Prince Randian, The Human Torso
Unsurprisingly, the man who would go on to find fame as Prince Randian was not born into royalty. In fact, he was born to slave parents in what was then British Guyana in the Caribbean in the year 1871. He was born with tetra-amelia syndrome, meaning he had no arms and no legs. But this didn’t stop him from becoming rich and famous, though he did so with the help of P.T. Barnum.
The legend has it that Barnum learned about the limbless young man in 1899. That same year, he arranged his passage to the United States. Aged 18, he became a star of Barnum’s shows, including the one he ran on Coney Island. Named Prince Randian and given an exotic back story, he would also tour with Barnum’s traveling circus, and was in fact active in showbusiness for an incredible 45 years.
The audience paid not just to look at Prince Randian, but to see him perform. Above all, he was famous for his ability to roll and then light cigarettes using just his lips – a trick he performed for the MGM movie Freaks. Prince Randian would also paint and write, using his mouth to hold a brush or pen. Away from the circus, he married and even fathered three daughters and a son. He made a home for his family in an upscale part of New York City and carried on working into his 60s, and in fact, had been working on the day he died of a heart attack in December 1963.