Morgan eventually moved to Florida, where he took a job in a carnival, as a fire swallower, and mastered the use of knives.
The festival offered beauty pageants and Homer-recitation contests, numerologists and fire-swallowers, and such culinary delicacies as roasted sow's womb.
The allure of the nomadic world of fire swallowers, ringmasters and trapeze artists is palpable in this big-top bonanza featuring paintings, sculpture, videos and more from a wide assortment of circus aficionados, including the painter George Bellows and the photographers Diane Arbus and Lisette Model.
Once there were hundreds of them, flame swallowers, bearded ladies and two-headed babies.
One particularly unique photograph reveals an X-ray of Ajax, a sword swallower, swallowing a sword.
"Last year, we had 44 sword swallowers swallowing 89 swords," Meyer told The Huffington Post.
We're a classic 10-in-one circus sideshow with a cast of sword swallowers, fire eaters and other freaks.
The "freaks" came in three categories: self-made (the tattooed lady), working acts (sword swallowers, fire breathers, knife throwers) and the natural-born.
An entertainer as much as an explorer, Robert operates in the tradition of street performers — jugglers, sword swallowers, fire-eaters, mimes — who, through extraordinary feats, attempt to imbue the impersonal city with humanity and mirth.
It featured some fine bands, fire-eaters, sword-swallowers, a brilliantly surreal puppet tribute to Jabberwocky, and a disquieting Grand Guignol act involving a bird-skull-headed woman and some large scissors.
On its two floors it hosts comedy, oddball vaudeville sword swallowers, fire jugglers and the like, as well as themed burlesque nights - think goth strippers - and assorted freakish sights.
