# Ending to "Freaks" movie from the 1930's **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 29, 2001, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ending-to-freaks-movie-from-the-1930s/90353 "2001-10-29T19:58:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Von\_Erich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@Von\_Erich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Von_Erich)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2001, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ending-to-freaks-movie-from-the-1930s/90353/21 "2001-10-30T14:18:10Z")
According to IMDB Elvira Snow, one of the pinheads, was often billed as Zipo or Zip in the sideshow she was exhibited in with her sister. Also, Hans and Frieda were real life brother and sister. The Caterpiallar man, the armless and legless man, was married and had 5 children. It’s hard to imagine that he has the equipment for that, especially when you think about the way he got around. ---
**Author:** ![screech-owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@screech-owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screech-owl)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2001, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ending-to-freaks-movie-from-the-1930s/90353/22 "2001-10-30T17:19:33Z")
According to this [site](http://freaks.cinephiles.net/), there was a “Zip” as well as Randion (The Living Torso) aka ‘Caterpiller Boy’. Wow, I always thought they had just murdered Hercules. I missed something somewhere (and I guess so did he). ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2001, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ending-to-freaks-movie-from-the-1930s/90353/23 "2001-10-30T17:30:19Z")
Maybe I misunderstood the comment about Zippy. None of the women with microcephaly were actually named “Zip” or “Zippy,” even though one did play a character called that in the film. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2001, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ending-to-freaks-movie-from-the-1930s/90353/24 "2001-10-30T18:09:28Z")
> [@](#): > > The Caterpiallar man, the armless and legless man, was married and had 5 children. It’s hard to imagine that he has the equipment for that, especially when you think about the way he got around. [Matthew Buchinger](http://bullseyedesigns.com/sideshow/people/limbless/matthew_buchinger.htm) had 11 kids (and 4 wives). The fact led to the coining of the term “Buchinger’s boot” for the vagina. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ending-to-freaks-movie-from-the-1930s/90353/25 "2001-10-31T01:38:19Z")
Great site! I see that [Nikolai Kobelkoff](http://bullseyedesigns.com/sideshow/people/limbless/nikolai_kobelkoff.htm) also fathered eleven children. Did Nostradamus write anything about this, by any chance? ---
**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2001, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ending-to-freaks-movie-from-the-1930s/90353/26 "2001-11-02T08:26:14Z")
The three “pinheads” in Freaks were [Schlitzie](http://www.bullseyedesigns.com/sideshow/people/other_oddities/schlitze_elvira_jennie_lee_snow.htm) (who was actually a man, but billed as female–most microcephalics were dressed as females; as incontinence was one of the unfortunate results of their condition, and dresses were easier to deal with than pants) and the [Snow sisters, Elvira and Jennie Lee.](http://www.bullseyedesigns.com/sideshow/people/other_oddities/schlitze_elvira_jennie_lee_snow.htm) On the other hand, [Zip(py)](http://www.bullseyedesigns.com/sideshow/people/other_oddities/zip.htm) was different dude altogether, and did not appear in Freaks. [Johnny Eck](http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Crater/9157/johnny.html), the Half-Boy, just died about ten years ago. Grab yourself a [t-shirt](http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1025618479) on Ebay! ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2001, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ending-to-freaks-movie-from-the-1930s/90353/27 "2001-11-02T13:45:44Z")
If anyone has seen the _Clerks: The Animated Series_ DVD, there is a GREAT – and I mean side-splittlingly funny – “appearance” by the Snow sisters, voiced by Kevin McDonald and Mark McKinney of “Kids in the Hall.” ---
**Author:** ![Bossk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@Bossk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bossk)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ending-to-freaks-movie-from-the-1930s/90353/28 "2001-11-03T06:26:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Johnny L.A. \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > The one shot I love is the guy that has no arms and legs crawling to attack Hercules (or the woman, I can’t remember which) with a knife in his mouth!!! It would have been priceless to have a scene showing how exactly he used it. > > I’ve often thought the same thing! I have to laugh every time. \*\* There is a very creepy short story called “His Unconquerable Enemy” by W.C. Morrow about a rajah in 1800s India who has an enemy’s legs and arms cut off. But the enemy, while in his armless and legless state, still manages a truly delicious revenge. If you can find it, read it! ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ending-to-freaks-movie-from-the-1930s/90353/29 "2001-11-03T17:18:45Z")
Last year Midnight House of Seattle published W.C. Morrow’s THE MONSTER MAKER AND OTHER STORIES, an excellent hardcover collection which includes “His Unconquerable Enemy.” Horror aficionados should grab it while it lasts, because Morrow’s work (he was a disciple of Ambrose Bierce) is hardly EVER available in print. According to Maltin, some reissues of FREAKS are missing the epilogue at Hans’s mansion, where he’s reunited with Frieda by Venus and Phroso the clown. It WOULD probably be creepier to just end the flick with the Chicken Lady. Fasciating Fact: Leila Hyams, who played Venus (the Good Blonde, as opposed to Cleopatra, the Bad Blonde…you’d’a thunk Browning would have chosen actresses for the two leading roles who didn’t RESEMBLE each other so closely), turned up the following year in the role of Ruth in ISLAND OF LOST SOULS\*, which is almost as notorious as FREAKS. Could she pick her projects, or what??? - As the source of the following keystones of contemporary grotesque culture: “Are we not MEN?” “The natives are VERY restless tonight.” The House of Pain. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ending-to-freaks-movie-from-the-1930s/90353.md?page=1)