The Doll Family was an American quartet of sibling entertainers with
dwarfism
Dwarfism is a condition wherein an organism is exceptionally small, and mostly occurs in the animal kingdom. In humans, it is sometimes defined as an adult height of less than , regardless of sex; the average adult height among people with dw ...
from
Stolpen
Stolpen ( hsb, Stołpin) is a town in the district of Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge, in Saxony, Germany. It is a historical town, that grew at the foot of the ''Schloßberg'' with the castle ''Burg Stolpen''.
Burg Stolpen
Burg Stolpen is ...
, Germany. They were popular performers in
circuses
A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclis ...
and
sideshow
In North America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, carnival, fair, or other such attraction.
Types
There are four main types of classic sideshow attractions:
*The Ten-in-One offers a program of ten seq ...
s in the United States from the mid-1910s until their retirement in 1958. The family members—Gracie, Harry, Daisy and Tiny—also appeared briefly in films; they were best known as members of
The Munchkins in the 1939 MGM film ''
The Wizard of Oz''.
Harry and Daisy, billed as Harry Earles and
Daisy Earles
Hilda Emma Schneider (April 29, 1907 – March 15, 1980), who went by the stage name Daisy Earles, was a German-born actress with dwarfism who migrated to the United States in the early 1920s. She worked in Hollywood films and later toured with ...
respectively, both starred in the cult classic film ''
Freaks
Freak has several meanings: a person who is physically deformed or suffers from an extraordinary disease and condition, a genetic mutation in a plant or animal, etc.
Freak, freaks or The Freak may also refer to:
Fictional characters
* Freak (Ima ...
''; Tiny also made a brief appearance in the film.
Members
History
Early years
The Doll family were four of seven children born to Amelia Emma Preusche and Gustav Schneider in Stolpen, Germany.
[.] They were encouraged by their father to work in the entertainment field, taking advantage of their "hypopituitary" status.
Kurt and Frieda were the first to migrate to California in 1916, after they met Bert W. Earles and his wife, who became their agents. The Earles had toured with the Dancing Dolls family prior to becoming actors under new names. Kurt and Frieda changed their names to Harry and Grace to act in films, and they adopted the surname Earles of their manager. Their first dance appearance was for the Buffalo Bill Show in the roles as "
Hansel and Gretel
"Hansel and Gretel" (; german: Hänsel und Gretel ) is a German fairy tale collected by the German Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in ''Grimm's Fairy Tales'' (KHM 15). It is also known as Little Step Brother and Little Step Sister.
Hansel ...
", for which they were hailed as the "Smallest Dancing Couple in the World". Hilda, who later came to be known as Daisy Earles, joined her brother and sister in California in the early 1920s. Another sister, Elly, joined them in 1926; she was called "Tiny" because of her appearance. All four siblings, who had earlier taken the surname Earles, changed it to "Doll" after the death of their manager, Earles.
At this time, the Dolls began touring with
Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus
The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (also known as the Ringling Bros. Circus, Ringling Bros., the Barnum & Bailey Circus, Barnum & Bailey, or simply Ringling) is an American traveling circus company billed as The Greatest Show on Ear ...
, where they sang, danced and rode horses and wagons for the next 30 years. Daisy soon earned the nickname "Midget
Mae West
Mae West (born Mary Jane West; August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) was an American stage and film actress, playwright, screenwriter, singer, and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned over seven decades. She was known for her breezy ...
" and was often billed as such.
Franz Taibosh Franz may refer to:
People
* Franz (given name)
* Franz (surname)
Places
* Franz (crater), a lunar crater
* Franz, Ontario, a railway junction and unorganized town in Canada
* Franz Lake, in the state of Washington, United States – see ...
, an Afrikaner with the circus, had a crush on Daisy Earles, but she was not interested as she was already married to the family's
chauffeur
A chauffeur is a person employed to drive a passenger motor vehicle, especially a luxury vehicle such as a large sedan or limousine.
Originally, such drivers were often personal employees of the vehicle owner, but this has changed to speciali ...
and bodyguard.
Film roles
The Doll family had a brief tenure in film, Harry was the first to begin a film career, and also had the most prolific career in the genre. His first film was
Tod Browning
Tod Browning (born Charles Albert Browning Jr.; July 12, 1880 – October 6, 1962) was an American film director, film actor, screenwriter, vaudeville performer, and carnival sideshow and circus entertainer. He directed a number of films of vari ...
’s
Lon Chaney
Leonidas Frank "Lon" Chaney (April 1, 1883 – August 26, 1930) was an American actor. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and affli ...
vehicle ''
The Unholy Three The Unholy Three can refer to the following:
* ''The Unholy Three'', a 1917 novel by Tod Robbins
* ''The Unholy Three'' (1925 film), directed by Tod Browning
* ''The Unholy Three'' (1930 film), a remake of the 1925 film directed by Jack Conway
* ...
'' (1925) as the ruthless midget Tweedledee. He reprised the role for the
1930
Events
January
* January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will be ...
sound
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...
remake
A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same ...
, again with Chaney, but this time directed by
Jack Conway. The family also began appearing in films together, almost always as circus performers, and acted in some comedies with
Laurel
Laurel may refer to:
Plants
* Lauraceae, the laurel family
* Laurel (plant), including a list of trees and plants known as laurel
People
* Laurel (given name), people with the given name
* Laurel (surname), people with the surname
* Laurel (mus ...
and
Hardy. Harry and Daisy were cast in major roles in
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...
's 1932 film ''
Freaks
Freak has several meanings: a person who is physically deformed or suffers from an extraordinary disease and condition, a genetic mutation in a plant or animal, etc.
Freak, freaks or The Freak may also refer to:
Fictional characters
* Freak (Ima ...
'', while Tiny had a tiny part.
However, the 1932 film was considered horrifying, and was shown in the U.S. with many cuts, banned in England, and in Canada was called "brutal and grotesque".
[.] In fact, Harry himself brought to Browning's attention the
Tod Robbins
Clarence Aaron Robbins (25 June 1888 – May 10, 1949), billed as C.A Robbins and better known as Tod Robbins, was an American author of horror and mystery fiction, particularly novels and short story collections.
Biography
Robbins was born i ...
story "
Spurs" on which elements of the film were based.
In 1928, Daisy Earles had appeared in the 1928 film ''Three-Ring Marriage''.
All four siblings performed as "
Munchkins
A Munchkin is a native of the fictional Munchkin Country in the Oz books by American author L. Frank Baum. They first appear in the classic children's novel ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' (1900) where they welcome Dorothy Gale to their city in O ...
" in a song and dance sequence along the
Yellow Brick Road
The yellow brick road is a fictional element in the 1900 children's novel ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' by American author L. Frank Baum. The road also appears in the several sequel Oz books such as ''The Marvelous Land of Oz'' (1904) and ''The ...
in ''
The Wizard of Oz'' (1939). Harry played a minor featured part as a member of the
Lollipop Guild
''The Wizard of Oz'' is a 1939 American Musical film, musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). An adaptation of L. Frank Baum's 1900 children's fantasy novel ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', the film was primarily directed by ...
, who welcome Dorothy upon her arrival in
Oz. They were not credited individually in the film, but as "
The Singer Midgets
__NOTOC__
Leopold von Singer (May 3, 1877 – March 5, 1951) was an Austrian-born American manager of an entertainment troupe called Singer's Midgets, that were a popular vaudeville group in the first half of the twentieth century.
He was res ...
", despite having been generally well known as "The Doll Family".
[.]
The family's opportunities as film actors had always been limited, by both their size and their German accents, and they stopped appearing in films, although Daisy played a small part in ''
The Greatest Show on Earth'' in 1952.
They returned to the traveling sideshows. The Dolls toured with the Christiani Circus after the Ringling Circus was sold in 1956. They retired two years later.
Personal lives and later years
The Doll family were close-knit, and always lived, ate and worked alongside one another, with the exception of Daisy's brief marriage in 1942, to an average-sized man, which ended in divorce less than a year later
Their decades with the circus had provided the siblings with a good living, and they bought a house in
Sarasota, Florida
Sarasota () is a city in Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The city is located in the sout ...
, in which all four lived.
The house, which was often featured in magazines, was furnished with custom-built reduced-size furniture. On the grounds of the house was a "Doll's House", which the family opened to the public. Each of the four remained living in the house until their deaths. Tiny was the last survivor; she died in 2004 after a long illness and many years living alone, after Harry's death in 1985.
Notes
References
Bibliography
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Doll Family, The
American families of German ancestry
Circus families
German male silent film actors
German silent film actresses
German emigrants to the United States
Sideshow performers
Actors with dwarfism
German families
Show business families of the United States
Sibling quartets
People from Stolpen
People from the Kingdom of Saxony
Actresses from Florida
Male actors from Florida
American silent film actresses
American male silent film actors
People from Sarasota, Florida
20th-century German male actors
20th-century German actresses
20th-century American actresses
20th-century American male actors