Fedor Jeftichew (Russian: Фёдор Евтищев, Fyodor Yevtishchev, 1868 - January 31, 1904), better known as Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Boy (later Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Man), was a famous sideshow performer associated with P.T. Barnum.
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Biography
Born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1868, Fedor Jeftichew suffered from the medical condition hypertrichosis. He toured with his father, Adrian, who suffered from the same ailment and had performed in French circuses. He continued to tour with his son before his death. Fedor eventually signed a contract with P.T. Barnum, who brought him to the United States in 1884, when he was sixteen.
Barnum created a story that involved a hunter in Kostroma who tracked Fedor and his father to their cave and captured them. Barnum described Adrian as a savage who could not be civilized. Barnum made a point of stressing Fedor's resemblance to a dog, and explained that when he was upset he would bark and growl. In the show, Fedor obliged by doing so.
Fedor spoke Russian, German, and English, and toured Europe and the United States extensively.
He died in Salonica, Ottoman Empire (now part of Greece), from pneumonia on January 31, 1904.
In popular culture
Annette Funicello dedicated a song to him called "Jojo the dogfaced boy."
The jam band Phish has a song called Dog-Faced Boy
Science Fiction writer Robert Heinlein references Jojo in "Have Spacesuit, Will Travel.
External links
References
- Hornberger, Francine. 2005. "Fedor Jeftichew". In Carny folk: the world's weirdest side show acts, pp. 144–145. New York: Citadel.
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