Gibsonton Appliance Repair

In Hillsborough County, just ten miles south of Tampa, sits Gibsonton, once known as the strangest town in America. Called Gibtown by its nearly 8000 residents, it has always been the retirement or wintering home of various people in the carnival and circus business would spend the off-season back in the depression days. This was in the days of the big ten-in-one sideshows that featured live human oddities like the Bearded Lady, Lobster Boy, Inferno the Fire Eater, and the Mule Faced Woman. Today, sideshows are rarely found on carnival midways which are now dominated mainly by amusement rides, game and food booths.

In its glory days, Gibtown had the only Post Office in the country with a special low counter for midgets. The local fruit stand was operated by the famed Hilton Siamese twins and down at the Showman’s Lounge the late Melvin Burkhart livened up the bar crowd by hammering six inch spikes up his nose. Gibtown was the only place in the country with special zoning laws that allowed residents to keep anything from elephants and monkeys to a dismantled Ferris wheel on their property.

The library at the University of South Florida (USF) has digitized many of the photos at the International Independent Showmen’s Museum. These photographs are a part of Special Collections at USF. The homepage of the collection describes the photographs as portraying the life and times of the American carnival from the late 1800s to today. The collection features many photographs that relate to means of transportation as relevant to the carnival, such as semi-trailers and trains.