Sideshow Freaks 44 Disturbing Photos From Decades Past

The phenomenon of sideshow “freaks” drew huge crowds in the 19th and 20th centuries, including the likes of Queen Victoria.

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1 of 45George Sherwood Stratton, better known as General Tom Thumb, standing on a chair between two guards. 1860. London Stereoscopic Company/Getty Images 2 of 45Tattooed Lady Betty Broadbent prepares for an appearance at the fair in Flushing, Queens, New York. 1939.Bettmann/Getty Images 3 of 45Portrait of American Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker sitting on two wooden chairs. 1865.Blank Archives/Getty Images 4 of 45English freak and sideshow performer Horace Ridler in 1946. Extensively tattooed, he exhibited himself as “The Great Omi” or “The Zebra Man.” Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images 5 of 45An undentified sideshow performer brings in the crowd to Coney Island’s Dreamland Trained Wild Animal Arena for a show in New York, New York. Early 1910s. PhotoQuest/Getty Images 6 of 45Daisy and Violet Hilton, a pair of British Siamese Twins who toured the US sideshow in the 1930’s, celebrating their 17th birthday. Visual Studies Workshop/Getty Images 7 of 45Jojo the “Lion Man,” a popular sideshow attraction. Circa 1910. Hulton Archive/Getty Images 8 of 45Duke, the jungle tiger trained by George Carresello a famous animal trainer, playing the saxophone. 1925. Bettmann/Getty Images 9 of 45Dwarves and the tall man on stage at a sideshow. Date unspecified. Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images 10 of 45At a Coney Island “freak” show an albino is photographed with the Fat Lady. A Flea Circus poster is in the background. Date unspecified.Bettmann/Getty Images 11 of 45A foot of the elephant on the head of a trainer. Circa 1938. Heinrich Hoffmann/ullstein bild via Getty Images 12 of 45The Two-Headed Nightingale: Millie and Christine McKay were Siamese twins born into slavery in America’s South. They were sold to be displayed as a “freak” show and toured the Northern USA and Europe as a singing duet. Photo by SSPL/Getty Images 13 of 45French contortionist. 1865. adoc-photos/Corbis via Getty Images 14 of 45Colonel Routh Goshen, known as the Arabian Giant, poses in a photo studio for a publicity shot. Circa 1865. Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images 15 of 45Canadian circus performer Anna Haining Swan Bates poses next to her father Alexander Swan (seated) and her mother Ann Haining Swan, a woman of average height. 1870s. Blank Archives/Getty Images 16 of 45German circus performer hung to 656 feet by the hair. 1960.Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images 17 of 45Members of Bertram Mills’ “freak” show are examined by doctors. On the examination table is the “Giraffe Necked Woman.” 1935. Hulton Archive/Getty Images 18 of 45A Burmese family, two of whose members have faces covered in hair, are just one of the attractions advertised by American showman and circus owner P.T. Barnum. 1890.Henry Guttmann Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images 19 of 45Contortionist at a “freak” show. 1925. Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images 20 of 45American silent film actor and sideshow performer Jack Earle shares sweeping duties with two members of the Doll family while on tour with the Ringling Brothers/Barnum and Bailey Circus. Circa 1938. Underwood Archives/Getty Images 21 of 45A traveling circus sideshow attracts customers to see “JoAnn the Doublesex Wonder” during a stop in the small town of Abingdon, Virginia. 1967. Robert Alexander/Archive Photos/Getty Images 22 of 45The well-known circus sideshow performer Josephine-Joseph, whose half male, half female body earned them a role in the film Freaks. 1932.Fox Photos/Getty Images 23 of 45Joseph Merrick, England’s famous Elephant Man. Circa 1880s. PA Images via Getty Images 24 of 45Julius Graubert (Right), the pinhead. Cornell Capa/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images 25 of 45Stephan Bibrowski, better known as Lionel the “Lion-faced Man.” 1914. adoc-photos/Corbis via Getty Images 26 of 45Madame Devere from Brooksville, Kentucky had a beard that was 15 inches long. Chicago, Illinois. 1890.Bettmann/Getty Images 27 of 45A man electrocuting his wife for a fairground sideshow. Boston, Lincolnshire. 1957. Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Getty Images 28 of 45"Bear Man" the bearded dwarf walking on all fours at the Greenbrier Valley Fair. 1938.Alfred Eisenstaedt/Pix Inc./The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images 29 of 45Ruth Berry, born around 1910, was a prominent attraction from 1930-1965. She was born with phocomelia in all four limbs and her fingers were fused, giving her the appearance of having flippers. She was known professionally as “Mignon” which means “cute” in French. Circa 1930s.reddit 30 of 4513-year-old Mildred Buder, a pupil in the De Muth Dancing School, practicing her acrobatics and her piano lesson at the same time. 1938. Bettmann/CORBIS/Bettmann Archive 31 of 45Circus performer Millie Kayes swallowing the head of a 12-foot python in the bar of the Peggy Bradford hotel. 1952.Fox Photos/Getty Images 32 of 45Krao Farini was a hairy, flexibly-jointed woman found in the Laotian jungle in 1885 and put on display by P.T. Barnum as a “Missing Link.” 1889.Julius Gertinger/Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images 33 of 45Dutch midget Johanna Pauline Musters, a.k.a. “Princess Pauline,” “Lady Dot” or the “Midget Mite,” standing on the hand of her manager Verschueren. Circa 1890. She weighed eight and a half pounds and measured 17 inches in height. Sean Sexton/Getty Images 34 of 45"Sealo the Sealman," a retired sideshow performer, enjoying a donut for breakfast. 1960. Keystone/Getty Images 35 of 45Silas Whaley, the man without a stomach, pulling his stomach in so far it seems like he doesn’t have one as he awes onlookers in carnival sideshow at the Greenbrier Valley Fair. 1938.Alfred Eisenstaedt/Pix Inc./The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images 36 of 45A circus strongwoman balances a piano and pianist on her chest. Circa 1920.FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images 37 of 45African American sideshow circus entertainer Sylvia Portis, known as Sylvia the Elephant Girl, smiling and displaying her feet, which are deformed and show signs of the disease elephantiasis. 1944. JHU Sheridan Libraries/Gado/Getty Images 38 of 45Cabinet photograph of a young man with his entire chest and arms tattooed, New York, New York. Circa 1890. Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images 39 of 45Director Tod Browning poses with cast members from his film Freaks. 1932. Acme photograph 40 of 45People standing in line to see a “freak” show in Coney Island. Date unspecified.Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images 41 of 45German clowns. Circa 1899. Georg August Busse/ullstein bild via Getty Images 42 of 45A circus woman performs a sword swallowing trick. Date unspecified.Bettmann/Getty Images 43 of 45Elderly American musician “Professor” W.H. McMillan, a one-man band, sits with his bow and fiddle at the ready next to his drum and cymbal kit in front of a circus tent in Oakwood, Texas. 1910s. Vintage Images/Getty Images 44 of 45Portrait of Zip the “freak” standing on the beach at Coney Island. 1925. Bettmann/Getty Images 45 of 45Like this gallery?Share it:

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44 Vintage Photos Of Sideshow “Freaks” That Will Leave You Unsettled View Gallery

The beginnings of organized “freak” shows and human oddity exhibitions date back to the reign of England’s Elizabeth I in the 16th century, but these sideshows truly took off in the Victorian era. As a burgeoning public interest in medicine and science brought audiences out to see the weird — and sometimes grotesque — displays of our varied anatomies and biological curiosities, the phenomenon of sideshow “freaks” would sweep the United States and England.

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And if you liked this post, be sure to check out these popular posts:

The Sad Story Of Schlitzie, The Sideshow “Pinhead” Made Famous By The Movie ‘Freaks’

Lionel The Lion-Faced Man Was Billed As A Fearsome Sideshow ‘Freak,’ But Stephan Bibrowski Was Anything But

The Tragic Life Of Fanny Mills, The Legendary ‘Ohio Big Foot Girl’ Of Sideshow Fame

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Like this gallery?Share it:

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And if you liked this post, be sure to check out these popular posts:

The Sad Story Of Schlitzie, The Sideshow “Pinhead” Made Famous By The Movie ‘Freaks’

Lionel The Lion-Faced Man Was Billed As A Fearsome Sideshow ‘Freak,’ But Stephan Bibrowski Was Anything But

The Tragic Life Of Fanny Mills, The Legendary ‘Ohio Big Foot Girl’ Of Sideshow Fame

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And if you liked this post, be sure to check out these popular posts:

The Sad Story Of Schlitzie, The Sideshow “Pinhead” Made Famous By The Movie ‘Freaks’

Lionel The Lion-Faced Man Was Billed As A Fearsome Sideshow ‘Freak,’ But Stephan Bibrowski Was Anything But

The Tragic Life Of Fanny Mills, The Legendary ‘Ohio Big Foot Girl’ Of Sideshow Fame

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1 of 45George Sherwood Stratton, better known as General Tom Thumb, standing on a chair between two guards. 1860. London Stereoscopic Company/Getty Images

2 of 45Tattooed Lady Betty Broadbent prepares for an appearance at the fair in Flushing, Queens, New York. 1939.Bettmann/Getty Images

3 of 45Portrait of American Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker sitting on two wooden chairs. 1865.Blank Archives/Getty Images

4 of 45English freak and sideshow performer Horace Ridler in 1946. Extensively tattooed, he exhibited himself as “The Great Omi” or “The Zebra Man.” Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images

5 of 45An undentified sideshow performer brings in the crowd to Coney Island’s Dreamland Trained Wild Animal Arena for a show in New York, New York. Early 1910s. PhotoQuest/Getty Images

6 of 45Daisy and Violet Hilton, a pair of British Siamese Twins who toured the US sideshow in the 1930’s, celebrating their 17th birthday. Visual Studies Workshop/Getty Images

7 of 45Jojo the “Lion Man,” a popular sideshow attraction. Circa 1910. Hulton Archive/Getty Images

8 of 45Duke, the jungle tiger trained by George Carresello a famous animal trainer, playing the saxophone. 1925. Bettmann/Getty Images

9 of 45Dwarves and the tall man on stage at a sideshow. Date unspecified. Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images

10 of 45At a Coney Island “freak” show an albino is photographed with the Fat Lady. A Flea Circus poster is in the background. Date unspecified.Bettmann/Getty Images

11 of 45A foot of the elephant on the head of a trainer. Circa 1938. Heinrich Hoffmann/ullstein bild via Getty Images

12 of 45The Two-Headed Nightingale: Millie and Christine McKay were Siamese twins born into slavery in America’s South. They were sold to be displayed as a “freak” show and toured the Northern USA and Europe as a singing duet. Photo by SSPL/Getty Images

13 of 45French contortionist. 1865. adoc-photos/Corbis via Getty Images

14 of 45Colonel Routh Goshen, known as the Arabian Giant, poses in a photo studio for a publicity shot. Circa 1865. Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images

15 of 45Canadian circus performer Anna Haining Swan Bates poses next to her father Alexander Swan (seated) and her mother Ann Haining Swan, a woman of average height. 1870s. Blank Archives/Getty Images

16 of 45German circus performer hung to 656 feet by the hair. 1960.Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images

17 of 45Members of Bertram Mills’ “freak” show are examined by doctors. On the examination table is the “Giraffe Necked Woman.” 1935. Hulton Archive/Getty Images

18 of 45A Burmese family, two of whose members have faces covered in hair, are just one of the attractions advertised by American showman and circus owner P.T. Barnum. 1890.Henry Guttmann Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

19 of 45Contortionist at a “freak” show. 1925. Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images

20 of 45American silent film actor and sideshow performer Jack Earle shares sweeping duties with two members of the Doll family while on tour with the Ringling Brothers/Barnum and Bailey Circus. Circa 1938. Underwood Archives/Getty Images

21 of 45A traveling circus sideshow attracts customers to see “JoAnn the Doublesex Wonder” during a stop in the small town of Abingdon, Virginia. 1967. Robert Alexander/Archive Photos/Getty Images

22 of 45The well-known circus sideshow performer Josephine-Joseph, whose half male, half female body earned them a role in the film Freaks. 1932.Fox Photos/Getty Images

23 of 45Joseph Merrick, England’s famous Elephant Man. Circa 1880s. PA Images via Getty Images

24 of 45Julius Graubert (Right), the pinhead. Cornell Capa/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

25 of 45Stephan Bibrowski, better known as Lionel the “Lion-faced Man.” 1914. adoc-photos/Corbis via Getty Images

26 of 45Madame Devere from Brooksville, Kentucky had a beard that was 15 inches long. Chicago, Illinois. 1890.Bettmann/Getty Images

27 of 45A man electrocuting his wife for a fairground sideshow. Boston, Lincolnshire. 1957. Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Getty Images

28 of 45"Bear Man" the bearded dwarf walking on all fours at the Greenbrier Valley Fair. 1938.Alfred Eisenstaedt/Pix Inc./The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

29 of 45Ruth Berry, born around 1910, was a prominent attraction from 1930-1965. She was born with phocomelia in all four limbs and her fingers were fused, giving her the appearance of having flippers. She was known professionally as “Mignon” which means “cute” in French. Circa 1930s.reddit

30 of 4513-year-old Mildred Buder, a pupil in the De Muth Dancing School, practicing her acrobatics and her piano lesson at the same time. 1938. Bettmann/CORBIS/Bettmann Archive

31 of 45Circus performer Millie Kayes swallowing the head of a 12-foot python in the bar of the Peggy Bradford hotel. 1952.Fox Photos/Getty Images

32 of 45Krao Farini was a hairy, flexibly-jointed woman found in the Laotian jungle in 1885 and put on display by P.T. Barnum as a “Missing Link.” 1889.Julius Gertinger/Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images

33 of 45Dutch midget Johanna Pauline Musters, a.k.a. “Princess Pauline,” “Lady Dot” or the “Midget Mite,” standing on the hand of her manager Verschueren. Circa 1890. She weighed eight and a half pounds and measured 17 inches in height. Sean Sexton/Getty Images

34 of 45"Sealo the Sealman," a retired sideshow performer, enjoying a donut for breakfast. 1960. Keystone/Getty Images

35 of 45Silas Whaley, the man without a stomach, pulling his stomach in so far it seems like he doesn’t have one as he awes onlookers in carnival sideshow at the Greenbrier Valley Fair. 1938.Alfred Eisenstaedt/Pix Inc./The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

36 of 45A circus strongwoman balances a piano and pianist on her chest. Circa 1920.FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

37 of 45African American sideshow circus entertainer Sylvia Portis, known as Sylvia the Elephant Girl, smiling and displaying her feet, which are deformed and show signs of the disease elephantiasis. 1944. JHU Sheridan Libraries/Gado/Getty Images

38 of 45Cabinet photograph of a young man with his entire chest and arms tattooed, New York, New York. Circa 1890. Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images

39 of 45Director Tod Browning poses with cast members from his film Freaks. 1932. Acme photograph

40 of 45People standing in line to see a “freak” show in Coney Island. Date unspecified.Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images

41 of 45German clowns. Circa 1899. Georg August Busse/ullstein bild via Getty Images

42 of 45A circus woman performs a sword swallowing trick. Date unspecified.Bettmann/Getty Images

43 of 45Elderly American musician “Professor” W.H. McMillan, a one-man band, sits with his bow and fiddle at the ready next to his drum and cymbal kit in front of a circus tent in Oakwood, Texas. 1910s. Vintage Images/Getty Images

44 of 45Portrait of Zip the “freak” standing on the beach at Coney Island. 1925. Bettmann/Getty Images

45 of 45Like this gallery?Share it:

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44 Vintage Photos Of Sideshow “Freaks” That Will Leave You Unsettled View Gallery

44 Vintage Photos Of Sideshow “Freaks” That Will Leave You Unsettled

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But as science matured and the unknown better known, “freak” shows would disappear into a dark fold of history.

P.T. Barnum’s Sideshow “Freaks”

In the United States, famed circus proprietor P.T. Barnum added so-called “freaks” or biological anomalies to his traveling show in 1835.

Anyone with a marketable disability, deformity, or otherwise oddity was added to his menagerie. Fairgrounds provided the most popular venues for sideshows and animals of extreme size or a human-like talent became the main draws.

Julius Gertinger/Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty ImagesKrao Farini was a hairy and flexible woman found in the Laotian jungle in 1885 and then put on display by P.T. Barnum as a “missing link.” 1889.

Barnum opened a human curiosities exhibit in 1841 at the American Museum in Manhattan. After a fire destroyed it, he founded P.T. Barnum’s Grand Traveling Circus and in 1881, James Bailey and James Hutchinson assumed partial ownership.

By 1887, the show was called Barnum & Bailey’s Greatest Show On Earth. They gave fame to people like Chang and Eng Bunker, the original Siamese twins, General Tom Thumb, a distant relative of Barnum’s who stood at just three feet when fully grown, Annie Jones the Bearded Lady, William Henry Johnson or Zip the Pinhead, and many others.

The Showmen And Their “Freaks”

Experienced showmen like Barnum knew that to draw in crowds the story behind the attraction was more important than the attraction or sideshow “freak” itself.

“You could indeed exhibit anything in those days. Yes anything from a needle to an anchor, a flea to an elephant, a bloater you could exhibit as a whale. It was not the show; it was the tale that you told,” wrote English showman Tom Norman.

Some famous sideshow performers like dwarf General Tom Thumb distanced themselves eventually from their performances. For others, like Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man, their deformities made life pretty unenjoyable even if they did get a fair share of the profits they helped to bring in for Barnum.

Bettmann/Getty ImagesConey Island “freak” show albino photographed with fat lady and a Flea Circus poster in the background. Date unspecified.

Managers, Barnum included, likely exploited their performers, though some showmen like Tom Norman wholeheartedly denied this.

Indeed, members of traveling sideshows often said they regarded their fellow performers and employers as a family. Accounts vary, but most seemed to make a fair salary probably more than they’d make working in the regular world. As early as 1851, trading cards of popular “freaks” circulated throughout England and the United States, with all profits going right to performers themselves.

The End Of The Sideshow “Freak”

By the 1940s, however, the display of sideshow “freaks” became a thing of the past. A variety of factors including perceived exploitation — even though Barnum did tend to have a reputation for paying his performers well — as well as the advent and popularity of television played a role in the sideshow’s virtual disappearance by the following decade.

The performers of yesteryear do still attract attention both for their courageous spirits or heartbreaking stories.

After this look at vintage sideshow “freaks,” check out this gallery of the most famous vintage sideshow performers in history. Then, learn all about the history of some super weird Olympic sports.

The phenomenon of sideshow “freaks” drew huge crowds in the 19th and 20th centuries, including the likes of Queen Victoria.#

P.T. Barnum’s Sideshow “Freaks”#

The Showmen And Their “Freaks”#

The End Of The Sideshow “Freak”#

The phenomenon of sideshow “freaks” drew huge crowds in the 19th and 20th centuries, including the likes of Queen Victoria.

P.T. Barnum’s Sideshow “Freaks”

The Showmen And Their “Freaks”

The End Of The Sideshow “Freak”