{{Short description|Sideshow performer with ichthyosis}} [[File:Promotional Photo of Percilla and Emmitt Bejano.jpg|thumb|Promotional photo featuring Emmitt Bejano (right) as "Alligator Boy", next to his wife Percilla Bejano as "Monkey Girl"]]
An '''alligator boy''' (or '''girl''', '''man''', '''woman''', as appropriate) was a common freak show and dime museum exhibit. While the act was traditionally performed by people with ichthyosis, sideshows sometimes substituted workers whose skin was covered in cracked glue,<ref name="ballyhoo">{{cite book |last1=Stencell |first1=A. W. |title=Circus and carnival ballyhoo: sideshow freaks, jaggers and blade box queens |date=2010 |publisher=ECW Press |location=Toronto |isbn=9781550228809 |page=185}}</ref> optionally supplemented with food dye and sand.<ref name="nickell" /> As another alternative, taxidermist Julius S. Hansen advertised stuffed alligator boys for sale in 1887.<ref name="seeing">{{cite book |last1=Stencell |first1=A. W. |title=Seeing Is Believing: America's Side Shows |date=2002 |publisher=ECW Press |location=Toronto |isbn=1550225294 |page=37}}</ref>
Like other freakshow performers, alligator boys were often depicted in banners and advertisements as half-human, half-animal hybrids. Their acts sometimes featured interactions with actual reptiles.<ref name="nickell" />
Alligator-skinned performers included: {{columns-list|colwidth=20em| * Esther Blackmon (1926–2003)<ref name="hartzman">{{cite book |last1=Hartzman |first1=Marc |title=American Sideshow |date=2006 |publisher=Penguin Publishing Group |location=East Rutherford |isbn=1585425303 |pages=122–123}}</ref> * William Parnell<ref name="hartzman" /> * Emmitt Bejano<ref name="mannix">{{cite book |last1=Mannix |first1=Daniel P. |title=Freaks: we who are not as others |date=1990 |publisher=Re/Search Publications |location=San Francisco, CA |isbn=0940642204 |pages=13,152,155}}</ref> * John R. Williams<ref name="mannix" /> * Mildred D. Durks<ref name="mannix" /> * James and Henry Elam<ref name="nickell">{{cite book |last1=Nickell |first1=Joe |title=Secrets of the Sideshows |date=9 September 2005 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=978-0-8131-2358-5 |pages=141-144, 197-198 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Secrets_of_the_Sideshows/sACcmMWM6t4C |access-date=29 June 2025 |language=en}}</ref> * Mona Osanbaugh<ref name="nickell" /> * Christine Doto<ref name="nickell" /> }}
== References ==
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Category:Sideshow performers Category:Rare diseases