Sunday, August 15, 2010

From Henry Penndorf #1


Giraffe Neck Women Of Burma.2, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Hi Bill,

More on the "Giraffe-Neck Women of Burma"...

"The Giraffe-Neck Women of Burma," come from the Padaung tribe, a hill tribe, where women wear coiled brass around their necks to give the illusion of elongating them as a sign of tribal identity and beauty. Ringling Bros. featured the"Giraffe-Neck Women" in 1933. That would probably be the date of the picture that you posted. "The Giraffe-Neck Women" generated tremendous curiosity and were a huge hit during their time with Ringling Bros..

The Paduang people are of Mongolian descent and are not Burmese. They live in the mountain area that borders Burma and Thailand.

The reason for the ancient Paduang tradition of neck rings is unknown. The coils may have served to make the Paduang women unattractive to slave traders, or as some believe, that the coils are for protection against a tiger bite.

The neck rings may look like single rings, but they are one continuous brass coil. The first coil is applied when a girl is five years old, and the coils are increased with each year according to the girls age. The custom of the neck rings continues today.

The accompanying Ringling Brothers poster featuring "The Giraffe-Neck Women", and proclaiming the circus as the "Greatest Educational Attraction The World Has Ever Known” is from 1933. The poster was produced by Central Ptg and Illinois Litho Co., Chicago, Illinois.

"The Giraffe-Neck Women Of Burma" must have been a popular attraction with other circuses as well as Ringling Bros., evidenced by the Betram Mills Circus poster (1937) and the Hagenbeck-W! allace poster.

Ringling Brothers also featured another group of interesting people, thirteen "Genuine Ubangi Savages," with "mouths and lips as
large as those of full-grown crocodiles". The "Ubangis" came from the Sara tribe in French West Africa, modern day Chad. They were brought from Africa by Dr.Ludwig Bergonnier. The "Ubangis" first appeared with Ringling Bros. in 1930. Ringling Brother's publicist, Roland Butler, renamed the people "Ubangis" after the Ubangi River (which is several hundred miles from where the tribe actually lived) feeling that the name Sara was not exotic enough for the circus. The "Ubangi" poster is dated 1931.

Henry

Posted by Buckles at 8/15/2010 06:10:00 AM

10 comments:

Jack Ryan said...

Buckles,

As you know, Roland Butler was quite the graphic artists. It was his somewhat far-fetched drawings of the giraffe-necked ladies that served as the artist's reference for the wonderful poster that Henry posted.

Jack

15 August, 2010 11:42
Anonymous said...

Here's an articles from today of women who are supposedly kept against their will as tourist attractions.

http://jezebel.com/5344527/vacation-at-the-human-zoo-see-the-long+neck-women

15 August, 2010 12:06
Henry Penndorf said...

Hi Bill,

Still more on the “Giraffe Neck Women”…

The elongated necks of the “Giraffe Neck Women” are not the result of stretching the neck and its vertebrate. It is actually done in an opposite manner. The pressure from the weight of the coils pushes down and compresses the clavicle (collar bone), as well as the upper ribs, to such an angle that end result is the illusion of a very long neck. The average weight of these brass coils is 5 kilos, or approximately 11 pounds.

Do you, or any your Blog’s contributors or readers know when (what year) Ringling Brothers abandoned the sideshow? Was it before Judge Hofheinz and the Feld Brothers purchased Ringling Brothers? I seem to remember a statement attributed to Irvin Feld that he found the exhibiting of human oddities personally distasteful.

I have only seen a sideshow twice. The first time was when I attended my first circus, Ringling Brothers, probably around 1955 at the old Garden, (Eighth Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets). The circus then had both a sideshow and menagerie.

The only memory that I have of that sideshow is a gentleman dressed as a cowboy with bullwhips. I believe that my Dad got us his picture and autograph. I wish I still had that picture. No memories of the menagerie.

I didn’t see my second side show until around 1980 with the Toby Tyler Circus, in the rain under a tent in Valhalla, New York.

Stay well.

Henry

16 August, 2010 00:12
Jack Ryan said...

Henry,

I believe the end of the side show came when Ringling became an indoor attraction. However, for some years, they put together a ten-in-one for the Madison Square Garden date.

Jack

16 August, 2010 10:40
Buckles said...

I was on the show in 1957 and there was nothing in the basement other than elephants, ring stock and a few empty baggage wagons.
In fact we had enough room to exercise the few elephants every morning that didn't perform in the ring.
"Targa" stood at the end of the picket line next to the trapping room and whenever she started to
"squeek" and "squawk" we knew the Dutchman was on his way down the ramp and sure enough a few seconds later Hugo would appear at the far end of the basement maybe 200 feet away, giving us enough time to look busy.

16 August, 2010 11:03
Anonymous said...

The summer that Ringling was at the Astrohall for 3 months they also had a side show along with Gargantau II, and the Jean Leroy's circus models. I think this was in 1969.
p.j.

16 August, 2010 11:21
Henry Penndorf said...

I do remember a menagerie of sorts when I went to see a performance of Ringling Brothers in 1969 (Gunther’s American debut), at the current Madison Square Garden.

About an hour before show time you were allowed into the Garden’s Rotunda to view the animals. Except for Gargantua II, in his personal air-conditioned trailer, the animals that were on display were only those that performed in the show. This form of menagerie continued at the Garden for a number of years.

I don’t recall a sideshow, or circus models, however.

I understand that Ringling Brothers has revived, in select cities, the menagerie as a part of their All Access Pre-Show. The menagerie is presented in an elaborate fashion, sort of a combination of a zoo and botanical garden.

Jack…What is a ten-in-one?

Henry

16 August, 2010 14:10
Jack Ryan said...

Henry,

Ten-in-one is carny slang for sideshow. The botanical garden thing was done by Ringling only for the Houston date to coincide with a botanical exhibit in the building.

And, p.j., you're right about the Astrohall in 1969 -- I was the resident publicist so I know. It was more carnival games, rides and displays of circus memorabilia than a traditional circus sideshow.

Jack

16 August, 2010 17:31
Frank Ferrante said...

Back in the late 60's and early 70's when I traveled with Ringling during the summers, I always looked forward to the Anaheim date. This always seemed to coincide with the Circus Model Builders annual convention and a great portion of the convention hall has given over to these miniature marvel of magical magnificence! I would also act as an unofficial tour guide for many of the folk who had never been to Disneyland before, we would go over before shows, between shows and after the blow off. Between 1969 and 1975, I think I visited The Magic Kingdom almost 300 times! (Not bad for a Southern California native who didn't make his first trip to The Park until he was 13!) ~frank

16 August, 2010 22:15
SteveR said...

Hi Henry (Penndorf), Hope you still read this blog - I was looking for an image of the 1937 Bertram Mills Poster you mention featuring the Giraffe Necked Women - any chance you could email me a copy at steverichley@btinternet.com
if you have one? Many Thanks, Steve

16 May, 2012 10:42

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