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Sideshow Is Center Of Attention

Tribune photo by Michael Spooneybarger

Elton Litzner holds the hand of "Firefly" while she stands on Jessica Patterson on a bed of nails at the World Of Wonders sideshow.

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By WALT BELCHER, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 14, 2008

TAMPA - Outside the World of Wonders tent on the midway at the Florida State Fair, posters depicting a headless woman, the gorilla girl and the world's largest snake are flapping in the wind.

On a small elevated stage out front, sideshow performer Mike Vitka plays the role of "talker" - that's carny lingo for the announcer who gives the spiel that urges passers-by to come inside.

He introduces Pete "Poobah" Terhune, a 79-year-old fire-eating dwarf, and sword swallower Dianna Falk, who give demonstrations of their skills.

Vitka promises people they will see amazing things such as a human blockhead, the world's smallest girl and an eight-legged spider with the head of a woman.

Some in the crowd give him skeptical glances, but they line up anyway and pay the $3 admission.

"What we do is entertain them with illusions and mystery," says Simone Dykes, 18, a circus trapeze artist and one of several "sideshow performance artists" who work inside the tent. She may or may not be the headless woman. She'll never tell.

Welcome to the only traveling sideshow in America that still plays state fairs, says Ward C. Hall, a carnival performer and circus veteran of more than 60 years.

"There is one that features sideshow performance art but it only travels to rock concerts and there's another that is an attraction at Coney Island, and that's it," he says.

Hall, 78, who joined a circus when he was 14, co-owns World of Wonders with his business partner, Chris Christ.

The Gibsonton resident says sideshows date back to the 15th century, and they have been a part of the 104-year-old Florida State Fair since its inception.

"They used to be a bigger attraction alongside a main show stage that featured a chorus line, singers, dancers, comedians and a live orchestra," Hall says.

He remembers coming to the state fair when it was at the University of Tampa and exotic dancers such as Sally Rand and Gypsy Rose Lee were headliners.

He also recalls the days when there were more than 100 traveling sideshows in America. In the late 1970s, he and Christ ran 16 shows in three countries.

During the peak of their popularity, sideshows featured two types of performers: the skilled acts such as magicians, fire-eaters, strongmen or women, knife throwers and sword swallowers; and the so-called human oddities or the now-politically incorrect "freaks," people who were exhibited because of physical characteristics such as malformed bodies or extremes of size.

"In the 1930s and '40s, the sideshow offered these people an income and many of them made a lot of money, and 98 percent of them were ham actors who loved the applause," Hall says. He employed numerous acts over the years such as conjoined twins who have retired to a farm in Ohio and the now-retired Penguin Boy, a man with legs and arms that were like stumps.

Hall says many of the sideshow oddity performers wintered in the Tampa area and at one time more than 100 lived in Gibsonton. "They were welcomed because they were big stars and they had money," he says. "But all but two are dead now."

Hall says that over the years, human oddity performers decreased for a number of reasons. Medical advances prevented or treated birth defects; there were more employment opportunities for the handicapped, and public attitudes changed, making it less socially acceptable to exhibit such people.

"We had live freaks in the show up until the mid-1980s, but these were people who had been with me for a long time," Hall says. "We became like family, and one by one they died or retired."

At one point, his World of Wonders had no live performers. It was just a traveling museum of wax figures that recalled the oddity acts of the past. A few of those exhibits are still on display in Hall's current show.

"We brought back the live performances because a lot of young, college-age people became interested in what they call 'sideshow performance arts,'" he says.

"Today, I call most of my performers 'my kids,'" Hall says, noting that his staff includes college graduates who have studied at a sideshow school in New York.

Hall says he has tried to retire several times. "I have had 27 farewell tours." But after the last retirement and a miserable summer in Florida in 2004 when four hurricanes came through, he decided to hit the road again. "My goal is to keep going until I'm 100."

Hall's young crew does 12 to 15 shows a day. They juggle 12 acts, including one in which a woman loses her head on the guillotine and still keeps talking.

"The people keep coming back," Hall says. "And we've had some record crowds in the tent so far this year."

Reporter Walt Belcher can be reached at (813) 259-7654 or wbelcher@tampatrib.com.

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