Congress of Curious Peoples

Since you are reading Quigley's Cabinet, I assume you are a curious sort, and if you live in the vicinity of New York you have the opportunity to put that curiosity into action and attend the upcoming Congress of Curious Peoples, in whole or in part (tickets here). The 10-day event will be held on Coney Island April 13-22, 2012, at Sideshows by the Seashore - the last permanently housed traditional ten-in-one circus sideshow in the U.S. - and the Coney Island Museum. The celebration and concluding symposium, Congress for Curious People (schedule here), will explore Coney Island's subversive political and artistic power through spectacular performances, exhibitions, and films. Lecturers including Paul Koudounaris will investigate the relationship between education and spectacle in American amusements, the collection of curiosities from the Renaissance to the present, and the display of "freaks" and "primitive peoples" in fairground settings. The series will explore "popular and scholarly assumptions about the importance of Coney Island's legacy, its sordid past, and its titillating present." The opening night event of the Congress is sponsored by Ripley's Believe It or Not!, the keynote speakers at the symposium (schedule here) are the co-producers Aaron Beebe and Joanna Ebenstein - whose blog Morbid Anatomy inspired my own, and my friend James Taylor will help name the 2012 Inductees into the Sideshow Hall of Fame with "Mayor of Coney Island" Dick D. Zigun.

Talker

I gravitated to the images above in a group of color photographs from the 1940s in the Library of Congress. Reproduced by the Denver Post,* they carry the following captions:

1st image) Barker at the grounds at the Vermont State Fair. Rutland, Vermont, September 1941. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Jack Delano. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

2nd image) Backstage at the "girlie" show at the Vermont State Fair. Rutland, Vermont, September 1941. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Jack Delano. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

3rd image) At the Vermont State Fair. Rutland, Vermont, September 1941. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Jack Delano. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "barker" dates back in this sense to before 1859, when it was included in a slang dictionary as meaning "a man employed to cry at the doors of gaffs, shows, and puffing shops, to entice people inside." But my friend James Taylor, sideshow historian and snappy dresser, will tell you that those in the business - and he knows and has known plenty - never use the word "barker" and instead always refer to the person in front of the tent attempting to "turn the tip" as the "talker" and the person addressing the crowd inside the attraction as the "lecturer."

*Thanks, Barbara!

Human ashtray(s)

American sideshow performer Richie Magic (1st image) put Ripley's Times Square Odditorium in a bit of a bind. He was slated to do his act on Monday, May 23rd. That is the day that New York's ban on smoking cigarettes outdoors in the city's 1,700 city parks goes into effect. Magic made headlines in 2009 when he quit smoking on the day he set a world record for extinguishing 200 lit cigarettes in his mouth in the fastest time (6 minutes, 3.7 seconds). He was scheduled to attempt to break his own record and send an anti-smoking message - until Ripley's learned that he had not kicked the habit after all. He attempted to stop smoking after 40 years, but resumed after only 2 months. "We admire Richie for his courageous attempt to bring to light the harmful effects of smoking in such an outrageous fashion. We support Richie in his pursuit for a new world record. However, as Richie is still -- like many others -- battling his addiction to smoking, Ripley's Times Square has decided to cancel the upcoming event," read the prepared statement. If only they had secured London-based Missy Macabre (2nd image), they wouldn't have had to cancel the event...

Sword swallower

As part of my graduate studies, I learned to make a video--painstaking, but a valuable skill. Above is my second attempt, toward the end of a semester immersed in the photography of Diane Arbus (1923-1971). I attempted to contact the sword swallower she photographed, but the performer had either moved on or didn't care to answer. Instead, at about that time, while celebrating my birthday at the Palace of Wonders, I met charming and entertaining sword-swallower Charon Henning (pictured below) after her multi-faceted stage performance (she also walks on knives and glass...).