Jane Barnell facts for kids
Jane Barnell (born January 3, 1871) was an American performer known as a "bearded lady." She worked in circus sideshows, museums, and carnivals. Jane was also a trapeze artist and a photographer. She used different stage names like Madame Olga, Lady Olga, and Lady Olga Roderick. She appeared in the famous 1932 movie Freaks, where she was called the "Bearded Lady."
Her Life Story
Jane Barnell was born in Wilmington, North Carolina. Her father, George Barnell, was a wagon maker from Russia. Her mother had Irish and Catawban Native American family. Jane was the second of six children.
When Jane was just two years old, she started growing a beard. Her mother tried to find folk healers to help her condition.
In 1875, when Jane was four, she began traveling with the Great Orient Family Circus and Menagerie. She toured with them for several months in the Southern United States. The circus then went to Europe, and Jane went with them. In Berlin, Germany, Jane became very sick with typhoid fever. She was placed in a hospital and then an orphanage. Her father eventually found her when she was five years old.
After this, Jane lived with her Catawban grandmother in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. She tried to hide her beard by shaving. Her grandmother told her stories about Florence Nightingale, which inspired Jane to become a student nurse at age 17. She worked as a nurse for about a year.
In 1892, Jane met a circus performer named Professor William Heckler. He convinced her to stop shaving and helped her get a job with John Robinson’s Circus. She tried a few stage names before choosing Lady Olga Roderick. At that time, her beard was 13 inches long! She worked with the Robinson circus for 14 years.
Jane also worked as a trapeze artist for a while. However, an accident during a train journey ended her trapeze career. After that, she became a commercial photographer.
Jane performed with several circuses, including the Ringling Brothers circus. She later joined Hubert's Museum in Times Square, New York City. She appeared in Tod Browning's movie Freaks in 1932. She wasn't happy with how the movie showed sideshow performers.
In 1940, a writer named Joseph Mitchell interviewed Jane for an article in The New Yorker magazine. This interview is one of the main sources of information about her life.
The exact date and place where Jane Barnell died are not known.
Her Family Life
Jane Barnell was married a few times. Her last marriage, in 1931, was to Thomas O'Boyle. He was a former circus clown and also worked as a talker for Hubert's Dime Museum, where he would introduce the performers.
Jane didn't have much contact with her family after she became a performer. She believed they might have felt she was a disgrace. By 1940, she said she hadn't seen her brothers and sisters in 22 years.
See also
In Spanish: Jane Barnell para niños
