Barnell, Jane

Jane Barnell ( Eng. Jane Barnell ; January 3, 1871 , Wilmington , North Carolina - unknown) - American actress of street circuses and carnivals, "a bearded woman", performing under the stage name "Lady Olga."

According to later sources — notably Joseph Mitchell's “Lady Olga” in Up In The Old Hotel — Barnell's mother sold her to a circus called Great Orient Family Circus , which was later combined with a larger circus. With this circus, she went on tour to Germany. She fell ill in Berlin and was left in an orphanage, where she was later discovered and recognized by her father.

While working on her grandmother's farm, she met a circus strongman who invited her to join John Robinson's circus. She changed several stage names, until she finally settled on the name "Lady Olga Roderick." By this time, her beard was 13 inches long.

Lady Olga toured throughout her life with a number of circuses, including the Ringling Bros circus, and later participated in exhibitions at the Hilbert Museum in Times Square, New York. She also starred in several films, the most famous of which was Todd Browning's film " Freaks " (1932) which, according to a documentary film about this picture, released on DVD ( Freaks: The Sideshow Cinema , 2004), left her unhappy with the image of street circus artists in the film as a whole.

Barnell was married four times. Her last husband was Thomas O'Boyle, who also worked as her manager, a former circus clown and a street barker in the Hilbert Museum.