On the sawdust trail... By Kathleen Crawford Shocked and Amazed Online Editor August, 1996 IT'S DONE! The incredible, stupendous, not-to-be-believed volume 3 of James Taylor's SHOCKED AND AMAZED! On & Off the Midway has been sent to the printers. The estimated delivery dates are the very end of August or the very beginning of September. Chock full o' savory morsels of sideshow goodness, this volume introduces one and all to: An in-depth interview with the Anatomical Wonder, MELVIN BURKHART Part 2 of Siamese-twins sisters DAISY AND VIOLET HILTON's heart-wrenching tale of love and loss A twisted history of torture shows A private conversation with MAE NOELL, 1/2 of Noell's Ark famous fighting ape shows More titillating and tantalizing tidbits of information that we could ever possibly begin to mention here. As a special offer to all who are with-it on our electronic sawdust trail - we are offering pre-ordering with many exciting prizes and surprises! If you act now, you will receive a copy of volume 3 of SHOCKED AND AMAZED! as soon as it's off the presses! In addition, every pre-ordered copy will be autographed by our very own JAMES TAYLOR! But wait, there's more! As a special limited time offer available only to those discerning folks who pre-order volume 3 - you will receive a fabulous piece of sideshow history available exclusively from SHOCKED AND AMAZED! Don't delay! Click here for further details on pre-ordering SHOCKED AND AMAZED! Over the July 4th weekend our founding father, JAMES TAYLOR, declared his independence from the tyranny of final production to visit New York City in the spirit of life, liberty and the pursuit of freakishness! While in the Big Apple, he visited showman BOBBY REYNOLDS, at his Coney Island location. It seems that Bobby has taken on a number of live acts (the fire-eater is his nephew) and further extended his already breath-taking bannerline. A visit to Bobby's museum is never anything less than a religious experience similar to peeking into Nirvana (No, he does NOT have Kurt Cobain's head. This is a legit religious reference. Get over the junkie already!) Look for references to Bobby in volume 3 of SHOCKED AND AMAZED! (Psst...the inside back cover features a shot of Bobby and his "kids.") Alas, also in New York, the carriage house where fabulous showman P.T. BARNUM kept GENERAL TOM THUMB's carriage is being torn down. Rush to see it before it is completely gone and make sure to get a piece of brick sideshow history for yourself. It is just east of the intersection of Lexington and 24th in Manhattan. Gee. Hopefully, the fiends responsible for this travesty are going to do something meaningful with the space like turn it into another frozen yogurt stand! And in neighboring New Jersey at the Meadowlands, James visited with WARD "King of the Sideshows" HALL! Ward is currently on the road with his brand, spankin' new illusion show and you've never seen anything like it! Perennial troupers fat man Bruce Snowden and the amazing Poobah are still with Ward - so don't worry all of you die-hard Hall fans! This is a super-slick show that runs about one-half hour. It shows approximately 10 traditional illusions and some close-up magic. The blow-off is really something to witness. Some unnatural acts are committed by DR. FRANKENSTEIN and PENELOPE PINHEAD for the enjoyment of his discerning public. The next time Ward is going to be reasonably close to the SHOCKED AND AMAZED! headquarters will be after Labor Day weekend at the York Fair. Watch this space for details. York has been voted the second best spot (the first naturally being the Meadowlands) to see a show by our staff. While there are fewer shows, the ones that are there are truly first rate. THE CALIFORNIA HELL RIDERS have managed to scare the shit out of us with their trick riding and daredevils stunts for a number of seasons. Hopefully they will return again this year, and we will remember a change of clothes! Don't think that Ward was the only showman to brave New Jersey; au contraire, there were scads of other shows. Included were JACK CONSTANTENE's grind shows which included (among others) his: Girl-to-Gorilla (People still run screaming from this one), and snake-girl illusion, a traveling aquarium boasting electric eels, piranhas and sharks, and scads more! There was also DENNIS YORK's freak animal show, the world's largest horse, the world's smallest horse and the world's largest rat. We heard recently from show owner BECKY KOLOZSY whose husband Lee is currently on tour with LOLLAPALOOZA with their three grind shows (World's Largest Rat, Headless Woman and Killer Snakes). Following in the rather large freaky footsteps of JIM ROSE and his circus sideshow, the organizers of this years Lolla tour have learned that sideshows sell! Visit the shows at the Lolla midway near you and make sure you tell them SHOCKED AND AMAZED! sent ya! Speaking of JIM ROSE, he's been bitten by the acting bug. It seems that his performance on X-FILES was just the beginning! Jim recently told SHOCKED AND AMAZED! to keep an eye out for an upcoming television appearance. Jim is always up to something and you can be sure that SHOCKED AND AMAZED! will always keep you posted on the up-to-the-minute shenanigans of one of our favorite performers. Watch this space for details! Be on the lookout for the following freak shows coming soon to a bookstore near you! FREAK SHOW by Carl Hammer and Gideon Bosker features a number of fabulous banners by JOHNNY MEAH (also the creator of Ward Hall's illusion show front). A bargain at approximately $15 it is something you cannot live without. Those who caught on after it was too late will be very pleased to know that the runaway-success-instantly-out-of-print banner book FREAKS, GEEKS AND STRANGE GIRLS has been re-released in paperback. According to a reliable source and contributor to the book, other than the cover switching from hard to soft, it is exactly the same including the wonderful gatefolds. This is one classy book and a must-have for anyone who appreciates sideshow art! Happily, one-stop shopping is available to you through ATOMIC BOOKS which carries both of these ten-in-one treasures in their Mondo, Freaks & Human Oddities section of their catalog! In other publishing news, for all of those "Weekly World News" readers out there (don't be ashamed to admit it) you may have recently read an advertisement for THE PICTORIAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF HUMAN CURIOUSITIES which seems like an incredible deal at two copies for $10. SHOCKED AND AMAZED! swallowed the hook and was promptly beached for our trouble! The book is 8 photocopied pages of those public-domain-you-see-them-everywhere freak shots and most of the performers are not identified. If you really need to have every single freak book ever made, maybe then you should buy it. Otherwise, invest your freak library money more wisely with one of the recently released banner books. Join the "Net Freak Alert!" mailing list! Enter your email address below, then click the 'Join List' button: Search the Shocked and Amazed Site Are you looking for something freaky?

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