I don't know why, but I dreamed about pinheads last night. Anyone who has seen the 1932 Todd Browning film "Freaks" knows that they're cute and charming, and, well, they're just not like most of us. That's why people used to pay money to watch them perform, and it's why the movie "Freaks" continues to be watched by millions of people.

Is it an inherently evil thing to be "used" as human entertainment?

What is exploitation?

I have no idea. But I thought I'd use the charming star of "Freaks" -- the pinhead "Schlitzie" -- as a starting point. He was said to have been exploited:

He was exploited in the films he appeared in because he didn't have mental capacity to know any different.

Part of that ambivalence must be due to the sideshow's history of displaying oddities like Schlitze the pinhead. Schlitze was microcephalic, a condition that left her with a tiny head, tiny brain and the mental capacity of a small child. While Schlitze became one of the most celebrated sideshow performers (and was immortalized in Todd Browning's classic film Freaks) it's impossible to escape the whiff of her having been taken advantage of. But that's the paradox of the sideshow: Were performers like Schlitze exploited or were they given a far more exciting and varied life than they would have had in a hospital or home?

What is exploitation?

I think it's worth examining the life story of Schlitzie

: Finally I don't know how or why this came about but they were given to Pete Kortes. He was the owner of some very big sideshows. Pete kept Athelia and gave Schlitzie to George Kortes and his wife. They worked with Pete.

Just as a side note, Schlitzie is best remember for here appearance in Tod Browning's 1932 movie Freaks which has now become a cult classic film.

Now I want to jump ahead to nineteen sixty with the E.K. Hernandez Circus in Hawaii. This was the first time I ever met Schlitzie. I had seen her before that time but this was the first time I ever worked with her. As I remember I think Mrs. Kortes had passed away and George still had Schlitzie and we worked on the circus at the same time. That was on the Sam Alexander Sideshow. They were working for him at the time and so was I. They had already been with Sam for quite awhile before I got to meet her.

I don't remember the year George Kortes passed away. He had a daughter that lived in Los Angles she didn't have the facilities to take care of Schlitzie or the desire to do so. She didn't know what to do with Schlitzie and she had never been in the business. His daughter took Schlitzie to the Los Angles County Hospital and told them “here she is, you need to take care of her” then she left her there.

Fortunately a sword swallower by the name of Bill Bunks was working at the hospital, this would have been in the winter time off season. Bill just happened to see Schlitzie sitting in one of the hospital's waiting rooms. So Bill tried to talk with her but Schlitzie didn't communicate very well which made it impossible for him to carry on a conversation with her. He went to the folks that worked at the hospital and ask them why Schlitzie was there by herself? They told him what had happened, he immediately went to the phone and called Sam Alexander. Sam came right over to the hospital and explained the situation to the hospital administration. They told him the first thing they had to do was to find out her mental capacity so they ordered a psychiatric evaluation of Schlitzie. The state psychiatrist said when he heard the story, that normally he would have ordered Schlitzie to be put in an institution. "If we institutionalize Schlitzie it would be less than six months and she would be dead from a broken heart." His concern was that if she was away from the show people and the attention of the public she wouldn't be happy. So the state of California made Schlitzie a ward of Sam Alexander.

I didn't know it when I started writing this post, but Schlitzie has a cult following. Available for sale are plastic models of Schlitzie.

And Schlitzie hats.

Hey, I'm feeling really exploitative today. Plus I want to focus on entertainment. So here's the most famous picture of Schlitzie:

The caption is what interests me the most: "Unidentified pinhead with movie stars Rochelle Hudson and Chester Morris."

Rochelle Hudson? I've heard of Rock, but I didn't know there was a Rochelle. As it turns out, she appeared in many films and TV episodes (her most famous role seems to have been Natalie Wood's mother in "Rebel Without A Cause.") The "Hudson" isn't a Hollywood name either; she's a "direct descendant of famed explorer Henry Hudson, who discovered the Hudson River and Hudson Bay." (There's a minimal Wikipedia entry too, but nothing on Schlitzie! Be the first in your block....)

Then there's Chester Morris. Best known for his role as "Boston Blackie," he also appeared in a number of films (beginning in 1917) including "The Big House," and his last, "The Great White Hope." (Considering that Schlitzie co-starred with him in one of the Boston Blackie films, I'm also wondering whether the "unidentified pinhead" caption is misleading. Others have raised questions about journalistic integrity, but this is no place for that boring and humorless issue.)

There are no Rochelle Hudson or Chester Morris hats or plastic models that I can find. As a disinterested culture observer with no particular axe to grind (except, obviously, in my unconscious mind, as I've already disclosed), I'd say that in terms of entertainment, the "unidentified pinhead" is sneaking up on them.

In terms of Google, the two Hollywood stars are ahead of Schlitzie, but beaten by Zippy, America's most famous pinhead. But that's not fair! Because Zippy was inspired by Schlitzie (a fact the artist admits), yet the fictional character is stealing the latter's show! (Now that's real exploitation.....)

This all begs the question of what is entertainment, and what is exploitation. If Schlitzie was exploited, why weren't Rochelle Hudson and Chester Morris?

And who's being exploited now?

Damn these pinhead terms! Merely looking at them has a way of inducing feelings of, like, total burnout!

Eventually, nothing begins to makes sense. But that would be wrong. Because isn't nothing, like, um, nihilism?

(I worry that being Schlitzie has distinct advantages....)