PECULIAR POSTCARDS

20. EUGENIE, THE SUPER-FREAK

ome months ago, I purchased, through the medium of eBay and for very little money, a very strange picture postcard marked only ‘Eugenie’. The individual on the card was not the last Empress of France, but actually a male: an unfortunate young lad with terrible deformities to his arms and hands. A little research shows that Eugenie made his show business debut at Pickard’s Trongate Waxworks commented that: “Additions continue to be made to the attractions at the Waxworks Trongate. Eugenie, the freak, is retained, and the Kilmarnock man of mystery, George Kirkland, is sure to interest all patrons. The final advertisement for “Eugenie, the unnatural super-freak”, still paired with the Kilmarnock man of mystery, dates from New Year’s Day 1916.