Real people from the circus freak show. Real people from the circus freak show Peep and Flip from the Yucatan

What if I was born with microcephalus? To be buried alive in a boarding school or go to show yourself for money. The second variant of fate for a person with a very small head in the days before World War II was quite good and real, like the crossing of a person with a gorilla. Known for their roles in the vintage horror film Freaks of 1932, the Snow sisters from Georgia, unknowingly, have made a good career in their unusual appearance - in the circus World Circus Sideshow.

The owners of the freak show gave Jenny Lee and Elvira Snow the pseudonyms Pip and Flip (in the Tod Browning film, Pip and Zip), and represented them, American citizens, as "Indians from Yucatan." At that time, the opinion was supported among the inhabitants that with such a head shape as that of Pip and Flip, the mysterious Mexican aborigines - the Aztecs and / or Mayans - were born.

Elvira was born in Hartwell in March 1901, Jenny Lee is twelve years younger than her sister. Parents actually rented out unusual offspring to various circuses in order to support a large family with the dollars they received.

Pip and Flip were born with microcephaly, a developmental disorder in which the vault of the skull stops growing, and with it the brain. The face continues to develop normally. If such a child survives, then over the years the deformity becomes more and more pronounced, despite the fact that microcephaly remain people of small, but not dwarf growth, with insufficient body weight for life.

In Coney Island and on tour, the Snow sisters have worked since 1929 as "pinheads" - "pinheads", with which their heads were shaved under a forelock with a bow specially. The most famous "sexless" American freak of this role is the incomparable one that we wrote about several years ago.

Pip and Flip had no more intelligence than a kindergarten child, they were playful and harmless, like normal human babies. At the height of their circus careers, the Snow sisters earned $ 75 a week each, a good salary by pre-war standards. Not many were so lucky to find employment during the Great Depression. Moreover, the "pinheads" did not have much work to do - their mere sight and grimaces delighted the visitors of the freak show. In the winter, the sisters were taken home to Georgia with the money for the holidays, where they did not deny themselves anything.

Unfortunately, the younger sister - Jenny Lee - passed away at the zenith of fame and a young age, on August 27, 1934. More was written to Elvira. She lived until November 1976 and died at the age of 75.

Pip and Flip: a duo of sisters with tiny heads

The fate of people born with certain physical disabilities in the twentieth century was deplorable: as a rule, they became objects of ridicule, performing in circuses for the amusement of the public. The audience was horrified and laughed, surprised and did not believe their eyes. Snow sisters duo from Georgia He became famous for his extraordinary behavior: adult girls with tiny heads and a level of development, like that of young children, bribed with their naivety and simplicity. To explain their strange behavior, the organizers went for some tricks ...

Circus poster: the Yucatan twins

"Pip and Flip" - that was the name of the creative duet. Despite the fact that sisters Jenny Lee and Elvira were born in Georgia, the organizers of their performances assured the audience that these girls were Indians from Yucatan. The Americans willingly believed that this was how the representatives of the Aztec or Mayan tribes should look, so they looked with interest at the tiny heads of Jenny and Elvira.

Photo of the Snow sisters

The real reason for their strange appearance was, of course, different. Both girls had a congenital disease - microcephaly. In this case, the cranium does not develop during growth and maturation, and at the same time the brain remains the same as in a small child. Over the years, the appearance of such people becomes more and more impartial. The girls' parents were pragmatic and cruel people. The babies were born 12 years apart, both of them were sent to the circus so that the rest of the family could live comfortably on the fees.

A still from the movie * Freaks *, prohibited from screening

The Snow sisters' career began with the movie "Freaks", in which the acting roles were played by people with all kinds of physical and intellectual disabilities. Later, they were invited to work at the World Circus Sideshow.
The fate of the sisters developed in different ways: the youngest died young at the age of 21, and the eldest lived a long life and even celebrated her 75th birthday.

These are real people whose physical oddities attract visitors to stop and stare. These people are exploited as freaks of nature, but many of their stories are much more interesting than their physical appearance.

(13 photos)

Joseph Merrick - The Elephant Man

Joseph Merrick was born in 1862 with multiple genetic defects that spread from head to toe, including a number of tumors and growths all over his body. Changes in his appearance began to show when he was five years old, and his parents claimed that it was the fault of his mother when she was pregnant. It was difficult for him to find a job, so he agreed to be shown in a circus at freak show in order to make a living. He died in 1890 in his sleep. Joseph had a habit of sleeping sitting up, because if he slept lying down, he could suffocate.

Eli Bowen - "Legless Miracle"

Bowen was not just a man with no legs, he mesmerized the audience by doing somersaults, somersaults and other tricks. His diagnosis was phocomelia (congenital absence of limbs). He died in a circus at the age of 79.

Lucia Zarate - "Woman Doll"

Zarate still holds the record as the smallest person ever to live on this planet. She was born in 1864 with type 2 congenital dwarfism (Mayevsky syndrome). As an adult, she weighed only 4 kilograms. She died of hypothermia at the age of 26 after the train in which she was traveling was stopped due to a snow storm.

Minnie Woolsey - "ko, ko bird girl"

Minnie Woolsey was born in 1880. When she died is unknown, but accounts indicated that she was still alive in 1960. Woolsey suffered from the rare skeletal Virchow-Seckel syndrome, which manifested itself in the fact that she was very short, small head, narrow bird face with an aquiline nose, large eyes, sloping chin and large ears, delayed reaction. Wolsey was completely blind.

Elvira and Jenny Lee Snow - "Pip and Flip"

Fred Wilson - Shrimp

Fred Wilson was born in Massachusetts in 1866 with a congenital ectrodactyly disease. The condition was like his arms and legs, and it is said that he had slight dental deformities as well. While Grady Styles Jr. is better known as "Lobster Boy," Wilson said was the first professional sideshow performer.

Annie Jones - "The Bearded Lady"

Annie Jones was born on July 14, 1865, when she was 5 years old, she already had a mustache and sideburns. Incredibly, she was kidnapped and used for private screenings, and she eventually escaped home to her parents. As an adult, she toured with showman Phineas Barnum as a sideshow attraction. She married twice and hated the word "freaks." She died at the young age of 37 from tuberculosis.

Josephine Corbin - "The Four-Legged Woman"

Josephine Myrtle Corbin was born on May 12, 1868 with a pathology dipyguswhich means she had two pelvis and four legs. she could move her inner legs, but they were too weak to walk on them. Throughout her life, she worked as an actress in traveling circuses, in addition, she attracted the serious attention of doctors of her time. She died of streptococcal skin infection.

Alice E. Doherty - American Werewolf

Alice Elizabeth Doherty was born on March 14, 1887 in Minnesota, USA into an ordinary family with healthy, beautiful children.

At birth, Alice's face was covered with silky blonde hair two inches long. Parents were shocked by the news - the girl has congenital hypertrichosis. The condition is extremely rare and unusual. "Kind" people nicknamed Alice - the American werewolf.

Isaac Sprague - Skeleton Boy

Sprague did not show any signs of physical abnormalities until he was 12 years old. The Massachusetts native had a normal childhood and then, almost suddenly, his weight began to decrease. Some described him as severe muscular atrophy and "due" to his condition, he was unable to find a normal job. began traveling with Phineas Barnum.
167.6 cm tall and at the age of 44, his weight was 19.5 kg. At 46, he died of suffocation.

Schlitzi

His real name or place of birth is still a mystery, but it is known that he was born in 1901. He, like "Pip and Flip," was also featured in the movie "Freaks." Born with microcephaly with mental capacity of a 3 year old child. In accordance with the traditional practice of those times, it can be assumed that Schlitzi was bought or simply taken from his biological parents, about whom there was no information left, by street circus performers. His guardians were, as a rule, his employers, sometimes legally and sometimes only de facto. Responsibility for him passed from one person to another as the circus rides where he performed were sold. Schlitzie died on September 24, 1971 at the age of about 70 from pneumonia.

Millie and Christine McCoy - "The Two-Headed Nightingale"

These girls (1851-1912) were born into slavery. They and their mother were sold to showman Joseph Smith. Smith and his wife took up raising girls. Ultimately, the Siamese twins learned to speak five languages, as well as sing, dance and play musical instruments.
People knew them as the "two-headed nightingale." In the 1880s, the "girls" retired and bought themselves a small farm. Millie died of tuberculosis at 61, and Christina died a few hours later.
They are one of the first Siamese twins to live for so long.

Chang and Eng - "Siamese Twins"

Cases of the birth of twins, fused with any parts of the bodies, have been known since ancient times. It is established that in England in about 1100 the fused sisters of Hulkurst were born - Helisa and Mary, who lived for 34 years.

An interesting detail: after the death of the sisters, a nearby Catholic monastery inherited 20 acres of land that belonged to them, but on the condition that every year at Easter, buns in the form of their general appearance will be baked in the monastery for distribution to parishioners.

They say this tradition has been preserved to this day. And on May 11, 1811, in Siam (now Thailand), in the village of Meklong, not far from the capital of the country, Bangkok, two boys, Rong and Ying, were born into a simple peasant family, united in the sternum with a "live sleeve".