Freaks, Geeks, and Strange Girls: Sideshow Banners of the Great American Midway

Freaks, Geeks, and Strange Girls presents a colorful history of the carnival sideshow and its distinctive banner art. With 100 color photographs, the book lovingly surveys this now vanished icon of early rural America, counterpointing classic freak show art with contemporary interpretations. 50 archival black-and-white photos of sideshows provide a historical context for the banner illustrations. These essays and the heady, often un-PC images recall a time when compassion and restraint collapsed in the face of the exotic, the erotic, and the exploited, and present an interesting reference point to the current voyeuristic appeal of television shows such as Jerry Springer.