If the year was 1925 instead of 2009 and you were planning a trip to Coney Island, you would be able to see Zip the Pinhead, a P.T. Barnum freak show find who by the 1920s displayed himself at one of the boardwalk sideshows.
Like other freaks of the time, he was very popular; supposedly Charles Dickens and the Prince of Wales visited him, and he had his portrait done by Civil War photographer Mathew Brady. He was also heralded for saving a little girl from drowning off Coney Island.
Despite his appearance, Zip wasn’t microcephalic (the medical term for having a pinhead). Nor was he mentally disabled, according to some accounts. He just happened to be born into a poor New Jersey family and then “discovered” by Barnum, who billed him as a “wild man” from Africa.
Apparently Zip laughed all the way to the bank. On his deathbed in 1926, the 80-something’s last words reportedly were “We fooled ’em for a long time, didn’t we?”
Check out more sideshow freaks and curiosities here.
Tags: Barnum's Museum, Charles Dickens, Coney Island sideshow, Coney Island sideshow freaks, Mathew Brady, microcephalia, P.T. Barnum, Zip the Pinhead
Ephemeral New York 
May 27, 2009 at 5:01 am |
weird. powerful. thx.
May 27, 2009 at 5:52 am |
Weird is right. Zip had a long, interesting life.
May 28, 2009 at 2:48 pm |
What a great piece.
Being from Liberty Corner, NJ, I had to write about the history of Zip as well. Take a look if you have the chance.
http://blog.t3consortium.com/?p=768
Help get Bill to create a “Zip Strip” of the Original “Zip” from Liberty Corner – The goal is to get him to formally recognize “our most famous residen.
Info’s at the end of the post.
Thanks
November 30, 2009 at 12:36 am |
[…] Tim started out singing at Hubert’s. And famous freak Zip the Pinhead did his time there as […]
February 2, 2012 at 4:24 am |
The 1930’s Tod Browning film, “Freaks,” also has a pinhead named Schlitze. Fascinating but freaky film. Once you see it, you’ll never forget the phrase “One of us.”
May 15, 2013 at 3:56 pm |
[…] disabilities have been used by others for centuries. Only 100 years ago, William Henry Johnson, AKA Zip the Pinhead, was an attraction at a circus freak show in the New York […]
June 30, 2014 at 6:04 am |
[…] the 1880s it had become Sodom by the Sea—a tawdry playground of hotels, pavilions, dime museums, freak shows, amusement parks, exotic animals, and more, all bathed in thousands of colored […]
May 31, 2015 at 2:36 pm |
[…] Tim started out singing at Hubert’s. Famous freak Zip the Pinhead did time there as […]