining appendage.
He and his wife had five children.
Eventually Radian retired to Paterson, New Jersey and in 1934 he died at age 63 of a heart attack following a comeback performance.
Call him what you like: The Living Torso, The Snake Man, The Human Worm, The Human Cigarette Factory or the Amazing Caterpillar Man. Radian was a man who, despite his physical limitations, truly lived live to his fullest.

ISAAC W. SPRAGUE – The Original Living Skeleton

Isaac W. Sprague was born on May 21, 1841 in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts. According to one of his early cabinet cards, he was a normal and active child until the age of twelve – when he began to rapidly lose weight.

His concerned parents, alarmed by his weight lost, forbade young Isaac from high energy activities. Despite this, the boy continued to loose weight and his now terrified parents took Isaac to the best doctors they could find. Unfortunately the doctors were also baffled and Isaac continued to wither away despite a healthy appetite. As an adult, Isaac apprenticed under his father as a cobbler and later worked as a grocer. However, as his emaciation continued, Isaac found his energy depleted. It soon became too difficult for Isaac to continue working – it was then that the world of sideshow came calling.
In 1865, during a visit to a local carnival a promoter spotted Isaac and offered him a job. At first, the young man refused. But he soon realized that he could earn a good living by capitalizing on his looks. He began touring as ‘The Living Skeleton’ and quickly rose in popularity. In less than a year he auditioned for P. T. Barnum and was hired on a salary of $80 a week.
His career with Barnum was brief as Barnum’s American Museum burned down for the second time in 1868. The skeletal Isaac barely managed to escape the museum alive – following his escape, he left sideshow for awhile.
During his premature retirement, he met and married a Miss Tamar Moore and had three healthy sons. In dire straights due to poor financial decisions, he resumed touring with Barnum and others. His financial problems, and perhaps a gambling addiction, continued and ultimately resulted in Isaac W. Sprague dying in poverty on January 5, 1887 in Chicago.
While his weight varied over his career, an official measurement was taken by a physician when Isaac was forty-four. At a height of five feet and six inches, Isaac weighed only forty-three pounds.
Despite numerous medical exams during his lifetime, his condition was never officially identified. He was labeled as having ‘an extreme case of progressive muscular atrophy’. As a result Isaac was required to eat constantly. In fact, he was well known to carry a flask of sweetened dairy milk around his neck – drinking from it to from time to time to keep himself alive and conscious.
Believe it or not, the ‘Living Skeleton’ came to be a fairly common sideshow attraction. In fact, it was not uncommon, in a feat of inspired promotion, for a sideshow Skeleton Man to marry the local Fat Lady in an extravagant ceremony. The local press was, of course, always invited to attend.

MIGNON – The Penguin Lady

Mignon was born in the early 1900′s, likely around 1910, with a condition called phocomelia. Phocomelia typically results in the stunting of limbs and the fusion of digits. In Mignon’s case her fingers were fused in such a way as to resemble flippers. Furthermore, as her truncated limbs forced Mignon to waddle rather than walk – her stage name of ‘The Penguin Lady’ was both apt and easily assigned.
Her name, Mignon, was not her birth name. Most reports indicate that her given name was Ruth. Mignon is the French word for ‘cute’ and she likely adopted it early in her career. In fact, for quite some time she was know as ‘Mickey Mignon’ and even today her true surname is debatable.
While Mignon often wore a two piece bathing suit to show off her unique physique, she was not content to rely on appearance alone. She learned to play the rather exotic marimba, an African instrument similar to a xylophone. She proved to be very proficient as she was not only featured in numerous sideshows, her act was also featured at the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago and the 1939 and 1940 World’s Fairs in New York.
Mignon married twice in her lifetime. She had a healthy son with her first husband, a ‘normal’ man by the last name of LaArgo and in the 1950′s she married fellow sideshow performer Earl Davis, a gnarled and crippled former acrobat known as ‘Hoppy the Frog Boy’. The two performed together for close to a decade.

GEORGE WILLIAMS – The Turtle Boy

George Williams, The Turtle Boy, was born in 1859 in Arkansas. He was born with a rare form of dwarfism known as parastremmatic dysplasia. Not only does this form of dwarfism stunt growth, Williams was only eighteen inches tall, but it also twists and contorts the bones of the body into grotesque spirals.
Williams was incredibly popular during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. He primarily worked carnivals and dime museums but he was best known for his lengthy tenure at Huber’s 14th Street Museum in New York.
Despite really looking nothing like a turtle, Williams was often depicted with a shell in pamphlets and advertisements. He was not content to simply allow patrons to view him; he preferred to earn his money by performing. Overcoming his severe deformities, Williams became a very accomplished musician on the harmonica and flute and, in contrast to his diminutive size, he possessed a rich and wonderful baritone singing voice.
Williams had a reputation of being a bit of a pool shark. Often, he played lengthy games with fellow Marvel Laloo, who conceded several rule modifications to Williams – such as allowing the Turtle Boy to shuffle along the felt table itself or sit along the edge of the table.
During his peak, Williams earned $75 a week. This sum was considerably less than many of his sideshow counterparts. This may have been due to his race but regardless he was a content and fulfilled man. He was able to purchase a 160-acre farm near Wheaton, Illinois. In 1920, he was injured in New York when his wheelchair was overturned due to a defect in the sidewalk. He sued the city for $10,000 but lost.
It was the last time George Williams made any appearance in the media. The details of the remainder of his life are unknown.

FRIEDA PUSHNIK – The Little Half Girl

Frieda Pushnik was born without arms or legs on Feb. 10, 1923 in Conemaugh, Pennsylvania. She claimed that her condition was due to a botched appendectomy conducted on her pregnant mother. The validity of this statement is questionable, however considering no lawsuit was filed – the story is most likely a case of sideshow creativity.
Frieda was a testament to human willpower. By all accounts she never considered herself disabled. She accepted her condition as a matter of fact and strived to live as everyone else did. Her mother was the driving force behind this aspiration and it wasn’t long before Frieda was feeding herself, sewing, crocheting and playing as children do. Remarkably, by holding a pen between her shoulder and chin, Frieda was not only able to write legibly – she actually won several awards for penmanship. Because Frieda was limited in movement, her mother would carry her to school daily and her brother or sister would carry her back.
In 1933, Robert L. Ripley, of ‘Ripley’s Believe It or Not!,’ heard of Frieda and visited her and her family. He illustrated her story in one of his nationally syndicated cartoons, calling her ‘The Little Half Girl’, and he eventually asked her to appear at the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1933.
At the age of 9, accompanied by her mother and sister, Frieda began appearing in Ripley’s ‘Odditorium’ with fellow child marvel Betty Lou Williams. Her act was little more than an introduction and a demonstration of her typing and writing skills but audiences were completely floored. She would repeat the five-minute show many times each hour through what was often a 16-hour day. In the six years she was on tour with Ripley, she was seen by millions. To make extra revenue, she would sell her pitch cards – a variety of portait photos. For a few dollars more she woould personally sign her photos.
After a brief retirement, she joined up with Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Her sister and mother again joined her. This time her sister actually performed with the circus as a skilled trapeze acrobat and dancing girl and even her mother worked for the circus office as a secretary. In 1944, the circus suffered a spectacular fire which claimed the lives of 167 people. Frieda was luckily carried to safety by a member of the minstrel show.
Despite that frightening experience, Frieda returned again to the circus and continued to perform until 1955, when ‘politically correct’ laws effectively forbid the display of human marvels and killed her livelihood. She retired to Costa Mesa California – fairly well off financially – where she lived quietly, adorning her home with her own oil paintings.
On Christmas Eve, 2000 the remarkable live of Frieda Pushnik ended. She passed away at the age of 77 – the victim of bladder cancer. She had never married, and despite being out of the public eye for decades, the news of her passing was the subject of many news stories. Even in death, ‘The Little Half Girl’ remains a testiment to human spirit.