She’s absolutely stunning and I love her choice in fashion, she looks like she could be a movie star in the first picture! 

I originally found out about her from a postcard (the second picture I used in this write up) on eBay. I thought her pose and her expression were so striking that I wanted to do more research on her. 

Some facts about her:

\-she was either born in Brooklyn, New York or in Ireland.

\-I haven’t been able to find information about her childhood.

\-she was Catholic.

\-she spent several seasons working at the Coney Island Sideshow (which was very close to where she grew up)

\-she was sought after romantically in 1922 by a fellow sideshow performer known only by “Transparent” William, who was extremely thin and worked as a ‘living skeleton’, apparently William had said that Lillian had the most beautiful blond hair he had ever seen. Though, she quickly rejected his advances and he left that particular sideshow.

\-she traveled all across the United States with Wortham Shows.

\-she was a skilled mandolin player.

\-during the circus/sideshow off season she lived on 18th street in Brooklyn, New York.

\-some of her coworkers included Martha Morris, (who starred in the Tod Browning film, Freaks (1932) and was born without arms.) and Francesco Lentini (who had a long career in sideshows, was known to be extremely charming, and would kick soccer balls with his extra leg. He was born with a parasitic twin that gave him an extra fully formed leg.)

\-she experienced vision issues due to her albinism.

\-she may have left the sideshow business after the 1928 season or she may have changed her stage name.

\-I haven’t been able to find information about her later life either. 

I’ll be posting another longer write up today, since Lillian’s is a rather short one. I wish I knew more about Lillian’s life, I hope she went on to have many long and happy years ahead of her. 

I think it’s nice that she took up an instrument like the mandolin, it would be lovely to hear her play. I’m also glad that her musical skills added something extra to her acts so she could be known for her musicality in addition to her appearance.

Lillian Maloney (1900s-?) was an Irish-American sideshow performer and musician who was born with a form of albinism. She was a skilled mandolin player and worked at the Coney Island Sideshow for several seasons in the early to mid 1920s.