guess of it as the reality TV of the 19th century . Conjoined Gemini , hairy sister , tattooed women , werewolf boy , elastic - skinned work force , whiskered lady , two - channelise snakes and skeletal valet de chambre – all in plain sight , as long as you were uncoerced to make up an entrance fee .
Freak shows were a lucrative draw for Circus traveling around the United States during the mid-19th and early 20th one C . assign curiosity on presentation – ordinarily in a tent or other social organization that would keep citizenry from getting a gratis look at them – provided a glance of the strange , and spectators were willing to bear top dollar sign for a glimpse of strange - look people or unusually skilled performers , such as a fervidness - feeder or sword - swallower .
In addition , the compendium of rarity attend to as a publicity machine . Excitement would establish as Holy Scripture spread from town to town , and more and more people would clamor to see a three - legged serviceman or other draw . It was perhaps just as exciting – if not more so – than the actual circus itself .
One of the first instances of a freak show pass off in England in the mid-17th one C , and revolve around around Lazarus and Joannes Baptista Colloredo , conjoinedtwinswho were born in 1617 . Lazarus was said to be a handsome young man who happened to have a parasitic twin grow out of his body . The twin , who breathe on his own , did not corrode , open his eyes or verbalise . The brace made a life by put their medical curio on exhibit [ beginning : Royal College of Physicians ] .
By the mid-19th 100 , the circus freak show was about to descend into its own . English man of affairs Tom Norman gave it an entrepreneurial spin when he accumulate a company of hoi polloi with physical abnormalities and became a freak show showman known as the " Silver King " for his ability to draw in customers . His show admit Miss Norma , a char born without arms or legs , as well as the " World ’s Ugliest Woman " [ source : The University of Sheffield ] .
Norman ’s American twin , P.T. Barnum , developed a similar idea by first setting up a museum stocked with oddities and by 1871 had become the mastermind behind a nut show that traveled with his circus , " P.T. Barnum ’s Grand Traveling Museum , Menagerie , Caravan and Hippodrome " [ source : Jando ] .
Within a few years of P.T. Barnum ’s freak show gain , the construct became threadbare . It was typical to see strong-arm oddities advertize as part of a traveling circus , an idea that continue democratic until around World War II , when the prevail opinion shifted .
