The freaks are no different than any other group, they have their own peculiar code, but it’s really no different than a gated community might have a neighborhood watch. Rounding out the cast is Schlitzie as himself the intersexual Josephine Joseph as Half Woman-Half Man Rose Dione as Madame Tetrallini Peter Robinson as Human Skeleton Olga Roderick as the Bearded Lady Koo Koo, who had Virchow-Seckel syndrome, played herself Martha Morris as Angeleno’s Armless Wife Elvira Snow as Pinhead Pip Jenny Lee Snow as Pinhead Zip Elizabeth Green as Bird Girl Delmo Fritz as Sword Swallower Angelo Rossitto as Angeleno and Edward Brophy and Matt McHugh as the Rollo Brothers.įreaksis a soap opera, like Peyton Place or General Hospital. The ladies’ man Hercules is played by Henry Victor, who was in the 1916 version of The Picture of Dorian Gray and would go on to play Captain Schultz in the 1942 comedy To Be Or Not To Be. Former concert violinist Roscoe Ates stuttered jealously as Roscoe. The Armless Girl, who eats, drinks and smokes with her feet, was played by Frances O’Connor, who performed as a living Venus de Milo.Ĭowboy actor Wallace Ford, who appeared in more than 200 movies, plays the sensitive clown Phroso. Leonardo DiCaprio has been trying to make a movie out of the story of his life since the 1990s. Eck was a sideshow performer, actor, artist, photographer, illusionist and ran a penny arcade. Half Boy was played by Johnny Eck, the Gooney Bird from Tarzan pictures. The forensics report said Daisy died first and Violet died two to four days later. The sisters were discovered dead in 1969 of Hong Kong flu. They tap-danced with Bob Hope as the Dancemedians in 1926. The Hilton sisters had been performing in Europe since they were three, but their management kept their money. The Siamese Twins were played by Daisy and Violet Hilton. The multilingual performer would ultimately have four daughters and a son with Princess Sarah. Barnum sideshow performer who had tetra-amelia syndrome. She is as much hurt for Han as she is for herself when she sees him degraded.Īs the Human Torso who lights a cigarette using only his mouth (I’d love to see the footage of him rolling it), Browning cast The Human Caterpillar, Prince Randian, a limbless P.T. His sister, Daisy Earles, is heartbreaking as Frieda. He would go on to be one of the Lollipop Guild in The Wizard of Oz, which featured the whole family. Earles was the one who suggested using the magazine story to Browning. Harry Earles played Tweedledee in Browning’s The Unholy Three in 1925 and he reprised his role along with Lon Chaney in the 1930 Jack Conway-directed sound remake. As Han and Frieda, the young lovers at the heart of the film, he used members of the Earles family troupe “The Moving Picture Midgets,” best known for their work with Laurel and Hardy. They certainly could be more magnetic.īrowning cast carnival performers and real people with deformities instead of using makeup. Sometimes his monsters weren’t as monstrous as the people around them. He brought nuance and empathy to his monsters. In the early days of film, Tod Browning explored the tortured psyche of the outcast in his cinematic collaborations with Lon Chaney. As comfortable as I am here at Den of Geek, I would feel just at home in a Den of Freaks, as a search through some of my other writings will bear out. I convinced my old editor in chief at the now-defunct horror fiction magazine Wicked Mystic to co-sponsor along with my Vampyr Theatre, a fundraiser at Irving Plaza to save the Brooklyn landmark from the encroaching chain-mail commercialism of McDonald’s.įreak shows are cons. One of us” was a cheerful invitation to explore the world of pinheads, cretins, and outcasts and never had I felt so at home. I have to thank the Ramones for introducing me to Freaks.
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