I swear last night while watching Carnivale, the only thing I thought of after Brother Justin cut off scudders head and raised his hands to the heavens was "THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!"
I'd love to see the blooper reel on that one to see if they played around with it at all.
Wander
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I won't get to see that episode until tonight.
Wander
Did you ever get to go to any of the old carnival/fairs or sideshows on the old highways that had freaks and natural anomalies, snake farms, etc.? I remember peering into jars with two headed piglets, walking over pits of snakes on rickety planks, feeding a gorilla peanuts and candy so he'd rattle his cage.
I don't remember a lot of the freaks being legitimate, just a few. They would have those sensational painted banners inviting you to go look at things that astounded the mind and usually disappointed in reality. I've wondered, though, if people did them a favor taking the midway away from these folks as an option for income; many of them didn't have any other way to make a regular living on their own terms.
As far as the carnivals, I have some unique perspectives. The guy who runs our mailroom was a carny for 25 years all over the west coast and man he has tales to tell about the freaks and geeks. As a little kid in Carthage, IL, we had the Alice M. Kibbe museum which was a little wooden house in the middle of town. The museum had collected curiosities over the years and lots of it came from sideshows. So we had siamese twin monkees and all sorts of natural wierdness and some fakes too. I can remember as a little guy in California going to some circuses that had those shows. I saw a bearded lady and a dog faced boy. But by the 60's they had pretty much gotten rid oftghe more hideous side shows and the "cootch" shows altogether so I never really got to see one of those. Some of the true "freaks" found work in films but I also wonder what happened to the others. There was an X Files episode where they had this town where all the old freaks went to retire. Interesting idea.
Wander
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