Since it is October already and halloween is just around the corner…I decided to share this fun project i created with you… inspired by The Freak Show which was an exhibition of freaks, monstrosities and marvels of nature, an essential component of a travelling exhibition in Europe and America throughout the Victorian Period. Anita the Living Doll appeared at the Sheffield Jungle for the one-off visit in April 1911, marking a change from animal-based attractions. The Sheffield Independent newspaper from the 15th April reports from a presentation of Anita at the Grand Hotel, this venue newly opened and often chosen for Jungle publicity events. The attraction is shown initially as some kind of educational or scientific phenomenon, achieved through the careful invitation of medical specialists, academics and civic dignitaries. The press report quickly switches to building the anticipation of Anita as a spectacle. She is described as being 26 Years of age and 26 inches in height, weighing 13 pounds. Her intelligence is mentioned, with Anita speaking German, English and French alongside her native Hungarian. The advertisements for her visit to the Jungle describe her variously as a “living doll”, “human atom” and “veritable Venus”. Dwarf and midget exhibitors such as Major Mite, Harold Pyott (the English Tom Thumb) and Bostock’s own Anita the Living Doll followed in the example of Charles Stratton and became highly successful sideshow novelties. The effect of Barnum on the English showmen and the public was immense and many of the subsequent tricks like midget weddings, births and comic tricks can be traced directly back to him. The rise of the Lilliputian villages or towns, for example, presented by John Lester and Fred Roper in the 1920s and 1930s were a continuation of Barnum’s Lilliputian Congress of Nations.
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