Clicko: The Wild Dancing BushmanDuring the 1920s and ’30s, Franz Taibosh—whose stage name was Clicko—performed in front of millions as one of the stars of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Prior to his fame in the United States, Taibosh toured the world as the “Wild Dancing Bushman,” showing off his frenzied dance moves in freak shows, sideshows, and music halls from Australia to Cuba. When he died in 1940, the New York Times called him “the only African bushman ever exhibited in this country.” In Clicko, Neil Parsons unearths the untold story of Taibosh’s journey from boyhood on a small farm in South Africa to top billing as one of the travelling World’s Fair Freaks. |
Contents
1 Growing Up in the Snow Mountains | 1 |
2 Recruited at Kimberley | 16 |
3 Enter Paddy Hepston | 23 |
4 Disappearance to Australasia or the Far East? | 30 |
5 The Dancing Bushman in London | 34 |
6 Dancing in Cambridge and Paris | 45 |
7 Hiding from Humanitarians | 56 |
8 Margate Rendezvous | 64 |
14 Sam Gumpertz Takes Over | 134 |
15 High Life with Frank and Evelyn | 150 |
16 I Inherited a Bushman | 166 |
17 California Interlude | 176 |
18 The Great Terminal Dance | 188 |
Conclusion | 197 |
Appendix | 207 |
Notes | 210 |