Forgotten Favorites: Very Special People: The Struggles, Loves, and Triumphs of Human Oddities by Frederick Drimmer; An Amazing Biography of Some Very Special People Indeed

Forgotten Favorites: Very Special People: The Struggles, Loves, and Triumphs of Human Oddities by Frederick Drimmer; An Amazing Biography of Some Very Special People Indeed


By Julie Sara Porter


Bookworm Reviews





In the 2017 musical biopic of P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman, the sideshow performers such as Charles “General Tom Thumb” Stratton, a little person, Chang and Eng, conjoined twins, and Lettie Lutz, a bearded lady crash a swank party that they have been denied entry by the party goers and Barnum himself. They sing the triumphant Oscar nominated song, “This Is Me” where they admit that yes they are different, but they will persevere despite the derision of others. It's a stirring unforgettable moment.


Fans of movies of the Golden Age of Hollywood may be familiar with the 1931 film, Freaks which deals with a conniving trapeze artist and her strong man lover who conspire to murder her husband, Hans, a little person, for his fortune. Most of the movie’s cast includes various real life sideshow performers including Violet and Daisy Hilton, a pair of conjoined twins (whose characters get engaged during the movie), Lady Olga, a bearded lady (who in the movie gives birth to a daughter fathered by Pete Robinson, a human skeleton), Johnny Eck, a legless man, Frances O’Connor, an armless woman, Prince Randion, who was born with neither arms or legs (but in the movie shows he is capable of lighting and smoking a cigarette), and Harry and Daisy Doll, a brother and sister team of little people who play the main character, Hans, and his female friend, Freida. (The DVD/Blu-ray of the movie includes a documentary in which each performer’s lives are described before and after Freak’s release.)





Even though they were made 87 years apart, both The Greatest Showman and Freaks show the struggles faced by people who were once called “Freaks”, or “Human Oddities.” People who look different because they are too short, too tall, are conjoined, have white albino skin, are missing arms and legs, are bearded women and many others. Their stories were stories of constant struggles of being accepted by society including families who constantly worried about them, smothered, or abandoned them, finding work (most of which ended up working in sideshows), and finding acceptance or love. Author, Frederick Drimmer gathered their stories in his 1976 book, Very Special People: The Struggles, Loves, and Triumphs of Human Oddities. Many of these people may not be well-known to modern Readers, but they are unforgettable in their strengths, determination, and willingness to make a life for themselves. Each story seems to say, (to quote the song): “ I am brave/I am bruised/I am who I’m meant to be/This is me.”





The stories are divided into eight parts and 34 chapters which explore various people sorted by their abnormalities. They are moving, heartwarming, honest, and even at times humorous (when asked if she would March in the Easter Parade, the bearded Lady Olga said “Absolutely not, someone may mistake (her) for a Supreme Court Justice.”) Above all, they are inspirational. Not many Readers would forget the story of Hermann Carl Unthan, a man born without arms who became an accomplished violinist and also learned to swim, ride horseback, and target shoot with his legs.





Another fascinating story is that of Violet and Daisy Hilton, the conjoined twins who appeared not only in the film, Freaks but in another movie called Chained For Life. The two were abused by their guardian and her husband until they came of legal age and took their guardians to court. The Hilton Sisters had short-lived marriages but played the saxophone in vaudeville and befriended such performers as Bob Hope (who taught them how to dance) and Harry Houdini (who taught them to mentally block each other out when they wanted alone time.).





There is also the chapter about Julia Pastrana, a Mexican woman with hair on her face, arms, and legs. She also captivated audiences with her graceful dancing and singing in both English and her native Spanish.





One of the most well known stories was that of Joseph Carey Merrick AKA, The Elephant Man, an Englishman with neurofibromatosis, a skin condition which causes lesions and tumors all over the body. Merrick was the subject of the play and movie, The Elephant Man, the latter of which was directed by David Lynch and starred Anthony Hopkins and John Hurt as Merrick. Told by Merrick’s friend and mentor, Sir Frederick Treves, The Elephant Man’s chapter is about a man frequently shunned, abused, and put on display by a cold and uncaring public only to be permitted to permanently reside at the London Hospital and became a celebrity because of his kind amiable personality and childlike nature. Merrick made use of a dressing kit, even though he couldn't use its contents, by imagining that he was a dandy man-about-town. After he attended a pantomime of Puss in Boots with Treves (hidden behind a boxed seat curtain), Merrick spoke about the play as though it was a real event asking questions like “Do you suppose that poor man is still in the dungeon?”





One of the most fascinating aspects of the book is how it goes to extremes from people with too many limbs to those who don't have enough and from people who are below and above average height. Robert Pershing Wadlow, who was dubbed the Alton Giant because of his vast height, was one such example. By the time he began school, he wore clothes that fit a 17 year old and by the time he was eight, he passed his hand-me-downs to his father. The chapter is filled with moments where Wadlow held silverware that seemed doll house-like in his hands, where he had to lay hotel beds side to side so he could get a good night's sleep, and above all where a slight fracture could lead to debilitating problems later. Wadlow’s excessive height caused the calcium in his bones to be weakened and he died at the young age of 27 when he was 8 ft 11.1 inches tall. Nonetheless he made good money as the spokesperson for a St. Louis based shoe company that offered him free shoes as a bonus. (Something he desperately needed since he outgrew shoes almost as soon as he received them.)





From the problems of the very tall to those experienced by the very small and Drimmer shows that in the section describing little people, one of whom was Charles Sherwood Stratton who went under the stage name “General Tom Thumb Jr..” Drimmer writes that Stratton could not reach doorknobs without help, was often unable to get out of beds that were high off the ground, and was unable to do many of the physical tasks in his small town of mostly farmers and whalers. After he was introduced to P.T. Barnum, Stratton became a consummate performer who sang, danced, and did imitations of people like Napoleon. In his years of show business, Stratton met many notables like Queen Victoria and Abraham Lincoln (who hosted Stratton's White House wedding to fellow little person, Lavinia Warren.)





While many people look down on sideshows today saying they were exploitative, Drummer's writing reveals that in the time period in which many of these human oddities lived, there weren't too many other opportunities for employment or acceptance for people with extreme physical abnormalities. Sideshows not only hired them but the performers often found love and friendship among others who were equally physically different. (That closeness even spread during the off-season when many human oddities settled in Gibsonton, Florida, a small town outside of Sarasota. According to Drimmer’s book, so-called normal residents of Gibsonton were so used to the human oddity population that they treated them like any other local as fellow citizens, schoolmates, church goers, and PTA members.)





Very Special People shows that despite the exterior, the human spirit can triumph within individuals. It also shows that anyone at anytime could be an outcast. This idea is best demonstrated in the introduction in which Drimmer's daughter dreamed that her arms disappeared and she was mocked and jeered at by the people around her. “Stop looking at me like that,” she screamed. “What if I am physically different from you? I am still a human being! Treat me like one! I have the same-exactly the same feelings as you! I am you!”