The Original Albert Alberta Sex Family - Vintage Program

Description

[Female Impersonator] Caro, Harry. (1899 - 1963)
Paris De Paree / The Original Albert Alberta Sex Family
Advertising brochure with title "Paris de Paree: The Original Albert Alberta Sex Family. The European Enigma." Four pages as folded, 9.5 x 12.5 in. A few folds, but overall very good.  Last page with "Albert-Alberta's" autobiographical information. S/he claimed to have been born in 1899 in France and named Alberta at birth. Brought up as a girl, about the age of 10 (plus a few months), the two sides of her body began growing out of proportion, eventually developing male characteristics on the right and female characteristics on the left. There followed four normal siblings, then a young brother, named Albert. At birth a beautiful baby boy (in Alberta's words), but at the age of seven, one breast grew, and at the age of 14, the other breast grew, then later, the neck lengthened and smoothed (changes occurring every seven years according to Alberta). Otherwise, he was a perfectly formed athletic male. They took their show on the road as the "Albert Alberta Sex Family" in the 1930s. Albert-Alberta worked at Coney Island, Hubert's Museum in Times Square, in the Loew's theater circuit - as her publicity touts, "all the major theatrical circuits of United States and Canada."
The front has photos of Alberta, while inside are several photos of the family, one more of Alberta, plus one of supposed doctors examining the siblings. There is also a description of hermaphroditism in the center. Some sources give her name as Alberta Karas.
According to Marc Hartzman (2006: 109-110), Albert-Alberta was Harry Caro, female impersonator. He exercised one side of his body only, and shaved the other, adding a false breast filled with birdseed. Thus one side was hairy and muscular, the other smooth and soft. Less is known about the "younger brother," but it sounds like a case of gynecomastia (breast enlargement in males), not all that uncommon. (Gynecomastia seems to occur most often at puberty, when hormones begin to run rampant. On occasion, the androgens and estrogens are out of balance, breast tissue responds, but for most, the condition resolves within a couple of years, for a few, it is permanent.) Hartzman notes that Alberta maintained his/her dual sexuality until his dying day (Sept. 1963, fatal heart attack after being mugged on a New York City street) and was buried in full costume and makeup.
Although "freak shows" are today considered offensive, for over three centuries they were very popular. One of the earliest known (although there are hints of earlier examples) was the display of Lazarus and Joannes Baptista Colloredo, conjoined twins. They were exhibited at the court of Charles I (ruled 1625-1649) in the early seventeenth century. The freak shows became very popular in the 19th century, some would say because of P.T. Barnum's marketing. Although it appears to us, from a 21st century perspective, that these individuals were being exploited, for some, it was a job, and circus performers become a kind of "family." And, as Harry Caro indicates, for some it seems to have been a career choice.
Hartzman, Marc.
American Sideshow: An Encyclopedia of History's Most Wondrous and Curiously Strange Performers
. Penguin, 2006.
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