Problem Bodies and Sideshow Space: a Study of the Twentieth Century Sideshow in Blackpool 1930-1940
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Problem bodies and sideshow space: A study of the twentieth century sideshow in Blackpool 1930-1940 by Vicki Pugh A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History Faculty of Arts and Humanities University of Sheffield September 2020 1 Contents Declaration………………………………………………………………………..4 Abstract……………………………………………………………………….…..5 Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………7 Introduction………………………………………………………………………9 Creating an interdisciplinary approach to the twentieth century sideshow……………………………….…………………………………9 Case study: introducing Luke Gannon……………………………..……12 Research material: initial archival interest………………………………18 Newspaper sources and the role of the press………………………….…21 Wider literature and theoretical debates: space and the body ….………..27 Thesis synopsis ………………………………………………………….56 I: Gannon and the Golden Mile Introduction ………………………………………………………………61 Blackpool…………………….…………………………………………...62 A showman of starvation: Gannon’s move to the Golden Mile…………..68 Self-starvation as ‘spectacle’…………………………………………...…75 Starving Brides and glass cabinets………………………………………..88 Conclusion……………………………………………………………….100 II: Negotiating for power and a place on the Golden Mile Introduction……………………………………………………….…….104 A new crowd in Blackpool……………………………………….….….104 Show content and crowd control ……………………………….………118 Gannon and the Blackpool entertainment industry………………….….124 Gannon’s later years as a sideshow proprietor………………..…….…..141 Conclusion…………………………………………………………...….143 III: People doing deplorable things: defending the art and defining the objectionable in the twentieth century sideshow 2 Introduction…………………………………………………………….……145 Who has the right to provoke?.........................................................................151 The provokative freak show............................................................................162 Affect and the construction of problem bodies………….……………..........168 Conclusion………………………………………………………….....……..186 IV: Policing and narrating the female body at the sideshow: containment, concealment and conflict Introduction.....................................................................................................190 Before a British audience: relocating the female body on display……….....192 Containment and concealment of the female form: creating tensions in the sideshow…………………………………………………………………..…201 ‘A speaking part’: negotiating agency within and outside of the sideshow…213 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………...223 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………..225 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………...…229 3 Declaration I, the author, confirm that the Thesis is my own work. I am aware of the University’s Guidance on the Use of Unfair Means (www.sheffield.ac.uk/ssid/unfair-means). This work has not been previously been presented for an award at this, or any other, university. The images reprinted in this thesis are not copyright free and are used for examination purposes. 4 Abstract This thesis presents an interdisciplinary reflection of the seaside sideshow in Britain during the 1930s. With a particular focus on Blackpool as a growing resort in the interwar years, it explores the showmanship, scandal and scrutiny of impresario Luke Gannon, who exhibited on Blackpool’s Golden Mile throughout the early 1930s. The unique exhibitions organised by Gannon, including fasting females and his notorious ‘Starving Bride’ exhibits, are explored in detail to demonstrate how the female body on display became a site of conflict. Tensions were played out through the regulation of the body on display, and a struggle ensued between efforts to create a modern progressive resort verses more traditional forms of entertainment. These struggles are articulated in conflicts about space on the Golden Mile and the visibility of particular forms of entertainment that became the subject of legal regulation. This thesis presents a series of vignettes and cross-chronological comparisons to demonstrate how the sideshow functions as a site of negotiation between entertainment entrepreneurs, local authorities and audiences. Local and national newspapers provide insight into the multiple interests and conflicting voices that sought to redefine acceptable entertainment. These conflicts are seen to be fought as part of a wider dialogue around ever emerging new ambitions for Blackpool and its reputation. Through this study, the significance of the micro and macro space of the sideshow is brought into focus as a site of profound negotiation, reaching beyond its enclosed boundaries to influence and infiltrate wider social and cultural realities. With strong theoretical grounding from the disciplines of History, Anthropology and Art History, this thesis seeks to recast the histories of the seaside. It does so through the examination of case studies, with the aim of revealing discrete negotiations that took place and shaped the townscape over the identification of wider trends. Evidently, the unique 5 nature of the sideshow as a site that sought to excite and shock its audience is recast in new light, regarded as a space that shaped its wider context through productive exchanges between entrepreneur, the law and the complex commercial interests of Blackpool authorities. 6 Acknowledgements I am deeply grateful to a number of people and institutions for their support and encouragement in enabling me to undertake and finish this thesis. I am grateful to the History Department at the University of Sheffield and the National Fairground and Circus Archive (NFCA) for funding my research and allowing this academic journey. My meetings with archivists at the NFCA were important not just in the help offered academically, but in their continued enthusiasm and interest in my project. A particular thank you to Matthew Neill - NFCA archive assistant - for his help in making available archival material, as well as his warm welcome to the archive four years ago. My time spent at the Blackpool History Centre was greatly helped by librarian Anne Cameron, whose introduction to the world of sideshow proprietor Luke Gannon proved a pivotal moment in this thesis’ direction. Aside from this introduction, the History Centre allowed me access to microfilm, rare books and images, of which I am grateful. I am hugely thankful for my supervisors Mary Vincent and Julia Dobson. They have been incredible supports, both academically and personally. Through a busy four years, Mary and Julia have been both anchors and guides through smooth and choppy seas of academia and life more widely. I am so grateful for their confidence in me, for their valuable advice and for the time they have given. To my colleague and friend, Julie Barnfather, I owe a great deal of gratitude for the patience, care and understanding given to me. Her support in balancing commitments and offering a listening ear has not only helped this project, but taught me a lot along the way. To Emily Brockman, who, from my first day as a lost undergraduate in the Big Smoke, continues to make my world that little bit bigger. I am thankful for her phone calls, her advice and her friendship. 7 To my best friend Rachel Carver, I am most grateful for her companionship, her example of positivity and her approach to life that never ceases to inspire me. Thank you for bringing out the best in me. Thank you to my Mum and Dad. I will forever be thankful for their belief in me, their unwavering care and their example. A lot can happen in four years. Through it all, and through this important chapter in all of our lives, I am always grateful to share it with them. Finally to my dog, Monty, who reminds me - every day - that life is for living. 8 Introduction Creating an interdisciplinary approach to the twentieth century sideshow The British sideshow was a form of varied entertainment which peaked in popularity in the nineteenth century. These small show-worlds offered titillating experiences, from tattooed men to Siamese twins and real-life Sleeping Beauties, to a broad audience. They occupied various venues, but their traditional site was the travelling fairgrounds and circuses. Each sideshow offered a closed off space and created a threshold between the sideshow interior and the outside world. With the interior preserved for paying customers, props, people and posters were placed outside to entice passers-by inside. Sideshows offered a unique encounter, with the distinctive content making each sideshow an experience of intense entertainment but also, often, contention. Organisers of sideshows were commonly from a fairground family line, and their names distinguished within the travelling tradition. Exceptional entrepreneurs such as P. T. Barnum in the United States and English exhibitor of the well-known Elephant Man, Tom Norman, made household names for themselves predominantly through their production of freak show content. 1 These figures were able to create national networks and global reputations, traversing and collapsing the worlds of medicine, entertainment and education. The sideshow’s trajectory within the British entertainment sector is generally seen as declining from the beginning of the twentieth century, viewed with increased disdain as new ideas about exploiting ‘others’ cast unfavourable light on much of the sideshows’ content, as well as competition from newer forms of entertainment, such as talkies, taking precedent. Of 1 Rachel Adams, Sideshow USA: Freaks and the American Cultural Imagination (Chicago; London: University of Chicago