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Secrets of the Sideshows

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For centuries, millions of people have enjoyed looking at commercial exhibits of the odd and curious. Joe Nickell is one of those people. Growing up in Kentucky, he never missed the carnivals and circuses that had human and animal oddities on display as sideshows. Nickell is well known for investigating frauds and hoaxes for the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, but it doesn't matter to him that many sideshow acts were bogus or at least grossly exaggerated on the banners outside the shows. He obviously loves the now-disappearing shows, and in _Secrets of the Sideshows_ (University Press of Kentucky), that affection is made plain. To be sure, he gives plenty of secrets away here, most of them open secrets, but the book works best as a tribute to the imagination of the performers and organizers of the exhibits which were meant to provoke and satisfy that admirable old human characteristic, curiosity. The book provokes and satisfies in the same way.

Nickell notes that "sideshow" means an adjunct to the main show. The "midway" where these shows were located was midway between the entrance and the main attraction. He briefly recounts early history, and then goes into their heyday starting in the early 1900s. Sideshows featured magic performances, often with one big trick like sawing the woman in half or the escape from a chained box. The way these sorts of tricks are done is explained here, but the explanations would not ruin the fun of a good performance. Fire-eating and sword-swallowing are explained, as is how to eat glass or walk barefoot on it, or how to walk barefoot up a ladder of swords. The explanations are enough to show how the tricks are done, but few readers are going to be tempted to try them. There were performers who didn't perform, but just showed themselves. Dwarves, giants, fatties are all here, all respectively taller, shorter, or lighter than their publicity banners proclaimed. Giants of such acts, for instance, sometimes had a contract that specified that they would not be measured. A bearded lady ("The Monkey Girl") and a man with the skin disease ichthyosis ("The Alligator Man") eloped in 1938, and were a sideshow feature as "The World's Strangest Married Couple"; they were happy together for over sixty years. Not all the displays were real, but as one carny said, "Oh, it's _all_ real. Some of it's really real, some of it's really fake, but it's all really good.") Hilariously, these exhibits which used to go under names like "Mother Nature's Mistakes" are sometimes now displayed in a "Horrors of Drug Abuse!" scare show.

Nickell closes with analysis of why the sideshows are fading into the past; it isn't because of any attempt to become politically correct, or any triumph of good taste; it comes down to simple economics, as fairs can make more money with, for instance, rides that take up the same space a midway does. Because it tells secrets of the sideshows, Nickell's book is a miscellany that is full of good humor and bizarre stories, like that of the bank robber who was killed by a sheriff's posse in 1916, and his mummified body passed from carnival to carnival. Somehow it became part of the "Laff-in-the-Dark" funhouse in Long Beach about forty years later, but everyone thought it was just a spray-painted mannequin until it broke and showed bones inside. He finally got laid to rest after a long postmortem career. There is a description of how to enlist fleas into a flea circus, and how to harness them to their particular tricks. There is an even more interesting description of the comic flea circus ("The Most Minuscule Show on Earth!") that has no fleas, only the colorful banter of the proprietor over the tiny apparatus ("She's blindfolded herself!... She's walking backward!"). If you want the lowdown on sideshows, step right up, ladies and gentlemen, Joe Nickell presents the best show on the midway.

Joe Nickell's latest book, Secrets of the Sideshow is a thoroughly researched tome that is worth the cover price for the pictures alone.

The cover effectively uses a 'banner art' style with 'Frog Boy' charmingly gracing the spine. The title is a little misleading, it is not a revelatory guide or 'masked magician' type of book at all. More of a scholarly attempt to document a lost part of American theatre. Mr. Nickell's previous works were largely concerned with his role as editor of the Skeptical Enquirer. So deal with the Shroud of Turin, Bigfoot etc. Not having read any of those I cannot comment, but suffice to say that this history of bringing a scientific mind to apparent miracles may have impacted the choice of title. What is apparent is that he has a real love of this subject. He has worked the midway at various fairs as a magician and obviously the carnival world got into his blood. Relying heavily on interviews with carnival legends Ward Hall, Chris Christ and Bobby Reynolds the author details the history of this unique piece of Americana. Bobby Reynold's contributions are fairly ascerbic with a certain bitterness when compared to Ward Hall's more agreeable approach. No attempt appears to have been made to edit any of these contributions. There are copious references to other works, Ricky Jay, Daniel Mannix and Al Stencell are quoted liberally and these authors works would make excellent companion reads.

As one goes through the book the reader does learn how effects are achieved, the use of gaffs, fakery and general deception are discussed. However, this remains a secondary facet of this work. It is much more of a historical encyclopedia and includes a thorough list of references and detailed index. Overshadowing the mechanical 'How To' aspects of the book are the wonderful characters that one meets within its pages. Poobah the fire eating dwarf, Percilla the monkey girl, Doug Higley phantom of the midway and purveyor of Area 51 artifacts. [Of course they are real]. And numerous other fascinating people who often show more grace and dignity than the so called 'normal' specimens of the human family.

The writing style is a mixture of academic investigation and whimsical fan. Despite his natural instincts for scientific rigor the author's joy in the subject and obvious sadness at the demise of the sideshow shine through.

It ends on a positive and up to date note with a piece on the sideshow school at Coney Island, one of the last bastions of the traditional arts.

I reccomend this book to anyone whoever thought about running away to the circus and I enjoyed reading it tremendously.

PS. One small piece of pedantry. On page 214, Joe Nickell decribes the turn of the century magician Chung Ling Soo as an 'Englishman pretending to be a Chinaman'. In his excellent biography of Chung Ling Soo, The Glorious Deception, Jim Steinmeyer details Soo's life as an American who often pretended to be an Englishman, or more commonly a Scotsman pretending to be a Chinaman. Which goes to show that even a skeptical investigator can be confounded by a fellow conjurer, from beyond the grave to boot! My sense is that Mr. Nickell would be delighted.

Although Joe Nickell pulls a couple of his punches, probably in the interests of decorum, his "Secrets of the Sideshows" is virtually an encyclopedia of that nearly extinct form of entertainment. Or is it nearly extinct?

Of the late evolution of the classic sideshow, only Sideshows by the Seashore, operating summers at Coney Island, survives, and this only by turning itself into a non-profit and taking students. The old-fashioned traveling exhibition is, indeed, gone.

Nickell has worked as a sideshow talker (not barker, he insists) and magician, and interviewed the last of the old-time managers, Chris Christ, Ward Hall and Bobby Reynolds, before they closed their tents for good around 2002-2004, so he has the background. He notes, amusingly, that Christ, when he started at age 19, was the youngest exhibitor in the business, and 35 years later "he was still the youngest."

The first 80 pages, which trace the history of the public displays that evolved into the sideshow (culminating in 1893 at the Chicago Worlds Fair, with its Midway Plaisance, which gave the name to the American outdoor entertainment zone, and, by the way, to its somewhat disreputable appendix, the "sideshow") is rather slow going.

Nickell rightly places London's Bartholomew Fair at the crux of the evolution of a kind of entertainment that goes back as far as history tells, but he fails to exploit the rich literature of that fair (which ended in 1855) as represented by, for example, Ned Ward's "London Spy." Nor does he do much better with the equally rich trove of stories swirling around P.T. Barnum in the 19th century.

Nevertheless, the basic information is here, with plenty of references.

"Secrets of the Sideshows" begins to roll in Chapter 4, "Human Oddities: Large and Small," and continues with his survey of most (but not quite all) of the varieties of cheap fun that hucksters and mountebanks have brought to the metropolises and hamlets over the centuries. Nickell knows and likes carnies, and it shows.

The book is fully illustrated, although unfortunately many of the pictures are just snapshots that Nickell took while working at or visiting fairs.

It is useful to think of Nickell's book as a survey. More detail about the acts, especially the monsters, is available in the many books by Jan Bondeson; and Bondeson - although his focus is on Europe - does a better job than Nickell of explaining how sideshows (and similar exhibits of freaks) worked to fit aberrations into society.

The shameless, sometime brutal, expositions were, says Bondeson, still better treatment than misshapen people would likely have gotten had they tried to live in the greater society. Grim as the sideshow could be, it was a sheltered workshop compared to the outside world.

Sideshows are not very grim in Nickell's depiction, though. The battles between carnies and townies (signaled by the cry, "Hey, Rube!") are barely whispered about. Just as soft a mention is made of the practice of selling sex in the sideshows (when the sheriff could be bribed).

In Nickell's version, the exhibits all have a certain quality. Even the gaffed (fake) exhibits usually showed a degree of pride in the fakery. His carnies show only "real fakes."

Out on the sawdust trail, that was not so apparent. I recall an exhibit of "outer space aliens" at the North Carolina State Fair about 1964 that comprised two obese, hairless, suppurating dachsunds in a box.

Nickell concludes by saying that although the kind of sideshow that decorated the big top shows and state and county fairs is dead, "intrepid performers are seeking new audiences at Renaissance fairs, trade shows, the university circuit, nightclubs and other venues . . . perhaps it is not yet time to fold the last tent."

Joe Nickell's latest is quite different to other books published by him during the last few years. It's not really an investigative book and it doesn't discuss anything paranormal or unexplainable, and also, the entire books feels more like a pursuit of a personal hobby than the critical examination usually delivered by Nickell's sharp pen. However, in no way does this mean it's not worth reading, just because it happens to be more personal and relaxed than his other works. Quite the opposite, actually. Secrets of the Sideshows is an exciting experience of the mostly American phenomenon of carnys, sideshows, freaks, and carnivals.

It's not easy to find fitting translations to the above terms, and no American-style sideshows have ever made it big in Sweden. But it's still very possible to enjoy the book, even though one happens to be Swedish.

History is filled with numerous examples of strange people having displayed strange abilities, exotic animals from far-away countries have always fascinated the audience, and the grotesque, different, and sometimes flat out revolting have always been sure to make people curious. During the latter half of the 19th century traveling sideshows and carnivals started gaining more and more popularity, and the circuses of today can be considered to be the descendants of these productions. Nickell - who himself used to be a carny - paints a fascinating portrait of these pioneers of an odd business concept, and he makes it very clear to the reader that people throughout all of history, including contemporary man of course, have been exploited by shrewd entrepreneurs who have been quick to realize how to make big money from letting people witness what they have a problem comprehending.

However, the main focus of the book is on the people, animals, or objects that were exhibited. Giants, midgets, fat people, snake women, Guerilla Girl, "human skeletons", Frog Boy, fire eaters, bearded ladies, normal-looking people with not-so normal abilities, and many, many more are discussed, often accompanied by photographs from Nickell's personal collection. Cows with five legs, infants with two heads, alleged mermaids, Bigfoot and other weird are mentioned also. Nickell isn't afraid to expose how many of the magical acts were done, and he's also not afraid to expose how many of the faked oddities were manufactured (for instance, it was possible to make a "mermaid" using the upper body of an ape and the lower half of a fish). But still Nickell is keen not to neither romanticize nor ridicule anything. It's a fascinating study - or rather exploration - of both human behavior and strange individuals, and these days when the days of glory for the sideshows are all but gone the book becomes an important documentation of the strangest of all creatures: the human being.

(But on page 201, Nickell makes a major blunder when he refers to Anton LaVey, the founder of the first openly satanic movement, Church of Satan, as a "Satanist" in quotation marks. I've never encountered this spelling before, and I honestly would never have thought a learned man such as Joe Nickell would make such a strange mistake.)

The carnival or circus side show is like a magic show in some respects. It leaves one scratching his/her head as to how something came to be, or shaking there head, as if they were a rube. Joe Nickell exposes many of the ingenious acts in this unique book, but also tells a story of an industry,that, like the Wild West is of the past.

The book, in many ways, is both compelling and touching. When Nickell describes the Freak Shows, people with deformities who were huge attractions in the the 19th and early 20th century travelling circuses, he discusses how these people bonded together, and found friendship, companionship, understanding and even love among themselves. For people so different, they found tremendous normalcy qith each other, and formed incredibly close relationships.

They were also trated well by the circus owners, like Barnum, and made more money than they could ever otherwise hoped.

There were the usual "trick" acts, like the strong man, the seer and mystic acts and magician acts. Nickell takes us behind the scenes and explains many of the ingenious deceptions.

Nickell does best in explaining the culture of the circus and travelling shows of long ago. The psyche of the hucksters and semi-con men and the contrast in their personalities in their treatment and compassion toward many of the performers.

Nickell was a man of this culture, and therefore, not an experienced author. His writing is not always crisp or as descriptive as it could have been in discussing such a colorful lifestyle and industry.

A unique subject, though, and an interesting read.

I was looking for information about circus performers and how they perform these amazing acts, so naturally i turned to Amazon,com; I found Joe Nickell Secrets Of The Sideshow - and found what I was looking for and more. It arrived in great condition and when I was told it would arrive for a great price - Thanks Amazon.com

Well, what I have recently purchased is a very interesting book. It unveils a rather dark and unknown world that for centuries has been with us. The pictures are fine but scarce, and the prose has wit and many secrets of the trade are rather amusing. In fact a very fine book

Joe Nickell's Secrets of the Sideshows (2005) presents its audience with an adequate but lackluster overview of its subject. The volume suffers from two problems. The first, and more significant, is that most of the material included has long been available elsewhere, as Nickell's numerous references to a variety of other works makes clear. The second is that, despite the author's long employment history as a carnival hand in an apparent variety of capacities, his writing style is so perfunctory that he manages to make what should be a fascinating subject seem quite dull. Therefore, the best audience for the book will be readers with a budding interest in the subject; those already conversant on the topic are unlikely to learn anything new.

Nickell, who is also a "senior research fellow" of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), is honest, upfront, and unapologetic about the tone and moral tenor of most sideshow and midway personnel, who routinely, though not exclusively, defraud their thrill-seeking public in any number of ways. The author quotes a "carnival owner" as saying, "You have all the ingredients necessary to rise in your profession-a deceptively honest face, a genius for legitimate fraud, no conscience, a golden tongue, and a feeling that a quarter in somebody else's pocket is a personal rebuke." Interestingly, Nickell seems to find this sociopathic approach to life, commerce, and human relationships fully acceptable, and perhaps even inevitable. As a result, readers may come away with the impression that all or most people associated with carnival work are con men and passive aggressive bottom-feeders who would rather attempt to trick another man out of his money than work honestly to earn their own. Nickell quotes another showman, whom he believes he has caught "in a particularly cynical moment": "On my tombstone, you know what they're going to write? 'Screw you. I got your dollar.'"

Needless to say, few of the 'secrets of the sideshow,' outside of the authentic 'human oddities' and performers with a genuine skill are very fascinating: the rubber aliens, faked two-headed geese, 'giant rats,' 'jackelopes,' false 'psychics,' 'headless girls,' and enormous 'spiders' with human heads are as absurd, tawdry, and patently obvious as one would expect.

It's worth speculating whether Nickell, who has become a ubiquitous debunking presence on the National Geographic Channel and the History Channel, believes all "claims of the paranormal" are either honest mistakes of perception or outright hoaxes, however subtly accomplished, because he himself has been, via his carnival work, so experienced in promoting, selling, and by default, perpetrating hoaxes himself.