Wild Men From Borneo

Photo Credit: Chicago Sun-Times
Date: 24 Dec 1935

In typical sideshow fashion, the "Wild Men of Borneo" were pure gimmick. The Davis Brothers, Hiram and Barney, were not from Borneo at all. Hiram was born in 1825 in England and Barney in 1827 in New York. The dynamic duo were dwarves, each standing only three and a half feet tall. The brothers began their exhibition career in 1852 after showman and promoter Lyman Warner purchased the brothers from their destitute and widowed mother. Warner created an intricate persona for the tiny brothers. Renaming them Waino and Plutano, he billed them as savages from darkest Borneo. Audiences at the time had likely heard of Borneo, but the area was still veiled in great mystery. As a result, the public swallowed the story completely and Warner was inspired to elaborate the fictional biography further. Warner created a promotional booklet, entitled What We Know About Waino and Plutano, Wild Men of Borneo, and within its pages their "capture" was detailed.

For their part, the brothers played their roles to the hilt. During exhibitions the "Wild Men" acted wild and spoke a strange gibberish language. Over time, the brother began to develop characters. Waino played a gentle savage character who read poems while Plutano played a trickster and stubborn character. Both brothers were remarkable strong for their size and would often lift volunteers from the audience off their feet. Warner passed away in 1871, and his son Hanford took over possession of the duo until they became involved with P.T. Barnum and his traveling exhibitions in 1880. Hiram (Waino) died of natural causes in 1905, and seven years later, in March of 1912, Barney joined his brother at the age of 85. The brothers were laid to rest side by side in Mount Vernon, Ohio, but their legacy lived on as several traveling carnivals would incorporate the "Wild Men of Borneo" act into their shows.

Source: The Human Marvels