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.
According to this site, 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).
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.
Matthew Buchinger had 11 kids (and 4 wives). The fact led to the coining of the term “Buchinger’s boot” for the vagina.
Great site! I see that Nikolai Kobelkoff also fathered eleven children. Did Nostradamus write anything about this, by any chance?
The three “pinheads” in Freaks were Schlitzie (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. On the other hand, Zip(py) was different dude altogether, and did not appear in Freaks. Johnny Eck, the Half-Boy, just died about ten years ago. Grab yourself a t-shirt on Ebay!
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.”
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!
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???