19th century 'Camel Girl', a heartbreaking tale

2022-10-15 23:02:14 movie 1173℃

19th-century America was the era of "freak shows," where people would drag their families to the nearby circus to stare at the unfortunate handicapped on stage. Ella Harper was also on stage, known as the "Camel Girl".

"I'm called the Camel Girl because my knees are turned back. As you can see in the photo, I walk on my hands and feet. I've traveled a lot over the past four years. It's 1886, I'm going to quit show business, go to school, and fit myself into another career." -- Text from Ira's promotional card

Ira's early life

Ira Harper was born on January 5, 1870 in Tennessee Hendersonville by . Her father is a farmer in Sumner County. She also has a twin brother named Everett. However, died at the age of 3 months. Her parents later had three more children, Sally, Willie and Jesse.

Ira's father, William Harper, and mother, Minerva Ann Childress

Ira were born with a rare and unusual medical condition that causes her knees to bend backwards. like a camel. Medicine at the time didn't have a good explanation for the disease, which is now called "congenital recurve knee." Usually caused by hyperextension of the tibial joint, it affects 1 in 100,000 births. A very severe patient like Ella can only walk on all fours.

The girl with a recurve knee in her right leg due to polio

Circus Life

Ella's rare physical features also caught the attention of the local circus.

October 1882 Ella started her career at the age of 12. Initially, she only performed in St. Louis and the surrounding area of New Orleans . However, in the following years, everyone was curious about this girl with camel knees, and she gradually began to perform in more states in the United States.

soon, her "freak show" attracted more and more people's attention. 1886 , WH Harris saw potential in this girl and invited her to join the " Nickel Plate Circus" he founded. At each performance, Ella appears in the middle of the stage with a camel, and carries her new nickname "Camel Girl".

Ella is a popular star of the nickel plate circus, and every time goes to an unfamiliar city, people flock to see for themselves what the "Camel Girl" looks like. In every city she visited, local newspapers touted Ella as "the most wonderful nature freak since the world was born."

WH Harris' Nickel Plate Circus poster

At its peak, Ella was making about $200 a week, which is about $5,000 a week today. This gave her the opportunity to retire from the circus after four more years of acting.

Ella distributes promotional cards to the audience before each performance. On the back of her promotional card, it read:

I'm called the Camel Girl because my knees are turned back. As you can see in the photo, I walk on my hands and feet. I have traveled a lot in the past four years. It's 1886, and I'm going to quit show business, go to school, and fit myself into another career.

In May 1886 , the attitude of some newspapers towards Ella began to change, from the initial touts to some newspapers calling her a liar whenever she was mentioned. "She's just a young woman with a pretty face and knees that grow back rather than forward." Perhaps for this reason, Ella quit her circus job in late 1886, when she was 16.

After the circus

In 1887 , Ella left the circus to fulfill her dream and finish school.

1890Around , her father died in a house fire, and five years later, her brother Willie also died.

Fate seemed to favor her, On June 28, 1905 , When Ella was 35 years old, she married a man named Robert L. Saveley in Sumner County. Robert was a school teacher turned bookkeeper for a photo supplies company. In the second year of her marriage, on April 27, 1906, she gave birth to a baby girl named Mabel Evans Savely. But the tragedy happened again soon, Mabel died of unknown reasons within half a year, only 6 months old.

In the late 1900s, Ella and his husband moved in with his mother. In late 1918, Ella adopted a baby girl named Jewell Saveley, however, she also died within three months.