Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women: Unique, Eccentric and Amazing Entertainers (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Sitting in front of a blackboard, Harry Kahne wrote five different words simultaneously with pieces of chalk held in each hand, each foot, and his..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Miss Biffin, Miss Fay (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A magician himself, the author offers a history of magicians and other performers, including animals trained to do arithmetic and limbless people able to play musical instruments. PW stated the dozens of illustrations alone "are worth the price of the book."
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

YA A historical compendium of the world's most bizarre and outrageous entertainers by one of the world's great sleight-of-hand artists. Reaching back into history as early as the 16th Century, Jay introduces readers to daredevils, mind readers, talented animals and their trainers, sword swallowers, and other wonders of the past. Some have been geniuses, others charlatans, but all have captured the imagination of their public. Although Jay handles the material unevenly, readers should leave the book with awe of the inventive genius of man, and of the incredible stamina of the human body. This is a delightful book for YAs who have a penchant for the extraordinary. It is full of colorful illustrations, posters, and billboards of yesteryear. Anne Johnson, formerly at St. John's School, Houston
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 343 pages
• Publisher: Noonday Press; 1st Farrar, Straus and Giroux pbk. ed edition (October 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374525706
• ISBN-13: 978-0374525705
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 7.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #555,880 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a catalogue of the amazing, December 2, 1999

By	Al Kihano (Iskandria) - See all my reviews

You've come to the right place. Buy _Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women_ if you want amazing stories, incredible histories, unbelievable accounts of some of the best acts of the last few centuries.

If I didn't know Ricky Jay's fine reputation as a magic historian, I'd think this book was a joke. The people and acts described are too outlandish, too impressive to be true. But I trust Jay to strike awe into me, and he does so repeatedly and without fail in this book.

The book's illustrations and photographs are marvelous supplements to Jay's smoothly written histories of performers--memory artists, dwarf magicians without arms or legs, women who walk into ovens. This is the quintessential introduction to this bizarre world.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ricky Jay is having a lot of freaky fun, February 7, 2003

By	bensmomma "bensmomma" (Ann Arbor, Michigan) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

In Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women, Ricky Jay takes on the history of oddball performers: men who claimed to cram their entire bodies into quart jars, armless ladies who could paint miniatures holding a brush between their teeth, gentlemen whose specialty was to enter large ovens accompanied by raw meat and exit (unharmed) with fully-cooked steaks, as well as mind readers of all sorts and species (human, pig, and horse).

Organized into chapters by skill by oddball skill, Jay is sometimes able to document such performers back into the 1700s by tracking newspaper reports, handbills, etc., many of which are reproduced in color plates and black-and-white photographs.

Ricky Jay occupies an engaging hole in intellectual space between enthusiast and academic. He is comprehensive in the extreme, but his writing style is anecdotal and he does not go for any elaborate sociological explanation of why such performers exist or what they `mean' to society. He just wants you to have fun, and perhaps to freak you out just a wee bit.

The book is also very nicely designed; its large wide pages lie flat and there are loads of remarkable illustrations. Definitely worth a look!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars True Stories of Amazing Phenomenons of the Human Race!!, January 12, 2002

By	S. Henkels (Devon, Pa United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Loaded with photos and Mr. Jay's learned commentary, this book must be the best of it's kind, a celebration of what individuals can do, even under the toughest of circumstances. Yes, some of these may seem like "Freak Shows" in circus/carnivals of old,but still these performances are awe-inspiring even today,sometimes hundreds of years later. The most incredible is the severely handicapped Matthew Buchinger, master engraver/artist, who had neither hands nor feet, perhaps neglected among art historians, but revived thanks to Mr. Jay. There are many others here as well, perhaps equally interesting and unusual, but you can be sure that Mr. Buchinger's story is worth the price of admission here!!