Venice Beach Freakshow

Uploaded to the Wacko Nation Flickr Group by:  cafesiren

$3 buys you admission to The Venice Beach Freakshow, where the owner boasts that you can see:

We have a LIVE Two Headed Turtle, a two headed raccoon, a two headed chicken, 2 two headed calves, a two headed pig with 5 legs, a squirrel with 6 legs, a rooster with 3 legs, a duck with 4 legs, a tarantula with 12 legs, 2 cyclops pigs ( born with one eye in the middle of their face), a pig with 2 mouths, a pig with 8 legs 4 ears and 2 tails, all types of Strange sea creatures, a CHUPACABRA, 3 Human shrunken heads, A Real Black Mamba (the Deadliest and Fastest snake in the World), a Two Headed baby skeleton with 3 arms, a cyclops baby skull, a 3 ft wide GIant Alaskan King Crab (it’s a baby), a duck with one head and 2 bodies, and on and on.

- From OddTodd.com

Venice, CA

World’s Largest Bottle of Ketchup
Uploaded to the Wacko Nation Flickr Group by cafesiren. Thanks!

The World’s Largest Catsup Bottle stands proudly next to Route 159, just south of downtown Collinsville, Illinois. This unique 170 ft. tall water tower was built in 1949 by the W.E. Caldwell Company for the G.S. Suppiger catsup bottling plant - bottlers of Brooks old original rich & tangy catsup. 

In 1995, due to the efforts of the Catsup Bottle Preservation Group, this landmark roadside attraction was saved from demolition and beautifully restored to its original appearance.

Recognized the world over as an excellent example of 20th century roadside Americana, the World’s Largest Catsup Bottle regularly garners national attention and attracts visitors and tourists every day.

In August of 2002 it was named to the National Register of Historic Places.

-From the: Official Website and Fan Club of the World’s Largest Bottle of Catsup

Behold the Two Story Outhouse
Photo on WackoNation Flickr Group, posted by cafesiren.

A two-story outhouse is located in the town of Gays, IL. It was built in 1869 for apartments that were attached to a general store. The top floor was used by the apartment dwellers while the bottom floor was used by patrons of the store. Although the store and apartments were demolished, the outhouse remained. Each level has two seats, so the outhouse could be used by four at a time. Waste from the top level dropped behind a false wall into a pit. It is now in a small public park which is dedicated for outhouse promoter and former Gays mayor Gene Goodwin.

West of the outhouse is the former site of what was claimed to be Hitler’s bicycle. A rusty bicycle once hung on a pole with a sign that read “Hitler’s Bike (1934).” However, the bike was not authentic and was put up by a prankster. The bike was stolen and as of May 29, 2005  and the bike has not been found.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Gays, IL

Handless Man

Originally uploaded by croz1007

Sandusky, Ohio

40 feet tall

New Orleans Square Art Colony
Originally uploaded to the Wacko Nation Flickr Group  by kelly-bell. Thanks!

For over 50 years, painters and portrait artists have been working and displaying their artwork on the iron fence that encloses Jackson Square. This somewhat bohemian colony of artists was not a contrived creation, but rather a spontaneous outgrowth of an ever increasing tourist economy in the French Quarter following World War II. Actually, there are some records and news articles that suggest that artists occasionally sold their work from the fence as far back as the late 1800’s.

The present art colony started small, in Pirate Alley, and, by the mid 1950’s, had already occupied the sidewalk that defined the perimeter of Jackson Square. At it’s peak, Jackson Square numbered over 300 artists, occupying every section of fence, much of Pirate Alley and the Cathedral fence on Royal Street.

From: AtNewOrleans.com

Archie McPhee long been a favorite destination and resource for Art Cars and many art car postcards can be found on their Wall of Fame.

From: LaughingSquid.com

Archie McPhee: 2428 NW Market Street, Seattle, WA 98107
Phone: (206) 297-0240  Website: www.ArchieMcPhee.com

Snake Girl
Originally uploadedto Wacko Nation Flickr Group by Harris Graber. Thanks!

The 80th Annual Feast of San Gennaro, New York City’s oldest, biggest and best religious street festival, will be celebrated starting Thursday, September 13, and continuing for 11 days through Sunday, September 23, 2007.

Presented annually since 1996 by Figli di San Gennaro, Inc., a not-for-profit organization, this year’s Feast will again bring more than 1 million people to the streets of Little Italy in the annual salute to the Patron Saint of Naples. The street festivities – including religious processions and parades, free entertainment, food stands and a professional cannoli-eating contest – are capped on September 19th with a celebratory Mass and candlelit procession as the Statue of the Saint is carried from its permanent home in Most Precious Blood Church on Mulberry Street.

-From: SanGennaro.org

This festival was also in an episode of the Sopranos. Season 6, Episode 74 in case you’re interested. Paulie was in charge of running the Feast of St. Elzear Festival, which was a fictional version of the San Gennaro Festival.

Silver Spring, MD

Pirate’s Tavern?

New York, New York

Houston, TX 2007

Roswell, NM

Cabbagetown, Atlanta, GA

Santa Cruz, CA

New Orleans, LA

Moberly MO Shriners Parade - Summer 1983

Austin Texas - 2001

entrance to Nostalgiaville, Kingdom City, Missouri - Jan 2007

Water Tower in Bourbon Missouri (Filled with Bourbon?) - Jan 2000

There are at least two good reasons to take a turn off of I-65 at Cullman, Alabama as speed your way toward the beaches on the Florida panhandle. If it is the weekend you got to experience the Cullman Fleamarket and a least once find out what the sign “Ave Maria Groto next exit” is all about. In 1988 we stopped an I got these shots of this unique roadside attraction. - June 1988

San Francisco, CA

A hillside city made with junk and cement off of I-65 at Cullman, Alabama. The “Ave Maria Groto” roadside attraction. - June 1988

Robert Steffan Santa Cruz, CA

Wall Drug
Wall, South Dakota

Klamath, CA

Trees of Mystery

Alliance, Nebraska

Medina, OH?

Buckin’ Ohio Bull Riding Series

Outside Red Light Green Room during “Brooklyn To Kingston”, Missoula, MT

Where all of Wacko Nation must stay when they are in Chicago, IL

Coney Island Circus Sideshow
www.coneyisland.com/sideshow.shtml

This guy is available for parties.

Santa Cruz, CA

Robert Steffan, the pink umbrella man

MN State Fair

San Diego, CA

20′ sasquatch sculpture, at the crossroads in Happy Camp, CA.

Bertsch, California

An Ice Cream stand near the Roswell UFO Museum

Silver Bay, Minnesota
“Taconite Capitol of the World”

Taconite is an iron-bearing, high-silica, flint-like rock. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, iron ore was of such high quality that taconite was considered an uneconomic waste product. After World War II, most of the high grade ore in the United States had been mined out, and so taconite was turned to as a new source of iron.

Read the plaque

Barnum, Minnesota

Westby, Wisconsin

Cicero, Illinois

20-feet tall
Two Harbors, Minnesota

26-feet tall
Paul Bunyan Land/This Old Farm
Brainerd, Minnesota

St. Paul, MN

At the Paul Bunyun and Babe the Blue Ox statues in Bemidji, Minnesota - Monday afternoon 25 September 2006.

Blue Whale, off of Route 66, near Catoosa, Oklahoma.

Osceola, Iowa

Big, giant sign for Terrible’s Casino in Osceola, Iowa, off of Interstate 35. According to Wikipedia (under the Osceola entry), this sign is 132 feet tall. Very difficult to miss this thing.

Park Rapids, MN

Key West, FL

Dillon, SC

South of the Border

Pioneer Town, TX

Las Vegas, NV

Las Vegas, NV

www.swingshiftsideshow.com

Denver, CO

Wax museum?

Fort Stockton, TX

Phoenix, AZ

Woodhull, MI

Alliance, Nebraska

Carhenge: www.carhenge.com

Alliance, Nebraska

False Klamath, CA

Potter County, TX

Wacko Store, Los Angeles, CA

Blue Earth, MN

Beware!

Wharton, TX

Wharton, TX

During Spring Break, my wife and I stayed a couple of nights at the Wharton Tee Pee Motel. This little piece of Americana is a locally famous roadside attraction. Since we were kids, my wife and I have both seen the Tee Pees as a deserted, old, vacant set of buildings. Recently, someone has refurbished them and reopened on October 30, 2006. In the guest book in our room, most of the entries were from people like us who were staying there because of the sentimental value they hold for local residents.

Springfield, Mass

Coney Island
www.pontanisisters.com/

Spam Museum, Austin, MN

Indianapolis Public School no. 9; named after Clemens Vonnegut, father of architect Bernard Vonnegut and great-grandfather of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Charles Manson attended grade school here.
Now home to ad agency Young & Laramore.

Santa Claus, Indiana

Barado, TX

Florida Future Farmer’s of America- she better get going!

Wisconsin

Blown-up tabloid cover used to promote a sideshow spectacle at the 1975 Ionia Free Fair in Ionia County, Michigan.

Virginia State Fair, 1988

Bob Melvin was born in Lancaster, Missouri in 1920 and died in 1995. He appeared in two movies, the documentary “Being Different” in 1980 and “The Sentinel” in 1977. Doctors examined Bob but were unable to find a diagnosis for his deformity; Bob said it was simply “God’s sense of humor.” Towards the end of his life, he was found to have neurofibromatosis, a disorder that causes the spontaneous growth of fibrous tumors. Manifestations of NF differ greatly from patient to patient; some simply have hyperpigmented or “cafe au lait” spots, while others are greatly deformed. Bob Melvin was a friendly, church-going man, beloved by all who knew him in his hometown of Lancaster. He was married and had a daughter and a granddaughter.

Photo Taken Ionia Free Fair, Ionia, MI 1973

New York, New York

Conjoined Chicks

1st anniversary celebration at the Palace of Wonders, Washington DC

1st anniversary celebration at the Palace of Wonders, Washington DC

New York, New York

Scott Baker shoving a screwdriver in his face (Coney Island USA’s Sideshows by the Seashore)

Philadelphia County, PA

Tommy Breen and Pete “Poobah” Terhurne drawing a tip at the Pennsylvania State Fair

Columbus, OH

Pooba the tiny fire eater was told to get his fire eating sticks ready and off he went.

Silver Spring, MD

Watch out for the Stinky Bandit the next time you’re in Baltimore!

Green Bay, WI

The Wacko Store- Los Angeles, CA

M.T. Liggett Place, US Hwy 400 on the west edge of Mullinville, Kansas.

McLean Texas- Barbed Wire Tribute

Canyon, Texas

The Shoe House, built in 1948, was by far “Colonel” Mahlon N. Haines’ most outlandish advertising gimmick. It is a wood frame structure covered with wire lath and coated with a cement stucco. It measures 48 ft. in length, 17 ft. in width at the widest part and 25 ft. in height. The interior consists of five different levels and contains three bedrooms, two baths, a kitchen and living room.

McLeods Corner, MI

Oswald’s Bear Ranch, Dollarville, MI

Shriners at the Curtis, MI 4th of July Parade

Devo Baby Spotted in South Carolina

International UFO Museum And Research Center (Day 82)

Originally uploaded by eurovancation

Little Park

Originally uploaded by mateofiero

Carroll Street, Cabbagetown, Atlanta, GA

Click Title To Read More.

(more…)

• Beauty in art is the making one of opposites, such as order and freedom, logic and passion, strength and grace.
• Everyone’s deepest desire is to like the world on an honest or accurate basis.
• The desire to have contempt—that is, to lessen the meaning of things in order to see one’s self as superior–causes unhappiness and even insanity.

Students of Aesthetic Realism say it encourages exactness, kindness, and creativity. They promoted it as a way for gays and lesbians to stop being homosexual (1971 to 1990), and still view it as the answer to poverty and racism. They use the Aesthetic Realism principles to analyze and teach a wide variety of topics, including classes in poetry, anthropology, art, music, and marriage. The philosophy is taught at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation in New York City.

Several critics allege that while many of Siegel’s ideas have merit, the group of Aesthetic Realism students is a cult, having common cult characteristics such as fanatical devotion to the founder/leader, belief that they have the one true answer to universal happiness if only people would listen, paranoid feeling of persecution, and extreme intolerance of criticism. [1] Aesthetic Realism proponents say that these critics are in fact attackers trying to smear a scientific and kind philosophy that is of benefit to humanity. [2]

Allegations by ex-members of Adidam that Adi Da and his followers engaged in financial, sexual and emotional abuses were widely reported in American news media in 1985, including The Today Show. Adidam rejects these allegations.^[6]. Eventually the claims were settled out of court.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Click below to read the full story.

(more…)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Charles Milles Manson (born November 12, 1934) was the leader of what came to be known as the Manson Family, a commune that is often termed a cult and that began to form around him in the U.S. city of San Francisco in 1967.

He was convicted of conspiracy to commit the Tate-LaBianca murders, which members of the group carried out at his instruction. Though there was no evidence Manson personally killed any of the victims, he was found guilty of the murders themselves, through the joint-responsibility rule of conspiracy.

(more…)