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Sideshow Freakout As Close As TV

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By WALT BELCHER, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 7, 2008

At the country barbershop in Seffner where I get the few remaining hairs on my head clipped, the conversation this week was about the decline of sideshows at the Florida State Fair.

Some of the guys recalled childhood days when exotic posters lured us inside tents to see the Snake Woman, the Alligator Man or the World's Largest Rat.

We recalled sideshow veterans who retired to Gibsonton such as 8-foot-tall Al "The Giant" Tomaini and his wife, Jeanie, the Half Woman (because she was born without legs). Another Gibsonton legend was Gary "Lobster Boy" Stiles Jr., whose birth defect left him with fused fingers that resembled claws.

The carny world promised taboo sights such as two-headed babies, Siamese twins, bearded ladies and half-human, half-fish creatures. Some were fakes. Others were oddities of nature.

"You don't see stuff like that today," remarked the barber.

"Ah, but you can," I countered.

Sideshows aren't dead. They just moved over to cable television. Freakish things are still on display on TLC, Discovery and Discovery Health.

For example, "A New Face for Marlie," at 8 p.m. Saturday on Discovery Health, follows a 13-year-old Haitian girl with a horrific growth on her face that some believe is the work of the devil.

Discovery recently profiled the "Tree Man," a 32-year-old villager in rural Indonesia with enormous barklike warts covering his hands and feet.

TLC is where you will find "The 700-Pound Woman," "The Half-Ton Man" and "Little People, Big World" (a series about a dwarf family). The network's "Shrinking Woman" dropped 400 pounds and was left with a lot of skin.

With programs such as "Born Without a Face" (a girl with no cheekbones or lower jaw) and "Joined for Life" (12-year-old conjoined twins), TLC and Discovery Health continue to feed a fascination that has been a part of our subculture for more than 150 years.

Carnival sideshows went into decline in the 1960s for several reasons, including medical advances that have led to fewer deformities and public sentiment that found exploitation distasteful.

Only one touring sideshow remains, Worlds of Wonder, run by Gibsonton resident and 50-year carnival veteran Ward Hall. But his show pales next to stuff seen on TV under the guise of science, health and educational programming.

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