Back in the 19th century bearded ladies were a staple of carnival sideshows. And it turns out that one of that century’s best-known bearded ladies lived in Liverpool!
My friend, Bruce Beacham, recently sent me on an offbeat research project after he insisted that his house at 703 Tulip St. is the former residence of Madame Rebecca Lyon, who had worked for prominent circus promoter P.T. Barnum after the Civil War.
Sure enough, Village Historian Dorianne Elitharp Gutierrez confirmed Bruce’s account, and produced a photo from her files of Rebecca Lyon.
Sad to say, but Rebecca looks like a man wearing a dress and an ill-fitting hairpiece with ringlets.
But evidence indicates that this person was indeed employed by Barnum before dying in Syracuse on Sept. 10, 1880.
While residing on Tulip Street, Lyon was visited here, Beacham maintains, by General Tom Thumb (Charles S. Stratton, born in 1838), Barnum’s famously diminutive attraction.
I’ve yet to confirm this visit via Gen. Thumb’s biographies, but it’s entirely possible since Lyon died in 1880 and the dwarf passed on in 1883, at age 45.
‘Real’ bearded ladies
Dorianne Elitharp Gutierrez)
As you can see, Lyon looks every inch a man, lacking even a hint of feminine facial characteristics. And Barnum was well known for employing fakirs and staging hoaxes.
On the other hand, his most famous bearded lady was Josephine Clofullia (1827–1875), a Swiss-born gal who gave birth to two children, which certainly supports her claim to womanhood. Similarly, Ringling Brothers attraction Lady Olga (Jane Barnell) was married four times and had two kids. Barnell appeared in a Tod Browning’s infamous 1932 film, “Freaks.”
These women have long been a phenomenon of legend, curiosity and ridicule.
In some cases, as with Clofullia and Barnell, female beard growth is the result of a hormonal imbalance, usually androgen excess, or a rare genetic disorder known as hypertrichosis. Sometimes it’s caused by use of anabolic steroids.
But as for Liverpool’s Rebecca Lyon, good chance his real name was something like Reginald or Benjamin.
Baseball beckons
It has been one weird winter here this year. A couple days last week were so warm that The Retreat opened its outdoor patio, an event that usually occurs in April. Anyhow, I just hope the winter wraps up its seasonal shivers soon because I can hardly wait for pro baseball to return.
To whet our diamond appetites, the Syracuse Chiefs will host an open house from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 4, at NBT Bank Stadium, on the city’s North Side.
Chiefs General manager Jason Smorol, who lives in Liverpool, will be on hand for a Q&A session with fans at 10:30 a.m. at the Hank Sauer Room of Legends out beyond right field. This year’s Open House will give fans their first chance to purchase individual game tickets, audition for singing the National Anthem, take a swing in the batting cages, meet team mascots Scooch and Pops, and hear about the ball club’s 2017 promotional schedule.
For Chiefs info, call (315) 474-7833.
Contact the columnist at [email protected].
