Throwback Thursday: The Lady From Jerusalem Reads Palms at the Fair

Beginning August 9th and lasting through August 18th, a patch of land near Lewisburg, West Virginia will once again be home to State Fair of West Virginia! Beginning in 1854 (before West Virginia even became a state) as an annual fair hosted by the Greenbrier Agricultural Society, the event would officially be designated the State Fair of West Virginia in 1941.

The fair, which draws visitors from all over the state and beyond, is still dedicated to the Mountain State's agricultural heritage, but today's guests can also enjoy concerts, carnival rides, car shows, and all the concessions they can handle. And in 1938, they could have enjoyed having their palms read by the beautiful and mystical Lady from Jerusalem!

Palmistry: the art or practice of supposedly interpreting a person's character or predicting their future by examining the lines and other features of the hand.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to uncover any information about The Lady from Jerusalem, but her memory will live on forever, thanks to photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt.  This photo is just one of many Eisenstaedt took of what was then known as the Greenbrier Valley Fair. The photos were published in the September 26, 1938 edition of LIFE Magazine.

The 1930's were a golden age for the traveling sideshow, and more than likely, The Lady from Jerusalem and her palmistry tent were part of what was known as the 'working acts' section of the sideshow.  When most people think of sideshow performers from this era, they think of the Bearded Lady, the Lobster Boy, and other acts dependent on some sort of physical deformity that is displayed. Working acts, on the other hand, were performers that didn't have an obvious physical trait to put on display, and thus, they had to perform in some other such manner.  Sword swallowers, fire eaters, and even psychics/palm readers all fell under this category.

During Eisenstaedt's time at the fair, he concentrated on photos of sideshow performers and visitors to the fair.  Dangerous Minds has a fabulous collection of these photos, and its fascinating to see what rural West Virginians were seeing, many for the first time, way back before the Second World War. Even today, southern West Virginia is a pretty religious, no-nonsense place; it makes me wonder just how many people snuck off to the Lady From Jerusalem's tent to have their fortunes read through the lines on their hands...and if they did, how much faith did they put into it?   I'm guessing there were quite a few young ladies who received a verbal scolding for wasting their dimes on trying to find out who their future husbands would be!

LINKS:

West Virginia State Fair Homepage

History of the State Fair of West Virginia

Dangerous Minds' Eisenstaedt Photo Collection

Ella Harper, The Camel Girl

If you caught last night's blog, I wrote about how Season Four of American Horror Story will officially be subtitled: Freak Show.  In honor of this revelation, this week I'm featuring some of my favorite sideshow performers and human oddities.  Yesterday, I featured Fanny Mills, The Ohio Big Foot Girl.  Today is another beautiful young woman, Ella Harper.

Ella Harper, known on the sideshow circuit as The Camel Girl, was born in Hendersonville, TN sometime between 1870 and 1873.  She was born with a condition known as congenital genu recurvatum.  In layman's terms, Ella was born with knees that could bend the other way, allowing her to walk on all fours.

Not much is known about Ella's life, but we do know that she worked with W.H. Harris Nickel Plate Circus and received top billing during the 1886 season, where she was often accompanied on stage by an actual camel.  Her pitch card stated that Ella had been in show business since 1882.  Despite earning an estimated $200 a week working with the circus, Ella left after that season to pursue an education.  There is no mention of her after in the annals of sideshow history.

So what happened to Ella, the Camel Girl?  It is believed that Ella got married in 1905 in her home state of Tennessee and passed away in 1921.  She only performed a short four years, but in those years she traveled extensively, was featured in every local newspaper of every town she visited, and was touted as one of the best human oddities to ever be put on display.

UPDATE April 2015: A researcher named Ray has gone above and beyond with piecing together a complete history of Ella Harper after her time in the sideshow business.  Please go check out the following article: Finding Ella (my search for The Camel Girl).

American Horror Story Freak Show: The Ohio Big Foot Girl

American Horror Story is one of my absolute all-time favorite television shows.  I love the unique change of story lines from season to season and I love the creepiness each season brings.  I also REALLY enjoy the subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) references to actual people, events and situations found in paranormal research.

And, while we're on the topic of things I love...I have always had a fascination with circus and carnival culture and history, especially the "freak shows."  Therefore, I was thrilled when last week, the rumors of American Horror Story Season 4 being of a carnival theme were confirmed.  I was even more thrilled when today, Ryan Murphy (creator and producer) tweeted that the official subtitle for Season 4 was going to be "Freak Show!"

In honor of this revelation, I wanted to do a series of bonus blogs this week featuring some of my personal favorite human oddities and sideshow attractions. But, I feel like a caveat is in order:  In no way are these blogs intended to be mean-spirited or exploit/make fun of the people featured.  In fact, I want to do just the opposite; there still remains a lot of stereotypes and misconceptions about the freak show culture and how these poor people who were different were snatched from their parents as babies and forced to be displayed like animals.  While obviously not all performers were happy with the lot they were given in life, many performers found a wonderful and accepting family within the circus or carnival.  It wasn't unusual for the owner of the circus to legally adopt and treat these children as his own.

Many of these performers grew up perfectly well-adjusted with shockingly normal lives.  They got married, had children, were educated and had hobbies.  For so many of these people, the freak show was not just the ONLY work available to them, but it was GOOD work, allowing them to comfortably support themselves and their families.  And with that, here's the first profile:

The Ohio Big Foot Girl

 Fanny Mills was born in 1860 and was raised near Sandusky, Ohio.  She was the daughter of English immigrants.  As a young adult, Fanny was described as being a petite woman, weighing in at about 115 lbs, yet her legs and feet had swelled to an enormous size!  Her custom-made shoes were a size 30, and were made from three goatskins.  Pillowcases were used as her socks.

In 1885, Fanny joined the traveling "freak show" circuit under the name of The Ohio Big Foot Girl, and the accompaniment of a nurse who assisted Fanny with walking and day-to-day tasks made difficult or impossible by her disability.  Fanny's "gimmick" was that her father was offering a dowry of $5000 and a farm to anyone who would marry his unfortunate daughter.  Fanny had plenty of offers on this fake promotion concocted by her promoters, most by gold diggers.  She respectfully declined these, but actually would quietly marry a man named William Brown.  Brown was the brother of Fanny's nurse, Mary Brown.

Unfortunately Fanny's career was cut short when illness forced her into retirement in 1892.  Ironically she and her husband DID return to her parents' farm near Sandusky, where Fanny would die in May of 1899.  Her funeral was reported as well attended, with services being held at the family's home, and private burial at Oakland Cemetery.

It would later be learned that Fanny suffered from what is now known as Milroy Disease, which wasn't classified until 1891, only eight years before Fanny's death.  Milroy Disease affects the lymphatic system, and is most often characterized by lymphedema of the lower legs, as the vessels swell with fluid.  This is an extremely rare genetic disorder in which an overwhelming number of sufferers are female.