Around ten years ago I received a message on Facebook that went unnoticed for months. It was from Dr. Dori Ann Bischmann, and she wanted to know if I had ever heard of her great aunt, Agnes Schwarzenbacher, better known as the Rubber Skin Lady.
“I have a beautiful scrapbook that she put together of her experiences traveling with the circus and it includes photos, newspaper articles and her personal comments,” Bischmann included in her note.
She had read my book, American Sideshow, and recognized many of the people from the scrapbook. Bischmann was hoping I could tell her more about her great aunt and perhaps write an article about her. Eventually, I did—for Mental Floss. It tells the story of Bischmann’s discovery of the scrapbook and shares details about Agnes’ life. The sideshow star’s unusual elastic flesh covered her legs and could stretch anywhere from fifteen to thirty inches.
Though I was pleased to write the article, what I’ve really wanted to do over the past decade is reproduce the scrapbook into a book for the rest of the world to see. Working with Bischmann and her husband, Jim, I finally have.
The limited edition Scrapbook of Agnes Schwarzenbacher: The Rubber Skin Lady, faithfully reproduces each page of the scrapbook, and includes newspaper clippings, photos, and signed pitch cards from other performers and gives a glimpse into the life of one of the sideshow’s biggest stars of the 1930s. Agnes shared her rubber skin on stages all across America and Canada. In fact, in Toronto, she even performed before royalty. In one of the clippings, the Rubber Skin Lady spoke of the event as being one of the greatest thrills of her life on the road, “The audience was a very distinguished one and most famous of all was the Crown Prince of England, now the Duke of Windsor. I was most thrilled when he applauded vigorously.”
With each turn of the book’s pages, readers will encounter many of the extraordinary people Agnes performed with, particularly at the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Odditorium at the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago.
The hardcover collectible book from Curious Publications is limited to a hundred copies, each hand-numbered.
