American Sideshow: An Encyclopedia of History's Most Wondrous and Curiously Strange Performers more books like this

by Marc Hartzman

The fascinating personalities of 200 performers from the past 160 years are celebrated through intimate biographies paired with stunning photographs to give readers a comprehensive and sometimes astonishing view of the history of the American sideshow.

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Carny Folk: The World's Weirdest Sideshow Acts more books like this

by Francine Hornberger

Here spectators will see Atasha the Gorilla Girl, Combustible Kira, Lionel the Lion-Faced Man, Otis the Frog Boy, Serpentina the Snake Girl, and more than forty other legendary sideshow acts. From P.T. Barnum's albinos and "Siamese" twins, to the traveling oddity museums linked to circuses and carnivals, to a whole new generation of "carny kids," ...

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Secrets of the Sideshows more books like this

by Joe Nickell

On small-town ballfields and county fairgrounds, the sideshow performers set up their tents and trailers in the shadow of the Ferris wheel. There they amazed us with daring feats such as fire eating and sword swallowing, intrigued us with exhibitions of human oddities and various "anatomical wonders," and yes, deceived us with illusions such as ...

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Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary Body more books like this

by Rosemarie G Thomson (Editor)

Giants. Midgets. Tribal non-Westerners. The very fat. The very thin. Hermaphrodites. Conjoined twins. The disabled. The very hirsute. In American history, all have shared the platform equally, as freaks, human oddities, their only commonality their assigned role of anomalous other to the gathered throngs. For the price of a ticket, freak shows ...

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Ragged But Right: Black Traveling Shows, "Coon Songs," and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz more books like this

by Lynn Abbott, Doug Seroff

The explosion in popularity of ragtime music in the early part of the twentieth century opened up previously unthought-of opportunities for black performers. However, these opportunities were stymied by systematic racism at every turn. "Ragged but Right" closely traces the mass popularity of so-called "coon songs" during the early years of rag, to ...

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Inside the Live Reptile Tent: The Twilight World of Carnival Midway more books like this

by Jeffrey T Brouws, Chronicle Books, Bruce Reid Caron (Text by)

Through the incomparable photographs of Jeff Brouws, numerous historical photographs, and knowing text by historian Bruce Caron, Inside the Live Reptile Tent takes the reader on a journey inside the heart of the American carnival experience. This is a vivid photography book of American carnival midways and amusement parks, with text encompassing ...

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Sideshow U.S.A.: Freaks and the American Cultural Imagination more books like this

by Rachel Adams

A staple of American popular culture during the 19th and early 20th centuries, the freak show seemed to vanish after the Second World War. But as Rachel Adams reveals in "Sideshow USA", images of the freak show, with its combination of the grotesque, the horrific and the amusing, stubbornly reappeared in literature and the arts. Freak shows, she ...

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Freak Show more books like this

by Bruce Jones, Bernie Wrightson (Illustrator)

A humble man - lonely at heart - seeks out the world's rejected souls, taking these misbegotten outcasts under his wing in a traveling show of oddities. In his kind yet lonely journey, this man of compassion also seeks something else - someone to love, someone willing to return all the kindness he's shown his less-fortunate troupe of oddities. ...

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Side Show: My Life with Geeks, Freaks & Vagabonds in the Carny Trade more books like this

by Howard Bone

In his experience as a "carny," Bone encountered--and orchestrated--many freakish acts. Here he shares the excitement and repulsion of life on the road with the sideshow. Teller (of Penn & Teller) introduces the narrative.

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Freak Like Me more books like this

by Jim Rose, Katherine Dunn (Foreword by)

An account of the world's wildest troupe of freaks, the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow, from Jim Rose on the streets of Venice Beach eating light bulbs and walking on nails to the "must-see" act of Lollapalooza.

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Step Right This Way: The Photographs of Edward J. Kelty more books like this

by Miles Barth, Edward J Kelty

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Freak like me : inside the Jim Rose circus sideshow more books like this

by Jim Rose, Melissa Rossi

Presents Jim Rose and the performers who accompany him on the "Jim Rose Roadshow" - a show dedicated to performing bizarre and unusual acts and tricks. The text introduces Matt the Tube, the Amazing Mr Lifto and Jimm Rose's wife Bebe Rose, the Circus Queen.

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Seeing Is Believing: America's Sideshows more books like this

by A W Stencell

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Strange feats & clever turns : remarkable speciality acts in variety, vaudeville and sideshows at the turn of the 20th century as seen by their contemporaries more books like this

by Charlie Holland

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James Taylor's Shocked and Amazed: On and Off the Midway more books like this

by James Taylor, Kathleen Kotcher

The planet's foremost sideshow authority takes you on an unforgettable tour. (SEE QUOTE.)

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Step Right This Way: The Photographs of Edward J. Kelty more books like this

by Myles Barth, Edward J Kelty

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The Tattooed Lady: A History more books like this

by Amelia Klem Osterud

Living in a time when it was scandalous even to show a bit of ankle, a small number of courageous women covered their bodies in tattoos and traveled the country, performing nearly nude on carnival stages. These gutsy women spun amazing stories for captive audiences about abductions and forced tattooing at the hands of savages, but little has been ...

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Side show : Max Rusid's photo album of human oddities. more books like this

by Max Rusid

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