13. Elmer McCurdy’s Name Is More Well-Known Today Than When He Was a Traveling Sideshow
During McCurdy’s after death sideshow attraction days, McCurdy’s name was forgotten. Eventually, people did not even know his body was a real corpse until a television crew member discovered it. While tourists began visiting his gravesite as soon as they could a few months after he was identified, popular culture did not catch on right away. In fact, except for a few small mentions, movies and television shows did not pay attention until a few years ago. One of his first popular culture references was in 1996 when the HBO documentary series Autopsy featured McCurdy’s tale.
The next known show to discuss McCurdy was BBC’s show Timewatch in 1998. After that, it was almost a decade before McCurdy popped up in more popular culture pieces. This time it was through a song by Rotary Downs. McCurdy’s story was the inspiration for both the song and music video. However, in the last couple of years, McCurdy’s story has been a part of several podcasts and television shows. In 2016, McCurdy was a part of the Futility Closet Podcast. Then in 2017, Ghost Adventures, The Memory Place, and Netflix’s The Toys that Made Us all featured McCurdy’s story.