Drew Friedman's Sideshow Freaks

Melvin Burkhart the Anatomical Wonder; Zip the Pinhead; Chang and Eng, the original Siamese twins; Johnny Eck, the King of the Freaks; Koo Koo the Birdgirl; and 45 more fascinating sideshow freaks both famous and obscure are immortalized in Drew Friedman’s delightful portraits. Before the politically correct impulses of the 1970s squelched the grand American tradition of the sideshow — people born with abnormalities and others, like Jolly Jere the Fat Man, who created their oddity — exhibited themselves to the shock and thrill of millions in sideshows nationwide. As a youth in the late ‘60s and early ’70s, Drew Friedman often visited Coney Island with his family, and he and his brothers always insisted on seeing the “Freak Show.” Drew Friedman’s Sideshow Freaks presents 50 of his favorite historic human oddities — famous and obscure — in mesmerizing full-color portraits. As in Warts and All, Old Jewish Comedians, and More Old Jewish Comedians, Drew Friedman once again meticulously, brilliantly, and affectionately brings to life people in the show business, this time focusing on America’s oddest performers.