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Shocked & Amazed
The
latest freaky news and links from your pals at S&A
It's
weird.
It's wacky.
It's weekly.
It's free.
Newsletter
of the novelty
and variety
entertainment
business
Volume 8 - August 205124 pages, $19.95
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The willing suspension of disbelief is what makes amusements, well, amusing. Listen as James Taylor explains it all in CUTTIN' UP JACKPOTS
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Fabulous Frieda Pushnik was more than a lady with no arms and legs. She was a Palmer penmanship pro, a painter and a crochet aficionado. You could easily say she was DISARMINGLY TALENTED
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Giant rats, gypsies, and the most famous three-legged man of them all! If that sounds like your ideal summer job, well then you sound just like our pal, Walt Hudson. He's our very own CONEY ISLAND BABY
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The Fischers were huge stars! Professionally they were known as the World's Only Giant Married Couple. Enjoy a quick peek into THE FISCHERS FOTO FILE
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You'll never meet a character more colorful than Red Stuart. He's a true-blue-through-and-through carnie. Sometimes, he's rolling in the green. While other times, a black cloud seems to hang over his head. One thing is for certain, he would absolutely want you to HAVE A RED ONE
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Don't doubt our veracity! We verily aver these Victorian variety amusements are available for viewing in THE STRAND
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Don Boles (aka Rex Dane) was a midnight movie mentalist and magician in addition to being MENTAL AS ANYTHING
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These girls really know how to turn heads! Everyone slows down to take a gander at them. Don't be embarrassed if they catch you RUBBER NECKING
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Everything old is new again. And it doesn't get much older than the Renaissance. But it doesn't get much newer than the Renaissance Faire, either. Join Jeffrey Siegal as he explains the evolution of the olde. Oh, and you can ask questions along the way. He's FAIRE GAME
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Love! Romance! Betrayal! Sappiness! You're in for this and so much more when we return to the golden age of comics and examine why we are DRAWN TO CARNIES
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Don't call one of those animal advocacy groups. No Pulex Irritans were harmed in the publication of this periodical. These vivacious vermin are simply chomping at the bit to have their stories told here. Why, I'll be doggone if these petite performers aren't FLEAS TO MEET YOU
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Who wouldn't welcome a return to the good ole days of genteel popular amusement? You know, back when the unwashed masses weren't nearly so unwashed. Since said era never truly existed, you'll have to forgo turning back the hands of time and instead try TURNING ON A DIME
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Without sounding too world-weary, we've seen some very strange things in our time. But the almost human gorilla is the top banana of bizarre. Don't believe me? Well, I'll be a MONKEY'S UNCLE
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Now the world don't move to the beat of just one drum. What's right for you, might not be right for some. Lee Kolozsy embrace both worlds in VIVE LE DIFFERENCE......
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It's time to bring out the big guns! And guns don't get much bigger than cannons. And the number-one-with-a-bullet fav of audiences everywhere was The Great Wilno. Let him tell you about spending his life staring down the barrel of a gun in NICE SHOT
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Blinky, Moss-ear, and No-Nose love this piece. Of course, I might be DROPPING NAMES
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This way to the egress. We tell you exactly where to find the key to the midway in the BLOW OFF
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Pry open your wallet and spend your cabbage in the INDEPENDENT MIDWAY
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Just who did this? We point fingers at everyone in FRAMING THE SHOW
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Talk is cheap. That's why, at no additional charge to you, we are able to provide you with LINGO
Net Freak Alrt
The latest freaky news and links from webmistress Kathleen
Kotcher!
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Odds 'n Ends
- Lady Sandra Reed, Albino Sword-Swallower (from the out-of-print Shocked and Amazed! Volume 1)
- Shocked and Amazed! Volume 6 publication party at La Luz de Jesus in Los Angeles
- Sawdust Trail, 2002
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Shocked & Amazed! Weblog: Check here everyday for the latest news from your pals at S&A! Notices of media appearances, sideshow-related stories in the news, and much more!
- Beauty & the Beasts: James Taylor's interview with Mae Noell, owner of Gorilla Shows, from the out-of-print Shocked & Amazed! Vol. 3.
Odd Uncouple at the
American Dime Museum
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Odd Uncouple: American Dime Museum Loses Founding Partner
and May Lose its Home (Baltimore City Paper) - In obscurity, museum stops on a dime: Gallery celebrating the weird shuts doors (Baltimore Sun)
- Buddy, can you spare the Dime Museum? Co-founder says yes, though he and partner are splitting (Baltimore Sun)
- Baltimore Sun: Dime Museum Setback (Baltimore Sun)
Hurry, hurry, hurry! Step right up! Friends and fans of sideshow everywhere! Freakshows! Girl shows! Grind shows of every make and description! Headlesss women! Alligator boys! Ten foot, two-headed Egyptian mummy cave men! Daredevils to stop the heart in mid-flutter! Mysteries to beguile the innocent and confound the skeptic! Listen to the voice of a stranger! Your neighbors are enjoying the show right now!
And how might that be? They're reading James Taylor's SHOCKED & AMAZED--On & Off the Midway, the only periodical devoted entirely to the great spirit of the shows, the only publication of its type anywhere. This is the only book to capture the thrills, excitement and mystery of the traditional back end shows of the carnival, the dime museums of a century ago, the roadside museums of today, and the human marvel shows of tomorrow.
Every volume of SHOCKED & AMAZED is chock full of first-time, exclusive interviews with the showmen and performers themselves, features reprints of some of the greatest articles and stories about the shows ever written. And of course every issue is highlighted with dozens of never-before-published photos and original artwork. You'll see the acts as they're performed and the performers as they ready themselves for the shows and relax at home. SHOCKED & AMAZED is an unblinking look at the hows, whys and wherefores of a business whose sole purpose is fun, awe and wonderment, the business, "by tradition, half as old as time."
No book devoted to that boundless spirit could get it all between two covers, and no mere magazine could do it justice either. SHOCKED & AMAZED can do both... because it is both. Oversized in format and length, SHOCKED & AMAZED is that rarest of publications, a serial book. Taken together, the volumes of SHOCKED & AMAZED cover the shows in depth--the freak shows, the fat shows, the girl shows, illusion shows and traveling museums, wax shows, crime shows, pickled punk shows, even the athletic apes shows. You'll read about grind shows, pit shows and ding shows. X-ray shows. Iron lung shows. Posing shows. SHOCKED & AMAZED tells the tale of the business whose demise critics have been predicting your whole life, the business the politically correct have called "impolite" and "an embarassment," the business that knows the show must go on.
Friends, the show is in town, and it's all between the covers of James Taylor's SHOCKED & AMAZED--On & Off the Midway . The lure of the midway is all here! Don't be left behind!
