My Uncle Teddy was born 90 years ago into a long line of whip-cracking sideshow folk – his grandmother used to dangle people in the air by her teeth. From contortionists and knife-throwers to a double-jointed horse, he recalls the magic of the showgrounds’ heyday
My uncle Teddy Trevor remembers Casey Nelson, a fellow showman, spruiking his double-jointed horse to sideshow punters in the 1960s. The horse, Nelson warned, was “showing here for the last time”. “Too late, too late will be the cry, when Happy Harry has passed you by,” he called. The act continued for another two decades.
The Casey Nelson tent show, featuring Happy Harry the double-jointed horse, circa the late 1940s