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Jumping Through Hoops : Performing Gender in the Nineteenth-Century Circus.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Kellem, Betsy Golden.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Women circus performers--United States--History--19th century.
- Women circus performers.
- Women circus performers--United States--Biography.
- Circus--United States--History--19th century.
- Circus.
- Genre:
- Biographies
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (261 pages)
- Edition:
- 1st ed.
- Place of Publication:
- LaVergne : The Feminist Press at CUNY, 2025.
- La Vergne : Feminist Press at The City University of New York, 2025.
- Summary:
- "Jumping Through Hoops reveals the hidden history of early female circus performers: boundary-breaking women like Lavinia Warren, known as The Queen of Beauty; Millie-Christine McKoy, the Two-Headed Nightingale; and Patty Astley, the mother of the modern circus. These female and gender-nonconforming artists wrestled snakes, performed magic tricks with electricity, and walked across waterfalls on tightropes, shattering taboos by performing in public at a time when "respectable" women were mostly confined to their homes. Betsy Golden Kellem explores how major forces in the long nineteenth century combined to create the uniquely American spectacle of the traveling circus. During the transformation of the circus from scrappy "mud shows" to a major international business, these circus women challenged contemporary ideas of femininity, creating new possibilities for women far beyond the big top"-- Provided by publisher.
- Contents:
- Introduction. Step right up!
- Media and sources in an era of connection
- Building the nineteenth-century big top
- Womanhood, real and true
- The queen of beauty and the armless wonder
- Women take flight
- Invisible girls and electric women
- Circassian beauties in the American sideshow
- The remarkable life of Millie-Christine Mckoy, the two-headed nightingale
- The splendor and terror of bearded ladies
- Ella Zoyara,"the Boy-Girl"
- New women join the circus
- Conclusion. Taming savage beasts.
- Notes:
- Title from eBook information screen..
- Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.
- ISBN:
- 1-55861-345-5
- OCLC:
- 1513423257
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