Sideshow
Sideshow is a term used in US entertainment culture prior to the advent of electronic media in the 1920s .
A sideshow is a spectacular supporting program for circus or fairground events for an audience with a simple background. It thus represents the counterpart to the German showroom .
A sideshow can be a freak show, a kind of folk show , a variety show like the US vaudeville , or an erotic show like burlesque .
The last regular sideshow with a humorous, historical touch include the Sideshows by the Seashore on Coney Island . The Broadway musical Side Show (1997) shows the careers of the Siamese twins Daisy and Violet Hilton in the first third of the 20th century.
The term is still used today to mean the insignificant but spectacular (and somewhat disreputable). Sideshow in the horror or satire genre can also mean the epitome of the weird and off the beaten track (as with Sideshow Bob in the television series The Simpsons ).
See also
literature
- Rachel Adams: Sideshow USA. Freaks and the American cultural imagination . University Press, Chicago 2001, ISBN 0-226-00538-0 .
- Marc Hartzman: American Sideshow. An Encyclopedia of History's Most Wondrous and Curiously Strange Performers . Jeremy P. Tarcher / Penguin, New York 2005, ISBN 1-58542-441-2 .
Web links
- Sideshow World Website about the history of sideshow worldwide
- Paradox Sideshows Nostalgic sideshow attractions
- Schaubuden.de - Website on the history of sideshow and show booths in Europe