great photos

a good read : the old carnival days and strip clubs in DC, Baltimore and NY in the 60's & 70's were something else

Carnival Strippers
From 1972 to 1975, Susan Meiselas spent her summers photographing and interviewing women who performed striptease for small town carnivals in New England, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. As she followed carnivals from town to town, she portrayed the dancers on stage and off, photographing their public performances as well as their private lives. She also taped interviews with the dancers, their boyfriends, the show managers, and paying customers.

https://www.magnumphotos.com/arts-cultu ... -meiselas/

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/201 ... ens-bodies

I hitchhiked around Australia when I was young picking up work wherever and whenever I could find it. I was in Shepperton, Victoria, when I saw carnival trucks pulling into the show grounds. I walked over and asked for a job and started straight away setting up the Freak Show which consisted of stuffed animals with two heads, photos of bearded women, deformities etc. Those couple of weeks working with carnies was one of strangest employment experiences I've ever had.

Carnies are fucking weird, man.

"I was born in a wagon on a traveling show mama used to dance for the money theyd throw"
Gypsys tramps and thieves, Cher
My favourite freak show exhibit was the six foot man eating chicken.