Customer Reviews

American Sideshow: An Encyclopedia of History's Most Wondrous and Curiously Strange Performers

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book makes fascinating reading. It's mainly done in an encyclopedia style, with entries for many, many people who chose to exhibit their unusual features or talents. The author obviously feel strongly that they have a right to do so, and shows much caring and respect for them. I really liked how he followed their lives all the way through if he could find the information, so they were presented as people and not just shows.

However, I would have really liked a little more context with the listing---more information about sideshows in general and more perspective on the listings. I did like the sidebars here and there, but it would have been great to read more about life in general for all the performers--what it was like to travel with a sideshow, what the people watching the shows acted like, etc.

I also found the humor inserted in almost every listing a little forced, and not in keeping with the general respectful tone of the book. There were lots of little puns and silly jokes, which didn't add much and were a distraction.

I found the last section of the book, about present day shows and performers, to not really fit with the rest of the book. These performers almost all just do odd and bizarre things, as opposed to having odd and bizarre things thrust upon them. I think it's a very different thing to CHOOSE to be odd and bizarre as opposed to making the best of a life where you already are.

It sounds like I liked this book much less than I did. I really did find it an interesting and caring survey of a group of people political correctness often prefers not to talk about. It's ironic that this same attitude probably keeps many people on public assistance, instead of making them extremely rich as many of these performers became!

Hello. My name is Ses Carny. I am only one of the many modern day sideshow performers that Marc interviewed for this book. When I got my copy I was very happily surprised at the fondness found in the pages. Most books about the sideshow performers are somewhat degrading to the acts. BUT NOT WITH AMERICAN SIDESHOW! Marc really went above and beyond to bring out the truth about the performers, both past and present. We are not monsters, or people to feel sorry for. Marc has certainly brought a level of dignity, that has not been found published before, to the acts of the sideshow. Thank you Marc for writing such a fantastic book! I am looking forward to your next venture greatly!

Ses
[...]

Marc Hartzman has undertaken an ambitious project: a chronicle of those showfolks who performed in America's sideshows from circa 1830 to the present. Starting with the golden era under P.T. Barnum, Hartzman gives the reader brief biographical introductions to these unusual performers. Hartzman's prose offers a good humored look at the place where truth and hype converge in the lives of these human oddities. The text is accompanied by rare photographs from the author's and other collections (including that of yours truly).

I find it gratifying that whereas most books focus on sideshow's illustrious (or dubious) past, Hartzman also takes time to acknowledge the contemporary performers and showmen keeping the tradition alive out there on the sawdust trail.

The short, the tall, the fat, the tattooed, the conjoined, the hirsute, the limbless: they're all here to discover inside Hartzman's tent.

The first things that come to mind when looking at a book on sideshow freaks wouldn't be dignity, but that is what comes off the pages of Marc Hartzman's documentary.
The stories are wonderous and show both the fascination for these people and the oddness of their lives and careers but what you leave with is respect.
Not only is this a fun book, it is a social document that reaches into what it means to be an American, and in broader terms, what it means to be human. Quite lofty stuff, but done grandly.

This book is informative, thorough and makes a lively read.
Hartzman obviously has a lot of passion and affection for his subject. He has detailed the lives of many odd, strange and unique human beings in a refreshingly straight forward manner. He has a light touch and a wry sense of humor that pokes through from time to time. It is apparent that this was a labor of love and the author brings the book right up to date with a review of contemporary performers who are bringing various aspects of the sideshow to modern audiences.
The book opens in the 'golden age' of the sideshow, from the 1830s, through the Barnum years up to the early 1900s. A time when the only way rural working people could be 'amazed and amused' was when the circus or the fair blew in to town. Hartzman documents some of the most famous performers and human exhibits of that period. He continues through the 'silver' age, around the end of WW1 through to the Vietnam era. And finishes with the 'modern' age. The three sections document nicely the rise, decline and subtle rebirth of this unique corner of American theater.
In a world where reality TV rules supreme, it is gratifying to read a book that is dedicated to celebrating those who truly kept it and continue to keep it very real.
Highly reccomended. The pictures alone are worth the price of the book, stop reading and order it.

This is a well informative book on the lives of sideshow people. The accuracy and even comical facts are entertaining! I have enjoyed reading the book and learning more about people with very different lives.

Here's a classic example of a book that starts promisingly, descends to tedium, and eventually runs completely off the rails. One big problem is that the author never seems to get a focus on what the book is supposed to be about. Is it a history of sideshows, or is it an encyclopedia of sideshow exhibits? Turning to sideshow exhibits, is the focus supposed to be on fairly ordinary people who happen to lie on the extremes of the bell distributions of height or weight, or is it supposed to be about so-called "freaks," people who bravely cope with birth defects often too horrific to contemplate? Most problematic of all, is the book about people turned into sideshow exhibits by genetics or accidents of the gestation process, or is it about strange individuals who deliberately turn themselves into "freaks" by surgery, mutilation and processes such as whole-body tattoos?

True, the sideshows featured magicians side by side with beautiful women born without arms, jugglers side by side with beautiful women born without bones, fire-eaters and contortionists and tattooed ladies side by side with beautiful women who were 15 inches tall or joined to a twin at the hip or sporting a beard two feet long. But there's a big difference!

The author seems particularly fascinated with giants and with fat ladies. The seemingly obsessive inclusion of nearly every tall man and overweight woman exhibited in the US from the 1840s to the present doesn't leave a lot of (or any) room for some of the really strange individuals, nor does it leave much space for discussing anyone... a typical entry is about a page and a half.

This is the type of book which winds up remaindered very quickly... and that's how I found it.

In the Old days the "freaks" didn't have the talk show circuit, they had very few options given to them to make money. If you were born deformed you could either shut yourself up in your house, or join the circus. Back then there wasn't any political correctness, if you had giant growths on your face you were "the ugliest woman", if you weighed over 400 pounds you were the "jolliest fattest person alive" It was all about exploiting your abnormalities to the fullest. It is human nature to be curious about those among us that are different, even shocking in appearance. We try not to stare in public, so when these shows came around it was our opportunity to get an eyeful and not feel guilty. Many times these performers were sold as children by their parents, because it was good money and it got rid of the burden the sideshows became permanent homes for the "orphans". These days disorders and diseases like gigantism, Ichthyosis (alligator skin), even conjoined twins have treatments or solutions for recovery. A lot of the thalidomide babies are grown up and have moved onto normal lives, dwarfism has its own community and they want to be seen as more than an oddity.
This book gives us a rare insight to all the people, big or small, who put themselves on display for entertainment purposes. It's laid out in a certain timeline, with each performer getting a mini biography and a picture; it was fascinating to learn about their origins and what happened to them after the sideshow life. I thought it was interesting that men who were cross dressers were billed as hermaphrodites dressing up one half man one half women, and males who had parasitic twins were made to have that "twin" a female no matter what. Many owners hyped up their performers, blatantly lying to the public to give them more of an exotic feel. Two albino black men with dreadlocks were Albanian goat men. Even a famous "Chinese" dwarf, was rumored to be a Jewish guy dressed up.
The book is really informative; I was glued to it for days. The only thing I have to complain about has nothing to do with the book itself, but rather the state of "sideshows" today. Now it's mostly about "Human Marvels" or "self made freaks" and less about physical deformities. The Modern section was FULL of tattooed, sword swallowing, pierced, bug eaters. To me that's just not entertaining, if you go and choose to become a "freak" I really don't care about seeing you. I went and saw the Jim Rose Circus when it came through town in the early 90's, and I wasn't impressed by what I saw.

I purchased this book as my son is interested in the Elephant man and similiar stories. When it arrived I sat and read it myself for a few hours. It is absorbing, full of pictures, and each person is given a short biography of their life and what they accomplished, suffered, and how they eventually died. The author does not view the persons as freaks, but as unfortunate victims of nature. Recommended

There were some good information and some pictures in this book, however, I felt they covered so many performers that there wasn't enough information about those who were covered. Still a good read.