This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/25/2023
[SIDESHOW] NELSON SUPPLY HOUSE FREAK SUPPLY CATALOGS AND CORRESPONDENCE. South Boston, 1920s. A small archive of catalogs and correspondence related to this manufacturer of gaffed sideshow exhibits, including two catalogs (one 12 pp., another 4 pp.), together with five autograph letters from the proprietor, Billy Nelson, and seven typed carbon-copy letters from a carnival operator, dated 1921. Correspondence and one Nelson circular affixed at the left long margin, obscuring some words. Several pages two-hole punched at top. Wear at extremities and splitting at folds with no losses. Nelson offers not only wax figures and other gaffed freaks in the pages of his catalogs, but the banners with which they may be exhibited, as well. Photographs of the latter fill the 12-page brochure, which advertises “mummified curiosities” and similar oddities, including a “prehistoric woman” (the last representative of the lost tribe of red headed Indians), “The Moa or Devil Bird,” “The Devil Child,” wax Siamese Twins (based on photos of the Tocci brothers), Fiji Mermaids, and more. Suggested scripts for the bally platform accompany the descriptions of the attractions.