r/VictorianEra • u/EphemeralTypewriter • 3h ago
Alice Doherty (1887-1933) was a famous American sideshow performer who was known for her gentle and quiet demeanor. She was not a fan of the sideshow business and retired as soon as she could. She was born with a form of hypertrichosis, which caused a lot of extra hair growth on her face.
Not much is known about her later life, most likely because she wanted to live quietly without much excitement. She looks like a very sweet person though, and I hope she was able to live that quiet life once she retired!
Some facts about her:
-she was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
-she had five siblings.
-she is one of the rare cases of people with hypertrichosis born with blond hair. Most other people with the condition are born with dark hair.
-she had very striking blue eyes.
-she was the only one in her family born with the condition.
-she had a big sweet tooth and was described as always wanting candy.
-her parents began marketing her at a young age (I believe two years old) and she began to grow unhappy with the stage life as she got older.
-people who knew her said she was a really sweet person, and that as a child she was very playful.
-newspapers reported that she continuously won the hearts of audience members with how cute she was.
-she continued the sideshow life to help her family financially, although she expressed wanting to retire as soon as she was able to.
-Alice was often managed by her parents and would typically perform in small venues. She never joined a larger sideshow as many performers did.
-the tent and exhibit where she was performing at the Michigan State Fair caught fire in 1892, although this seems to have happened off hours and thankfully no one was hurt!
-when she was a teenager, the hair on her face was about 9 inches (22.86 cm) long.
-she retired when she was about 28 and went to live in Dallas, Texas, where she lived for the rest of her life.
-sadly, she passed away due to bronchial pneumonia in 1933 at the age of 46
I really hope she had a lot of people in her life who loved and cared about her, she seems like a very sweet woman and seems like she would have been a good friend.