r/SideshowPerformer

Maud Wagner was a well known aerialist/ acrobat who became interested in tattooing when she first met her husband, Gus (who was already known for his tattooing business). She went on to get tattooed on most of her body from the neck down and was billed as being
"America's First Lady Tattooer". She and Gus opened up a tattoo shop in California while also opening up several traveling and temporary exhibits/museums that focused on oddities and insects because Maud was a huge fan of entomology and loved collecting all sorts of different insects. They both found a good amount of success with all their different business ventures!

(On a very technical level, Joannes is considered to be a parasitic twin)

I like reading stories of performers who had parasitic twins that they cared deeply for. There’s an understanding and a sibling bond that while a little different is still just as important.

With modern medical advancements the vast majority of children born with parasitic twins get them removed as babies or in childhood, thought occasionally it can be difficult in countries that have less medical resources on hand.

Some facts about them:

-they were born in Genoa, Italy.

-both twins were baptized.

-they had several siblings.

-they began their performing career as children, and were subjected to several medical examinations around this time as well. (I haven’t been able to find out about the context of their early performing careers, so I’m not sure how involved their parents were.)

-the twins both had curly blond hair.

-Lazarus considered Joannes to be just as much a brother as anyone else, and took great offense to anyone who mocked or made fun of him.

-Joannes is considered to be more of a parasitic twin because of his apparent lack of conscious thought, but he was more fully formed than most other parasitic twins (since Joannes consisted of a head, chest, arms, and a leg), so I consider his case to be a little different.

-Lazarus exhibited himself and his twin all throughout Europe, making major stops in Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Denmark, Spain, Scotland, France, and England.

-while on tour, Lazarus frequently spoke to medical professionals who wished to examine him and Joannes.

-Joannes could not speak or move independently except for small movements like his eyelids fluttering. His mouth always remained open and he was known do drool.

-Lazarus and his twin traveled with two attendants while on tour.

-Lazarus once got a life sized portrait commissioned of himself that he hung outside the venues he exhibited himself and Joannes at.

-sometimes Lazarus’ exhibition venues were just the lodges that he stayed at during his travels. To announce the beginning of his shows, one of his attendants would blow a trumpet and announce that Lazarus and his twin were ready to receive visitors.

-it was described that if someone pushed on Joannes’ chest, that his ear, lips, and arms would move.

-the twins made an appearance in front of King Charles I of England in the mid 1630s.

-Lazarus was described as being a gentleman and very handsome, who came from a well to do family.

-when Lazarus wasn’t exhibiting himself and his twin, he covered Joannes up with a cloak.

It was reported in different medical journals that Lazarus had had three major illnesses during his life and required blood letting each time (as was typical practice at the time).

-Joannes had persistent halitosis (bad breath).

-a promotional pamphlet about him claimed he was an Italian Count.

-Lazarus enjoyed dressing opulently and wore the clothes of a courtier for some of his portraits.

-Joannes had a beard that was left unkempt.

-when Lazarus did any major physical activities, such as exercising, he would tie Joannes’ chest to his so that he ( Lazarus) coukd move more fluidly.

-Lazarus enjoyed playing handball as a sport.

-it’s reported that in the mid 1630s Lazarus was sentenced to death for the murder of a drunk man who had attacked and mocked Joannes, and in a fit of rage Lazarus had struck him in the head, which killed the man. But after the moral dilemma of sentencing Joannes, an innocent man, to death as well, the court reversed its decision and let Lazarus go.

-both Lazarus and doctors he met with agreed not to remove Joannes, as Lazarus cared a lot for his brother and doctors felt any operation to remove Joannes would have killed his brother.

-the last major stop on their tour was in Scotland in the early 1640s, upon leaving in 1642, there is much less promotional material written about the twins.

-Lazarus and his twin were well documented during their lives due to the vast amount of people that Lazarus met with personally to talk about his and Joannes’ lives. One of these people was Danish anatomist, Thomas Bartholin, who wrote a detailed account of the brothers in 1645.

-Bartholin described that Joannes would sometimes experience different bodily functions apart from his brother, such as sweating, sleeping or waking, when Lazarus wasn’t doing any of these things.

-there is an unverified report that Lazarus may have gotten married and had children in the late 1640s after his touring and performances had ended.

I like the thought of Lazarus getting married and having children because it shows that he did have people in his life who both respected him and respected Joannes. I also think it’s nice that the twins traveled with two attendants that also clearly respected them both.

It’s really interesting to read up on both of them and I highly recommend checking out the book, The Two-Headed Boy, and Other Medical Marvels by Jan Bondeson, as there is an excellent chapter dedicated to the two of them.

There are no confirmed pictures of him post transition, seeing that he transitioned after leaving the sideshow business and wanted a more private life. All of the pictures will be of him pre-transition. I hope people understand that I mean no insensitivity with this, and it’s purely because he deserves recognition and that way we can put a face to his name. (I also specifically chose the first picture as the first because it’s the clearest picture we have of him.)

The first picture is addressed Ward Hall, one of the last major Showmen and someone that MacGregor had worked with for several seasons.

I’m referring to him by his surname because I don’t know what his chosen name was and I don’t want to deadname him. (The very few more recent articles about him refer to his transition in verrrry dated terms, and he deserves a positive and respectful write up)

Some facts about him:

-he was born in Slidell, Louisiana.

-when he was a child, his family moved to Battle Creek, Michigan.

-he developed hirsutism at a young age and learned to shave when he was really young.

-he earned a Bachelors in psychology at Kalamazoo College in Michigan.

-he earned his Masters degree in special education at the University of Michigan.

-during his time in school, he snuck away up to 3 times a day to shave facial hair that was growing in, and concealed this from everyone else.

-after getting his Masters, he briefly worked as a special education teacher for gifted students.

-after working as a teacher, he joined the Women’s Army Core soon after and after a tour of duty, he signed up to volunteer with the Canadian Women’s Naval Service.

-he met his husband while working in the CWNS. His husband was working as a flight surgeon for the Royal Air Force at the time.

-he had a son and daughter who were twins.

-tragically, his whole family was killed in a car accident in London, England in 1945. The twins were three years old at the time.

-while grieving the loss of his husband and children, he decided to stop shaving.

-he started a career in sideshows in the mid 1950s.

-in an article from 1964, he explained that he only shaved during the sideshow off season.

-he traveled with Jerry Lipko's State Fair Freaks (a traveling sideshow) for 3 years.

-he had a bright red beard, which caused a lot of attention from audiences.

-he was described as being a “barrel of fun”.

-during an interview from the mid 1960s, he spoke about various sideshow gaffs (fake exhibits) and what they actually were.

-he became one of the unofficial “parents” of the other performers and gained a reputation of being kind and patient when others needed advice.

-he was also the one to go out each morning into the closest town to stock up on food and other supplies that some of the sideshow performers needed.

-he was described as being charming and articulate.

-he retired from sideshow work in the late 1960s and found a job as an accountant. It was also around this time that he transitioned.

-it’s not entirely clear when he passed away, as there’s been multiple dates listed, although it’s been suggested that he may have died in the 1970s.

I can’t imagine the horror, grief, and pain he must have felt after the death of his family. No one should ever have to experience something like that.

A silver lining is that I think it’s very sweet that he took on a parental role at the sideshows he worked at and provided everyone with a parent they may not have had before. He was clearly a very caring soul and someone who must have made a positive difference in so many people’s lives.

First picture is of Ngunda Oti from the film, and the second picture is of Ota Benga, who Ngunda is based on.

Ota Benga was a Mtubi man (from the Congo) who was brought to the United States in the early 1900s to be part of a ‘human zoo’ exhibit. First at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair and later at the Bronx Zoo in New York. White Western audiences (including the medical community) at the time were fascinated by Ota’s culture and pushed a racist and stereotyped view upon him. He was displayed within the monkey house at the Bronx Zoo before receiving massive outrage from the Black Community who was horrified at his living situation and the sheer dehumanization of another human being. Ota began trying to assimilate to Western Society, which also included him hiding and erasing parts of his cultural heritage and identity. He later committed suicide during WWI after civilian maritime travel was prohibited, he had been wanting to travel back to Africa for years.

I’m also partial to this story because the original story that the film was based on was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald (one of my favorite authors). The original story is a very different setting than the movie, the characterizations are also different and offer much more sympathetic versions of the characters, with many of the characters being original to the movie. Despite the movie being a bit different from the story, I feel that it’s a very nice adaptation.

One of the characters that is exclusive to the film is Ngunda Oti, a Congolese man who was taken to the United States to be displayed in a ‘human zoo’. Like Ota Benga, Ngunda was exhibited in the monkey house of a zoo as part of a ‘human zoo’ exhibit.

Ngunda’s character serves as a philosophical guide and companion for Benjamin (the man character). He speaks about his experiences within the monkey house and the ignorance that he recognized within all of the people who came to view him as an exhibit.

By the time the film takes place, Ngunda had assimilated into American society, just as Ota Benga had done.

One of the quotes he says within the film is,

“You’ll see little man, plenty of times you be alone. You different like us, it’s gonna be that way. But I tell you a little secret I find out. We know we alone. Fat people, skinny people, tall people, white people… they just as alone as us… but they scared shitless.”

He and Benjamin bond over their shared ‘otherness’, Ngundi because of his culture, and Benjamin because of his physical differences (Benjamin ages backwards in both the film and the story, and several characters have to confront their preconceived ideas about what it means to age when they meet him)

I find it so interesting that they chose to base a character off of Ota Benga, thus giving him a new life and bringing more awareness about his story to a new audience.

I hope Ronnie received a nice visit from the tooth fairy!

Donnie and Ronnie were famous conjoined twin sideshow performers, who are recognized as being the world's oldest conjoined twins in recorded history. They passed away in 2020 at the age of 68. While they had received offers to be separated several times throughout their lives, they both refused.

They had a very supportive family, and their father constructed custom furniture for them when they were growing up. Their sideshow careers started in the mid 1950s, which they continued until sideshows began fading away in the 1960s and 1970s. They then went on a tour throughout South America, where they were treated like celebrity superstars.

Ronnie was known for being happy go lucky and social whereas Donnie was a bit more quiet and reserved. They both appreciated the simple things in life and enjoyed watching tv in their free time. They were also big fans of the Dallas Cowboys and loved to collect toy cars.

She always looked so pretty and I love how she did her makeup! She also wore such lovely dresses, I particularly like the one she’s wearing in the first picture with the honeycomb pattern! I added the last picture because she has the most adorable tights/socks with little butterflies on them.

Some facts about her:

-she was born in Jersey City, New Jersey.

-she was of Irish heritage.

-not much is known about her childhood.

-she got married to her first husband, Herman Leddy, in 1899. Her husband was a champion accordion soloist.

-she was described as being a very happy and joyful person.

-she gave birth to a child (still trying to find out their name) in 1901, when she was 21. The pregnancy caused a major hormonal imbalance that damaged her pituitary gland, which led her to quickly gain a lot of weight.

-her husband Herman tragically died in 1917, (most likely from an illness)

-she began her sideshow career soon after Herman’s death to support her child.

-she was a staple performer at the Coney Island Sideshow and worked there for 20 years.

-she also worked several seasons for Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, but as she got older and her health declined, she had to stop going on tour and made a deal that she would work for Ringling Brothers when they were passing through New York but wouldn’t join them out of state.

-she permanently settled down in Brooklyn, New York, which made working in Coney Island easy and convenient for her.

-she enjoyed dressing nicely and doing her makeup, explaining that she always wanted to make a good impression on people.

-in late 1923 an article was released reporting that she looking for a romantic connection and vented that no one seemed to want to marry a woman like her and felt left out and lonely. She explained that a lot of people just saw her as a novelty and not someone they would want to be with romantically. Later in the article she said she wanted to take things into her own hands and work on her confidence to ask men out on dates. She also confessed that she had a crush on one of the male performers, Joe DeCramer, but this never went anywhere.

-she married her second husband George Siebert around 1924, Siebert was working as a sideshow barker/announcer at the time.

-she attended fellow sideshow performer, William Henry Johnson’s funeral when he passed away in 1926 and expressed her condolences.

-her peak weight was around 700 pounds.

-she was forced to retire in 1937 due to failing health.

-she passed away in 1940 when she was in her sixties. 500 people showed up to her funeral, family, friends, and co-workers all mourned her and talked about what an amazing woman she was.

It made me so sad to read that she went through a period of loneliness and worried that no one would love her, I’m so glad that she found and married her second husband soon after! She seems like a lovely woman and I’m glad that everything ultimately worked out for her!

I just feel that people writing the articles should take a step back and ask themselves why they want to use that term. Even if it’s been used a lot in the past doesn’t mean that it needs to keep being used. Does this bother anyone else as much as it bothers me?

Afong Moy was the first recorded Chinese woman to travel to the United States and did so in 1834. Chinese culture was seen as being extremely foreign by most white western audiences at the time, so her performances were very popular. Despite being pressed into a stereotyped role of what audiences expected a Chinese woman to act like, she was able to turn the depiction around by speaking about the harmful effects of stereotypes and the damage that racism can do.

She also went on to have a daughter named Andrea in 1979.

Gloria was an accomplished singer, comedian, and actress, who also had a career in sideshows and enjoyed writing in her free time.
She was born with a form of dwarfism and made newspaper headlines after Anthony was born because he was almost as tall as her.
Gloria's peak height was 29 inches (73.66 cm).
She had been diligently working on a memoir in her twenties, but it sadly doesn't appear that her book was released.

Stan (who went by Sealo for almost his entire career) was born with phocomelia which caused his hands to grow directly from his shoulders. Before becoming a performer, he worked as a newspaper boy during part of his early life. He was known for having a fun and friendly personality and was an avid card player! He also really enjoyed smoking cigars.

People from the Kayan Lahwi community are often referred to as ‘Padaung’ by westerners. The term ‘Padaung’ in reference to them was originally coined by the Shan community in Myanmar and Thailand, and is a term that is rejected by the Kayan Lahwi community, so therefore I will not be using it.

The origin of the traditional neck rings is not entirely clear, but there have been several theories as to how the tradition came to be, including some very racist and demeaning ways to interpret the origin.

No matter where the practice actually originated from, up until very recently the custom was used as an expression of feminine beauty and a show of social status. (More recently more and more women are opting not to wear the rings.)

Women from the Kayan Lahwi community began being brought over to the United States and England in the 1930s by circus showmen hoping to make a profit off of these women’s distinctive appearances. Many women were forcibly removed from their communities in a way that was very similar to how ‘human zoos’ operated and found people to be within their exhibits.

Similar to a lot of other sideshow acts that promoted the exoticism of particular communities of people, the women were given a fictional backstory that was told alongside their performances. These fictional backstories often involved some sort of sexual or violent aspects to push a narrative of otherness and exoticism.

Historically, circuses and sideshows were known to exploit and profit off of people and cultures that were deemed exotic by white western audiences. And the Kayan Lahwi community was no different.

Many people that were being exploited because of their culture also did their best to advocate for themselves and their community as a way to normalize cultural differences and spread a positive view on different minority groups.

More recently (as of the mid 2000s/early 2010s), the Myanmar government and younger women have been gravitating towards removing the rings as they have long been exploited by people who have no awareness of the cultural importance and history of them.

I’ve previously featured Dolly (and Rolly) the Cow, who was also born with a form of craniofacial duplication, although hers was more pronounced and had a complete extra face. I’ll put Dolly’s write up in the comments.

Historically, animals were not always treated well in traveling sideshow and carnival environments, but in Andy’s case it may have been a good thing, as it allowed him to live out his natural life as opposed to being slaughtered had he not been born with a physical difference. It’s a very complex and layered situation.

Some facts about him:

-he was born in Arkansas.

-he was born with four eyes, four horns, and two nasal passages.

-he went on tour as a sideshow attraction when he was six months old with his original owner H.W. Douglas from Fort Smith, Arkansas.

-as a calf he once experienced an intestinal infection, but thankfully recovered after being visited by a traveling vet while on tour.

-he was purchased when he was two years old by a man named Wilbur Rasor, who brought Andy with him to Ohio.

-while in Ohio, Andy’s owner began marketing him on signs along Route 40, a transcontinental east-west highway that spans from California to New Jersey and cuts right through Ohio. Andy also had a specialty built barn just for him on the Rasor’s property.

-Andy quickly became a very popular tourist attraction, with passing travelers on Route 40 stopping to meet Andy, feed him food that Wilbur Rasor had available, and buy his picture. There was a 25 cent entry fee for tourists to go see Andy.

-Andy’s owner never allowed pictures to be taken of him, so if people wanted to remember him, they’d have to buy postcards with his picture on them.

-he was once featured in a Ripley’s Believe It Or Not cartoon from the 1950s.

-he was very well liked by people who visited him and was described as being relatively calm.

-Wilbur Rasor started bringing Andy on tours with traveling sideshows in the late 1940s/early 1950s and was often exhibited next to taxidermied animals with physical differences that Wilbur had collected.

-Andy passed away in 1956 at the age of 12, which is a very impressive age due to the health complications that often arise in animals that are born with forms of conjoined/parasitic twinning.

-after Andy’s death his head was taxidermied and preserved, and brought back to Wilbur Rasor’s farmhouse, where it stayed until 1976. Then his head was donated to the Brookville Ohio Historical Society.

-eventually his head was then moved to a community run roadside museum called the Spitler House, also in Brookville, Ohio. Where it was moved to the basement, because it was seen as not appropriate for the rest of the museum. At one point in time, advertising that his taxidermied head was on display would have been a big draw for tourists, but in the decades after Andy’s death, that kind of roadside attraction isn’t as popular as it once was.

-to this day, his head remains on display at the Spitler house, but is never advertised in any way and largely remains unnoticed by people stopping at the museum. However, the people running the museum have redone the basement area to dedicate a little shrine to Andy and the other taxidermied animals on display there.

It does seem that both of Andy’s owners deeply cared about him, especially Wilbur Rasor and family. I hope he was shown a lot of love during his life. I think he looks very sweet, and I’m glad he had a long life.

Delores was a well known sideshow performer who had a pituitary gland tumor, which caused her to be 7'9 feet tall (2.36 m.). She was well liked in school and played on her middle school's basketball team until she was injured and had to stop playing. She went through several surgeries and medical procedures during her life and used her earnings from sideshow work to pay for the procedures. She was featured in the 10th edition of the Guinness Book of World Records as being the tallest living woman. She was very social and enjoyed spending time with family and friends, when she wasn't working in sideshows, she worked as Sunday school teacher and sang in her church's choir.

The first picture shows her with one of her prized fans that she enjoyed collecting. I also love the hairpiece she’s wearing in the second picture, she always dressed so elegantly!

I always love coming across stories of people who used their platforms to advocate for different societal issues that were important to them. I’m glad that Alize was able to speak out for the respect of people with dwarfism, it seems like her efforts were successful as well!

Some facts about her:

-She was born near Matanzas, Cuba.

-her family was middle class and her parents provided her with singing lessons from a young age.

-she had 5 siblings and was the oldest child in her family.

-she was a university graduate, but I haven’t been able to find which university she attended.

-she traveled to the United States in 1896, when she was 26, in hopes of pursuing her dream as a professional dancer and performer.

-her professional debut in the United States was at a lounge at the Metropolitan Hotel in New York in 1896.

-she was very popular in vaudeville theaters and spent the majority of her performing career traveling between major vaudevillian venues.

-one of her brothers and one of her cousins acted as her managers.

-she was a very skilled singer and dancer

-all of her clothes were custom made and were known for being very opulent.

-she enjoyed collecting decorative fans.

-she went on tour all throughout the United States starting in 1901, and went on a European tour in 1905.

-she performed for US President, William McKinley, in 1901. After her song and dance routine, McKinley was so impressed that he pinned a pink carnation to her dress.

-she performed at the Pan American Exhibition in 1901 held in Buffalo, New York. She was eventually crowned the mascot of the fair by the director, William Buchanan.

-she spoke at least 3 languages, Spanish, English, and Italian.

-she married a man named Anthony Woeckner from Eerie, Pennsylvania in 1901. The two had met when she was working at the Pan-American Exposition and he was working as a musician.

-she often spoke to American audiences about the struggles that Cuba faced in the aftermath of the Spanish American War, and in doing so also promoted American tourism in the country.

-she was very patriotic for her home country. (This was also before the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis, so the United States still held a positive opinion of Cuba)

-her peak height was reported to be around 26 inches (66 cm.)

-she advocated against using the term ‘doll’ when referring to her or other people born with dwarfism, and also spoke out against people who tried to treat her as a toy or something other than a regular person.

-she continuously had sold out shows and was very popular among women and children.

-near the end of her life, she and her husband had traveled to Guadalajara, Mexico because she was experiencing ill health and they felt the warm weather would help her.

-she passed away when she was 64.

-her legacy lives on in the form of a book that was inspired by her life called ‘Chiquita’ and written by novelist Antonio Orlando Rodríguez.

I’m glad she had a long and happy life and had a really nice marriage. I’m also happy that she was able to fulfill her dreams of being a popular singer and dancer. I hope she was able to collect so many nice decorative fans during her life, it would be really nice if there could be a museum with her collection, but I haven’t been able to find what happened to them.

Tom was an extremely famous pianist and performer who was blind and autistic (though his autism wasn’t diagnosed during his lifetime because it hadn’t been categorized/understood at the time) Tom was born enslaved in 1849 in Georgia, United States. Though because he was blind from birth, he wasn’t forced to work on the plantation.

He was a piano prodigy and it’s very clear that music and the piano were his favorite special interests, with people saying that if it were up to him, he’d probably sit at the piano and play for 12-14 hours a day.

Tragically, he was exploited for profit and all of the money that was made during his piano performances was stolen from him. Had he received the money, he would have been a multimillionaire.

I really enjoy learning about Tom because I can relate to the different behaviors he did (that are all signs of autism, but again weren’t understood at the time). He had major special interests that took up most of his time, he demonstrated echolalia (repeating words, phrases, and sounds after hearing them in one’s environment) throughout his life (which I also do), and his stimming behaviors were documented (a way for him to self soothe if he was having a difficult time processing a situation).

The performer portraying Olga would wear a mask (sometimes described as a crown) of mirrors that reflected an interior series of wires. The illusion was very convincing (to the point where even I’m in awe of how convincing it looks) and remained popular in sideshows for decades.

The illusion debuted in the United States in 1937 and even made an appearance at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

The most popular name used for this illusion was Olga, but other names like Tina and Mademoiselle Yvette were also used.

The story that usually accompanied these acts involves a young woman who had tragically lost her head during a horrifying accident, but through the marvels of science and a talented doctor was able to be kept alive despite the loss of her head.

WOW!! I’m amazed at the community’s growth and it brings me so much joy to share about the lives of all of these important historical figures.

As many of you know, I handle the majority of the posts in this sub, not at all by design, it just ended up that way, and I definitely encourage people to feel comfortable posting here, this is an inclusive space and I want everyone to feel welcome!

It makes me so happy that all of these wonderful historical figures are being appreciated in the way they deserve to be.💖

For anyone interested, we also have a sister sub, r/disabilityhistory! I’m doing my best to curate and grow both subs, though sometimes it can be difficult for me to post to both.

If anyone has any questions or comments regarding the sub specifically, feel free to reach out via modmail or in this post directly!

I’ll begin adding megathreads regarding specific topics, so I can keep everything organized and in one place!

I’m also working on a lot of behind the scenes stuff and I really appreciate everyone’s patience, because I know it’s taking a long time!

Ultimately, I’m so glad we have this wonderful community where we can spread positivity and happiness through sharing this unique part of history!💖

Have a great week everyone!

(I apologize for all of the reposts, I was having internet issues and didn’t realize how many times this post was posted! I kept getting errors that it didn’t post on my end)

Yao Defen was a Chinese woman who was notable for being the tallest woman in the world during her lifetime. Her peak height was 7 feet
7 inches due to a pituitary gland tumor. Her family struggled financially for much of her life and in order to help support her parents she performed in some Chinese carnivals. She dealt with chronic pain throughout most of her life due to the pressure on her joints due to her height. She was very self conscious about her height and preferred staying at home because she received less negative attention that way.
She had an operation done to remove her tumor in 2002 and expressed a lot of gratitude because she had been waiting several decades to get the tumor removed.

Eliza had a very successful career as a professional ’fat lady’. It’s reported that she weighed 700 pounds, which may have been caused by a hormone condition of some kind. She had a very kind and friendly attitude and was known for her grand entrances into the towns she was to be performing in, often times arriving in an extravagant carriage being pulled by a team of horses. She enjoyed dressing opulently and had a fondness for clothes with bright colors.

Lavinia Warren was a famous circus performer who was born with a form of dwarfism. She was already an incredibly accomplished ballerina and school teacher before she achieved her celebrity status. She achieved celebrity status after getting married to the most famous circus performer of the mid 1800s, Charles Sherwood Stratton (aka General Tom Thumb). Lavinia was a motivated and fierce businesswoman and would often be the one to negotiate business deals with PT Barnum. She was very outspoken and advocated for women with dwarfism. She spoke out against the usage of the term 'Doll' when referring to herself as well as others who were objectified because of their appearance.