Miss Hiss, the Snake Dancer (1924-1982) Miss Hiss (born Laila La Beaux) was the granddaughter of the famed sideshow vixen Piranha-Hanna. Like all female descendents of Hanna, she was born and raised in the carnival environment. Unlike the other female descendents however, Lola was not born with the sharp teeth of a wild animal. Instead, she was born with an arrow-tipped tail like her grandfather, the late great Senor Diablo. Normally, any inborn mutation was smiled upon in the sideshow world, but Laila's tail was neither large nor dramatic like her grandfather's. Although it was depicted as impressively large in promotional paintings, in truth it was only 4 inches long and only mildly distracting. Thus, to earn her keep and to honour her famous grandfather's love for the leg-less, she began turning as the snake dancer, Miss Hiss, soon after reaching puberty. The world was at war during this time in history, and the sideshow offered towns and villages a welcome distraction. Miss Hiss was a popular attraction, not just for her skills with the snakes, but also her cheesecake outfits and flirtatious manner. She possessed true pin-up beauty and was featured several times posing in provocative photos in the underground magazine Side Show Kittens during the 40's and 50's. In 1955, Lola married Hex, the 12 Fingered Man, and had a 12 fingered daughter, Devereux, one year later. When she passed away in 1982, her daughter had her tail removed and mounted. Her journals were donated to the Carnival and Circus Museum in Rhode Island. They remain one of the most descriptive accounts of carnival life pre World War II. Media: Miss Hiss' tail is made from 1 wrist bone and 5 phalanges, acrylic on wood |
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