Attention sideshow banner collectors! I’ve just been informed that an original Snap Wyatt banner of The Viking Giant has turned up at an estate and will be sold at a public auction in Kansas City, MO on May 20th at 10 am. (Click here to view auction details.) Although it’s not the clearest image, you [...]
Here’s a freaky, feel-good story to warm the heart this holiday season: In a reversal of fortunes, a once-unwanted cat has come to the rescue of an animal shelter in need of a new home. However, this orange-and-white tabby named Daniel is no typical cat. He has a near-record 26 toes, a phenomenon that is [...]
Hurry, Hurry, Step right up and check out this original 1940s footage from the Coney Island Freak Show. You’ll see the talker make his pitch, the banner line, actual pinheads and more:
Drew Friedman is a pop culture caricature artist who recently turned his talents towards the freakshow community for his illustrated book, Drew Friedman’s Sideshow Freaks. Influenced by his childhood excursions to Coney Island during the 60s and 70s, Friedman breathes new life into these characters by affectionately displaying “50 of his favorite historic human oddities [...]
HeyRubeCircus has featured two Top 10 Freak Lists this week, and I found both of them to be severely lacking in certain regards. To compensate for my criticism, I’ve promised to publish a Top 10 List of my own and today is the official unveiling! In the modern sideshow revival, stunt acts are exceedingly more [...]
Last week, we reviewed MSN’s 10 Freakiest Freak Show Acts of All Time, which was admittedly a little scattered and inconsistent. In response, some of my readers sent me alternative top 10 freaky lists, and today, I would like to turn to listverse.com‘s Top 10 Human Sideshow Freaks: Joseph Merrick– The Elephant Man: This celebrated [...]
MSN.com has just announced the 10 Freakiest Freak Show Acts of All Time, which is no easy list to make, neither for a freak show performer nor for the author of this list. There are entire encyclopedias of famous anatomical oddities and countless icons of the sideshow world. Where does one begin? Well, here’s what [...]
Hot off the press! Director, creature actor and special effects makeup artist Tom Woodruff, Jr has just revealed an upcoming project sure to please sideshow lovers and horror fans alike. The film, which will be titled Sideshow, is being kept under wraps for now, but a few details have been leaked. The plot supposedly “involves [...]
Yet another freaky Coney Island attraction has gone under. Shoot the Freak, a game offering passersby the opportunity to shoot paint balls at a man donning a trash can lid shield and diving between various pieces of junk, has lost its license. The following article was recently featured on gawker.com: For all of you who [...]
The freak show enjoyed a glorious heyday spanning from approximately 1850-1930. The downfall of the freak show can largely be attributed to the rise of modern medicine. According to CircusGuide, Advances in medicine and political changes all but sounded the death knell for the freak show. As previously mysterious anomalies were scientifically explained as genetic [...]