Resumen
Resumen de Estudios de los espectáculos de fenómenos
Para quién es
Readers who enjoy tall tales told over a drink, circus and carnival lore, and the animals and showmen of old Coney Island will feel at home here. It also suits anyone who likes a comic story with a sting.
De qué trata este libro
Side Show Studies is a set of linked tales by Francis Metcalfe, set in the animal show at Dreamland, the amusement park at Coney Island, in the early years of the twentieth century. Each night, after the last performance, three men sit at a white-topped table in front of the Arena. The Proprietor owns the show of trained wild animals. The Press Agent writes its publicity. The Stranger is the visitor who listens, asks questions and takes a drink now and then. The waiter keeps the glasses full, and the stories keep coming.
The book gives you two kinds of tale. The Proprietor tells of lions, tigers, snakes, elephants and bears, and of the trainers who risk their lives beside them. The Press Agent answers with comic yarns about his old partner Merritt and their schemes in dime museums and snake shows, where a painted snake or a fake mermaid is sold to the crowd as a wonder. Together they show a show business built on real danger and on cheerful fraud. The first key point takes you into the Arena on a night when an animal is loose.
En este resumen
- 1Three men at a table in DreamlandFree
- 2Snakes and lions bring out the tall tales
- 3Animals have moods and long memories
- 4Escapes, feuds and the war for headlines
- 5Truth, fraud and the price of a sensation
- 6How the tales are told
Idea clave 1 de 6
Three men at a table in Dreamland
The book begins inside the Arena at Dreamland, where a trained-animal show plays to Coney Island crowds beside a brass band and the shouting of spielers. The Proprietor is calm and practical, and he is always counting what an accident will cost him. The Stranger notices small things, such as the sudden hurry among the keepers. The Press Agent is cheerful, a little shameless and always hunting for a story the newspapers will print. Their talk after each show forms the frame for everything that follows.
The first scene is an escape. Madame Morelli has just put ten leopards, panthers and jaguars through their act, but a careless carpenter has left a board loose above the den. Franz the jaguar slips out onto the top of the cages. The Proprietor meets him in the runway and comes away with three deep scratches on his head. A quiet man named Stevenson nails boards over the vents, and the audience never learns what is happening behind the scenes.
Morelli is the only person who can handle Franz, so she goes in after him with whip and training rod. She drives the jaguar back into his cage and then sits down to mend her torn gown as if nothing has happened. Soon a terrier and the menagerie cat, both busy mothers, tumble into her dressing room in a screaming tangle. The woman who has just faced a jaguar jumps onto her bed, white with fear, and stays there until the Proprietor parts the two animals. He remarks that she specializes in the larger species.
That remark opens the Press Agent's first yarn. He tells of a dime museum in St. Louis, where he and his partner Merritt faced a fresh batch of performers who would not accept new billing. A woman with webbed toes was sold as a Circassian beauty, and she kept showing her feet to the crowd. When business needed a real attraction, the partners invented a wild man called Fuzzy Wuzzy, the Terrible Man-Eating Cannibal, and Merritt waved a cash prize at anyone brave enough to enter the cage. The prize draws a challenger, and the partners must find a way out of their own trap.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about Estudios de los espectáculos de fenómenos
What is Side Show Studies about?
It follows three men at a café table at Dreamland, Coney Island. The Proprietor tells of animal trainers and wild beasts, and the Press Agent tells of fakers and freak shows, in linked comic tales.
Who are Merritt and Jim in Side Show Studies?
Merritt is the Press Agent's old partner, a loud-dressing inventor of fake wonders. Jim is the partner who tells or hears the story. Their schemes run through snake shows and dime museums in many tales.
Is Side Show Studies a true story?
It mixes real names and places, such as Dreamland, Barnum and Tody Hamilton, with tall tales. The Proprietor presents his stories as fact, while the Press Agent's yarns are clearly comic exaggeration for the reader's enjoyment.
Is Side Show Studies easy to read?
The tales are short, told in plain spoken language, and each one has its own comic setup and closing line. The café table frame makes it easy to pick up and follow.
What is the main message of Side Show Studies?
The book shows that show business runs on real danger and on clever publicity. Wonders are made as often as found, and a good story, true or false, can be worth more than the animal.