In The Greatest Showman, are all of the "freaks" representative of actual biological variations?

In The Greatest Showman, are all of the "freaks" representative of actual biological variations? - Person Holding White Flower In Her Hands

In The Greatest Showman, P.T. Barnum hires many people with "biological rarities", including:

  • a woman with a beard
  • a person with long hair covering all of his/her face
  • an albino woman
  • conjoined twins

I also noticed a man with short horns at the top of his forehead, which I have never seen before. That led me to wonder: Were any of the biological conditions fictitious, and only created for the movie?



Best Answer

These are all real conditions

a woman with a beard

Per Wikipedia

A relatively small number of women are able to grow enough facial hair to have a distinct beard. In some cases, female beard growth is the result of a hormonal imbalance (usually androgen excess), or a rare genetic disorder known as hypertrichosis.

There are numerous references to bearded women throughout the centuries, and Shakespeare also mentioned them in Macbeth:

Note though that...

Notable exceptions were the famous bearded women of the circus sideshows of the 19th and early 20th centuries, such as Barnum's Josephine Clofullia and Ringling Bros.' Jane Barnell, whose anomalies were celebrated. Sometimes circus and carnival freak shows presented bearded ladies who were actually women with facial wigs or bearded men dressed as women


a person with long hair covering all of his/her face

Again, related to Hypertrichosis

Several circus sideshow performers in the 19th and early 20th centuries, such as Julia Pastrana, had hypertrichosis. Many of them worked as freaks and were promoted as having distinct human and animal traits.

There are famous examples of "Wolf People"...such as

enter image description here

Danny Ramos Gomez, who has been dubbed the 'wolfman', has a condition called hypertrichosis, which causes his body to produce extra hair, especially on his hair and ches

Source


an albino woman

A known an not uncommon medical condition..

Albinism in humans is a congenital disorder characterized by the complete or partial absence of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes. Albinism is associated with a number of vision defects, such as photophobia, nystagmus, and amblyopia. Lack of skin pigmentation makes for more susceptibility to sunburn and skin cancers.


conjoined twins

Again, relatively rare but not unknown...

Conjoined twins are identical twins joined in utero. An extremely rare phenomenon, the occurrence is estimated to range from 1 in 49,000 births to 1 in 189,000 births

The most famous pair of conjoined twins was Chang and Eng Bunker (Thai: ???-???, In-Chan) (1811–1874), Thai brothers born in Siam, now Thailand. They traveled with P.T. Barnum's circus for many years and were labeled as the Siamese twins. Chang and Eng were joined at the torso by a band of flesh, cartilage, and their fused livers. In modern times, they could have been easily separated. Due to the brothers' fame and the rarity of the condition, the term "Siamese twins" came to be used as a synonym for conjoined twins.


I also noticed a man with short horns at the top of his forehead

And another winner...I confess I had my doubts but this is actually a thing called...

Cutaneous horns, also known by the Latin name cornu cutaneum, are unusual keratinous skin tumors with the appearance of horns, or sometimes of wood or coral. Formally, this is a clinical diagnosis for a "conical projection above the surface of the skin." They are usually small and localized, but can, in very rare cases be much larger.

That said, the extreme rarity of this condition makes it likely that any circus freak would, in fact, have been a fake.

enter image description here




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Are the freaks in The Greatest Showman real?

Historically regarded as freaks, the real members of the Barnum & Bailey Circus all had something that made them stand out from the crowd, whether it was their "exotic" ethnicity, genetic differences, or physical skills.

Is the bearded lady in The Greatest Showman real?

In The Greatest Showman, Keala plays Lettie Lutz, a bearded lady. Lutz is a composite character partly based on the real-life performers Josephine Clofullia and Annie Jones.

Is Phillip Carlyle real?

No. In researching The Greatest Showman true story, we discovered that Barnum's eager young prot\xe9g\xe9 in the film, Phillip Carlyle (Zac Efron), is a fictional character. Phillip was created in part for the film's fictional interracial love story between himself and trapeze artist Anne Wheeler (Zendaya).

Is Lettie Lutz a real person?

Lettie Lutz, \u201cThe Greatest Showman's\u201d bearded lady took inspiration from real life performer Annie Jones. Jones toured with P.T. Barnum during her lifetime and became the country's most famous bearded lady.



The Disturbing Story Of The Black Albino Brothers Who Were Abducted And Forced To Be Sideshow Freaks




Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Images: Flora Westbrook, Vladislav Vasnetsov, Anna Tarazevich, Pixabay