Sunday, December 02, 2018

LITTLE FOLK #6


5 comments:

Charles Hanson said...

Looks like Bagonghi the dwarf clown of Cristiani Circus...I read that it is pc to use the word dwarf but very offensive to use the other word starting with M for little people. I would have thought it would be the exact opposite...Go figure

Chic Silber said...


I believe that midgets are

small but in proportion as

Dwarfs have forshortened

limbs & stocky torsos

Both are acceptable terms

(as far as I've been told)

Roger Smith said...

CHIC gets the cigar.

Midgets are perfectly proportioned little people. I saw an article of comparison in the circus press, naming their condition as "atelovistic", but that term is not showing up on the net. Dwarfs deal with achondroplasia, or mis-shapen and distorted arms, legs, skulls, and especially their spines. Shorty Hinkle, Jimmy Armstrong, and Prince Paul were dwarfs. Tom Thumb, Carl Stephens, and Paul Horompo were midgets. The actor Peter Dinklage is a dwarf. Lavinia Warren was diagnosed a "pituitary dwarf", a person with growth hormone disorder.

These are conditions that come with some regularity in nature. There should be no stigma involved, but there are always those who choose to disparage someone different.

Roger Smith said...

Those I can ID are: Otto Griebling sitting, Baghongi holding the reins, Ernie Burch under the plumes, in an early makeup, and Freddie Freeman to his R.

All photos of Ernie Burch prove him an artist at clown makeup from his beginnings. He also did a tramp makeup as early as the Dailey show, long before his famed "Blinko" character was made an all-time classic of the American whiteface.

Charles Hanson said...

My post might not have been properly worded....I know the difference between a midget and a dwarf....It just puzzled me that in this pc world we live that it was mentioned that to use the word dwarf to describe a dwarf is fine. The implication was that it was not ok to use the word midget to describe a midget. I found this to be utter nonsense. I have read and heard this mentioned more than once....Sad state of affairs......