The Doll Family was perhaps
the most famous and successful group of little people to
grace popular entertainment in the 20th century. Out of
a family of seven children born to Emma and Gustav
Schneider in Stolpen, Germany, four of those children
were midgets, which is an exceedingly unusual phenomenon
to occur in a single family. Those four children were
smaller than average, but also proved to be talented
performers. In their early years, the Schneider's met
with success performing a song and dance routine in
Europe.
Sometime between
1913 and 1915 (accounts vary), manager Bert W. Earles
encouraged Kurt and Frieda to venture across the
Atlantic to America. They appeared on the Buffalo Bill
Show as “Hans and Gretl, The Smallest Dancing Couple in
the World”, a name which capitalized on both their size
and nationality. Later, Kurt and Frieda changed their
professional names to “Harry” and “Grace” and adopted
the surname of their manager, Bert Earles. They would
retain that name until Mr. Earles died during the
1930's, when the tiny performers became the Doll's — a
name which reflected comments overheard from their
audiences.
In the early
1920's, Harry and Grace were joined in America by their
sister Hilda, who now became known as "Daisy". Sister
Elly joined her siblings in 1926 and quickly was dubbed
"Tiny". By this time, the entire family was working for
the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. They
would work on the Ringling sideshow for the next thirty
seasons, with the exception of the 1952 season when they
were replaced by members of Nate Eagle's Midgets.
In addition to their live appearances, the Dolls racked
up quite an impressive number of film credits, which
allowed them in later years to dub themselves “The
Moving Picture Midgets”. Various Doll family members had
starring roles in The Unholy Three (1925 and
1930), That's My Baby (1926), Baby Clothes
(1926), Baby Brother (1927), Special Delivery
(1927), and the Laurel and Hardy short feature
Sailors Beware (1927). Today, the Doll family will
be best known for their appearances in Tod Browning's
infamous Freaks (1932), and the much beloved
The Wizard of Oz (1939). In Freaks, Harry
plays the leading role of Hans, the sideshow midget who
is seduced away from his loving fiance Frieda (portrayed
by Harry's sister Daisy) and then poisoned by the evil
trapeze artist Cleo, who wishes to gain the little man's
wealth. Hans survives this attempt on his life and
reunites with his betrothed while fellow sideshow
performers exact their revenge on Cleo. The Earles
family played much lighter fare in The Wizard of Oz,
with each of them becoming citizens of Munchkinland. The
ladies filled various roles as Munchkin maidens, but
Harry will be immediately recognized as a member of the
Lollipop Guild.
Following their foray into film, the Doll's returned to
the circus, where they were staple attractions through
the late 1950's. When the Ringling train shows ended in
1956, the Doll's started touring with the Christiani
Circus, living in a trailer they pulled behind their
car. The Doll's found this to be an unacceptable
situation, so in 1958 they jointly retired. The siblings
continued to live together in the large home they owned
in Sarasota, Florida.
Grace passed away in 1970, followed by Daisy in 1980,
and Harry in 1985. Tiny outlived the rest of the Doll's,
but died in Florida at the age of 90 on 6 September
2004.
