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freak show:
sideshow banner
art
by carl hammer
and gideon bosker
reviewed by
Victor M. Cassidy
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Snap Wyatt
Sweet Marie c.1940s
Johnny Meah
Electra
Johnny Meah
Lady Loretta....
Al Renton
Eeka As She Is Today,
Jack Sigler
Penguin Boy
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Carl Hammer, a Chicago art dealer who
champions naive and outsider artists, got
interested in sideshow banners in 1983
after reading a Life Magazine article about
a sword swallower. Hammer journeyed to
Gibsonton, Fla.--"Showtown USA," where
circus people winter--and met a retired
master banner-painter who "brought all of
the sideshow world to life" for him. Over
the next dozen years, Hammer acquired and
sold numerous banners and talked to many of
the artists who made them.
Freak Show tells us everything we will ever
want to know about sideshow banners. Eighty
are reproduced in full color, including one
depicting "Eeka the Cannibal Girl," Penguin
Boy ("21 inches small"), a four-legged
duck, the Cyclops Pig with Elephant's Trunk
and all 643 pounds of Sweet Marie.
Traveling freak shows originated in England
and the U.S. during the 19th century,
peaked after World War I, and were all but
wiped out during the `50s by television and
changes in taste. These entertainments,
which accompanied circuses and carnivals,
were advertised with canvas banners which
had to be durable since they were out in
all sorts of weather. A typical banner
lasted from three to four years.
"As an artistic tradition," says Hammer,
"the sideshow banner combined the sizzle,
sex and voyeuristic aspects of vernacular
art with the more sublime features of high
art." He quotes an art historian who
(preposterously) discerns "numerous
influences" on the banners -- "the Flemish
techniques of 17th-century Dutch
painting... the French and Spanish Barbizon
school...Japanese wood-block prints...[and]
baroque portraiture."
David C. ("Snap") Wyatt was one of the most
prolific banner painters. He attended art
classes at Cooper Union and started his
career by creating three-dimensional
displays for department stores and
traveling shows. At one point, the Barnum &
Bailey shows commissioned Wyatt to paint 90
banners.
The artist worked by stretching the canvas
on a frame and drawing with charcoal that
was affixed to the end of a long bamboo
pole. He used oil-based paint mixed with
water and casein, wore out a set of brushes
on each job, and took about seven hours to
complete a banner. Wyatt was paid an hourly
wage plus his materials. He worked from
imagination and rarely saw his subject.
This explains why sideshow banners were
typically more exciting than the reality
inside the tent.
Human freaks often had a birth defect or an
unusual affliction like ichthyosis--
extremely dry, scaly skin -- which they
exploited to become "Alligator Man."
Promoters purchased animals with odd
defects (e.g., a two-headed calf), from
farmers, showed them for years, and stuffed
them after they died.
Despite being gaped at all day, the human
freaks maintained their dignity. Offstage
they acted just like the rest of us. Emmitt
Bejano, the "Alligator Man," fell in love
with Priscilla Lauther, the "Monkey Girl,"
who had a hormonal imbalance that caused a
coat of silken hair to grow all over her
body. Priscilla's foster father disapproved
of Emmitt, so the two smuggled letters to
each other until 1938 when they eloped. The
local newspaper headlined its account of
their romance: "Monkey Girl Kidnapped by
Alligator Man."
Victor M. Cassidy is an art journalist based
in Chicago.
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