The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 56

Still Selling Factoru-Made Freaks man To The Public The Concert Hall Seethed With Excitement Until Cries of "Swindle" and "Give Us Back Our Money" Filled the Place. In Tears the Singer Ran From the Stage. Every Morning the Eccentric Toured the House to Admire the Ugly Murals Which Appealed to Him More Than Masterpieces of Art by Famous Painters and Sculptors. saw the sea. Another favorite this one alive is the Grown Together Girls.

The manufacturer of this attraction provides a close-fitting rubber contraption that, when fitted to the body, touched up with a special makeup paste and set off with a flashy skirt, defies all but the closest Inspection. A few years ago two girls who were being exhibited In a midwestern town as grown-together twins were arrested for fraud. With a smart lawyer they pleaded their case and were freed. The lawyer convinced the court that neither the advertising matter nor the lecture stated that the girls were naturally grown together. The phrase used In both was "Joined together since birth," and that was the truth, albeit misleading.

The girls had been Joined together, artificially since not before they were born. The case was dismissed. Two fearsome monsters that have had wide circulation are the Big Sea Horse and the "centlpedian wonder," the six-legged Poly-Moo-Zuke. The skeleton of a genuine horse's head is ALL over the country customers at the "punkin fairs" are the interested and willing victims of glib barkers who lecture along this line: "Step up closer, ladeez and gentlemen, while I tell you about the Chinese Pa-Lu-Ca, that strange and unbelievable monster with two heads. It's the fabulous Chinese water god, idolized by the superstitious coolies.

Think of it, my civilized friends, to this devil-eyed monster is sacrificed the first female child born to a coolie mother. It's the eighth wonder of the world, captured after a terrific struggle by Hundreds of these "monstrosities" are being exhibited In this country, playing "store shows" during the winter and country fairs and homecoming celebrations during summer and fall. Most of them are conceived, built and sold by concerns well known to the carnival and tent show fraternity. Many of these "wonders" stem from the famed Cardiff Giant, monster mummified man. supposed to have been dug from the chalk 1 1 of Cardiff, gmmmf Turned A Recital Into A Riot Killed By The Horrors He Collected used in manufac-t 1 both of these monstrosities.

Fierce looking teeth, horns and eyes are added and the body, fish-like in appearance, is made of papier mache or some similar composition. The enterprising showman who hasn't much money to invest can purchase a Mermaid or a Devil Child for as little as $15. A Chinese two-headed Pa-Lu-Ca with a "swell painting a capture scene of this monster in a Chinese swamp that will make them stop, look and listen" costs $50. One of the commonest of these phoney attractions, and one that attracts plenty of dimes and costs little to operate, Is the two headed baby, usually displayed in a jar of alcohol. Sometimes it is shown as a separate attraction, with a white-clad nurse as Wales, back the 1890's.

P. T. Bar-num cashed in on this oddity which was the phoney forefather of today's gallery of freak 8. Present-day successors to the Cardiff Giant are all ballyhooed as coming from some mysterious source and possessing some extraordinary a -ture. They have some physical abnormality that marks them as strange or remarkable.

They may be man or a st aquatic, amphibian or land creatures. There is, for instance, King Cap-uwar, the two-headed Patagonian giant, eight feet tall and of ferocious appearance. "It's a winner a money-getter," accord i to the manufactu rer'a catalogue. It is further described as "a big, classy attraction. Made so legs come off at the waist so as to ship in box 5 2 Practically All of the "Monsters" that the Carnival and Side Show Barkers Describe so Glibly are Fakes to Lure Dimes from a Public that Likes to be Fooled.

IVt feet. A body dress covers where legs come on and off." The lecture that accompanies this attraction recounts how the body of King Capuwar was found in a South American cave by a party of English gold prospectors. "It is not an embalmed body," the lecture reads, "but a natural dried body preserved by the atmosphere of that country, which is high and dry The body was found 14 years ago and taken to England and placed on exhibition at the Crystal Palace. It Is owned by a historical society of London and no amount of money can buy it. We simply rent it." During the year of the Tut-ankh-amen discovery one enterprising manufacturer who constructs many of these monstrosities saw a grand opportunity to cash in on Old King Tut.

He sent out circulars advertising "An Old King Tut-Ankh-amcn Egyptian mummy, wrapped in cloth, Egyptian style, and supposed to be 3,000 years old. A whole show alone. Looks like the real thing. Price $25 cash." Scores of these fabrications-and "lectures" to go with them blossomed in carnivals throughout the country. A few years later when the whale craze hit the United States, a genuine whale or two were shown to curious thousands, but the monstrosity manufacturers were Johnny-on-the-spot and turned out many a whale that never It also Is frequently used as a "blow-off" in a carnival side show.

A blow-off, it may be explained to the uninitiated, is an extra added attraction in a side show. Usually an extra dime is charged and sometimes pictures are sold. A spieler who knows human nature can "turn" a large percentage of the people who have seen the side show. These two-headed babies can be bought for as little as $20 for the wax article. Seldom is there a "squawk" from customers.

If there is one, the lecturer usually can square it by explaining that the inscriptions on the banners do not state the object exhibited as a genuine Sea Horse, or whatever it might be. If that fails the customer's money is refunded, but that is clone only as a last resort. The banners read: "Facsimile of the Big Sea Horse." But the words "facsimile of" are so faint as to be easily overlooked. So far as claims of genuineness are concerned, the manufacturer has nothing to fear. He makes no claim that his creations are anything other than show pieces.

On the first page of one catalog is this statement: "Price list of strange, remarkable curiosities and monstrosities, both animal and human, mumified reproductions of the world's greatest side show wonders who once lived and were exhibited alive; as well as wonderful imaginary wonders conceived by the mind of man." A YOUNG singer, like a prophet, usually is without honor in his own country. Seemingly one of the most difficult things in the world is to get a good-sized audience to attend a musical debut. Even such able artists as Grace Moore, Nelson Eddy and Lawrence Tlbbett can tell of discouraging attempts to fill a concert hall for their early recitals. American singers have the edge on many Europeans. Here there is the Naumburg Foundation, an organization specifically established to give young singers the opportunity to appear before audiences In New York's Town Hall or some other music center.

To top off its service to the ambitious young musicians, the Naumburg Foundation makes every effort to get as many as possible of America's ranking music critics to hear the young artists. Because her native land lacks such an organization, Mile. Olga Bieloskurska resorted to an experiment in her first public recital in Warsaw, Poland. The undertaking came to grief despite its ingenuity. When Warsaw's music critics went down the aisle in one of the city's largest concert halls they pessimistically expected a dull evening.

But they saw something that surprised them. Virtually every man in the audience, other than themselves, was in "tails." Full evening dress is not customary for the average concert in Warsaw and, even more bewildering was the fact that every formally dressed male was wearing a red rose. The critics sensed that something was up. Just what, they couldn't tell. The singer stepped upon the platform.

There was a sprinkling of applause. The recital was all right as such events go and the singer was an attractive girl. But the audience didn't have its mind on the concert. The young men in "tails" endured Mile. Bieloskurska's singing with as little fidgeting as possible.

At the intermission, the immaculately clad firstnighters rushed for the lobby and paced back and forth expectantly, anxiously eyeing every woman. The between-acts recess was almost at an end when one of the stiffly, groomed young-bloods ran into a friend, also dressed in tails and wearing a bright red rose. "Good heavens! You, too?" the first said. "May I ask what induced you to dress up like a grand duke?" "The same to you," grinned the other. "If you must know, I came here to meet a lady, who suggested I dress like this so we would know each other." "That's exactly my story," the first replied.

"I saw an ad in the personal column of the morning paper, 'Wealthy and good-looking young foreign lady, intending to remain in Warsaw, seeks interesting young gentleman I bit, and in reply got a charming letter in which the mysterious girl requested me to come to this conceit where she would give me the opportunity to get acquainted with her." Another young man similarly dolled up overheard tin conversation. He joined them and indignantly said that he-had been a sucker, too. A fourth man told the same story, and a fifth Soon it became known that more than two hundred young men had been tricked by their "blind date." She had lured all of them to the same recital. Suddenly one of the tail-coated army had a hunch. "Could it be," he asked, "that Mile.

Bieloskurska did this to us?" The second part of the concert began, but now the concert hall was seething with excitement. The singer sensed that something was wrong. She sang bravely, but was conscious of a sea of Indignant faces looking up to her. Her embarrassment convinced the Red Rose Brigade that they had been the victims of a trick to turn out a smart-looking audience for the first recital of an unknown artist. An isolated boo and the Polish equivalent of a Bronx cheer touched off an uproar.

"Give us back our money!" "It's a swindle." The shouts swelled into a tumult. At last the singer broke into sobs. Weeping with shame, she ran from the stage. The recital ended in a riot. Some of the men pounded on the box office, demanding their money back.

The singer, almost fainting with mortification over her home-made publicity stunt that backfired, was smuggled out the back door. It was the singer's husband who stayed behind and fared the jeering crowd. He obviously was upset over what his wife had done. He announced his willingness to refund the money which his wife's victims had spent on concert tickets. He also said he would pay for the rental of those "tails" which had been hired for the evening.

Like many an American father who has held the bag for his daughter's impossible aspirations to fame and fortune on the concert stage, M. Bieloskurska reflected afterward that maybe it was worth the price if it put an end to such goings on. Mile. Bieloskurska now sings only to her baby and never when her husband is home. Now that the episode is over, the young men who were taken over by the promise of adventure and romance the "agony column." consider the incident a joke am' good laugh on themselves.

They have vowed that they will be more careful if they ever answer another unsigned advertisement. At present. Warsaw's bachelor brigade is concentrating on girls whose background they know. MEN make curious sacrifices to satisfy ambitions of one kind or another. Some give up power to marry the woman they love.

Some give up a promising business career to live the life of an artist. Some sacrifice friends to climb the ladder of success. Stranger than any of these is this record of Mirko Stepanovitch, who sacrificed family, friends, fortune and finally life itself because of a compelling desire for the ugliest pictures and the most gruesome art objects in the World. As the nucleus of his collection, Stepanovitch had a few misshapen statues, grotesquely contoured masks and hideous pictures. But these, after all, were only images of an artist's vision.

Like a dope addict, his craving grew. Stepanovitch specialized in the ugliness of human deformity. He collected pictures of the ugliest people in Europe. In Paris, where he had heard depravity flourished, Stepanovitch had two agents. In London, Berlin, Rome, Vienna, Moscow and Madrid, he felt that one agent was ample.

The agents had a free hand to send their wealthy client pictures of criminals, murderers and freaks. They often found it expedient to work with miniature cameras when they were hunting fiendish faces in underworld dives or photographing degenerates In hospitals for the insane. Stepanovitch had these photographs enlarged so that the hideous, malevolent features stood out in all their depraved details. He covered the walls of his house with these revolting murals. He carried out a curious ritual.

When he awoke in the morning he put on a robe and started a tour of the house to admire each of his possessions. Until this tour had been completed members of the household were virtual captives in their rooms. Even Stepanovitch's wife had to stay in her room until the eccentric finished his tour, went to his den and slammed the door. This was the signal that the household could start its day. One of Stepanovitch's eccentricities was to have as a breakfast table companion a life-size photo of an "art treasure" he affectionately called the Mad Monk.

The Mad Monk finally became the issue which caused Stepanovitch to lose his wife. She put up with the weird guest at the breakfast table until Stepanovitch quit talking to her and addressed all his remarks to the wild-eyed picture. Then she left. After this Stepanovitch became unbearable. One by one the servants quit.

Finally there was only Ivan, who had been with his master for years. "You don't care for my friends, either," Stepanovitch shrieked at Ivan one day in a fit of temper. Ivan protested that he did. "Then you shall have the Mad Monk as a companion for your bedroom." Next day when the servant had gone to the village to shop Stepanovitch looked in the servant's room and found the Mad Monk covered with a blanket. Poor Ivan had been unable to go to sleep with the grim figure glaring at him.

When Ivan returned Stepanovitch gave him a tongue lashing and discharged him from his service. So impractical had Stepanovitch become that villagers were not surprised when they heard that he had exhausted his other resources and was parceling off his valuble vineyards to get cash to buy more pictures. At last a cousin, a lawyer, came to see Stepanovitch and begged him to undergo a treatment. Stepanovitch replied by chasing the cousin from the house. Alarmed by the landowner's condition, the lawyer engaged a physician to hide in the home and report what should be done.

As the doctor described the situation afterward, Stepanovitch came into the room where the physician was hiding, seated himself in an armchair and began to talk to the pictures. There was a portrait of. a horribly deformed beggar to whom the eccentric landowner seemed to have taken a dislike. Stepanovitch pulled a revolver from his pocket and shot at the picture. Fearful that Stepanovitch might kill himself, the doctor slipped out of his place of hiding and struggled for the weapon.

In the tussle, the weapon was fired again and again. The sound of the shooting and the doctor's cries for help were answered by passersby. Stepanovitch, unquestionably insane, was removed to a hospital for the mentally ill. In these strange surroundings, away from his familiar horrors, he became unmanageable. Finding life not worth living without the grotesque figures of ugly people, Stepanovitch leaped to his death from a window above a stone quarry.

After his death, Mrs. Stepanovitch explained that her nusband had seemed perfectly normal until the death of his parents. In fact, the only Indication that he was different from the friends with whom he had been reared came after marriage. His widow says that she discovered him to be fiendishly jealous. So fearful was he that he would lose his wife to some other man that he forbade her to use face powder and perfume.

When he saw her In front of a glass brushing her hair he would snarl, "beauty Is only skin-deep. What you are is important, not how you look." The honeymoon, such as it was, had hardly began when the bridgroom deserted his pretty young wife for an eerie existence among as ugly a collection of pictures as anyone ever collected. Paint Better Pictures rim BecauseThey Dance First THE more they dance, the better they paint. Art teachers at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, New York, have revealed this discovery about children in the Saturday morning painting and modeling classes. As an experiment, they offered classes in modern creative dancing just before the art classes.

Children from seven to twelve years of age learned to make graceful movements in dancing class, then carried that rhythm over into their painting. The youngsters studied dance techniques, then improvised their own dances to music, using graceful gestures of hands and arms. Children In the art classes who took dancing just previously did obviously superior work, Miss Rebecca Cook, art teacher, says. about all that could be said in defense of his ability as a painter of simple landscapes. Then, almost as though some miracle had happened, the boy began to paint better.

"What's happened to Georgie?" one art teacher asked another. Nobody knew. His water colors, painted during the art class, were evidence that the boy had suddenly gotten "hot" as a junior artist. "Let's ask his mother," someone suggested. "Maybe he is being coached at home." The lad's mother was surprised.

"The only thing new he has been doing recently is attending dancing class," his mother said. This was the tip-off. The art teachers wondered what would happen if the whole class had dancing Instruction. Gosnell was engaged to give the The Art Teachers Say That Tripping the "Light Fantastic" Really Doe Something for One's AbiUty to Draw. Miss Eleanor "The difference Is quite remarkable," Miss Cook said.

"We noticed it at once, even after the children had just started dancing." The idea of experimenting with dancing Instruction as a warming up device for the young artists had an interesting beginning. In the painting class was a boy who didn't seem to belong there. He wasn't color blind, but that was Instruction. At first the boys and girls were stiff and awkward. Today all that is gone.

They have a new grace and poise, and so far as their painting and modeling is concerned, the fifty children are really "clicking" in the art classes. 1939, by American Weekly, Inc. Great Britain Rights Reserved..