"Gibtown": Carnival Industry

Description
Gibsonton is famous for being a "wintering town" for the traveling Carnival industry attracting carnival workers, including several sideshow performers, as winter (and later full time) residents. This collection will feature many of the people and places that made "Gibtown" home to this fascinating industry.
Language
eng
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14

Original Al Tomaini Boot Memorial

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Type: Still Image
Member of: "Gibtown": Carnival Industry
Description: After Al Tomaini's death in 1962, his wife, Jeanie, placed a 35 inch boot outside of their home, as a memorial. This picture is of the unrestored boot. When Jeanie died in 1999, the property was sold to Mosaic Company and shortly after that, the boot went missing. To honor the family Mosaic, with the help of Gibsonton residents, created a park on the site of Giant's Fish Camp, and… more
Full Text: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ …

Boat Docks at Giants Camp

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Type: Still Image
Member of: Boat Docks at Giant's Fish Camp: Al Tomaini and Caspar Balsam, "Gibtown": Carnival Industry
Description: Photo of Al Tomaini and Caspar Balsam on docks

Boat Docks at Giant's Fish Camp: Al Tomaini and Caspar Balsam

Boat Docks at Giant's Fish Camp: Al Tomaini and Caspar Balsam
Type: Still Image
Member of: "Gibtown": Carnival Industry
Contributors: Balsam, Tomaini
Description: Pictured are giant, Al Tomaini and midget, Colonel Casper Balsam on boats at Giants Camp, just south of the Alafia River Bridge (pictured in the background.) Tomaini, billed as being over 8 feet tall, was one of the first side show people to live in Gibsonton and opened the popular Giant's Fish Camp. Balsam, who once played a Munchkin on The Wizard of Oz, was billed as being slightly over 3… more
Full Text: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/ …

Al and Jeannie Tomaini

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Type: Still Image
Member of: "Gibtown": Carnival Industry
Description: Al (Aurelio) Tomaini (1912 - 1962) claimed a height of 8’4” and billed himself as ‘The Tallest Man in the World’. (His actual height was much shorter, at 7'4".) In 1936, at the Great Lakes Exposition, he met the woman who was to share his unique life, Berniece Evelyn Smith (1916 - 1999) who went by the stage name, Jeanie with twisted arms and without legs and billed as "The Living… more
Full Text: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ …

Al Tomaini at Giant's Trailer Park

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Type: Still Image
Member of: "Gibtown": Carnival Industry
Contributors: Tomaini, Al
Description: Al Tomaini owned and operated Giant's Fish Camp, on US41, just south of the Alafia River, until his death in 1962. His wife, Jean, continued to operate the Fish Camp and Restaurant until her death in 1999. The camp was taken down after her death. more
Full Text: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ …

The Human Blockhead

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Type: Still Image
Year: 1978, 1978
Member of: "Gibtown": Carnival Industry
Contributors: Burkhart, Melvin
Publisher: Orlando Sentinel (Mack Goethe AP File Photo)
Description: Melvin Burkhart, shown in this 1978 file photo, in Gibsonton, Fla., was known in the carnival circle as "The Human Blockhead" for his ability to hammer a spike into his head through a cavity behind his nostril. more
Full Text: Orlando Sentinel (Mack Goethe AP File Photo) … http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/ …

Boat Docks at Giants Camp REVERSE

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Type: Still Image
Member of: Boat Docks at Giant's Fish Camp: Al Tomaini and Caspar Balsam, "Gibtown": Carnival Industry
Description: Reverse side of phot

Fire Chief Reverse

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Type: Still Image
Member of: Fire Chief: Al Tomaini and Crew, "Gibtown": Carnival Industry
Description: Reverse side of photo
Full Text: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ …

Fire Chief: Al Tomaini and Crew

Fire Chief: Al Tomaini and Crew
Type: Still Image
Member of: "Gibtown": Carnival Industry
Description: Al Tomaini as Fire Chief with members of his department. Permission for photo from the Independent Showman's Museum more
Full Text: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/ …

"Jolly Dolly" the Ossified Girl

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Type: Still Image
Member of: "Gibtown": Carnival Industry
Description: Dolly Reagan (AKA Jolly Dolly, The Ossified Girl, was born in Saskatoon, Canada in 1919. She began her sideshow career in the early 1940s. She could neither stand nor walk. However, she had command of a few fingers, which helped her control an electric wheelchair. She suffered from Muscular Dystrophy and ankylosis which kept her body rigid. She married three times (a juggler, a ride foreman,… more
Full Text: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ …

Married Couple: The Monkey Girl and Alligator Skinned Man

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Type: Still Image
Member of: "Gibtown": Carnival Industry
Description: This is an early photo of Priscillar Lauther and Emmit Bejano, who were known by various professional side show names through their long career in the carnival industry: most frequently The Monkey Girl and the Alligator Skinned Man. They met in the 1930s and eloped to become married in 1938. They had one son, who died at an early age, and a second son that they adopted in the 1960s. They, like… more
Full Text: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/ …

Al Tomaini

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Type: Still Image
Member of: "Gibtown": Carnival Industry
Description: Al Tomaini with unknown Carnival Worker.
Full Text: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ …

Jeannie Tomaini at Giant's Fish Camp

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Type: Still Image
Member of: "Gibtown": Carnival Industry
Contributors: Tomaini, Jeannie
Description: Jeannie Tomaini continued to manage Giant's Fish Camp for many years following Al's death. This picture is of Jeannie at the Camp. more
Full Text: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ …

Al Tomaini: Fire Chief

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Type: Still Image
Member of: Fire Chief: Al Tomaini and Crew, "Gibtown": Carnival Industry
Contributors: Tomaini, Al
Description: Picture of Al Tomaini, wearing his Fire Chief's hat, with friends promoting Annual Fair. Photo used with Permission of International Indepedent Showman's Museum. more
Full Text: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ …
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14

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