I’ve always said that freak shows are a gateway drug to Australia.
–Wil Anderson
first off, highly recommended book for any Rube: The Museum of Hoaxes
* Alex Boese. Also highly recommended recruitment tool for Rubes-to-be.
The Art of Money Getting; Or, Golden Rules for Making Money
* P. T. Barnum (free for Kindle; this one should be a hoot, and highly quotable)
The Colossal P. T. Barnum Reader: NOTHING ELSE LIKE IT IN THE UNIVERSE
* P. T. Barnum, ed. James W. Cook
P. T. Barnum: America’s Greatest Showman
* Phillip B. Kunhardt Jr., Phillip B. Kunhardt III (great photo of Barnum with General Tom Thumb on the cover)
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
* Charles MacKay
upcoming movie announcement, thanks to Wikipedia:
The Greatest Showman on Earth (2017) A musical biographical drama film will center around the origins of P. T. Barnum and his circus. Hugh Jackman has been cast as Barnum and will co-produce the film, Michael Gracey will direct from a script written by Jenny Bicks and Bill Condon. The film is set to be released on December 25, 2017.
IMDb link for The Greatest Showman on Earth, filming summer of 2016
Don’t forget our dear Oofty Goofty
barnummuseumexhibitions.org: Jumbo the Elephant
Jumbo: This Being the True Story of the Greatest Elephant in the World
* Paul Chambers
- Instructions for throwing a gel boomerang
- boomerangs.org: Throwing and catching a boomerang
- How to make an origami boomerang because why not
The Ethnological Congress of Savage Tribes:
- Professional Savages: Captive Lives and Western Spectacle (review) * Nadja Durbach, John Hopkins University
- “Skinless Wonders”: Body Worlds and the Victorian Freak Show * (downloadable pdf) Nadja Durbach. ““Skinless Wonders”: Body Worlds and the Victorian Freak Show.” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 69.1 (2014): 38-67. Project MUSE. Web. 9 Feb. 2016. <https://muse.jhu.edu/>.
- Nanook of the North (1922)
- Eskimo (1933)
sideshowworld.com: dime museums
Coney Island Circus Sideshow–still alive and kicking
Oh, yeah, and that mummy museum in Berlin? Totes a thing. Here’s its trip advisor review. If you go, I demand photos: Neues Museum
Address: Bodestrasse 1-3, 10178 Berlin, Germany Phone Number: 49(0)30 266 42-4242 Oh, and can’t wrap your modern brain around this 19th century weirdness of people as purchased entertainment? I have a movie suggestion, then; comedy doing its job of teaching really uncomfortable truths through laughter and farce: The Toy (1982), Jackie Gleason and Richard Pryor. A rich white kid is offered anything he wants in the toy store…and he chooses the black man who works there.
Band names from this episode:
- Giant Dwarves
- The Bearded Man
- Nickels in the Dime Museum (dibs. DIBS.)
- Pink Knickerbockers
- Jenny From the Rock
Cultural references from this episode:
- Rainman
- Big
- The Incredible Hulk
- Splendor in the Grass
- Shaka Zulu
- The Wiggles
- Ringo Starr as the Conductor
- Weekend at Bernie’s