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Shocked And Amazed!
''Shocked and Amazed! On & Off the Midway'' is both a book and nine-volume magazine of the same name by James Taylor, released from 1995 to 2007, which chronicle the history of sideshows, novelty acts, and variety exhibits of the 20th century, primarily of the United States. The book editions of the magazine issues were published by Dolphin Moon Press, also owned by Taylor. Focusing on circus and carnival sideshows and 19th Century dime museum entertainment, the journal also followed the history and characters of vaudeville and burlesque, wax museums and world's fairs, roadside attractions and other forms of traveling novelty entertainment. The journal features interviews with the business’ “golden age” performers as well as modern talent and has included original works by Teller (magician), John Strausbaugh and Frank DeFord.. ''Shocked and Amazed!'' was recognized in The Learning Channel, The History Channel, E!: Entertainment Television, Channel 4 in London, and the N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Taylor (American Author)
James Taylor is an American writer, publisher, and sideshow historian. He co-founded Dolphin-Moon Press in 1973 and published books based on his American sideshow history magazine, both titled as volumes of ''Shocked and Amazed!'', from 1997–2002. Early life and education Taylor is a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park and the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars. Career In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Taylor was literary chairman to the Baltimore mayor's advisory committee on art and culture and was a member of the Maryland governor's panel choosing the state's poet laureate. In 1999, he co-founded, with Dick Horne, the American Dime Museum in Baltimore, a museum that was part Victorian recreation and part homage to circus, carnival and dime museum culture. Taylor dissolved his partnership with Horne in 2003 and began work on re-establishing his own museum attractions in Washington, D.C., inside of the Palace of Wonders, which opened in 2006. Taylor has serv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sideshow
In North America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, traveling carnival, carnival, fair, or other such attraction. They historically featured human oddity exhibits (so-called “Freak show, freak shows”), preserved specimens (real or fabricated, such as the Fiji mermaid, Fiji Mermaid), live animal acts, burlesque or Striptease, strip shows, actually or ostensibly dangerous stunts, or stunts that appear painful like human blockhead. Most modern sideshows feature fewer to no animal acts, and have a greater focus on trainable feats or consensual body modification rather than exhibiting people with congenital disabilities, either due to changing public opinion or local laws prohibiting the exhibition of disabled people or animals. Trainable acts associated with sideshows include sword swallowing, Fire breathing (circus act), fire breathing and manipulation, Magic (illusion), magic and visual illusions, human blockhead, knife throwing, lying on a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Circus
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 unicyclists as well as other object manipulation and stunt-oriented artists. The term "circus" also describes the field of performance, training, and community which has followed various formats through its 250-year modern history. Although not the inventor of the medium, Newcastle-under-Lyme born Philip Astley is credited as the father of the modern circus. In 1768, Astley, a skilled equestrian, began performing exhibitions of trick horse riding in an open field called Ha'penny Hatch on the south side of the Thames River, England. In 1770, he hired acrobats, tightrope walkers, jugglers, and a clown to fill in the pauses between the equestrian demonstrations and thus chanced on the format which was later named a "circus". Performances deve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Traveling Carnival
A traveling carnival (American English), usually simply called a carnival, travelling funfair or travelling show (British English), is an amusement show that may be made up of List of amusement rides, amusement rides, food vendors, merchandise vendors, games of chance and skill, thrill acts, and animal acts. A traveling carnival is not set up at a permanent location, like an amusement park or funfair, but is moved from place to place. Its roots are similar to the 19th century circus with both being Fit-up, fitted-up in open fields near or in town and moving to a new location after a period of time. In fact, many carnivals have circuses while others have a clown aesthetic in their decor. Unlike traditional Carnival celebrations, the North American traveling carnival is not tied to a religious observance. History In 1893, the Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition (also called the Chicago World's Fair) was the economic catalyst, catalyst for the development of the modern travel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dime Museum
Dime museums were establishments that grew in popularity starting from 1870 that were used to display freak show performers, human anatomy exhibitions, dioramas, oddities, and moral lectures to the general public.Sears, Clare. “Electric Brilliancy: Cross-Dressing Law and Freak Show Displays in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco.” ''Women’s Studies Quarterly'' 36, no. 3/4 (2008): 170–87. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27649793. These institutions peaked in popularity at the end of the 19th century all throughout the United States. Designed as centers for entertainment and moral education for the working class (low culture, lowbrow), the museums were distinctly different from upper middle class cultural events (highbrow). In urban centers like New York City, where many immigration to the United States, immigrants settled, dime museums were popular and cheap entertainment. The social trend reached its peak during the Progressive Era (c. 1890–1920). Although lowbrow entertainment ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition or light poetry, interspersed with songs and dances. Vaudeville became popular in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s, while changing over time. In some ways analogous to music hall from Victorian Britain, a typical North American vaudeville performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill. Types of acts have included popular and classical musicians, singers, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, ventriloquists, strongmen, female and male impersonators, acrobats, clowns, illustrated songs, jugglers, one-act plays or scenes from plays, athletes, lecturing celebrities, minstrels, and films. A vaudeville performer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burlesque
A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects."Burlesque" ''Oxford English Dictionary'', , accessed 16 February 2011 The word is loaned from French and derives from the Italian ', which, in turn, is derived from the Italian ' – a joke, ridicule or mockery. Burlesque overlaps with , and [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roadside Attraction
A roadside attraction is a feature along the side of a road meant to attract tourists. In general, these are places one might stop on the way to somewhere, rather than being a destination. They are frequently advertised with billboard (advertising), billboards. The modern tourist-oriented highway attraction originated as a United States, U.S. and Canada, Canadian phenomenon in the 1940s to 1960s, and subsequently caught on in Australia. Elsewhere, except Antarctica, similar items are placed on roundabouts and traffic islands in crowded cities. History When long-distance road travel became practical and popular in the 1920s, entrepreneurs began building restaurants, motels, coffee shops, cafes, and unusual businesses to attract travelers. Many of the buildings were attractions in themselves in the form of novelty architecture, depicting everyday objects of enormous size, typically relating to the items sold there. Some other types of roadside attractions include monuments and f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Teller (magician)
Teller (born Raymond Joseph Teller, February 14, 1948) is an American magician. He is half of the comedy magic duo Penn & Teller, along with Penn Jillette, and usually does not speak during performances. Teller is a H.L. Mencken Fellow at the Cato Institute. Early life Teller was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Biography based on sources including "Email correspondence with Teller. 12–14 August 2007". the son of Irene B. (''née'' Derrickson; 1908–2004) and Israel Max "Joseph" Teller (1913–2004). His father, who was of Russian-Jewish descent, was born in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in Philadelphia. His mother was from a Delaware farming family. They met as painters attending art school at Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial. His mother was Methodist, and Teller was raised as "a sort of half-assed Methodist". He graduated from Philadelphia's Central High School in 1965, and in 1969 graduated from Amherst College with a Bachelor of Arts in Classics. He became a high ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Learning Channel
TLC is an American multinational cable television, cable and satellite television, satellite television network owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks, Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established in 1980 as The Learning Channel, it initially focused on educational and instructional programming. By the late 1990s, after an acquisition by Discovery, Inc. earlier in the decade, the network began to pivot towards reality television programming—predominantly focusing on programming involving Lifestyle (social sciences), lifestyles and personal stories—to the point that the previous name with "The Learning Channel" spelled out was orphaned initialism, phased out in favor of its initialism. , with its programming primarily dedicated to the nine-series ''90 Day Fiancé'' universe, comprising 31% of the shows carried by the channel, TLC is available to approximately 71,000,000 pay television households in the United States—down from its 2011 peak of 100, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History (U
History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categorize history as a social science, while others see it as part of the humanities or consider it a hybrid discipline. Similar debates surround the purpose of history—for example, whether its main aim is theoretical, to uncover the truth, or practical, to learn lessons from the past. In a more general sense, the term ''history'' refers not to an academic field but to the past itself, times in the past, or to individual texts about the past. Historical research relies on primary and secondary sources to reconstruct past events and validate interpretations. Source criticism is used to evaluate these sources, assessing their authenticity, content, and reliability. Historians strive to integrate the perspectives of several sources to devel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Entertainment Television
E! Entertainment Television is an American basic cable television network. It is owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The channel focuses primarily on pop culture, celebrity based reality shows and movies. , E! is available to approximately 71,000,000 pay television households in the United States-down from its 2011 peak of 99,000,000 households. History Movietime E! was originally launched on July 31, 1987, as Movietime, a service that aired movie trailers, entertainment news, event and awards coverage, and interviews as an early example of a national barker channel. The channel was founded by Larry Namer and Alan Mruvka. Early Movietime hosts included Greg Kinnear, Katie Wagner, Julie Moran, Suzanne Kay (daughter of Diahann Carroll), Mark DeCarlo, Sam Rubin and Richard Blade. E! Controlling ownership was originally held by a consortium of five cable television providers (Comcast, Continental Cablevision, Cox Cable, TCI, and Warner C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
