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Pip and Flip: A duet of sisters with "pinheads" from the circus of freaks. Real people from the circus show freaks Chang and Eng - "Siamese Twins"

The fate of people born with certain physical disabilities in the twentieth century was deplorable: as a rule, they became objects of ridicule, performing in circuses for the amusement of the public. The audience was horrified and laughed, surprised and could not believe their eyes. Duo of the Snow sisters from Georgia“famous” for his extraordinary behavior: adult girls with tiny heads and a level of development, like those of young children, bribed with naivety and simplicity. To explain their strange habits, the organizers went to some tricks ...

"Pip and Flip"- that was the name of the creative duet. Despite the fact that sisters Jenny Lee and Elvira were born in Georgia, the organizers of their performances assured the audience that these girls were Indians from the Yucatan. The Americans willingly believed that this is exactly what the representatives of the Aztec or Mayan tribes should look like, so they looked with interest at the tiny heads of Jenny and Elvira.

The real reason for their strange appearance was, of course, something else. Both girls had a congenital disease - microcephaly. In this case, the cranium does not develop in the process of growth and maturation, and at the same time the brain remains the same as in a small child. Over the years, the appearance of such people becomes more and more impartial. The girls' parents were pragmatic and cruel people. The babies were born with a difference of 12 years, both of them were sent to the circus so that the rest of the family could live comfortably on the fees.

The career of the Snow sisters began with the film Freaks, in which people with all sorts of physical and intellectual disabilities performed the acting roles. Later - they were invited to work in the "World Circus Sideshow".
The fate of the sisters turned out differently: the youngest died young at the age of 21, and the eldest lived a long life and even celebrated her 75th birthday.

These are real people whose physical oddities attract visitors to stop and stare. These people are exploited as freaks of nature, but many of their stories are much more interesting than their appearance.

(13 photos)

Joseph Merrick - "The Elephant Man"

Joseph Merrick was born in 1862 with multiple genetic defects that covered him from head to toe, including a number of tumors and growths all over his body. Changes in his appearance began to appear when he was five years old, and his parents claimed that this was the fault of his mother when she was pregnant. It was difficult for him to find work, so he agreed to be shown in the circus on freak show in order to earn a living. He died in 1890 in his sleep. Joseph had a habit of sleeping sitting up, because if he slept lying down, he could suffocate.

Eli Bowen - "Legless Miracle"

Bowen was not just a man without legs, he mesmerized the audience by doing somersaults, somersaults and other tricks. His diagnosis was phocomelia (congenital absence of limbs). He died at the circus at the age of 79.

Lucia Zarate - Doll Woman

Zarate still holds the record for being the smallest person to ever live on this planet. She was born in 1864 with congenital dwarfism type 2 (Mayevsky's syndrome). As an adult, she weighed only 4 kilograms. She died of hypothermia at the age of 26 after the train she was on was stopped by a snow storm.

Minnie Woolsey - "ko, ko bird girl"

Minnie Woolsey was born in 1880. When she died is not known, but accounts showed she was still alive in 1960. Woolsey suffered from the rare Virchow-Seckel skeletal syndrome, which was characterized by her very short stature, small head, narrow, aquiline-nosed bird face, large eyes, sloping chin and large ears, and slow reaction time. Woolsey was completely blind.

Elvira and Jenny Lee Snow - "Pip and Flip"

Elvira was born in Hartwell in March 1901, Jenny Lee is twelve years younger than her sister. Parents actually rented out unusual offspring to various circuses in order to support a large family with the dollars they received.

Pip and Flip were born with microcephaly, a developmental disorder in which the vault of the skull stops growing, and with it the brain. The face continues to develop normally. If such a child survives, then over the years the deformity becomes stronger and more pronounced, despite the fact that microcephaly remains people of small, but not dwarf stature, with insufficient body weight for life.

Fred Wilson - "Shrimp"

Fred Wilson was born in 1866 in Massachusetts with a congenital disease called ectrodactyly. The condition was like his hands and feet, and it is said that he had a slight dental deformity as well. While Grady Styles, Jr. was more famous for "Lobster Boy," said Wilson was the first professional sideshow performer.

Annie Jones - The Bearded Lady

Annie Jones was born on July 14, 1865, when she was 5 years old, she already had a mustache and sideburns. Incredibly, she was kidnapped and used for private showings, eventually running away to her parents' house. As an adult, she toured with showman Phineas Barnum as a sideshow attraction. She married twice and hated the word "freaks." She died at the young age of 37 from tuberculosis.

Josephine Corbin - "Four-Legged Woman"

Josephine Myrtle Corbin was born on May 12, 1868 with a pathology dipygus which means she had two pelvises and four legs. she could move her inner legs, but they were too weak to walk on. Throughout her life she worked as an actress in traveling circuses, in addition, she attracted serious attention from doctors of her time. She died of a streptococcal skin infection.

Alice E. Doherty - American Werewolf

Alice Elizabeth Doherty was born March 14, 1887 in Minnesota, USA in an ordinary family with healthy, beautiful children.

At birth, Alice's face was covered in silky blond hair two inches long. Parents were shocked by the news - the girl has congenital hypertrichosis. The condition is extremely rare and unusual. "Kind" people nicknamed Alice - American Werewolf.

Isaac Sprague - Skeleton Boy

Sprague did not show any signs of physical abnormalities until he was 12 years old. The Massachusetts native had a normal childhood and then almost suddenly began to lose weight. Some have described him as having severe muscular atrophy and "thanks" to his condition, he was unable to find a proper job. began traveling with Phineas Barnum.
167.6 cm in height and at the age of 44 years his weight was 19.5 kg. At 46, he died of asphyxiation.

Schlitzie

His real name or place of birth is still a mystery, but it is known that he was born in 1901. He, as "Pip and Flip," was also featured in the movie "Freaks." Born with microcephaly with the mental capacity of a 3 year old. In accordance with the traditional practice of those times, it can be assumed that Schlitzie was bought or simply taken from his biological parents, about whom no information remains, by street circus performers. His guardians were, as a rule, his employers, sometimes legally and sometimes only de facto. Responsibility for him passed from one person to another as the circus attractions where he performed were sold. Schlitzie died on September 24, 1971 at the age of approximately 70 from pneumonia.

Millie and Christine McCoy - "Two-Headed Nightingale"

These girls (1851-1912) were born into slavery. They and their mother were sold to showman Joseph Smith. Smith and his wife took on the task of raising the girls. Ultimately, the Siamese twins learned to speak five languages, as well as sing, dance and play musical instruments.
People knew them as the "two-headed nightingale". In the 1880s, the "girls" retired and bought themselves a small farm. Millie died of tuberculosis at age 61, and Christina died a few hours later.
They are one of the first Siamese twins to live that long.

Chang and Eng - "Siamese Twins"

Cases of the birth of twins fused with any parts of the bodies have been known since ancient times. It has been established that in England around 1100 the conjoined sisters Hulkurst, Helisa and Mary, were born, who lived for 34 years.

An interesting detail: after the death of the sisters, the nearby Catholic monastery inherited 20 acres of land that belonged to them, but with the condition that every year on Easter the buns in the monastery will be baked for distribution to the parishioners in the form of their general appearance.

It is said that this tradition continues to this day. And on May 11, 1811, in Siam (now Thailand), in the village of Meklong, not far from the capital of the country, Bangkok, two boys, Rong and Ying, were born in a simple peasant family, connected in the sternum with a “live sleeve”.

Pip and Flip: a duet of sisters with tiny heads

Circus poster: Yucatan twins

Photo of the Snow sisters

A frame from the film banned from showing * Freaks *

What to do if a microcephalic was born? Buried alive in a boarding school or go to show yourself for money. The second version of fate for a person with a very small head in the days before World War II was quite good and real, like crossing a person with a gorilla. Known for their roles in the 1932 vintage horror film Freaks, the Georgia Snow sisters unknowingly made a good career out of their unusual appearance at the World Circus Sideshow.

The owners of the freak show gave Jenny Lee and Elvira Snow the pseudonyms Pip and Flip (Pip and Zip in the Tod Browning film), and represented them, American citizens, as "Indians from the Yucatan." At that time, among the townsfolk, the opinion was supported that with such a head shape as that of Pip and Flip, mysterious Mexican natives - the Aztecs and / or Mayans - were born.

In Coney Island and on tour, the Snow sisters have been working since 1929 as "pinheads" - "pinheads", whose heads were shaved under a forelock with a bow on purpose. The most famous "genderless" American freak of this role is the incomparable one, which we wrote about a few years ago.

Pip and Flip were no more intelligent than a kindergarten child, they were playful and harmless, like normal human babies. At the height of their circus careers, the Snow sisters earned $75 a week each, a good salary by pre-war standards. Few people were as fortunate in finding employment during the Great Depression. Moreover, the “pinheads” didn’t have to work particularly hard - one of their appearance and antics delighted the visitors of the freak show. In the winter, the sisters were taken home to Georgia with vacation money, where they indulged in nothing.

Unfortunately, the younger sister - Jenny Lee - passed away at the zenith of fame and a young age, on August 27, 1934. Elvira was written more in her family. She lived until November 1976 and died at the age of 75.