Pip and Flip: the circus sisters, whose ugliness made a lot of money (7 photos)

Any deviations from the standard in appearance attract views. Such is human nature: according to the beauty of the model appearance most will only glance at a fleeting glance, and at the dwarf guaranteed to stare. Even against my will.





Therefore, the people who invented freak circuses found a gold mine. After all, people went in crowds to look at people with developmental anomalies. Secretly rejoicing that, they say, everything is fine with me, but what they are. Freaks.



In the arena, such artists performed ordinary actions. But in that and the show was concluded - to observe, for example, how an armless man shaves or draws or a pathologically thin person dancing.



Pip and Flip

The duet of the Snow sisters from Georgia became famous for the fact that two outwardly, adult girls behaved like absolute babies, bribing audience with spontaneity and naivety. True, there was one physiological difference: the sisters had very small heads, reminiscent of tailor's pins. To emphasize the size of their shaves, leaving a tiny touching ponytail on top.



To explain the peculiarities of behavior, the organizers of the show go for the trick. Although Jenny Lee and Elvira were born in Georgia, the public assured that the sisters are real Indian girls who arrived from Yucatan. The people believed, admiringly considering the exotic appearance artistes. Who knows what these Yucatans should look like there? Quite maybe so. And if not, it's funny.



It is clear that Yucatan and Indian tribes did not smell there. The sisters suffered from microcephaly, a disease manifested by significant reduction of the skull in relation to the rest of the body. AND, respectively, the brain. Development and behavior remain the same child.

Parents sent both sisters to the circus so that the rest of the family could lead a comfortable life with the money they received.



First, Jenny Lee and Elvira appeared in the movie Freaks, and gained further fame while working in the World Circus Sideshow. The manager was their brother Cliff. I must say that at the peak careers in the 30s Pip and Flip were making $75 a week. It was more than a solid salary, considering that in the era of the Great Depression work was so-so.



Jenny Lee's younger sister died young, in 1934, at age 21. Elvira fate took a much longer life. The woman lived to the respectable age of 75 and died in 1976.