Taking Advantage of someone's vulnerability or physical weakness it is considered vicious at least for our modern civilized society. However in the past - and not in the distant past - The golden age of American and European freak shows -- traveling exhibitions and carnival attractions, often of disabled or disfigured entertainers - spanned about a century, from roughly 1840 to 1940.
These shows were not only creepy, but also heavily exploited vulnerable people.
Despite the negatives of sideshows, most of these performers are just too cool and freaky not to look at. Here are 20 of the most famous and freaky sideshow performers of all time. Some of them will look odd and some others may literally haunt your dreams...
1.) The Human Pincushion.
2.) The pierced man.
3.) Pip and Flip.
4.) Lucia Zarate, the smallest person who ever lived. In this picture, she is 18 years of age, and only weighs 4 pounds.
5.) The Legless Acrobat with his family.
6.) Sideshow boxers.
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7.) A performer with severe hand and feet deformities.
8.) The Four-Legged Woman.
9.) John Jennings, also known as The Modern Samson.
10.) Mike, the headless chicken. He managed to live 18 months without a head.
11.) Koo Koo, The Bird Girl.
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12.) A performer with huge feet, and a performer with no arms.
13.) Unzie the Albino.
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14.) Annie Jones, an American bearded woman.
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15.) Ella Harper, also known as the "Camel Girl."
16.) The Elastic-Skin Man.
17.) A two-headed man.
18.) Alice E. Doherty. Her stage name was, "The Minnesota Woolly Baby."
19.) The living skeleton, AKA Isaac W. Sprague.
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20.) Artoria Gibbon, the tattooed woman. She would look right at home in 2014.
Contemporary disability studies explain the appeal of freak shows as a way of indulging in cultural and social violations, such paying to leer at a morbidly obese person, and reinforcing social norms by showcasing the abnormal [source: Craton]. At the same time, a number of freak show stars wielded their disabilities to earn a healthy income and garner publicity and fame, which some scholars interpret as success stories for the time [source: Thomson].
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