Kemo Studios

Wednesday, February 8, 2023

VERY SPECIAL PEOPLE

Or, how I became obsessed with Sideshow Freaks, thanx to my grandmother.

This was the book that started it all, the one that triggered my fetish for everything weird and eccentric. It was bought for me by my grandmother in 1979 during a trip to the Warwick Mall (in Rhode Island) when I stumbled into Waldenbooks searching for a book about monsters. that I cherish to this day.

I used to try and stretch my face like this, unfortunately I was only able to create wonderful purple bruises on my cheeks.

I suggest you check out this wikipedia link: Julia_Pastrana and learn a little more about her...

What you think is her chin in this photo, is actually her upper lip.

This was the first time I ever saw an image of Joseph Merrick aka The Elephant Man and it haunted me for the longest time. The image was so shitty, I had to use my imagination to 'fill in the blanks' based on the description written by Sir Frederick Treves that was reprinted in this book. It wasn't until I was in High School (at Waldenbooks, again) that I was able to track down a book called: The Elephant Man by Ashley Montagu which contained images of him and his skeleton taken in 1890 that totally blew my mind...you have to remember this was in the 'olden days' BEFORE the internet, and the ONLY way you were ever going to see images/photos of him were in books.

...a better image of the photo that haunted me when I was 13 years old

Which brings us to the NEXT book that REALLY peaked my interest in Very Special People

My love of Horror films at a young age triggered an uncontrollable mania to collect all sorts of Horror magazines (Famous Monsters of Filmland), Film books and Novels. Cinema of the Fantastic was the book that introduced me to the film: FREAKS by Tod Browning - thank you Waldenbooks!

Let's just say, I would check the T.V. Guide EVERY week, like a mental patient, in the hope that it would be playing late at night to no avail. I was even that guy, in the early 1980's when we got one of the first VCR's, who went to the video store asking/begging them to order it for me...I was that annoying prick you always hear about.

In the meantime, I would go to every carnival that came to town (or nearby town) with the hope they would have an 'honest to God' Freakshow or Sideshow. FINALLY, one came to town in 1983/84 and that is when I met LOBSTER BOY- Grady Stiles!

I will never forget the moment we met. My girlfriend (who happens to be my wife now), friends and I bought our tickets to go meet the infamous Lobster Boy. We were instructed to walk into the tent and one at a time, present him with the ticket and he would tell us all about himself etc. Easy enough, right?...WRONG. Being obnoxious High School kids, trying to impress each other with how cool we were and that this was no big deal, we walked into the tent and found ourselves staring at Lobster Boy perched on top of a small platform in the center of the tent and surrounded by a 3 foot tall striped fabric barrier. My friend Doug was the first to present his ticket to Lobster Boy who was about 10-12 feet away. While Doug was making smart ass jokes/comments, he didn't notice Grady LEAP from his platform and lunge towards him, scaring the holy shit out of ALL of us! He immediately ripped the ticket from his hand, making him squeal like a little girl. While I was laughing at his reaction,Grady wasted no time in grabbing MY wrist with his other 'claw' and squeezed it so fucking hard I almost shit my pants! I couldn't believe how powerful he was AND how quickly he got around, gathering everyone's tickets before he hopped back onto the platform and started telling us his family's story! I don't think any of us remembered a single word he said, we were still reeling from what had just transpired and were kinda numb...It was awesome. It wouldn't be until years later that I would learn was a nightmare this guy was and that he had killed his daughter's fiancé AND that he would be killed as a result of his alcohol fueled abuse...

So,It wouldn't be until1986 when I was in college that I finally saw FREAKS for the first time at The Theatre of the Living Arts in Philadelphia....changing my life forever. In fact, I list it as number 3 on my top ten favorite films, making that a Blog post for another time.