4 Legged, Tattooed, Bearded, Conjoined and Pinheads

Here is some specific information on some of the people your freak characters are based on.

Myrtle Corbin: The Four-Legged Woman
information and pictures from Phreeque Show
Josephene Myrtle Corbin, the Four-Legged Woman, was born in Lincoln County, Tennessee in 1868. Rather than having a parasitic twin, Myrtle's extra legs resulted from an even rarer form of conjoined twinning known as dipygus, which gave her two complete bodies from the waist down. She had two small pelves side-by-side, and each of her smaller inner legs was paired with one of her outer legs. She could move the smaller legs but was unable to use them for walking. At the age of 19, she married a doctor named Clinton Bicknell and had four daughters and a son. It has been said that three of her children were born from one set of organs, two from the other. Myrtle died on May 6, 1928.

Tattooed and Bearded Ladies
information and pictures from The Human Marvels

Betty Broadbent
Born in 1909, by 1927 Betty was well on her way to completing a tattoo body suit. Over 350 designs adorned her pinup model-like body, designs created and applied by notorious and revolutionary tattooists like Charlie Wagner, Joe Van Hart, Tony Rhineager and Red Gibbons the man who would eventually become her husband.

Betty’s first job was with Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus and almost instantly Betty fell in love with show business. Many women quickly grew tired of the rigorous carnival lifestyle. But Betty thrived in exhibition and she spent the next 40 years in and around the show business and circus scene. In fact, Betty flaunted her tattoos in every significant American, Australian and New Zealand circus the era had to offer. Betty was even a featured attraction at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

Betty Broadbent became the first person inducted into the Tattoo Hall of Fame in 1981.

She died in her sleep in 1983.

Nora Hildebrandt

Nora Hildebrandt was America’s first professional tattooed lady. Her place in history is due mostly to the fact that her father, German born Martin Hildebrandt, was America’s first professional tattoo artist... Nora began to exhibit herself in 1882. By that time, she was covered in tattoo ink, neck to toe, with a reported 365 tattooed designs. She toured primarily with Barnum & Bailey Circus throughout the 1890’s.

In her fictional biography, Nora stated that she and her father were originally forcibly tattooed by American Indians. According to her story, she was tattooed daily for an entire year, while tied to a tree. At one point, she even claimed that Sitting Bull was involved in her torture.

Nora’s fabricated tale proved to entertain audiences but she eventually discounted it and regaled audiences instead with the details of the work done by her father while displaying her body for all to see.

The Fascinating Jean Caroll

In her time, Jean Carroll was a popular bearded lady. More importantly, Carroll was the real deal. Born in 1910 in Schenectady, New York Jean Carroll possessed the genuine foundation of a fine silken beard at the age of ten, when she joined the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus.

As a young lady Carroll met a charming young Ohio man, John Carson, and quickly fell in love. Carson was a charming and handsome man. He was a contortionist and sideshow talker and he was actually quite taken by the sweet-hearted bearded girl. He was certainly attracted to Carroll but the beard was simply too much for him to overcome. While he continued to be friendly with Carroll, he pushed aside any romantic aspirations and focused on friendship.

For fifteen years the two saw each other almost daily. As Carson got to know Carroll for the woman she was, behind the whiskers, he fell deeply in love with her. Carroll saw that love in him and it pained her. She knew he would never be able to accept the beard and she, in turn, could not give up her source of livelihood and her home in the carnival. As she cried one night, sword swallower Alec Linton suggested a painful solution.

“Shave the beard and become a tattooed woman.”

Soon, the beard was gone and in its place were over 700 intricate designs by famed tattooist Charlie Wagner. The pain involved in the process was likely excruciating but the investment was wise. John Carson was completely smitten, apparently having no problems with illustration over facial hair, and the two wed almost immediately following the ‘close shave’.

They remained with the carnival. John continued on in his old job as a charming sideshow talker and Jean Carroll exhibited her new tattoos quite thoroughly, as a burlesque dancer.

The two remained inseparable until John’s passing in 1951.

Annie Jones

Shortly after she was born in Virginia on July 14, 1865, the hirsute Annie Jones began her career in exhibition. Purportedly born with a chin covered in fine hair, Annie’s average parents were originally horrified by her appearance. It wasn’t long, however, before the monetary benefits of their prodigious daughter dawn on the Jones family and word of her unique appearance came to the attention of elite showman P. T. Barnum.


After an initial short but highly successful run, Barnum offered Annie’s mother a three year contract, allotting Annie a weekly salary of $150 a week. Mrs. Jones accepted the offer, which was exorbitant for the era, and took up permanent residence with her daughter in New York. However, within the first year of the contract, a family emergency called Mrs. Jones back to Virginia and she left Annie in the care of a Barnum appointed Nanny. During this time, Annie was kidnapped by a local phrenologist who attempted to exhibit Anne privately. Luckily Annie was soon located in upstate New York, the kidnapper dealt with and Annie was quickly back in the custody of Mrs. Jones – who forevermore stayed in close proximity to her daughter during her career.

Not only did Annie sport a full and long beard, she also grew out the hair on her head to over six feet in length. Annie also expanded her talents as well, as she was not content to simply be stared at. She came to be known for her musical skills and gracious etiquette as much as her facial hair.

Annie Jones was the most celebrated Bearded Lady of her era.


Conjoined Twins

Chang and Eng Bunker
information and pictures from Phreeque Show

No case history of conjoined twins can be complete without mention of the Bunker brothers, the original twins from Siam (present-day Thailand). Born on May 11, 1811 in a tiny village along the Mekong river, the brothers were xiphopagus twins, joined by only a small band of cartilage at the sternum. Their livers were fused but were each independently complete. Through practice they were able to stretch the tissue that connected them and stand side-by-side rather than facing one another. This gave the illusion that they were joined at the side, and even today conjoined twins are frequently depicted as joined side-by-side by a sliver of tissue. Separation of Chang and Eng would have been extremely easy, even with 19th century medical technology. Ironically, the boys were three-quarters Chinese and known in their native village as 'The Chinese Twins'.

At age 17, the boys were brought back to America by the showman Abel Coffin, whose associate had initially discovered them in 1824 while they were swimming. In America they toured with P.T. Barnum until their retirement in 1839. They adopted the last name Bunker in 1844, their original Siamese last names having been lost when they joined showbusiness. While in North Carolina, Chang and Eng began to date Adelaide and Sarah Ann (or Sally) Yates, respectively. They were scheduled to marry but locals disapproved strongly of the brothers' courtship of the girls and even threatened them. Fearing for their lives, the brothers arranged for a separation surgery, begging to be separated even if it meant killing them both. However, the sisters intervened just before the operation and married the twins in a quick double-wedding ceremony. One couple purchased a farm adjacent to the brothers' original property and the brothers built separate houses and raised tobacco. From then on, they spent alternating nights with their wives in their own houses and together fathered 22 children (10 were Chang's, 12 were Eng's). However, several of the children died in infancy or early childhood.

In 1874 Chang, the stronger and more stubborn of the twins and a heavy drinker, contracted pneumonia, which was worsened by the carriage trip in the rain between the two farms. He died rather suddenly during the night of January 17. Eng awoke to find his brother dead, and he called for his wife and children to attend to him. According to some stories, the family sent for a doctor to perform an emergency separation, but Eng had died by the time the doctor arrived. By other accounts, Eng refused to be separated from his dead brother. He died three hours later.

Lucio and Simplicio
Simplicio and Lucio Godina (or Godino) were pygopagus twin brothers born on the island of Samar in the Philippine Islands on March 8, 1908. The Godina brothers were joined only by skin and cartilage at the buttocks and shared no pelvic bone or spinal tissue; in fact their join was so flexible that one could lie down while the other stood. They were adopted by Teodor Yangeo, a wealthy Filipino who was travelling in the United States. From this point on, the twins received an excellent education and became involved in several sports including swimming, tennis and golf.

While driving their car in Manila, their foster father's hometown, Lucio hit a cart, injuring the driver. He is said to have been drinking. He was sentenced to five days in jail, but dodged the sentence on the grounds that innocent Simplicio would also be imprisoned. Their legal troubles were the inspiration for the Hilton sisters' movie Chained for Life, in which one sister kills the other's husband and both must stand trial.

In 1928 the Godinos fell in love with identical twin sisters, Natividad and Victorina Matos. As was typical with conjoined-twin romances, the Godinos were at first denied the right to marry their sweethearts, the clerk claiming that they were technically one person. On appeal, however, they were granted a license and married the Matos sisters in an extravagant public wedding in Manila. The two couples then set sail for the United States, where they were scheduled to appear in vaudeville. The Godinos were excellent dancers and roller skaters and had no trouble incorporating their lovely dancing brides in their act. They denied financial help from their millionaire foster father as well, wanting instead to support themselves and their wives on their showbusiness earnings.

It seemed that the Godinos had a good chance of leading long and successful lives, but in 1936, while appearing in New York City, Lucio developed pneumonia. During Lucio's sickness, Simplicio, who felt fine, complained about being bed-ridden. It was believed at first that Lucio would survive, but he died unexpectedly on November 24, 1936. An emergency operation to separate the brothers was performed by a Dr. E.H. Wertheim. Simplicio is said to have taken his brother's death with stoicism and the newspapers reported the surgery as a triumph, giving a new lease on life to a man who, in previous years, would have been doomed to die along with his twin. Sadly, the operation was not as successful as it initially appeared, and Simplicio died on December 8, 12 days later, from cerebro-spinal meninigitis.

Pinheads
information and pictures from The Human Marvels

Maximo and Bartola
Maximo and Bartola were born microcephalic and were originally from the village of Decora in St. Salvador. The pair were quite intellectually slow and required special care. Their mother, Marina Espina, was conned into handing her unique children over to a Spanish trader named Ramon Selva. Ramon promised to take the pinheaded children to America, where he assured Maria they would be cured of their condition. Instead, Ramon sold Maximo and Bartola to an American promoter named Morris.

Morris concocted an incredible story to introduce the children to the American public.

At the time, America was frothing around the display of ‘ethnological curiosities’. Interest in the Mayan civilization was peaking due to recent explorations and publications. Morris sold a forty-eight page booklet in conjunction with his exhibiting of Maximo and Bartola to capitalize on the recent appetite of the public. Life of the Living Aztec Children told the elaborate ‘true story’ surrounding the discovery of Maximo and Bartola in an Aztec temple in a lost city.

The booklet alleged that Maximo and Bartola were found squatting on alters and that they were members of a sacred race once worshipped by the city’s inhabitants. To further this claim Morris dressed the pair in Aztec-looking garb. Both wore costumes featuring Aztec suns sewn onto the front and their hair was allowed to grow bushy. This combined with their diminutive stature and proportionately small heads did give them a highly unusual appearance. But would the public believe they were members of a lost race?

Rather than scoff at these wild claims, the public actually believed the pitch. To those who viewed them, Maximo and Bartola were the last remnants of an ancient civilization.

Not only did the public show a great amount of interest, the scientific community clamoured for a chance to examine the Aztec Children. Numerous papers were published on the topic of Maximo and Bartola including the American Journal of Medical Sciences. Soon Maximo and Bartola were the darlings of the general public and high society. Eventually, they visited the White House as guests of President Fillmore.

In 1853 Morris took Maximo and Bartola to England. There they were exhibited before the Ethnological Society and summoned to Buckingham Palace. During their public exhibition in London, they attracted three thousand people in just two days. Anatomist Prof. Richard Owen visited Maximo and Bartola and soon he and the rest of the European scientific community were debating exactly what the Aztec Children were and these debates further fueled their popularity. During their subsequent tour of Europe they appeared before Napoleon and his imperial family, the emperor of Russia, the emperor of Austria as well as the kings and queens of Bavaria, Holland and Belgium. Everywhere Maximo and Bartola went, controversy and conjecture followed. To many, they were indeed examples of an unknown race of people; they were the last of the Aztec Children.

Maximo and Bartola eventually returned to the United States, this time for exhibition at Barnum’s American Museum. Barnum renamed the duo as ‘The Aztec Wonders’ and many of the photos that exist of Maximo and Bartola are from this era of their career. Eventually interest in the pair died down as reporters and the scientific community moved on to other more legitimate discoveries. In an attempt to rekindle public interest, they resurfaced on January 7, 1867 in London and appeared to marry each other. They were married under the names of Senior Maximo Valdez Nunez and Senora Bartola Velasquez and, despite being brother and sister, it was alleged that by ‘Aztec Culture’ such a marriage was allowed.

The publicity attempt was a complete failure and nary was an eyebrow raised.

It is alleged that Maximo and Bartola continued to be exhibited until 1901 under the care of several different managers; the details of their eventual end are unknown.

Maximo and Bartola were the first of The Aztec Children. For decades after that, most pinheads, even the famous Schlitzie the Pinhead, were advertised as members of a long and formerly forgotten race.

Schlitzie

Schlitzie was born microcephalus, a condition characterized by an abnormally small and often pointed cranium. The condition often resulted in retardation and Schlitzie himself was as cognitive as a four year old

For much of his career, Schlitzie was billed as female. This was mostly due to his dress-like attire which was an attire choice based purely on his incontinence. While popular with crowds, Schlitzie’s biggest fans were his colleagues and caretakers. To sum up the reason for this fondness is difficult but the wonderment Schlitzie held for the daily mundane, his childlike exuberance, his eternal innocence greatly influenced those around him. Schlitzie was a ray of sunshine, and his smile and unconditional love shined on all those around him.

During his long career Schlitzie entertained millions of carnival and film goers with his antics. He was perhaps best known for his role in the Tod Browning cult classic film Freaks – though he also appeared in Island Of Lost Souls opposite Charles Laughton and Bela Lugosi. As a sideshow entertainer, Schlitzie was employed by every major name in the business. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Clyde Beatty Circus, Tom Mix Circus, West Coast Shows, Vanteen & Lee Circus Sideshow, and the Dobritsch International Circus all had Schlitzie in their shows at some point.

Schlitzie never truly retired. He was eventually cared for by performer friends and settled in and apartment near MacArthur Park Lake in downtown Los Angeles. In his final years, Schlitzie could be seen feeding the pigeons and ducks with his guardian, performing for people as they passed by.

He continued to enchant crowds until his passing in 1971 at the age of 71.