Lake George, NY, Aug 5 – SHORT CIRCUIT
Three-foot high Ruthie Soucek solves her height problem by utilizing the shelf in a telephone booth at Lake George, NY. She is a member of a performing group appearing in this community. – AP Wirephoto 1977
Another slow news day photograph. So if a newspaper had some extra column space to fill, this photo and caption might appear. Unfortunately the photographer is uncredited. Continue reading
Queen Elizabeth II died September 8, 2022 at age 96 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. Continue reading
credit: Los Angeles Daily News 1953
Elephants in the streets?
It must be for the circus and they’re transporting their pachyderms to a show site.
But this is Los Angeles where movie magic can be the reason behind unusual happenings. Continue reading
There are many children who are afraid of clowns. Not me. I just don’t like clowns. My bodyguard Klaatu, has even had to punch out a few when they have come too close to me.
But there are few adults that suffer a severe fear of clowns. The name for this rare condition is Coulrophobia, the excessive fear of clowns.
Paintings of clowns may not bring about fear so much as repulsion. How anyone could appreciate unfunny comedian Red Skelton or his art, often involving self portraits of him dressed as a clown has always been a mystery to me.
What is worse than a painting of one clown?
A bad painting of four clowns.
While recently in Maine, I stumbled across this monstrosity. If you wish to possibly induce a case of Coulrophobia in someone here is a prime candidate.
The artist’s name Continue reading
The following article is from Chicago’s The Saturday Blade newspaper July 18, 1914:
New York, July 16 – Mr. and Mrs. Marshall Tanner and their four giant children, known to circus folk as the “Fat Family” have been sent to the country by kindly disposed women who became interested in their case. Tanner is going to rest for a week or so and then he will try to get a job.
“I guess by the time we’re all rested up some show will come along that’s a real one,” said Mrs. Tanner the thin mother of the fat children.
The last show the Tanners were in was not a real one. It went broke and Mr. and Mrs. Tanner were compelled to appeal to give their babies shelter and food lest they starve to death.
“Buster” Tanner, 5 years old is the heaviest, his weight being 187 pounds. Little Doris, alias “Snookums,” is six months old and weighs 63 pounds. The others, Barnard and Alvin, 2 and 3 years old, would take prizes for weight at any baby show, though they look thin beside the youngest and oldest of the four. The home of the Tanners is Nicholson, GA.
Today the media and public would either exploit this family or call to prosecute them for child abuse. Remember the Honey Boo Boo craze? In 1914 there was nothing wrong with the word fat or being fat. Today calling someone fat is considered “body shaming” by this generation’s snowflake word censors.
Figuring Coney Island would be a good place to get employment the Fat Family came looking for a sideshow.
The Fat Family’s father Marshall explained to a Brooklyn police lieutenant that they had come from Chicopee, MA where the circus had gone bust owing them $100. “We had just enough money to get to New York and we came. Here we are now. We have no engagement, no money, no food and no place to sleep. Not having food is a serious matter.” And in what may be the biggest understatement, Mr. Tanner added, ” The children are fond of eating.”
The news story had no substantial follow up, and the Fat Family Continue reading
It must have been a slow news day when this item went out over the news wire.
A Fishy Kiss
Des Moines, Iowa – Finny, the goldfish, bestows on his mistress, Mrs. George Wolfe, Des Moines, Iowa, his usual good morning kiss. Then he gets his breakfast. photo: Acme 2/24/1944
Pére Lachaise Cemetery photo: Stuffnobodycaresabout.com
“Is there really a body in there?” is usually not one of the questions you ask yourself when visiting a grave. But this is no ordinary grave. Continue reading
Baby Ruth Pontico Ringling Bros Circus Fat Lady 1941 photo AP
Weighing 16 pounds at birth does not necessarily mean you will become the Fat Lady of the circus. But during a time in history when people enjoyed staring at human oddities, its better to be paid for having people gawk at you.
Ruth Smith was born on February 8, 1902 in Kempton, Indiana. At age one her weight was fifty pounds. By age ten she was 300 pounds. Continue reading
When I was young I enjoyed dying eggs for Easter. The “sport” that followed was the Easter Egg hunt, looking around the house for those hidden decorated eggs.
So I was intrigued when I came across Continue reading
Today we conclude the story of one of New York City’s greatest unsolved missing person cases. At the end of part one of the story, on December 12, 1910, Dorothy Arnold said goodbye to Gladys King, an acquaintance she had bumped into on Fifth Avenue. Gladys was the last person to see Dorothy Arnold alive.
From They Never Came Back by Allen Churchill (Crime Club, 1960) is part two of The Girl Who Never Came Back.
Return now to the Arnold home. Never had the well-brought-up Dorothy skipped a meal without warning the family ahead of time. Now when she failed to return for dinner an increasingly worried group ate without her, then began making discreet phone calls to Dorothy’s close friends asking if the girl had dropped in on them. Told she had not, the Arnolds begged that no mention ever be made of the phone call. Later they asked the same girls not to discuss the case with reporters, and it is indicative of the vast difference between society girls then and now that none of the girls ever did. Continue reading
