George Lippert

George Lippert (1844, Bavaria – July 1906, Salem, Oregon),[1] was born with three legs and, as was discovered during his autopsy, two hearts.[2] He worked as a curiosity for nearly 50 years, many of them for P. T. Barnum.[2] Although he claimed that his third leg was fully functional until it was fractured in an accident, this has not been firmly established.[3]

Lippert's "pitch card", with Eisenmann's photograph

In 1898, he began facing competition from a three-legged boy, Sicilian-born Frank Lentini, who was touring with the Ringling Brothers Circus. By 1899 he was penniless, but found a benefactor in a florist named Mary Riggs, with whom he lived in his final years.[3]

He died of tuberculosis in 1906.

The Ronald G. Becker Collection of Charles Eisenmann Photographs, held by Syracuse University, includes a photograph of a painting titled "George Lippert three legged man".[4]

References
  1. Entry @ Find-a-Grave
  2. Hartzman, Marc (2006). American Sideshow: An Encyclopedia of History's Most Wondrous and Curiously Strange Performers. Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin. p. 59. ISBN 9781585425303. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  3. Biography @ Human Marvels
  4. "Ronald G. Becker Collection of Charles Eisenmann Photographs". Syracuse University.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.