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During 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. This is a fine book on the circus, the carnival and vaudeville. Neil Parsons, University of Botswana is a fine and very readable historian.
At left we see the remaining “Brothers Picard — French Gymnasts,” c. 1950. The inscription on the back: “Alex-to the right, Frank in the middle, Joe-in white suit taken in front of new French Church where you used to go to Church. The young chap on left is Frank II and this must have been taken when one of the girls got married. I think the older one, Ruth Mary. Frank II is now film purchaser and director at W.W.J. TV in Detroit.” (The writer, most likely Louise Picard Keiper, was wrong on the dates. The picture was taken at Holy Family Church, Saginaw Michigan.)