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One was a water ride.

One was the original

Ferris wheel.

The rest were all shows.

They were all

independently owned.

And they had been booking

affairs in other places.

- When all those assorted

dime museum operators,

which were premiere forms

of entertainment

in the 1 9th century,

circuses which traveled

and dime museums,

which cost a dime to get in... -

think

Ripley's Believe It or Not!

and roadside attractions... -

that's the kind of thing

that were dime museums... -

smashed together

with the Smithsonian,

because you saw

items of natural wonder

and items of freakish wonder

and live performance.

- When they all were together

for those two years... -

they got together;

they got acquainted

with one another... -

and they decided,

"Instead of us splitting up,

going our separate ways,

let's stay organized."

- If they could clump together

and move like circuses

and create carnival... -

"Oh, we can make money

off of this,

because rural America has

no other form of entertainment."

It's before movies.

It's before radio.

It's before TV.

It's before any of that stuff.

It's before most towns

even have a theater.

- And this was the start

of carnivals as we know them.

- When your circus came to town,

that drew thousands of people

from the community.

Now carnival comes into the mix,

and the carnival is drawing

thousands of people.

- There was an area

that was midway between

one part of the fair

and the other.

That's where all these sideshows

and the big wheel sat.

- The circus created the midway,

because from that big top

to the marquee out front

to the front door... -

that's the midway

to the big show.

Of course, what carnival did

was realize,

"You know, we could make

an entire life

off of the midway."

- I remember the sideshow

very well

because, of course,

you know,

the sword swallower,

who used to get drunk

and burn his throat,

and the fat ladies,

fish and humans... -

mermaids,

which were not, of course.

It was very interesting.

- Sideshow is seen as this

amazingly American institution,

but in fact, of course,

its roots are ancient.

I mean, any time,

prehistorically,

somebody said,

"Hey, come here;

I got something really weird

to show you,"

that's the birth of sideshow,

especially if they're gonna

charge you money to look... -

the performance

of such weird things

as sword swallowing

and eating horrible things

to prove to people

that you can do it.

But really, the sideshow

is only about 1 00 years old

in the United States.

- So every carnival

had a sideshow.

Every fair had a sideshow.

Every circus... -

and there were 30 circuses

in operation in those years... -

every circus had a sideshow.

Most of them had some freaks.

If you were lucky

and you had

four or five legitimate freaks,

those were your stars,

but you filled it in

because you had to have

entertainment.

- You always hard-sell the freak

on the front of the show.

You want people to think that

they're gonna come in

and see 80 turtle boys,

1 4 pairs of Siamese twins... -

I mean,

you got to do that because,

whether people like to admit it

or not, freakery sells.

'Cause you once

you get 'em inside,

it's 50 cents to get in

and $50 to get out,

because every act

is selling you something.

Every... - The Hilton sisters... -

they're selling that

autobiography.

What you principally see

in a sideshow

is not freak acts at all.

What you see are what they call

working acts... -

you know,

an accordion player,

Hawaiian bands,

glassblowers.

I mean, all this wacky stuff

was in sideshows

because those things

were exotic.

They're amazing acts.

Some would argue they're

the most entertaining thing

in the sideshow.

The freak performers

didn't do all that

the Hilton sisters could do.

- And a lot of the freaks,

they just stood up

and said, "Look at me.

Here I am."

- They did one thing

because their act is

supposed to take five minutes,

and then you go to the next guy

and you get five minutes,

and you go to the next performer

and you get five minutes.

- The freaks would be seated

on a stage throughout the show.

- And you walk

down through that show.

Usually you're led by that

inside talker

or the inside lecturer,

usually the magician

because he's the most disposable

commodity on the sideshow.

People drank,

and people got uppity.

Percilla the monkey girl

and her husband, Emmitt

the alligator-skinned man,

literally had a sign

that they kept right in front

of the platform that says,

"If you will be quiet

and behave,

we will give you a good show."

The born freaks were the royalty

in those shows.

- Those were the people

that drew the customers

to the carnival.

- They got the lion's share

of the money.

The two highest-paid people

on the show

were always the born freak

and the guy who owned the show.

And sometimes

the guy who owned that show

might take a hit on the money

to make sure that the born freak

stayed loyal to the show,

because if you couldn't pay 'em,

they're leaving.

They're out of there.

Because they know they can get

big money from any sideshow.

And, of course, the Hilton

sisters certainly could.

The old line

from the born freaks,

all the ones

I ever interviewed

who'd been in the business

in the heyday

between World War I

and World War Il,

all of them told me... -

every last one of them... -

A, if they could still do it

and it was still

like it was,

they'd still be doing it,

and, B,

"I got paid to be up there.

They had to pay money

to look at me."

Given the alternatives to

working in the sideshow business

for a lot of those performers,

there wasn't much else

other than hoping

the government or your family

would take care of you.

It's just, the Hilton sisters,

over their long careers,

trained to be many,

many different things,

with the hook being,

"Look.

We're conjoined."

- There were freaks

who had to perform

to show what they could do.

Armless wonders... -

it was really just doing things

they normally would do

in their everyday lives.

I ran freak shows

for many years,

and I always preferred

that the people

did some kind of an act

to entertain.

Handicapped people,

if you want to call them that,

on the sideshows,

certainly were never mistreated.

They were our stars.

You don't mistreat

your stars.

They were the ones

who were making you a living,

and in change,

you made them a living.

- The people who were

in those sideshows

found community

and camaraderie

with other people

that had to go through

the same challenges in life

that they did.

Daisy and Violet,

very early on,

were still set apart

from other sideshow performers.

They weren't allowed

to really interact with them

in the same way

when they were children

in large part

because of Myer Myers.

He didn't want them to have

that stigma of being freaks.

"Yes, we're going to

display the girls,

"and, yes, we're going

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