@article{1474641,
      author = {Bogdan, Robert.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/1474641},
      title = {Freak show : presenting human oddities for amusement and  profit /},
      publisher = {University of Chicago Press,},
      abstract = {From 1840 until 1940, freak shows by the hundreds  crisscrossed the United States. The freak show was widely  accepted as one of America's most popular forms of  entertainment. Robert Bogdan's fascinating social history  brings to life the world of the freak show and explores the  culture that nurtured and, later, abandoned it. In  uncovering this neglected chapter of show business, he  describes in detail the flimflam artistry behind the shows,  the promoters and the audiences, and the gradual evolution  of public opinion from awe to embarrassment. Freaks were  not born, Bogdan reveals; they were manufactured by the  amusement world, usually with the active participation of  the freaks themselves. Many of the "human curiosities"  found fame and fortune, becoming the celebrities of their  time, until the ascent of professional medicine transformed  them from marvels into pathological specimens. -- From  publisher's description},
      recid = {1474641},
      pages = {xiii, 322 pages :},
      address = {Chicago :},
      year = {1988},
}