For centuries the fair was the place where your curiosity could be roused. Attractions like freak shows and cabinets of curiosities have disappeared from the fair. Modern forms of entertainment and communication have changed how we satisfy our curiosity as well as what we find exotic.
Nowadays we’re used to sources of information like the internet, radio and television. Far into the 20th century fairgoers could gratify their curiosity with ‘strange’ fairground attractions. Most of them have disappeared since libraries, museums and animal parks became accessible to the general public. But the fair used to be the place where you could get acquainted with curiosities and exotica. In a waxworks show, for example, fairgoers could see models of famous people. But there were also living attractions: at freak shows you could meet exceptional people like bearded ladies, Chinamen, midgets, pygmies and Siamese twins. Other showmen presented curiosities such as five-legged sheep or giraffes. Animal trainers and their ‘wild animals’ were also very popular. They gradually moved from the fair to the circus.
Steel engraving of Madame Josephine Fortune Clofullia, Bearded Lady. Wonder why she didn’t grow a moustache as well. Taken from Gleason’s Pictorial Drawing Room Companion (1860s).
A flea circus. This one was owned by monsieur Bertolotte de Bendres.
This woman switched her stole for a boa constrictor. The snake charmer was part of Bostock and Wombwell’s Menagerie Show. Nottingham Goose Fair, 1924.
A fine example of a Waxworks Museum belonging to Evio Serravalli from Bergantino still travelling in the 1970's. The waxworks originally came from the Vatican Museum.
Bostock and Wombwell’s Menagerie in the Market Square at Nottingham Goose Fair in 1906.
Acrobats specialize in unnatural poses.
The disfigured Miss Rosina made a living at the fair.
A midget wondering whether to smoke or not.
Here we see two pairs of siamese twins who were shown on a fairground. In the first image we see them as small children whilst in the second they are older - almost young women.
These sorts of shows are no longer in vogue but 150 years ago they were great talking points and audiences would pay considerable sums to see them.
The inhabitants of Schneider’s Midget Town.
This young negress is not only Roman-Catholic, she is also very hairy.
Francesco Lentini from Sicily didn’t succeed as a football player.
Lionel, the Lion Man, already could use a serious haircut at the age of 5.
Tippler White presented Barney and Joy Worth as the world’s heaviest married couple. Hull Fair, 1947.
Rita Cauda performed as Donna Cannone. Photo from the 1960s. Cauda, who weighed 260 kilos, was one of the last hulks being exhibited at Italian fairs. Her impresario was Gustavo Cottino, a then famous quack.
Antonietta was one of the stars of the Italian Freak Shows.
The German Fasting Boy. This so-called Hungerkünstler (Hunger-artist) fasted professionally. He was exhibited between 1898 and 1914. 10.000 people reputedly attended his 1910 Turin appearance. The man lived on a diet of caffeine and nicotine. He was married with three children.
The fair was a place where you could confront the strange and the bizarre.
In a not so distant past you could find yourself face to face with exotic and unusual human beings who would fill the inexperienced spectator with delight, horror or simply incomprehension.