OUR BENEFACTORS
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CONGRESS OF THE ODD
BILL DURKS – The Man with Three Eyes
Bill Durks understandably had a tough childhood. He was born in Jasper, Alabama on April 13, 1913 with a condition known today as frontonasal dysplasia. During gestation, the two halves of Bill’s face failed to come together completely and uniformly and as a result he was born with deep cleft lip, open palate and a split nose. According to some accounts, Bill was also born with both of his eyes sealed shut with hoods of skin and he had to have them opened surgically as a small child.
Due to his appearance, Bill was denied an education. The schools children would not accept him and his family was simply too poor to afford private schooling. Furthermore, by all accounts, the Durks family was ashamed of their son and didn’t want him attending school anyway. As a result, Bill was a socially awkward and introverted man. To make things even more difficult for poor Bill, his clef lip made him difficult to understand.
One day, in his early teens, Bill attended a local fair as a spectator. The showmen running the sideshow instantly invited him to go on tour and Bill left behind his bleak life for a chance at fortune and soon became the ‘Man with Three Eyes’.
In an added bit of showmanship, during exhibits Bill would paint a third eye into the divot between his noses. Likely the fakery was not noticed for the duration of his career because few could stare Bill directly in his face. In a bit of irony, Bill, the man billed as having three eyes, was in reality the man with one eye as he was blind in his right eye.
Bill was quite a successful Marvel and worked with numerous show including Kelly-Sutton Shows, Gooding’s Million Dollar Midway, Hall & Christ Shows, James E. Strates Shows and Hubert’s Museum making a good living. He was often taken advantage of and exploited due to his meek nature. Bill was also illiterate, which meant he could not read the contracts he signed.
Over time, Bill eventually became quite well liked by his fellow Marvels. Many of them began to look out for his interests. Most notable is the close friendship Bill developed with Melvin ‘The
Anatomical Wonder’ Burkhart. Burkhart took Bill under his wing and taught him how to interact with crowds, how to interact with people, gave him confidence and even taught Bill how to read. Bill began to love the sideshow and the crowds. He cherished the idea that while once he was shunned by society, now people were pay for the right to see him. Bill quickly soon became the star of the show and spent the remainer of his career with the Slim Kelly and Whitney Sutton shows. Bill was always grateful for the friendship he found in his fellow performers and his mentor Burkhart.
Burkhart eventually introduced Bill to Mildred the alligator-skinned woman. Mildred was born in 1901 and was a bit older than Bill but friendship quickly turned to love and, despite appearances, the two married. They spent several happy years together as the World’s Strangest Married Couple until Mildred passed in June of 1968. Bill was completely heartbroken and soon retired to Gibsonton, Florida where he joined his beloved wife on May 7, 1975.
Bill Durks was a man who began his life hidden from the world by parents who were ashamed of him. He turned to the sideshow and found the love and friendship he lacked his entire life. It was love and friendship he deserved as a Human Marvel and a testament to the perseverance of man.
To learn more about this and other Human Marvels purchase Very Special People.
© 2006 – 2008, J Tithonus Pednaud. All rights reserved.
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RECOMMENDED READING
American Sideshow: An Encyclopedia
Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit
Sideshow U.S.A.: Freaks and the American Cultural Imagination
Freaks, Geeks, and Strange Girls
Pickled Punks & Girlie Shows: A Life Spent on the Midways of America
The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton: A True Story of Conjoined Twins
The Circus Age: Culture and Society under the American Big Top
Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary Body
James Taylor's Shocked and Amazed: On & Off the Midway
THE AUTHOR
J Tithonus Pednaud has dedicated this site to highlighting the remarkable lives of those born exceedingly different. These so-called freaks and human oddities stand as uplifting testaments to human spirit and serve as inspiring examples of human tenacity.
15 Responses to “BILL DURKS – The Man with Three Eyes”
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truly, this story moved me, a lot. and by god i’m not being funny,… when i read it i’d already read the one of bill the anatomical background… cute story though… my favorite by far
This is a depressing story what kind of parents would be ashamed of their child, that’s crule it wasn’t his fault that he was like that his parents should have loved him just the way he was =/. It’s good for him that he found happiness in the end though =)
Well society’s view on human abnormalities back then were often associated with the parents having done something wrong during the term of the pregnancy, plus living in a small southern town where many people probably never saw anything like this, a lot of kids in this era and even up until the 50′s and so who had physical or mental defects were sent away to institutions that was norm in society
I feel that this man lived a very good life.
He stuck with things and didn’t give in because of what people thought.
He’s strong.
And he moved me.
Every body in this position and should stay positive and try their best to make the best of what God gave them…. It could be worse.
That is quite upsetting how his own parents were ashamed of him just for having something that isn’t his fault. Actually, it’s quite sickening.
I met Bill Durks at a side-show when I was a kid. At first I was frightened of him, but after the show I waited in line to meet him and get an autographed picture, and he was such a nice guy. This was probably the first time I realized that people who look different because of a birth defect or disability are not “monsters”. Hey, kids think that way, you know? So talking with Bill was a bit of a life-altering experience for me.
I wonder what his personality was like. I’ve always been interested in oddities, they are so incredible! I’m envious of those who met him, I would have loved to. A smile can lift people’s spirits beyong imagination, and I’m sure having a friend was all Bill really wanted.
I had the honor of meeting and talking to Bill Durks back in about 1972/73 when I was a kid. It was in Crete, Il at what was called The Great Balmoral Fair, which was a huge fair that set up for several days on the lot of an old race track (which still exists). The GBF was the most impressive fair, with the most impressive attractions, I had ever been to. As I remember, there were 2-3 human “freak shows”, and 2-3 animal “freak shows, and absolutely huge and extravagant rides (that cost 75c-$1.00 each, alot at the time). At the time, Bill was traveling with Ward Hall, which I found out much later. I was with my family and friends and we were attracted over to the Worlds of Wonder show (I think that is what it was called) by the stage “talker”. I was called up to the stage by the talker (I was not a shy kid), and I still have a photo of me on stage with him. It was some time later I found out that talker was indeed Ward Hall himself. Standing behind us were probably ten “special people”, including two dwarves, “turtle boy”, a lady sword swallower, an alligator skinned lady (covered in a black cape, sunglasses, and blonde wig), and a hulking man with a black hood over his head, billed as “the two faced man”. He was indeed Bill Durks. After 5 or 10 minutes of friendly stage patter with Hall (‘So, are you married, son? How many children do you have?’- remember it like it was yesterday), I was invited ‘behind the curtain’ to see the show for free! A little backstory-I had a favorite uncle who was extremely handicapped from birth, so I was not at all shy around these special people. Like my Uncle, they fascinated me. As it turned out, they were all very nice to talk to privately. Mr. Durks was extremely soft spoken. His personality, dress, and demeanor struck me as that of a shy, friendly “farmer” type of a guy, alot like my maternal grandfather actually. I remembered him through the years as a man with a cleft face, not sure if that is an accurate medical description. His third or middle eye was obviously fake. To me, it looked like a tattoo, but perhaps it was drawn on (though poorly). It was sometime in the 1990s I found out his name, as well as Hall’s, and there importance in sideshow history. I had no idea he died only a couple of years after I met him. But it was this experience that gave me a lifelong love of the sideshow, and the special people within.
Really fantastic!its shows if v accept pain, surly fruitful life ll be there after tat.
everything happens for a reason…he was a unique man..we are all about the same..
I was in my teens in the 60s when I first went to the James E. Strates Shows, which came around every year in Delaware. Part of the Shows was the freak show. And part of that freak show was William Durks. Yes, he was billed as “William Durks”, not Bill Durks. The freak show was in a small tent/arena. The host would introduce him and then bill was step from behind a canvas flap wearing a hood. He took the microphone and, with hood still on, introduced himself: “My name is William Durks. I was born with three eyes and two noses”. He gave some more information about himself and then he would remove his hood and expose his facial deformity. He went on to describe that he was born with three eyes but that one was surgically removed. He said the one drawn in is where the original one was. I mention this because I have read that some people describe the third eye as an obvious fake, as indeed it was, suggesting that Bill was trying to dupe people. But, clearly, he was not trying to “fake it” but merely painting in the third eye for effect. Of course, I do not know the accuracy of his statement about having the third eye at birth and having it removed. Maybe he conjured that story entirely. Anybody know for sure?
oh… my allha save us .
creator can makes anything he want.
this saturday, april 13, 2013 will be bill’s 100th birthday! can you ad some more information about him?
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BILL!