Back in 2017, I recalled a memory made in the summer of 1976... "In Minneapolis, I went early to the Minnesota State Fair, so early in the day in fact that when I went into the tent to observe The Fattest Man in the World he was still having his lunch - several hamburgers and a massive bowl of french fries. He was huge and blubbery. There was just me and him. He kept on eating and we didn't exchange a word. It was a very strange meeting. He didn't seem to be relishing his food, just masticating like a grazing bull."
I can still picture those moments vividly and they came back to the surface of my mind as I thought about William Bradley - The Yorkshire Giant. Like The Fattest Man, William Bradley also spent time in freak-shows connected with travelling fairs. He became a popular attraction - far more popular than the massive pig that was reared in Sancton near Market Weighton. He became so well-known that he was even presented to King George III who gave him a gold watch.
Bradley broke away from his agent and in his late twenties kept all admission fees to himself. At a shilling a visit, he soon accrued significant wealth - presumably enough money to have a house specially built in his home town with his lofty dimensions in mind.
He died at the age of 33 and ultimately he was buried inside the local church for fear of possible grave robbers outside.
Nowadays, most of us find the idea of human freak shows revolting. We appreciate that it is humane and decent to respect other people's differences and this includes physical differences. It can't have been easy being William Bradley or indeed "The Fattest Man in the World".
Mostly, people cannot help how Nature has made them - be they Siamese twins, bearded ladies, dwarves or hunchbacks. The so-called "freaks" have enough to deal with just coping with the knowledge that they look different from the norm. How much harder that battle must be when you are being mocked, stared at or denied full acknowledgement of your human status, your equality.
Personally, I am a little bit ashamed of myself for paying five dollars to see The Fattest Man in the World. I certainly would not do such a thing today.
I'm fairly sure people were generally leaner back then and a fat person would be more of a novelty than one would be now.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point Andrew.
DeleteAt the time we were young the exhibitions displayed many freaks. I didn't hand over my 50 cents.
ReplyDeleteSo whose fifty cents did you hand over?
DeleteSo, how much WOULD you pay?
ReplyDeleteYou misunderstand me Mr Taylor... I suspect deliberately!
DeleteA good reminder that what is morally acceptable is actually a moving target. There are several things now I wouldn’t say or do now but was very acceptable to do in my youth.
ReplyDeleteI imagine being a freak was a way to make a living, when other means were not available. This post reminded me of the movie "Big Fish".
ReplyDeleteWell - that's not a film (movie) I have heard about before.
DeleteAfter reading your previous post, I looked up William Bradley and found the information you have included in today's post on wikipedia, too, and it set me thinking pretty much along the same lines.
ReplyDeleteDo you know the film Elephant Man?
As for people's relationship to freak shows - nowadays, there are programs on TV called "My Life at 300 kg" and similar, all following the lives of people who would have been part of such freak shows in earlier times. We as a species seem to have a strange and unwholesome fascination with what is way out of what we consider normal.
"The Elephant Man" makes the point very well and a very apposite connection. In the film, John Merrick calls out "I am not an elephant! I am not an animal! I am a human being! I am a man!"
DeleteA lad at school said he actually paid at a fairground tent to see a man eating fish. Why did he feel so surprised and cheated when that was exactly what he saw?
ReplyDeleteI would pay to see Boris Johnson in a cage with a couple of hungry rottweilers.
DeleteA lad actually paid to see a man eating fish, probably with chips, slathered in plenty of vinegar and salt - all wrapped in a day old copy of the Daily Mirror?
DeleteWhen we KNOW better, we DO better.
ReplyDeleteHopefully a man of 68 is wiser than a man of 22.
DeleteIt's true what they say, when you know better, you do better.
ReplyDeleteI had never heard that saying before but it's true.
DeleteI think that society in general has changed a great deal when it comes to people who are different. I hope so.
ReplyDeleteThere's more consciousness now.
DeleteBeautiful blog
ReplyDeleteI agree Rajani!
DeleteI don't think I ever went to any of those so-called "freak shows" but I remember seeing the tents at the county fair. I wonder how much the performers had to work to maintain their "freakishness" (for lack of a better word). Did the fattest man, for example, have to force himself to eat multiple hamburgers in order to keep his job, or was he really hungry for them?
ReplyDeleteThe way the fattest man looked at me, I would say he probably had mental health issues.
DeleteWell, it is on TV and the internet now. But I won't watch it there either.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought of it like that.
DeleteFreak shows are definitely a thing of the past. Although, like Meike, I think about tv shows like "Hoarders" and "My 600 Pound Life" and wonder if we're really any more enlightened today. I would argue...probably not.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point. We have a show on TV - from America - called "The Pimple Doctor". That seems to be about modern day "freaks" of nature,
DeleteI remember seeing the posters outside the tents when I went to the circus aged about 12 I think. Just the posters was enough, I wasn't going to hand over my coins to see the real thing. Those coins were for ice cream!
ReplyDelete