6. The sideshows were a large part of Barnum and Bailey’s success
Besides the shows presented under the Big Top by Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey, and smaller circuses around the country, customers were attracted to the sideshows and midways, where barkers attempted to draw them in to see the strange wonders therein. It was in the sideshows where patrons could view attractions such as bearded ladies, wild men from Borneo and other exotic locales, the famed Elephant Man, a three-legged man, encephalitic dwarves, and other shamelessly exploitive displays of the unfortunate. Barnum’s circus, before his death, was well-known for the displays on their sideshows, and they continued the practice for long after he was gone.
Among the attractions touted by Barnum and Bailey’s was the Human Snake, also known as Prince Randian, born in what was then British Guiana. Prince Randian suffered from tetra-amelia syndrome, born without arms and legs. Randian slithered about like a snake, and amazed his audiences by rolling his own cigarettes using his lips and mouth. Although as with other “acts” presented in the sideshows in an almost inhuman manner, the exploitation of the individuals presented allowed them to earn a meager living which would otherwise have been denied to them in the harsher age in which they lived. One sideshow performer, Annie Jones, a bearded woman, became a leading proponent of discouraging the use of the word “freak” to describe those who were so shamelessly displayed for profit.