Admiral Dot (1859 or 1863 – October 28, 1918), born Leopold S. Kahn, was a

dwarf Dwarf or dwarves may refer to: Common uses *Dwarf (folklore), a being from Germanic mythology and folklore * Dwarf, a person or animal with dwarfism Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Dwarf (''Dungeons & Dragons''), a humanoid ...

performer for

P. T. Barnum Phineas Taylor Barnum (; July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman, businessman, and politician, remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and founding the Barnum & Bailey Circus (1871–2017) with James Anthony Bailey. He was ...

Biography

He was born in 1859 or 1863 in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

to Gabriel Kahn and his wife Caroline. His mother had given birth to ten children, of which three survived. His two dwarf brothers were known as Major Atom and General Pin (born 1881). Their mother was declared insane and jailed after trying to drown General Pin when he was two years old. Barnum wrote: "During the week we spent in seeing San Francisco and its suburbs n 1869 I discovered a dwarf more diminutive than General Tom Thumb was when first I found him, and so handsome, well-formed and captivating, that I could not resist the temptation to engage him. I gave him the soubriquet of Admiral Dot, dressed him in complete Admiral's uniform, and invited the editors of the San Francisco journals to visit him in the parlours of the Cosmopolitan Hotel. Immediately there was an immense furore, and

Woodward's Gardens Woodward's Gardens, commonly referred to as The Gardens, was a combination amusement park, museum, art gallery, zoo, and aquarium operating from 1866 to 1891 in the Mission District, San Francisco, Mission District of San Francisco, California. ...

, where "Dot" was exhibited for three weeks before going east, was daily thronged with crowds of his curious fellow citizens, under whose very eyes he had lived so long undiscovered." Starting in 1877, he performed with the American Lilliputian Company. In the 1890s, he toured with

Adam Forepaugh Adam John Forepaugh (born Adam John Forbach; February 28, 1831 – January 22, 1890) was an American horse trader and circus owner. From 1865 through 1890 his circus operated under various names including Forepaugh's Circus, Forepaugh's Gigantic ...

's circus. He married dwarf Lottie Naomi Swartwood on August 14, 1892. They had two children: a daughter Hazel Kahn Golden (1892-1918) and a son Gabriel Kahn (1896-1982). He died of the

1918 influenza pandemic The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...

at his home in

White Plains, New York (Always Faithful) , image_seal = WhitePlainsSeal.png , seal_link = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = U.S. state, State , su ...

on October 28, 1918, aged 59 years.

References

External links

Admiral Dot images
American entertainers Entertainers with dwarfism Sideshow performers 19th-century births Year of birth uncertain 1918 deaths Deaths from the Spanish flu pandemic in New York (state) People from San Francisco {{US-entertainer-stub