Weird and wonderful world of waxworks, the Human Spider and the Man They Couldn’t Hang

THE days of waxworks and strongmen gave Du ndee a gl i mpse into the world of the macabre.

Monarchs stood shoulderto-shoulder with murderers in the waxwork show where admission was a penny at the Overgate.

Another attraction was gentlemen who dined publicly on broken glass and candles which were washed down with draughts of paraffin.

Strongmen, ventriloquists, conjurers, palmists, the Human Spider, a pig-faced lady and the laughing mirrors also brought the flair and showmanship of the fairground to Dundee.

There was also the Flying Lady who was wafted off the stage after being hypnotised and floated around in mid-air without visible means of support.

The waxworks and morbid curiosities were a never-failing source of delight to the young generation i ncluding John Miln, whose stories of his school days in the early 1900s were rediscovered by his son Kenneth.

He said the stories took him back in time to his father’s “vibrant early life in Dundee”.

His late father had some of his stories published in newspapers in Dundee and India where he worked in the jute trade.

In one story he told how the Overgate waxwork show was more or less permanent but each week a new attraction was advertised on the bills in the windows flanking the entrances.

“The situation of this exhibition was in one of the narrowest and noisiest parts of the street, a few doors east of Birrell’s shoe shop,” he wrote.

“Though the effigies included famous and worthy people, the infamous predominated.

“On entering we were greeted by John Lee, the Babbicombe murderer.

“He was the first in a row which included Neil Cream, Doctor Pritchard, William Burke and Hawley Harvey Crippen.

“Others present were Madeleine Smith, Mrs Maybrick and the principal character in a celebrated Angus murder, the Wife O’ Denside.

“There was a peculiar family resemblance about them, doubtless due to the fixed and glassy stares with which they regarded the audience.”

He wrote that on the first floor there was a tableau representing the murder of King James I at Perth in 1437 whose body was found in a stinking sewer below the monastery.

“On the landing of the stairs leading to the second floor were penny-in-the-slot peepshow machines, depicting execution methods in Britain, France and China,” he said.

“On the second floor was a dais or stage on which the ‘star turn’ appeared.

“Here I have watched the most life-like and entrancing marionette shows I have ever seen.

“Another attraction was the Human Spider.

“This consisted of a lady’s head which materialised in the centre of a mock spider’s body.

“The lady winked and told us the strange story of her life – but I knew the head was made to appear there by a trick involving light and reflections on a slanted piece of glass.

“So I was a disappointed spectator.”

An unusual performer was a glass blower and weaver who made beautiful galleons, ornaments and animals out of coloured glass.

Outstanding among the “amazing attractions” was the Man They Couldn’t Hang.

Mr Miln recalled: “As a warming-up exercise he wrapped a clothes line round his upper body and held it tight.

“Then he expanded his chest and the rope snapped.

“For the highlight of his performance he twisted another rope round his neck and persuaded five men to hold each end and pull.

“He urged them to do so slowly and steadily while he held a gully-knife ready in one hand to cut the rope ‘in case of accidents’.

“But again the rope broke and he was unscathed.”

He wrote that he saw him many times including once at Greenmarket.

One performer he saw there threw a cannonball high up in the air and caught it i n a leather bucket which was strapped to his forehead.