At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, bearded women were a very popular attraction in circuses and the so-called "freak show". Often the circus became everything for them: work, home and even family. But oddly enough, many bearded and even fully-haired women and men, despite their repulsive appearance, had a very good personal life, they got a family and were quite satisfied with their position.
Today we will tell the story of the most famous people who suffered from congenital hypertrichosis.
Alice Doherty "Werewolf from Minnesota"
Alice Elizabeth Doherty was born in 1887 in Minnesota, USA to a family that had previously had children with normal appearance. At birth, Alice's face was already covered with hair 5 cm long. Her parents quickly recovered from the shock and started showing their daughter for money early.
She was rented out to shopkeepers who put the girl on display to attract customers. Alice herself, who, by the way, received the nickname "American Werewolf", really did not like the life of a shop barker, and therefore at the age of 18 she retired, having earned a tidy sum of money in advance.
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Percilla "Monkey Girl"
In 1911, Percilla Lauter was born, whose completely hairy body and two rows of teeth greatly puzzled her parents. They took her from Puerto Rico to the United States, where they hoped to get help from the lights of medicine. However, in New York, they got a brilliant, but alas, not a new idea to flaunt their daughter for hard currency.
Eventually Monkey Girl became a part of the circus freak show and even married another circus artist, Emmitt Bezhano, known as "The Crocodile Man."
Barbara Urcelin "The Shaggy Maiden"
Barbara Urcelin was one of the earliest recorded cases of hypertrichosis. She was the only person in the family with this mutation, but this did not stop her from learning to play the harp and even marrying a man named Johann van Beck. Barbara, or as she was also called - "Shaggy Maid" at some point even allowed doctors to examine herself to check if she was the fruit of her mother's love with a monkey.
Tai Jin "Kung Fu Werewolf"
For many circus freak shows, where people with hypertrichosis are involved, life stories of owners of luxurious beards were often more important than the show itself. Tai Jin's story is so full of mysticism and spirit of adventure that there is a suspicion that it was invented for him already in the circus. Jin was born in 1849 in China and shocked his parents a lot with his appearance.
Believing that their son was possessed by demons, they abandoned him in the forest, where he was picked up by a wandering Shaolin monk. He took the boy with him to the monastery, where Jin matured and (this is the twist) became the Grand Master of Kung Fu.
Tai Jin taught kung fu to others for most of his life and passed away in 1928.
Sacred family of Burma
In the early 18th century, a wolf-man named Shwe-Maong was presented to King Ave as a gift. His hypertrichosis made him an ideal candidate for the role of jester, and his job was to entertain the king. Shwe Maong did his job so well that the king, in turn, gave him a wife, who bore him four children. One of the children was as hairy as his father.
Unfortunately, Maong was killed by his kidnappers, and his daughter married a Burmese commoner. And, in the end, the Sacred Family of Burma was forced to perform for work in cities such as New York and Paris.
Stefan Bibrovsky "The Lion Man"
Superstition and hostility are the things that go hand in hand with hypertrichosis. Nevertheless, Stefan Bobrovsky, who took the name Lionel "The Lion Man", managed to turn his misfortune to his own advantage. He embellished his personal story a lot, telling everyone to listen that he became like that as a result of a curse that has gravitated on him since the time his father was torn apart by a wild lion.
In fact, his father, who may have never seen a lion in a picture in a book, sent little Stefan to the circus when he was only four years old.
Fedor Evtikhiev "Boy with a dog's muzzle"
Evtikhiev or, as he was more often called, Yo-Yo, is often confused with Bobrovsky, with whom they are so outwardly similar. However, unlike the refined Lion Man, who was fairly well educated and spoke five languages, Yo-yo was a drunken drunkard.
He grew up in the Kostroma province, where he lived with his father, who made the boy growl and bark at the audience to enhance his resemblance to a dog. In 1904, Fyodor Evtikhiev died in Thessaloniki, Ottoman Empire (part of Greece today), from pneumonia.
Krao "Missing Link"
Krao, also known as the Evolutionary Missing Link, is not just an attraction, but a scientific anomaly that has led many to become interested in Darwin's theory of evolution. Six-year-old Krao was discovered by the manager of the circus, the Great Farini, who took her on a tour of Europe and the United States.
The unusual girl became widely known, and in the future several scientific papers were written about her, using her as proof of Darwin's theory of evolution.
Annie Jones "The Bearded Lady"
Annie Jones was not like other bearded women. It's not really clear if Jones really suffered from hypertrichosis or not, as her hair didn't cover her entire face as it did with the others. However, she received the title of the Bearded Lady and was very popular in her day.
Annie was also an energetic activist and tried her best to remove the word "freak" from the circus industry.
"Indescribable" Julia Pastrana
The most curious thing that is known about Julia Pastrana is that for most of her life she was not considered a representative of the human race. In general, her life is full of secrets and mysteries, since practically no documents describing her have survived. Historians believe she was born in western Mexico and began her career in New York under the pseudonym "Bear Woman." When she began performing on Broadway, the reaction to her was, as a rule, very cruel: people in the audience, apparently, were horrified that she looked like a monster, but sang like an angel.