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Alice
Elizabeth Doherty was one of the most
fantastic American freaks of all time, the
only known person born in the United States
with the exceedingly rare condition
hypertrichosis lanuginosa or "dog-faced"
hypertrichosis. Nevertheless she remained
quite a minor figure on the
turn-of-the-century museum scene, never
attaining the same fame and fortune as her
charming foreign competitors Fedor Jeftichew
(Jo-Jo) and Stephan Bilgraski (Lionel). It
seems more than likely that quiet Alice
simply didn’t enjoy the attention.
"Alice, The Minnesota
Woolly Girl" was born in Minneapolis on
March 14, 1887, to normal parents who had a
son and another daughter who were also
normal. At birth, Alice was covered all over
in two-inch long, silky blonde hair. She
began her exhibition career at the age of
two. "Alice, as she is called, is only two
years of age, but is as bright as a silver
dollar and shows intelligence far beyond her
years," commented a writer in Waukesha,
Wisconsin. "She has pretty blue eyes, and is
as frolicsome as a kitten." She also, at the
time, had no teeth, and no signs that she
would ever grow any.
By the age of 5, she
was touring the Midwest with her mother,
playing storefront engagements with
Professor Weller’s One-Man Band. "This
curious little girl seems to be especially
interesting to the ladies," wrote one
reporter of Alice’s engagement at the Carter
Building in Decatur, Illinois. "They find a
remarkably bright child on a platform with
her mother....Some of the ladies examined
the child’s features, thinking to find that
the hair on her face had been put there with
hands. They found that it had grown there.
The child’s face is round, and would be
pretty if it were not hidden by the light,
almost white, hair, five to nine inches
long, which grows all over the face as
thickly as hair grows on the heads of
ordinary children. On her body, which is
covered with her clothing, the hair does not
grow so long, but is quite thick."
Alice's family
relocated to Dallas, Texas, sometime between
1900 and 1910, and it was here that Alice
retired in 1915. She passed away on June 13,
1933, of unknown causes, at the age of just
46.
Elizabeth Anderson
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The Forgotten Sideshow
Alice Doherty
"The Minnesota Woolly Baby"
Born March 14th 1887
Alice E. Doherty, was billed as The
Minnesota Woolly Baby,
She had a very rare genetic mutation known
as Hypertrichosis.
Although the statistic has been cited that
this only occurs for 1 out of 10 billion
people,
19 people alive today have hypertrichosis,
out of ~6.5 billion people in the world,
makes for an average of 1 in 340 million.
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Click on Images to Enlarge
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First 5 images Special Thanks to
showhistory.com and TheDoghouseArchive"
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Alice & Her Mother,
Circa 1890's |
Alice - Mother
? |
Alice & Family |
Alice Doherty |
Alice Age 7
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ALICE DOHERTY
FORGOTTEN SIDESHOW |
HAVE YOU SEEN
ALICE |
Alice Doherty
The Worlds
Greatest Wonder |
Midway Show |
The Worlds
Greatest Wonder |
Next
9 images - Special Thanks to Neil Davis
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Alice & Family |
Alice |
Alice |
Alice |
Alice - Mother |
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Alice Worlds Greatest Wonder |
The Worlds Greatest Wonder |
Alice & Friends on Horseback |
Hypertrichosis is
a medical term, also known as "Wolfitis" or
"Werewolf syndrome", referring to a condition of
excessive body hair.
It can be generalized, symmetrically affecting
most of the torso and limbs, or localized,
affecting an area of skin. It may be mild or
severe. In most cases, the term is used to refer
to an above-average amount of normal body hair
that is unwanted and is an aspect of
human variability.
In medical practice, once generalized
hypertrichosis has been distinguished from
hirsutism it is most often considered a
variation of normal, primarily resulting from
genetic factors.
Most of the people recently featured in the
media with hypertrichosis are from the Aceves
clan of Loreto, Zacatecas, Mexico, some of whom
have emigrated to the United States. Various of
them have worked for circuses. The brothers
Victor Ramon "Danny" Ramos and Gabriel "Larry"
Ramos have worked as acrobats. Their cousins,
Jesus "Chuy" Aceves and his sister, Lili, have
worked in sideshows.
Wikipedia
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Links
Above photograph
courtesy of David Cress
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