Agency through Otherness: Portraits of Performers in Circus Route Books, 1875-1925Main MenuThe American Experiment: Circus in ContextCircus performers and American history timelineRouting the Circus: The Things They CarriedCircus Routes Map, 1875-1925Ethnological Congresses and the Spectacleby Rebecca FitzsimmonsOutsiders in Demand: Chinese and Japanese Immigrant Performersby Angela Yon and Mariah WahlShattering Gender Roles: Women in the Circusby Elizabeth HarmanSide Show Sounds: Black Bandleaders Respond to ExoticismAnnexed Circus Musicians by Elizabeth C. HartmanNative Performance and Identity in The Wild West Showby Mariah WahlShowmen's Rests: The Final CurtainCircus Cemetery Plots by Elizabeth C. HartmanList of PerformersPerformers covered in this exhibitBibliography & Further ReadingsBibliography and readings for each chapterAcknowledgementsAngela Yon72f2fd7a28c88ceeba2adcf2c04fee469904c6f1
Aimee Blondell
12021-03-25T07:05:39-07:00Angela Yon72f2fd7a28c88ceeba2adcf2c04fee469904c6f1382947Biographyplain10642862021-04-29T14:30:52-07:00Angela Yon72f2fd7a28c88ceeba2adcf2c04fee469904c6f1Daring WomenKnown as the Lion Queen, Aimee was a lion tamer in the ring of John Robinson’s Circus in 1905. There is no information about Aimee outside of the route book and news articles about her death in the ring. Near the end of the 1905 season, Aimee was attacked by one of the lions during a performance. It was later revealed in the route book (but not in any newspaper accounts) that after her death, it was discovered that Aimee was born male. Whether or not this was factual or for the sake of the act however is irrelevant to the fact that Aimee performed as a woman in the ring, which is something seldom seen in the early 1900s.
1media/cwb_158_084aimeeblondell_thumb.jpg2021-04-01T05:55:54-07:00Aimee Blondell3Aimee Blondell, lion queenmedia/cwb_158_084aimeeblondell.jpgplain2021-04-26T06:20:36-07:001905Still ImageMedia is provided here for educational purposes only.20180821022657