Living skeleton
A living skeleton, or thin man, was a common sideshow act or dime museum exhibit. Like most sideshow acts, they were displayed under a multitude of titles, including in this case "human skeleton", "skeleton dude", and "cigarette fiend".[1] The act, which first appeared in the 18th century, peaked in the early 19th, and fell out of popularity in the late 19th and early 20th century.[2]
Unlike contemporary hunger artists, living skeletons usually claimed to eat normally.[3] Advertisements often emphasized their overall health, in contrast to their emaciated appearance.[2]
Nearly all living skeletons were male.[2] Circus managers often arranged for living skeletons to marry fat ladies as a publicity stunt.[1][4][5]
Sideshow historian Daniel P. Mannix writes that living skeletons were less popular as attractions than fat people.[6]
Professional living skeletons included:
- Isaac W. Sprague (1841–1887)
- Artie Atherton (1890–1920)
- John Rogan (1867–1905)
- Peter Robinson (1873–?)
- Claude-Ambroise Seurat (1798–?)
- James W. Coffey (1852–?)[7]
- John Battersby[1]
- Harry V. Lewis (1895–?)[1]
- Alexander Montarg[1]
- Eddie Masher (1896–1962)[1]
- Slim Curtis[1]
- Arthur Barnes[8]
- Walter L. Cole[8]
- D. J. Major[4]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Nickell, Joe (9 September 2005). Secrets of the Sideshows. University Press of Kentucky. pp. 101–105. ISBN 978-0-8131-2358-5. Retrieved 28 June 2025.
- 1 2 3 Gooldin, Sigal (1 June 2003). "Fasting Women, Living Skeletons and Hunger Artists: Spectacles of Body and Miracles at the Turn of a Century". Body & Society. 9 (2): 27–53. doi:10.1177/1357034X030092002. ISSN 1357-034X. Retrieved 28 June 2025.
- ↑ Mullaney, Jamie L. (2006). Everyone Is NOT Doing It: Abstinence and Personal Identity. University of Chicago Press. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-226-54756-5. Retrieved 28 June 2025.
- 1 2 Bogdan, Robert (2009). Freak show: presenting human oddities for amusement and profit (Paperback, [Nachdr.] ed.). Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226063127.
- ↑ Davis, Janet M. (2002). The Circus Age: Culture & Society Under the American Big Top. Univ of North Carolina Press. p. 120. ISBN 978-0-8078-5399-3. Retrieved 28 June 2025.
- ↑ Mannix, Daniel P. (1990). Freaks: we who are not as others. Re/Search Publications. p. 128. ISBN 978-0-940642-20-1.
- ↑ Hartzman, Marc (2006). American Sideshow. East Rutherford: Penguin Publishing Group. p. 30. ISBN 1585425303.
- 1 2 Stencell, A. W. (2010). Circus and carnival Ballyhoo: sideshow freaks, jaggers and blade box queens. Toronto: ECW Press. pp. 16, 249. ISBN 9781550228809.