Freak Show: Sideshow Banner Art - Softcover

Hammer, Carl; Bosker, Gideon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 081180707X ISBN 13: 9780811807074

Publisher: Chronicle Books Llc, 1996

Synopsis

Step right up! The show's about to begin with this mesmerizing, full color collection of outrageous banners from the heyday of traveling circus sideshows. See the giant ?Alaskan king crab! Marvel at the Bearded Lady! Look, if you dare, at the Dog-Faced Boy! Watch the Woman Changing to Stone! Circus sideshows from the turn of the century through the 1950s boasted unbelievable "freaks of nature," incredible transformations, and death defying acts -- and the brazen banners that drew in the crowds were as colorful and intriguing as the lurid attractions themselves. For ?collectors and nostalgia buffs, as well as the merely curious, Freak Show celebrates this unique American commercial folk art phenomenon with vivid photographs of authentic banners highlighting the genre's most memorable ?examples, the artists who created them, and the unusual people and bizarre creatures they immortalized.

About this title

About the Author:

Gideon Bosker is an Oregon based author, photographer, and connoisseur of popular culture whose many books include Freak Show, and Fabulous Fabrics of the 50s.

Carl Hammer owns a gallery specializing in "outsider art" in Chicago. This is his first book.

About this edition

• Publisher: Chronicle Books Llc
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 081180707X
• ISBN 13: 9780811807074
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 96