We provide club shows for corporate parties, weddings, children's parties and any other events. Using our experience, we will not let you go wrong. We know exactly what dance groups are capable of. Good dancers will light up the audience in 10-15 minutes, without arranging boring performances for an hour. With us, you will definitely notice how a regular trip to the club differs from a club show. A professional DJ will prepare a special playlist for the party, taking into account your wishes. The host sets the mood for the guests. Therefore, it is important that he exudes confidence, positive attitude and goodwill towards each guest! It is easier to command the process when the DJ has his own elevated position on stage. This will help him feel more confident.

Go-go dancing as part of the club atmosphere

If you are planning a party, go-go dancing is indispensable. When choosing dancers, pay attention not only to physical data, but also to emotionality. You can show highly aerobatic figures, but if there is no sensuality, there will be zero impressions. Striptease differs from go-go in that the latter excludes any contact with the audience. Warn guests about this in advance, and you will protect yourself from unpleasant situations.

Club shows these days

European modernist heritage, pop culture from the mid-20th century to the present day, contemporary art forms emerging around the world, the legacy of Meerhold's plastic theater, and many other factors of past centuries and the present have played a large role in the emergence of new ways of storytelling , images and representations, combining them into a single expression tool. The modern performance show is inspired by the combination of expressive means: photo-art, music, video technology, theatrical art, plastic numbers and dance, high-tech technology, sculpture, sports, light and laser instruments, architecture, etc.

Club Show Trends

The most popular and club effects for club shows are cryo jets or CO 2. They are generated by special small settings (usually placed right on the stage). The jet blowing out into space is ordinary carbon dioxide! It creates the effect of pillars of ice, cooling the heated show participants. For cryo-jets to make a decent impression, there must be at least 4 of them.

Non-standard approaches to the implementation of club shows

If you want to make a splash at the evening, you've come to the right place! The application of the go-go dance performance in combination with lighting equipment, bright glowing costumes, instruments and masks - all this creates an amazing delight. We have a lot of both standard programs and individual ones. The Ultra Blow club show is an irresistible effect in pleasure, on various human instincts: physiological and psychological needs for food, sex and human interaction. Our club show is able to make you feel great emotions, is able to give everyone some ground for thought.

How to book a club show

A club show is booked especially often where the desires of organizers and heroes of the occasion, public expectations and business interests are intertwined. We offer to order a club show from Ultra Blow for every taste: laser and light shows, performance shows, dance and erotic show ballets, artists and musicians. Order a show for a club event means to pleasantly surprise your guests and successfully host the event. Using our experience, we will not let you go wrong. We know exactly what dance groups are capable of. Good dancers will light up the audience in 10-15 minutes, without arranging boring performances for an hour. With us, you will definitely notice how a regular trip to the club differs from a club show. Are you interested in a club entertainment program? Or do you want to order a separate DJ or just dancers? We have specially created a company to satisfy any customer's request. We make it possible to invite even world vocalists and dancers. Here you will find teams for every taste and occasion. It is not an easy task to book famous artists yourself. We can even order them from abroad.

People have always had a special attitude towards those who are somehow different from them. And although now all over the world they say that people with disabilities are just like us, many still secretly or openly look at them as a curiosity.

But today we will not talk about such a complex moral and ethical topic, but we will talk about the attitude towards disabled people in the past. Namely - about the history of the freak circus or freak show. Such spectacles were popular in Europe and America in the 18th-19th centuries. Freak shows were traveling circuses, where the circus performers were people with disabilities or people with various physical disabilities or anomalies. Here you have bearded women, and unnecessarily thin or fat, and people with missing limbs and much more.

The history of the circus of freaks

It all started with the transition to market relations. It would seem, what does the circus have to do with it? If you don't know what circuses looked like in the 18th century, then imagine a fair. There were food tents, merry-go-rounds and swings around the huge, colorful tent. All this took up large areas. Therefore, land owners began to demand payment for the placement of such tents, and sometimes the payment was prohibitively high. Also, moving a traveling circus from place to place was very expensive for transportation. Thus, circuses were quite an expensive business, and had to bring considerable income to their owners. Today you might think that if you are a slender acrobat or a tall strongman, then your life is a success. But not everything is so simple. The audience in those days was jaded and very demanding of sensual pleasures. No one was surprised by acrobatic performances and clowns. The famous strongmen and magicians also did not delight the public.

And one day someone came up with the idea to surprise the audience with deep, on the verge of disgust, emotions from looking at the imperfections of the human body.

This is how freak circuses appeared, where instead of acrobats and clowns there were “freaks”. It was a show built on the basest and ugliest human emotions. The audience loved looking at deformed human bodies and other physical deformities. Interest and curiosity - this is what guided the creators of the first freak shows. The ethical norms of the time encouraged ridicule and bullying of such people. So the audience in the circus of freaks flowed like a river. They went and paid, then left and came another time, to a different troupe. Thus, a huge fortune could be made at a freak show.

But not all the money went to the profit of the directors of the circuses, some were given to the freaks themselves, and we can say that this was a good part. Many circus performers provided themselves with a quiet old age and a great fortune, which the average "normal" person could envy.

But we figured out the reasons. Let's go back to history.

For a time, freaks were common in regular circuses. Dwarfs, people with some deviations could be present, if not in every, then at least in every third traveling circus. Nobody deliberately walked the streets in search of the sick and mutilated, because their appearance is not very aesthetic. And aesthetics was important for circus performers. But at the beginning of the 18th century, the first freak circuses appeared. They sort of separated from standard circuses and began to travel the world and give performances on their own. However, they did not take root in conservative and moral Europe. Not that people were disgusted to look at it, but Europeans were not big fans of such spectacles either. Moreover, most of the freaks, nevertheless, preferred to work with an ordinary circus. But the news of such circuses reaches America. This is where the "golden age" begins.

Until about the mid-1800s, American freak shows weren't much different from European ones. Perhaps they were more humane. For example, freaks were hired and paid big money for performances, signed contracts with them, and circus performers had much more freedom.

And then photography began to develop, and with it advertising. People decided that it would be better if, before entering the circus, the viewer sees part of what awaits him. Pictures of "freaks" flooded the city. This was the impetus for the emergence of other freak shows, this "genre" has become insanely popular.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, there were hundreds of circuses in both Europe and the United States, each representing their freaks. Suddenly the war broke out. During World War II, all freak circuses, like ordinary ones, were in decline. People had no time to go to the performances. And there was no particular desire to laugh when people are dying en masse in the world. However, after the end of the war, things got even worse for the freak show: the value of human life increased. The person began to be respected more and people stopped laughing at the physical monsters. And that means they stopped going and paying. As a result, freak circuses ceased to exist. At the moment, they are not at all. And if they did appear, they would cause such condemnation from the side of society that they would not stay afloat for weeks.

Famous freak circuses

In fact, there were so many circuses that you don't even recognize them all. However, two of them deserve your attention. The first is the Congress Of Living Freaks, from which you can find a lot of photos today, but no information. It is only known that in their "arsenal" were dwarfs, people with unusually developed legs and some other anomalies.

The second, Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth, has more to say. This circus is famous primarily because of Phineas Barnum, one of the founders. This man was probably a businessman from God, because he not only made his circus the most famous, but also brought advertising itself to a new level. Although, for the fact that he came up with some kind of spam, I do not want to thank him.

It all started with the fact that Barnum decided to earn extra money. Having bought an elderly African-American woman with part of his dishonestly earned fortune, he took her around the cities and said that she was the nanny of Washington itself and she was more than a hundred years old. People believed, gave him money just to see this miracle. However, interest soon subsided, and Barnum spread a rumor that the old woman was not even alive, but a robot. The popularity is back and doubled! But the woman soon died, and Barnum invited doctors to an autopsy and rumors spread throughout the city that he had replaced the robot with a living person so as not to reveal the identity of the inventor. Phineas enjoyed such pursuits, and he found his calling.

His first freak show was a small troupe consisting of the midget Charles Stratton (General Tom-Tam), Chang and Ang Bunker (Siamese twins who were born in Siam. society of whites in appearance: Indian and African American. By the way, Stratton became so popular that they began to invite him to parties of high society, and then they found him a dwarf wife.

But Barnum gained real popularity when he created the circus with James Bailey. From his circus, he made a whole world with its inhabitants, where each had its own history and its own characteristics. It got to the point that people deliberately injured themselves, just to get into his troupe, because Barnum and Bailey paid very well. But we are all mortal. And after Phineas's death, the circus was sold for 400 thousand dollars (with Bailey Barnum, by that time, stopped working).

Famous freaks

Different people inhabited circuses of freaks: disabled, sick, underdeveloped, crippled and freaks in the modern sense of the word. Below we will present you a small list of those who could shine at a freak show.

1. Bearded women

Bearded women are freak show queens. Without the bearded woman, your freak circus would be incomplete. At one time there were many famous women with beards, and they were not at all worried about this facial hair. It was more of a zest. Someone has a mole, someone has a big nose, someone has hair of an unusual color, and they have beards. These women were as popular with males as the others. Many got married, had children and ended their lives happily.

To date, this anomaly has been studied far and wide. Bearded women have hirsutism, a disease due to which too many male hormones are produced in the female body. Today it is being treated.

2. Skin abnormalities

These abnormalities include various skin conditions that cause a person's skin to have an unusual color or texture. Also, people with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome were popular, because of which their skin became stringy (as in the picture), and their joints were so flexible that a person could bend their fingers in the opposite direction (they probably made good acrobats).

3. Dwarfs and giants

The usual growth was not interesting - give the people of midgets and giants! People who were too tall or too short were an integral part of any self-respecting freak show. They often worked in pairs, which looked very contrasting and enhanced the spectacle effect. It happened that the Lilliputians were wrapped up like newborns, and then they began to discuss philosophical topics in swaddling clothes. This made the audience very amused.

Such abnormalities occur due to a lack or excess of growth hormone. But such people live quite freely in the modern world, some even become famous. Although, as history shows, their lifespan is not great.

4. Wolf people

Returning to the topic of facial hair. Such "werewolves" were very popular and should have been present in every decent freak circus. In Barnum's circus, by the way, there was also such a person. Phineas made the guy bark and growl on stage like he was a dog. Meanwhile, Fyodor Evtishchev spoke fluently in three languages: Russian, German and English. The reason for this anomaly is hypertrichosis, which is why hair grew not only over the entire face, but also throughout the body.

5. People without limbs

Of course, the complete absence of limbs was more exotic, but most often there were people who did not have either legs or arms.

There are a lot of reasons for the appearance of such an anomaly: from improper childbirth to amputation due to, for example, severe trauma.

6. Siamese twins

Very fat and very thin people usually performed in pairs to enhance the effect. Most often: an incredibly plump woman and an incredibly thin man.

Yes, despite the fact that there were "curvaceous forms" in fashion, excess fat was still ugly, and people also laughed at it. But in a circus it was more or less appropriate.

8. Lobster people, penguins and seals

Lobster people, penguins and seals are anomalies with deformities of the limbs. When the hands are fused and resemble pincers, sometimes the feet or forearms were attached directly to the body. Most often these are congenital abnormalities with abnormalities at the genetic level. There were quite a few such people.

There are many more "freaks": people with bone deformities, microcephaly, with growths on the body or additional limbs (a kind of Siamese twins). Unfortunately, it is impossible to tell about all of them.

By the way, the film "Freaks" by Tod Browning, which was filmed in the 30s, deserves special mention. The freak circuses still existed then (the freaks in the film were real), but the audience received the film badly. Perhaps because of the scenes of violence with which the picture abounds. But to call him "immoral" and "wrong", and at the same time, voluntarily attending a freak show is somehow dishonest.

Looking at all these people, their problems seem less significant. After all, we are "normal", which is something that freaks cannot boast of. Especially nowadays.

In 1932, the famous American director Tod Browning directed the feature film "Freaks". Being to some extent a tragicomedy, to some extent a melodrama, the film almost immediately after the end of filming was severely cut by the censorship (about 45 minutes), and then completely banned. It entered the US national motion picture registry more than half a century later, in 1994.

And the thing is that Browning was not afraid to shoot a picture on a topic that was forbidden by that time. A film about an endangered genre of freak show, about people who had no other way but to make a living by demonstrating their own ugliness ...

Today the freak show does not exist as such. Over the past hundred years, medicine has stepped forward, and the ethics of human relations has undergone major changes. Most people with disabilities are cured or provided with normal living conditions - and rightly so. In the 19th century, the attitude was quite different. For a huge number of people who today could lead a full life, there was only one road - to the circus of freaks.

But there were also positive aspects to this road. Many freaks earned a lot of money and could provide themselves better than other healthy people. For example, the legendary camel girl Ella Harper in the prime of her career (1885-1886) received $ 200 a week at the Harris Circus! Adjusted for inflation today, this is equivalent to a salary of $ 25,000 a month. A lot, right?

The origin of the genre

Demonstration of various deviations of the human body has been popular from time immemorial. From the point of view of psychology, this is a win-win option for doing business: even today we are drawn to look back at the disabled person passing by, and we cannot explain this impulse from the point of view of logic. But looking back at passers-by is ugly and inconvenient. And circuses of freaks provided a legal opportunity to look at anomalies, collected in one place and beautifully designed. Therefore, in almost every circus, since ancient Roman times, people with physical disabilities were necessarily present - they had their own numbers along with strongmen and acrobats.

In the 16th century, Europe began to transition to a market system of relations. Traveling circuses have ceased to be a bunch of buffoons who earned mainly alms and handouts. Already in the 17th century, a fixed fee was charged for entering many booths, and circuses, stopping at the fair, paid money for rent. The circus business started to get really profitable. If in the 15th century circus performers were basically beggars, and the circus could fit into a single trailer, then two centuries later the circus business became a business.

This is not a real freak, but Charles Loughton in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939). The brilliant makeup was done by the best Hollywood specialist in the 1930s, Perk Westmore.

And within the framework of this business, a strange and unpleasant direction began to actively develop - a freak show. If in the days of Quasimodo the fate of a disabled person was poking and rotten eggs, then the New time began to bring profits to freaks. It was these three centuries - from the 18th to the beginning of the 20th - that became the golden era of freak circuses: profits were already substantial, and public morality allowed an arbitrarily cruel attitude towards unusual people.

In the 17th century, the first known freaks appeared, who made a fortune on their appearance. The most famous freaks of that time were the Siamese twins Lazarus and John Baptiste Colloredo, originally from Genoa. John was not so much a man as an underdeveloped process growing from about the area of ​​his brother's chest. He always kept his eyes closed, and his mouth open, he could not talk. Nevertheless, he lived, moved and even took food (apparently, the digestive systems of the brothers were separate).

Lazarus, being a completely mobile and slender man (not counting half of his brother growing from the front of him), traveled all over Europe in the first half of the 16th century - Denmark, Germany, Italy, England - and was successful everywhere. Moreover, he later got married and had normal children.

Russia, too, did not shy away from any curiosities. For example, the Cabinet of Curiosities of Peter the Great has become one of the world's largest collections of alcohol-based freaks. This, of course, is not exactly a freak show, but the genre is very close.

At the beginning of the 18th century, the freak show genre spun off from the usual circus. Enterprising businessmen picked up various crippled, sick, underdeveloped on the streets - and made of them something like a zoo. Officially, the first performance of a classic freak show is considered to be a demonstration of a woman "with a monkey head" taken out of Guinea in 1738. True, modern researchers are inclined to believe that the woman was completely normal. It's just that the Africans of exotic tribes seemed to Europe of that time as something completely outlandish, and an ordinary African woman (maybe sick with something) completely passed for a freak. But these are just assumptions.

Nevertheless, in Europe, the freak show remained a rather rare sight. Freaks still nailed themselves to ordinary circuses, and for freaks they often passed off as normal people, just well-made up. But in the early 1800s, the idea of ​​a freak show crawled into the United States. And a terrible, terrible golden age began.

American idyll of Barnum and Bailey

Until the 1840s, American freak shows were not very different from European ones. These were groups of wagons that traveled around the country, deploying a booth in every city and showing off their freaks. Unlike in Europe, American entrepreneurs approached the issue competently. Freaks received high enough salaries, signed contracts for performances - and generally lived like normal people. The only place where they had to endure the shame, demonstrating their inferiority, was the stage. But art requires sacrifice.

And in the 1840s photography began to develop rapidly. The owners of the freak show immediately adopted it: almost all freak show advertisements since that time have been supplied with numerous photo illustrations. The attendance of performances literally in a few years has increased tenfold, as well as profits.

Sara Bartman (until 1790-1815), nicknamed "Sartji", a native of South Africa, was a famous freak of the early 19th century, the "Hottentot Venus." In fact, she just had steatopygia, excess fat on her buttocks.

In the 1880s - 1930s, several hundred circuses were operating in Europe and the United States, specializing in the demonstration of human anomalies. The most famous among them were W. H. Harris's Nickel Plate Circus, Congress of Living Freaks and, of course, Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth. The latter is worth mentioning separately, because it was Pi-Tee Barnum who made his circus the quintessence of all freak shows in the world.

Born in 1810, Phineas Taylor Barnum was a natural businessman who constantly founded companies and firms, subsequently reselling them or giving them away for debt. He managed to visit both the publisher of the newspaper, and the organizer of the lottery, and the shopkeeper, until he came to the conclusion that people can be deceived in simpler ways. In 1835, he acquired Joyce Heth, an old Negro slave woman, and began taking her around the cities, claiming that she was 161 years old and that she was the nanny of Washington itself. When interest in the nanny began to wane, Barnum started a rumor that the old woman was not living, but mechanical, and on the second wave of popularity he collected twice more jackpot. True, then Joyce died. And Barnum found his calling.

Since 1841, Barnum began to engage in organized demonstration of freaks - the midget Charles Stratton, nicknamed General Boy-with-Finger, the Siamese twins Chang and Ang Bunker, as well as a number of African and Indian women with an unusual appearance for a white man. Stratton was unusually popular in Europe and the USA - he was sent tons of love letters, he was invited into society, and even his wedding with the midget Lavinia was arranged by Warren Barnum as a grandiose freak show.

"General Boy-with-Finger" and his wife Lilliputian Lavinia Warren.

Barnum founded his most famous circus in New York in 1871; ten years later, the name of James Bailey, the co-organizer of the show, was added to the name of the circus. For each freak, a unique story and unique number were invented. For example, the Kostroma boy Fyodor Evtishchev, suffering from increased hair growth (hypertrichosis), on stage only barked and growled, pretending that he could not speak. Barnum paid very well - people mutilated themselves on purpose to get to work in his circus. The long-haired Sutherland sisters who performed in his circus (an average of 1.8 meters of hair for each of the seven sisters) made a fortune of $ 3 million at the end of the 19th century!

Barnum set a new trend in business development - he used many methods, then unknown. Spreading rumors, viral advertising, invented spam (paper) and so on. The psychological effect is named after Barnum, when people relate to the descriptions of their personality, supposedly created individually for them, but in fact are an empty common set of words (for example, newspaper horoscopes).

Standard freaks

In the "golden age" of American freak shows (1850-1930), there was a clear classification of various deviations. Every self-respecting circus was obliged to have a standard set of freaks, plus a few unusual, unique specimens. The latter usually received the largest fees; circuses bought them from each other, as football players are bought today.

Bearded women

Ironically, many women have the ability to grow a mustache and beard. The abnormal growth of these purely male characteristics is due to an excess of androgenic hormones in the female body. In the 19th century, a bearded woman must have been present in every circus - there were so many such freaks that the audience "pecked" only at those who had some additional deformities. For example, a gray beard or no hands. An ordinary black beard (99% of bearded women are black-haired) no longer interested anyone. Most bearded women married many times and gave birth to children - their peculiarity only gave them a spice.

The most famous bearded women in history were the Mexican Julia Pastrana, who was taken to Europe as a child in the 1840s and lived in St. Petersburg in 1858-1860. An unusually ugly Indian woman, she nevertheless did not know the end of her admirers, the nobles. She died of unsuccessful childbirth. Famous "employees" of freak circuses were Jane Barnelli (Lady Olga) and Annie Jones, and the Frenchwoman Clementine Delate even ran the cafe "At the Bearded Woman". As already mentioned, this is the most common type of "must-have" freak for every 19th century circus.

Wolf people

People with hypertrichosis - increased hair growth throughout the body. The most famous wolf boy was Fyodor Evtishchev, who inherited the "dog face" from his father Adrian. Yevtishchev became famous by performing in the American Barnum show at the end of the 19th century. Today these patients lead a completely normal life. Hair growth is inhibited hormonally, and hair removal products have improved markedly over time.

People with skin abnormalities

Today, genetic diseases associated with the skin are either cured or left alone if they do not cause inconvenience to their wearer. The most common group of freaks with skin problems were people with "crocodile" or "elephant" skin - suffering from severe forms of ichthyosis. This disease is expressed in a violation of the horny, upper integument - the skin becomes multi-colored, keratinized, really resembling a crocodile. The famous freak alligator of the first half of the 20th century was Susie, a crocodile girl; in the 19th century, Ralph Kruner shone with his horny crocodile legs.

The second large group was freaks with elastic skin - patients with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. This syndrome disrupts the synthesis of collagen, a fibrillar protein that is the basis of the body's connective tissue. As a result, the skin becomes hyperelastic, and the joints become hyper-flexible (up to the bending of the fingers in the opposite direction). Today the Briton Gary Turner, nicknamed "Elastic", entered into the Guinness Book of Records, is widely known, and in the 19th century the "rubber man" James Morris shone on the stage.

Skeletons and fat men

Unusually thin and monstrously fat people most often performed in joint numbers. But if everything is clear with fat men - most often they were people with severe obesity, then “skeletal people” were usually carriers of genetic diseases. "Skeletons" were more often men than women, and the upper limit of their allowable weight (with normal height) was 35 kilograms. Diseases causing abnormal thinness could be different - from various types of dystrophies to the usual anorexia.

The most famous couple were husband and wife - skeleton Pete Robinson (26 kilograms) and fat Bunny Smith (212 kilograms), who were married in 1924 and were the stars of freak shows for 20 years. Like many "skeletons", Pete had a classical theater education and, by the way, played the harmonica superbly. "Skeletons" were often educated people who later made a career in other fields - their ugliness was easily hidden under clothes.

Deprived of limbs

Unlike other freaks who simply demonstrated their bodies, the freaks deprived of limbs were forced to study and work. Because the audience was primarily interested not in the absence of hands, but in the ability to shave with their feet.

The most popular were "live torsos". The megastar of the 19th and 20th centuries was Prince Randian, the "snake man." From birth, devoid of arms and legs, he independently took out a cigarette from the pack and lit, drew, wrote, moved, and was also married twice and had six children. Of the women, Violetta (Aloisia Wagner) enjoyed fame, she knew how to dress independently and even paint.

Also famous were the armless photographer Charles Tripp, who demonstrated the ability to shoot with his feet (this is with cameras of the 19th century!), And "half-boy" Johnny Eck, who was deprived of his entire lower half of the body due to sacral agenesis.

Artificial freaks

The integral participants in the freakshow were amazing people without any physical disabilities. For example, women with extra-long hair were highly valued (the seven Sutherland sisters were very popular, with a total hair length of about 14 meters by seven), strong men who knew how to tie a horseshoe in a knot, sword swallowers. In the 19th century, albinos and representatives of relict tribes exported from Africa were also considered freaks (especially women with large ... hmm ... buttocks).

There was a special group of artificial hermaphrodites - people who make up one half of the body for a man, the other for a woman. Particularly famous in the 20th century was a character named Josephine Joseph. Of course, his "hermaphroditism" was nothing more than a masquerade.

Unique freaks

Of course, every circus had to amaze the audience with something absolutely incredible. Bearded women, skeletal people, and legless people were common. But freaks with unique anomalies, occurring once in a million, became the stars of freaks.

Camel girl

Ella Harper (1873-?) Disappeared from the freak show without a trace in 1886. Photo of approximately 1884.

The most famous freak of the late 19th century was the camel girl Ella Harper, who suffered from congenital genu recurvatum, a syndrome of inverse bending of the knee. She was born in 1873 and if her knees were bent in the usual direction, she would look like a normal pretty child. Ella's star year was 1886, when she, performing at the W. H. Harris's Nickel Plate Circus, earned up to $ 200 a week. In her room, Ella went on stage at the same time as the camel and repeated all its habits and movements. At the end of the year, Ella left the circus, being the owner of a good fortune, and nothing else is known about her.

History knows another freak with the same disease - "pony boy" Robert Huddleston. He was born in 1895, raised on a farm, then got into the Tom Mix Circus and displayed his weird knees for 36 years. After leaving the circus, he opened a car repair shop, was married.

Baby woman

Medusa van Allen, nicknamed "Little Miss Sunshine", was born in 1908 and suffered from a unique genetic bone disease that caused only her head to grow. She could not stand or sit - and always lay. In a freak show, she usually played the role of babies - she, 70 centimeters, was carried onto the stage in her arms, cradled, rocked, and then she suddenly began to talk, talk about philosophy and literature, plunging the audience into delight. Medusa was the star of the Ripley's human oddities circus.

People with spinal deformities

The most famous freak of this kind was a certain Leonard Trask, who was born in England in 1805. At the age of 28, Trask fell from his horse and suffered a curvature of the spine. Another 7 years later, he fell out of the crew and suffered a number of fractures. Over the next 18 years, his spine flexed spontaneously, eventually burying Trask's nose into his chest. He could no longer see anything in front of him and made a living by demonstrating ugliness. The researchers say the flexion was caused by ankylosing spondylitis, a systemic joint disease, but this is not firmly certain.

Another strange freak was the German Martin Lorello, who was able to turn his head 180 ° and stay in this state for quite a long time. He toured a lot in Europe and the USA, performed with Barnum, was married and even wrote a satirical pamphlet "How to turn your head 180 degrees: detailed instructions."

Penguin people

Freaks with phocomelia were in high demand. With this disease, the hands and / or feet are attached directly to the body - without shoulders, forearms, legs ... A person really resembles a penguin or a seal. The small number of freak penguins was due to the high infant mortality rate of those suffering from congenital phocomelia. In principle, such an anomaly in nature is as common as the absence of any limb from birth - but up to 5 years of age, 3% of patients with phocomelia survive.

To the same "subtype" can be attributed and quite common "people-lobsters" - patients with ectrodactyly. In this disease, the number and shape of the fingers on the hands, as well as the shape of the feet, are essentially arbitrary. Most often, ectrodactylists have two "fingers" on each hand, they are formed by the fused tissues of normal fingers. At the same time, the hands resemble pincers. Famous freaks of this type were Fred Wilson (born 1866), Bobby Jackson (early 1910s), Grady Styles Jr. (a unique "lobster" in the third generation!).

Glory and sunset

Until World War II, the ethics of human relations allowed freak shows to flourish.

Tod Browning's famous 1932 film Freaks showcases a typical freak show - with a standard set of freaks plus a few quirky freaks. True, the ethics of this film shocked the public even in those years, Browning fell out of favor and from a famous director turned into a Hollywood outcast - he continued to shoot, but failure followed failure.

In "Freaks" the most real circus freaks play. The Human Worm Prince Randian, who was born without arms and legs and gained worldwide fame for his skills. Half-boy Johnny Eck, deprived of the lower half of the body. Conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton, fused sideways (by the way, today such twins are separated; but even the ugliness did not prevent the sisters from getting married and divorced several times). Martha Morris, "the armless miracle" and Frances O'Connor (oh, how she drinks wine with her feet in the film!).

These freaks were at least mentally sound and played in the film as actors. Problems with the law were caused by the use of mentally retarded freaks - microcephalics Zip and Pip, the "bird woman" Ku-ku (suffering from Sekel syndrome and blind) and so on. The question was not ethics at all, but the fact that most people really did not know about the existence of freaks. More precisely, they knew, but pretended not to know. And here - ah-ay-ay! - showed everyone, look, there is a freak show in the USA.

After World War II, freak shows fell dramatically in popularity. Society has become more ethically rigid, and the struggle for various rights, including the rights of people with disabilities, has become fashionable. And many freaks, who before the war earned a lot of money and, in general, were happy, after the war vegetated in poverty and obscurity (including the aforementioned "half-boy" Johnny Eck).

By 1955, the ban on freak shows as a phenomenon was adopted by all European states and most of the US states. Freaks could exhibit themselves of their own accord as separate numbers, but the posters with the words "amazing ugliness", "lizard man" or "the best freaks we have" disappeared once and for all.

Freak show today

Another analogue of old freak shows is the Lilliputian circus. There are very few such circuses in the world, they are closed communities and rarely allow ordinary people into their inner life. Some freaks show themselves in various television shows and club performances. For example, in the United States there is a widely known “lobster boy” nicknamed “Black Scorpion” (he hides his real name) - a man with fused fingers; his hands resemble lobster claws.

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A difficult question is who is happier - the freaks of the 19th century, who earned decent money with their ugliness, or modern disabled people. If the latter give up all their benefits for the right to regain health, then the former would not even think about this. Their mutilated bodies were their bread, and there was no question of any ethics.

But, looking at old photographs, remember that in comparison with these people you have no problems at all. Even if you were fired from your job, your wife left you and you owe a big mafia boss, you still have no problems.