E269: This Is The Saddest Show (part II)

Fresh Hell Podcast

freshhellpodcast

True Crime, History

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 14 February 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In our final episode on the world of Freak Shows, we’re closing the curtain with the incredible, tragic, and sometimes triumphant stories of the performers themselves. Meet Schlitzie, the performer who inspired Freaks (1932), a beloved and misunderstood figure of the sideshow world. Krao, the so-called “Missing Link,” whose life challenges the cruel narratives forced upon her. Myrtle Corbin, the "Four-Legged Girl from Texas," who defied expectations and lived on her own terms. And the Two-Headed Nightingale, Millie and Christine McKoy, twin sisters who endured slavery, exploitation, and eventually reclaimed their voices—literally and figuratively. These were real people with real lives beyond the stage. Their stories are heartbreaking, shocking, and sometimes unexpectedly uplifting. Who profited from their existence? How did they navigate a world that both exploited and celebrated them? And what became of them after the applause faded? Step right up for the final chapter in our exploration of the history, myths, and realities of the sideshow. Freak Shows, human oddities, sideshow history, Schlitzie, Freaks (1932), microcephaly, exploitation, circus history, Victorian sideshows, 19th-century performers, 20th-century sideshows, freak show ethics, missing link hoaxes, Krao Farini, human zoos, Myrtle Corbin, dipygus, conjoined twins, Two-Headed Nightingale, Millie and Christine McKoy, P.T. Barnum, medical anomalies, disability and entertainment, tragic lives, forgotten history, sideshow legends, circus performers, American history, human curiosity, spectacle vs. humanity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to the Fresh Hell podcast.
0:14.6	Fresh Hell contains stories of a disturbing and often graphic nature and is intended for a mature audience.
0:20.6	Please don't let your kids listen to this, or they might turn out like us.
0:29.8	Hi, I'm Annie from the U.S.
0:32.7	And I'm Johanna from Austria, and you're listening to your favorite international podcast. The podcast hosted
0:40.2	by two women living on different continents who never met in real life and bonded over the
0:46.2	mutual interest of murder, mystery and the macabre throughout history. Yep, that's right.
0:52.9	That's us.
1:01.3	Before we start, we would like to give a huge shout out to our newest Patreon, patron, Katie Peterson.
1:02.5	Thank you so much.
1:03.0	Hey!
1:14.6	Speaking of Patreon to all of our murder tier patrons, you will already find three episodes of Cinema Macabre online in our feed.
1:20.7	That's where we're going to be discussing and reviewing and sort of taking you through different true crime shows and documentaries. We started with the TV show Candy, and each episode is dedicated to a single episode of the show.
1:31.4	Also, if you have any requests for shows you want us to watch next and talk about,
1:37.4	send us a message or please just leave us a comment.
1:40.3	We're trying to give you an episode a week for patron and yeah I think we're we're almost
1:47.0	halfway through candy so we definitely need your suggestion we are more than halfway through
1:51.2	I think there are five episodes that's right we are more than halfway so tell us what to do next
1:55.3	or we'll just pick something that we like also if you're not a Patreon but still want to have early access to our episodes
2:02.8	and a little bit of bonus material like rewatch videos of our live streams, you can now
2:08.4	join our bonus program on Spotify and iTunes. No worries, our podcast and all the episodes
2:15.6	will always stay free for everyone.
	...

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