Irene, Gulliver and Bunny

Photo Credit: Unknown
Date: 21 Apr 1924

Every carnival featured a freak show, often called a "ten-in-one" or "string show," consisting of a number of different acts appearing in a single tent. The freak show provided the mystery to a carnival and, although now moribund as an institution, it remains of abiding interest, with freak show paraphernalia commanding high prices by collectors. Most shows had at least one genuine lusus naturae--a fat woman, a living skeleton, Siamese twins--and a number of "made" acts. These ranged from outright frauds--a "Wild Man of Borneo" (or geek) who might have grown up in Brooklyn, or a mind-reader who worked his dazzling clairvoyance by means of an elaborate code--to acts that were semi-legitimate. Tattooed men, torture acts, sword-swallowers, and snake charmers were the most common sort of act, constituting a sort of middle class of the carnival world; they ranked slightly lower than nature's aristocrat, the freak, but far above the lowly geek.

To attract an audience, a "talker," a quick-talking announcer, would gather a crowd, attracted by the talker's "pitch" as well as by the exhibitions, several of whom would appear with him on the "bally platform" giving short demonstrations. This was called "turning the tip." Once the tip had been turned, that is, lured into paying the entrance fee, they would be further induced to buy cheap merchandise--photos, pamphlets, and the like--and then to pay an additional fee to see the "blow-off," a genuine freak--a fat man or woman, a bearded lady, pin-heads, or victims of other birth defects. A good "blow-off" could underwrite the operating expenses of a ten-in-one, therefore, freaks were a highly valued commodity. Carnival and carny alike were exotic, simultaneously feared and envied. The carnies rejection of the "normal" world, of proper society, was an affront, but it was also an invitation. In the midst of the Great Depression, when the traveling carnivals were at their most popular, customers could still be counted on to spend their hard-earned pennies. Perhaps it was because escape from the hardship of everyday life had assumed a monumental importance for the hard-pressed citizenry.

Source: St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture