William Henry Johnson A.K.A. Zip the Pinhead

 

Welcome to my latest blog post on disability as entertainment, specifically the freak show of the 19^th century. So far, I have discussed P.T. Barnum, General Tom Thumb, as well as Chang and Eng Bunker, the original Siamese twins. This week it is the turn of Zip the Pinhead. As with everything I cover, it is far more complicated than I initially anticipated.

 

What is a Pinhead?

Pinheads were a common feature in 19^th and early 20^th century freak shows. Pinhead was the term used to refer to a person born with the condition microcephaly. This is a neurological disorder which means that the head fails to grow at the same rate as the face. This results in the top of the head being much narrower than the face. As the person grows older, the size difference becomes more apparent. In a majority of instances, the size of the person’s body is also smaller than average. Furthermore, the mental capacity can be reduced too, delaying motor functions and speech. As you may have guessed, the term Pinhead is not an acceptable one anymore.

I ran (well not literally) into several problems when researching ‘Zip the Pinhead’. You see, there was more than one of them. The man I was looking for, and the one I will be discussing later, was William Henry Johnson. However, he was not the only one, but perhaps he was the most famous. To further complicate things, he was also known as ‘What is It?’. The idea was that he was so strange looking, it was impossible to tell whether he was human or an animal. This name arose when Charles Dickens attended one of Barnum’s exhibits. Perplexed at what he saw, he leaned over and asked Barnum “What is it?”

There had been other iterations of ‘What is it?’ before William Johnson arrived on the scene. The most famous of these was a legless man in London by the name of Harvey Leech. Unfortunately for Barnum, Leech was an actor, who had appeared in plays, and the people of London easily identified him. Johnson was a more successful attempt at duping the public.

 

The life of William Henry Johnson

William Henry Johnson was a black man born in the 1840s in Liberty Corners, near Bound Brook, New Jersey. He was the son of former slaves, William and Mahalia Johnson. He was believed to be between four and five feet tall and his head was an unusual shape. The top of his head was narrower than the bottom. This attracted some attention, and the nearby Van Emburgh’s Circus came calling to add Johnson to their sideshow.

In 1860, P.T. Barnum came across Johnson and decided to take him on. As can be expected, Barnum had an elaborate backstory for his new performer. He shaved Johnson’s head, leaving only a small tuft of hair at the top. He also changed his name to Zip the Pinhead. It is only when I started to do my research that I discovered this topic has more to do with race than disability. The origin of the name Zip is most likely from “Zip Coon”, an early minstrel show character, who for white people came to personify the stereotypically dumb but dapper black person. Thinking along these lines, Barnum dressed Johnson in a fur suit and stated that he had been found along the Gambia River in West Africa. He was thought to be part of a tribe that was the missing link between monkey and man. As well as being called Zip the Pinhead and “What is it?”, he was given the names “The Monkey-Man” and “The Missing Link”. Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was published in 1859, so evolution was the hot topic of the day.

For several years, Johnson was presented on stage in a cage (hey, that rhymes). His job was to act like a monkey to entertain people. So I guess you could say that he was in a rage, in a cage, on a stage! Barnum paid him $1 a day not to speak, which Johnson happily agreed to, becoming rich in the process. Instead of speaking, he would grunt every time he was addressed. I know it sounds pretty bad, but Johnson seems to have enjoyed performing. He did so until he was in his 80s. In fact, when he got bronchitis and influenza in 1926, he ignored the advice of doctors, his manager, and his sister to rest. He insisted on finishing the run of the play he was in. He died a few weeks later, on 9 April 1926 in Bellevue Hospital, New York. His funeral was attended by several of his fellow performers and he was the longest serving freak show attraction.

 

How Intelligent was Zip?

There has been some debate as to how intelligent William Henry Johnson was. Robert Bogdan, in his 1988 book, Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit thinks that he had reduced intelligence due to a diagnosis of microcephaly. However, since then opinions have changed. I for one feel that Johnson was not mentally deficient. Here’s why.

While his head was an unusual shape, it was not as pronounced as others with microcephaly. In fact, by shaving his head, Barnum made it look much worse than it actually was. Johnson also showed several signs of intelligence. For instance, he held up the act of not speaking for over 60 years, even though his sister reported that he was capable of holding conversations. If he was not able to speak, Barnum would not have had to pay him $1 a day. I think he had to be intelligent not to break character for such a long period. Furthermore, he acquired a fiddle on his travels which he played for several years. Apparently, he was so bad at playing it that observers and even fellow performers would pay him to stop. He made $14,000 by doing this. If he was not intelligent, he may have either stopped playing entirely or kept playing and not taken the money. 

Near the end of his life Johnson performed at the Coney Island freak show. One Sunday afternoon in 1925, while out walking on his break, Johnson heard a girl screaming. It was a seven-year-old who had fallen into the water. Johnson (in his 80s) quickly jumped in and rescued the girl, immediately running away as a crowd gathered around her. Finally, his last words to his sister on his deathbed were reported to be “Well, we fooled ‘em for a long time”. This suggests that he may have been an (incredibly wealthy) actor playing a role for most of his life.

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Next week I will be examining the life of ‘The Elephant Man’, Joseph Merrick.

 

                                                                                            The Wheelchair Historian

 

Further Reading

Bogdan, Robert, Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit, (University of Chicago Press, 2014).

CandyGuy, ‘ZIP THE PINHEAD – What is it?’ https://www.thehumanmarvels.com/zip-the-pinhead-what-is-it/ Accessed: 27^th November 2020.

Fact Index, ‘Zip the Pinhead’ http://www.fact-index.com/z/zi/zip_the_pinhead.html Accessed: 27th November 2020.

Gerber, David A., ‘Volition and Valorization in the Analysis of the ‘Careers’ of People Exhibited in Freak Shows’, Disability, Handicap & Society, Vol.7, No.1, 1992.

Newspapers.com, ‘Zip the Pinhead ("Barnum's What-Is-It") saves a life.’ https://www.newspapers.com/clip/17123705/zip-the-pinhead-barnums-what-is-it/ Accessed: 27th November 2020.

WeirdNJ.com, ‘Zip The “What Is It?”’ https://weirdnj.com/stories/local-heroes-and-villains/zip-the-what-is-it/ Accessed: 27^th November 2020.

Chang and Eng Bunker: The Original Siamese Twins

 

Welcome to the latest post in my series on disability as entertainment. Recently, I have been focused on freak shows and that is set to continue as I explore the various ‘freaks’ on offer. This week it is the turn of the original Siamese twins, Chang and Eng Bunker.

Their Early Lives

Chang and Eng Bunker were born on 11^th May, 1811 in Meklong, Siam (modern day Thailand). Slightly confusingly, that was not their real names.  I have seen it written as Jun and In, as well as Chāng and Ēn. Chang and Eng are the anglicised versions, so those of us in the Western world can pronounce their names. Their surname, Bunker, doesn’t sound very Siamese. The story goes that when they were applying for U.S. citizenship, they needed a surname. The problem was that they didn’t have one. So, they asked the man behind them what his surname was and used that instead.

They were born into a Chinese community in Siam. Their father was Chinese, and their mother was Chinese-Malay. The locals actually referred to them as the Chinese twins. At birth, the midwives recoiled in horror at what they saw. The twins were joined just below the chest by a tubular band of tissue roughly 8 cm (3.25 inches) long and 3.8 cm (1.5 inches) in diameter. It is thought that their mother saved their lives by untwisting the ligament, while the midwives were presumably fainting like Southern belles.  Their mother also placed them lying face to face as the connective band would not allow any other position. However, as they grew older, their mother encouraged them to stretch and exercise. This elongated the tissue which allowed them to stand, walk, and even run side by side. Chang stood on the left of Eng, from their point of view. So, if you looked at them face on, Chang would be on the right, right? I still struggle telling my left from my right.

When the boys were 8 years old, their father died of cholera. They had four older siblings and three younger ones. They now had to find work to help provide for their family. They began in the cocoa bean oil manufacturing business but moved on to selling duck eggs. In 1824, the Scottish merchant, Robert Hunter was in Siam when he spotted a strange animal swimming in a lake. Alas, the Loch Ness Monster was not on his holidays in Siam. Upon closer inspection, Hunter discovered that it was actually Chang and Eng. He immediately saw an opportunity to earn money by exhibiting the boys in the West. He went and convinced their mother to let them go, compensating her for the loss of income.

However, there was only one problem, the Siamese King. You see, the king owned everything in Siam, including Chang and Eng. As they were so special, he refused to let them leave. After all, having deformed people in a royal court was the fashionable thing. I will cover this topic in greater detail in later posts. Anyway, Hunter enlisted the help of the American sea captain, Abel Coffin. Over a FIVE year period, they were able to convince the king to let them go. They argued that it was beneficial to display to the world one of the wonders Siam had to offer. A bribe of a telescope and a troupe of temple dances also helped. Their mother received $500 in the belief that they would be gone for 30 months. However, they never returned to Siam again!!

Their Life as Entertainers

Chang and Eng left Siam at 17 and headed for Boston. During their journey they were taught English and were quick learners. Upon arrival, they were exhibited and the public payed to see them. During the shows, the twins would show and explain how they were connected. To make it more entertaining they added somersaults, back flips, acrobatics, as well as badminton, checkers and chess. Chang and Eng earned a percentage of the profit from each show. Abel Coffin and Robert Hunter claimed that they owned the twins, however, Chang and Eng vehemently repudiated this claim. Nevertheless, at age 21, they wrote a letter asking to be released from their contract. From this point onwards they were free to make their own decisions and kept any money they earned. During their years as performers, they travelled throughout the United States and even toured Europe. During this time, they visited several cities in Britain and Ireland, as well as Belgium and the Netherlands. They remarked how Amsterdam was so much nicer than New York, as it only had two newspapers.

As well as performing on their travels, the twins were examined by several doctors. Some were just curious to see if they were conjoined, while others did tests to see if they both felt pain, got drunk etc. For instance, if Eng was pricked with a needle, would Chang feel it? Chang was also given alcohol to see if Eng would also get drunk. As horrible as it sounds, Chang and Eng didn’t seem to mind these examinations as they were curious to learn more about themselves.

Bunker Family with Slaves (Wikimedia Commons)

 

Their Private Lives

Eventually, Chang and Eng grew tired of putting themselves on public display, even if they were getting well paid for it. In the 1830s they became naturalised citizens of the US. They decided to move to Wilkesboro, North Carolina and bought a farm there. How on earth were conjoined twins supposed to farm so much land? The answer, I’m afraid, is slavery. Due to the way race was judged, the Siamese twins were viewed as white. Therefore, they purchased slaves to work their land.

They had almost become respectable Southern gentlemen. They only thing that was missing were wives. They set their attentions on the daughters of a local farming family. They charmed Adelaide and Sarah Yates, as well as their parents. On 13 April 1843, Eng married Sarah and Chang married Adelaide. As you can imagine, the public were not best pleased. I don’t think it is much of an exaggeration to say that it was like the villagers with their pitchforks chasing Frankenstein’s Monster away. Several windows of the Yates property were smashed. Abolitionists in the North linked their depravity to the fact that they were slave owners. What made matters worse was that the Yates sisters quickly produced children. In fact, Adelaide and Sarah produced 21 children between them, split fairly evenly between Chang and Eng, but it is hard to agree on an exact number. Some of the children were delivered within days of each other. I will let that sink in for a moment.

Yunte Huang who wrote the book Inseparable: The Original Siamese Twins and Their Rendezvous with American History believes that Chang and Eng lived their lives in a very regimented fashion once they were married. At first all four of them slept in one (reinforced) bed. However, they decided to build two houses near Mount Airy, North Carolina with one family in each. Chang and Eng alternated houses every three days. Whenever they were with Chang’s wife, Eng would essentially ‘zone out’ for three days and vice versa. It must have been a strange way to live.

Their lives were going well until the Civil War ended. With the abolition of slavery, they could no longer afford to run their farm and had to resort to exhibiting themselves again. This time they brought some of their children (none of whom where deformed) with them. Chang began to drink heavily, resulting in a stroke in 1870. He was left paralysed on his right side (closest to Eng). Eng propped him up as best he could until four years later when Chang died. Understandably, the thought of being attached to a dead man terrified Eng. Doctors were on their way to try and separate the twins when Eng died just a few hours after his brother. It is believed that he died of shock. The autopsy revealed that they were joined at the liver, so it would never have been possible to separate them without killing them.

Chang and Eng Bunker, while considered to be freaks, led successful lives and became world famous.

To keep up to date with my latest blog posts, you can like my Facebook page, or follow me on Twitter. You can find them by clicking the relevant icons in the sidebar.

Next week I will be examining the life of another freak show performer, William Henry Johnson, better known as Zip the Pinhead.

 

                                                                                                     The Wheelchair Historian

 

Further Reading

Bahjat, Mudhaffar, ‘Chang and Eng Bunker (1811–1874)’, Embryo Project Encyclopedia (2018-01-22). ISSN: 1940-5030 http://embryo.asu.edu/handle/10776/13046 Accessed: 20 November, 2020.

Deignan, Tom, ‘One wild Irish love story with the world’s most famous conjoined twins’, @IrishCentral, Jul 22, 2018 https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/one-wild-irish-love-story-with-the-world-s-most-famous-conjoined-twins Accessed: 20 November, 2020.

Elliott, John. A Few Particulars Concerning Chang-Eng, the United Siamese Brothers. New York: Printed by J.M. Elliott, 1836. https://archive.org/details/61230170R.nlm.nih.gov Accessed: 20 November, 2020.

Getlen, Larry, ‘The fruitful sex lives of the original Siamese twins’, November 1, 2014 | 4:50pm https://nypost.com/2014/11/01/the-sex-lives-of-siamese-twins/ Accessed: 20 November, 2020.

Leonard, Tom, ‘How the original Siamese twins had 21 children by two sisters... while sharing one (reinforced) bed’, Published: 22:26, 7 November 2014 | Updated: 01:35, 8 November 2014 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2825888/How-original-Siamese-twins-21-children-two-sisters-sharing-one-reinforced-bed.html Accessed: 20 November, 2020.

NPR, ‘'Inseparable' Recounts The Unusual Lives Of Conjoined Twins Chang And Eng Bunker’, April 2, 2018 1:50 PM ET, Heard on Fresh Air TERRY GROSS, HOST https://www.npr.org/2018/04/02/598796873/inseparable-recounts-the-unusual-lives-of-conjoined-twins-chang-and-eng-bunker?t=1604317233877 Accessed: 20 November, 2020.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, ‘Chang and Eng’, Encyclopædia Britannica, 07 May, 2020 https://www.britannica.com/biography/Chang-and-Eng Accessed: 30 October, 2020.