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Memoirs of a Sword Swallower | 
 enlarge | Author: Daniel P. Mannix
Publisher: Re/Search Publications
Category: Book
List Price: $15.99
Buy Used: $5.99
You Save: $10.00 (63%)
New (6) Used (19) Collectible (1) from $5.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 958478
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 128
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 10.8 x 8.2 x 0.4
ISBN: 0965046958
Dewey Decimal Number: 709
EAN: 9780965046954
ASIN: 0965046958
Publication Date: May 8, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Memoirs of a Sword Swallower is Daniel P. Mannix's autobiography as a sword-swallower with a traveling sideshow, illustrated with photos from the 30s and 40s taken by the author. An example of Classic Americana, this book offers a portrayal of a vanished world of working-class performance artists who earned a living by their unique bodies and imaginations. Stars include the Fat Lady, the human beanpole, the Ostrich man who ate broken glass, and many more. The "tricks" behind eating fire and swallowing swords are explicated with clarity and candor. This book will appeal to all who speculate about the outer limits of pain, pleasure, and revulsion. Mannix went on to become the supreme noir historian of the 20th century, penning Those About to Die (about the Roman games in the Colosseum), a biography of Aleister Crowley called The Beast, The Hellfire Club (about an upper-class British secret society), and many more. Mannix was sent a membership card from Anton LaVey's Church of Satan, although like Marcel Duchamp and Groucho Marx he was not a joiner, preferring to remain staunchly independent.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 A capital read!! May 17, 2008
(Published originally as _STEP RIGHT UP!_)Since my childhood, when Mother read passages to us, this book has captivated me. Its images of the real people of the carnival life, just trying to get along, trying to make a living, with many of the same motivations as you and me, are painted in their true colors. The embarrassment of the author, a genuine fire-eater, burping a tongue of flame at the pharmacy clerk selling him a bottle of olive oil; the cowboy walking out to check on the 'stock' (the family car); the "Impossible Possible," never far from the line between moral and immoral, legal and illegal, working on both sides. What a story of Depression people in a unique business!
Unique insight into a lost world May 24, 2005
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is beautifully written and has wonderful photographs. It first came to my attention when BBC radio serialised it on Radio 4. The characters, lifestyle and stories around this lost world of side shows and 'ten in ones' are brought to life by the authors pen. He lived as part of a working troupe and treats his subjects with affection and respect.The reader comes away with a sense of loss, that this world, so often considered murky, or unseemly, has all but gone. There are lessons to be learned on relationships, business and psychology within these pages. The opening sentence is one of the best I have ever read. It got me hooked and as a result of reading this book I actually pursued learning some of the skills mentioned. Thanks to the amazing Side Show school in Coney Island and the remarkable Todd Robbins, I was able to touch the world Daniel Mannix lived.
I reccomend this book unreservedly, it should be required reading for anyone interested in America's recent history and anyone interested in concise, colorful writing.
The business there's no business like March 12, 2005
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Memoirs of a Sword Swallower (original hardcover title: Roll Up, Roll Up), like William Gresham's Nightmare Alley, presents a sympathetic insider's perspective of the freaks and geeks of the side show carnival industry. Where the two books separate is that Gresham allowed his protagonist to be corrupted by the unreality of his make-believe environment, and Mannix did not. Other than that, the books are equally entertaining and equally frightening. Perhaps my years of plodding the touring show circuit has biased me in favor of books that evoke memories of the business there's no business like. But I have no hesitation in recommending this classic (and Gresham's) of a vanishing industry to anyone interested in the ins and outs of pre-television show business, or simply in entertaining reading, or to anyone who enjoyed The Great Zubrick.
Mannix's readers get the point! June 3, 2001
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Mannix, who came to carnival life via the U.S. Naval Academy ("I didn't want to be a naval officer; I wanted to be a witch doctor!") and the Ivy League, brings his sideshow cohorts to life with this lively, witty, and sharp (sorry!) account that exudes a warmth as only a book written by an insider can. Mannix has always wanted to be a magician, and "runs away to the carnival" as an adult, first learning fire-eating when stepping in for fire-eater Flamo the Great who "exploded that night in front of Krinko's Great Combined Carnival Side Shows." He goes on to learn sword swallowing, sharing some of his insider's techniques (don't let the sharp tip touch the pit of your stomach; make sure the hilt doesn't come off and let the blade slide down your gullet.) If you are interested in the body on display, go ahead and read all the excellent academic pomo books about freaks and the "body as discourse," but be sure to read this one, too. It's an absolute gem. You will enjoy it to the hilt!
 It's a good read. March 13, 2001
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Memoirs of a Sword Swallower is something of an underground classic, providing an introduction to the U.S travelling carnival scene during the '40s and '50s. Interested readers might also want to track down "Bed of Nails" by Michael Blondini and Gordon Thomas, which was published in London a few years after "Memoirs" and seems to be heavily cribbed from it.
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