Gothic Tale

Stanley Berent was born with his armless hands growing directly out of his shoulders, and he is known, in the cruel world of the carnival, as "Sealo the Sealboy." Norbert P. Terhune is a dwarf, 3 ft. 6 in. tall, billed as "Poo-Bah the Pygmy." Both of them worked for World Fair Freaks and Attractions, a sideshow that toured various Southern county fairs. In the summer of 1969 World Fair was preparing to open in North Bay Village, near Miami, when the local police threatened to prosecute under a 1921 state law against freak shows, which calls for up to a $1,000 fine or a year in jail.

Freak shows have been in a long decline--there are only five such shows of any size left--but a number of states still have laws designed to protect citizens from displays of deformity and to protect the deformed themselves from exploitation. Berent and Terhune were not grateful. Along with World Fair, they went to the Florida Supreme Court to argue that the state was interfering with their right to make a living; neither, despite their normal intelligence, had been able to find any other job. By a 6-to-1 vote, the court found: "It may be that certain malformations, perhaps those relating to private areas of the body or some which may be repulsive or vulgar in nature, would so affect the morals and general welfare as to lend themselves to a prohibition." But this was not so, said the court, in the case of a dwarf and a "sealboy." Declaring the law unconstitutionally broad and imprecise, Justice Hal Dekle ruled that "one who is handicapped must be allowed a reasonable chance within his capacities to earn a livelihood." For Terhune, 46, who was appearing last week in Beaumont, Texas, this meant he could work again without harassment in Florida. But Berent, the seal-boy, retired last year at the age of 70.

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