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Josephine Joseph

Josephine Joseph (born 1913) was an Austrian-born actress whose body was supposedly split down the middle, one side female and the other male. She claimed to be a true hermaphrodite, but there is no evidence to confirm whether this was the case or not; she may have just been a very skilled male/female impersonator.Recently discovered newspaper articles from The Lancashire Daily Post and The Yorkshire Post show that Josephine Joseph and her husband George Waas, an American couple, were summoned before Blackpool Magistrates in the UK on August 22nd, 1930. They were charged with false pretences and conspiracy on account of their "Half Woman-Half Man" show in that town. George Waas complained about only having one day to prepare their defence and offered to submit X-rays of Josephine to the magistrates, if they were allowed an adjournment. The request was rejected. George refused to submit Josephine to a court doctor's examination to check for hermaphroditism. The Superintendent in charge of the case admitted that the two sides of Josephine's body looked different although he had "no idea what the medical testimony may be".The court descriptions of Josephine's appearance match her costume as seen in Freaks. She was said to be a man on the right side, and a woman on the left, with her right arm longer than her left. Her eyebrows were different on either side. Her stage costume is described as a bare right leg with a sandal, and a black-stockinged left leg with a woman’s shoe. Her hair was brushed from the right side to the left, giving the impression of short hair on the right hand side.In order to avoid a jury trial, George and Josephine changed their pleas to guilty. George said “I want to plead guilty and get it over with. You are not going to crucify me entirely, are you? We both plead guilty.” Asked if he anything to say to the magistrates, Waas replied, “I am sorry. I will give up this show and leave the country.” George was fined £25, but Josephine was discharged.Like most sideshow "hermaphrodites" this would have been portrayed with the "half and half" trick; woman on the left and man on the right. One side of the body would be exercised, have hair trimmed, and tanned in the sun; the other side would be covered and unexercised, making it pale and flabby, so the chest resembled a woman's breast while the hair was grown out. The performer would then wear a split costume; a low cut, tight top and hotpants on the "female" side and on the "male" side a Tarzan style loin cloth.Josephine is most prominently remembered, however, for a role in the Tod Browning classic Freaks, 1932 at the age of 19. Although she only had two lines, she still appeared in a number of scenes, most notably the scene at the wedding reception where she begins the chant "We accept her, one of us! We accept her, one of us!" In another notable scene, "Josephine" gives an alluring look towards the strongman to which another performer responds "I think she likes you, but he don't!"