Known by his stage name "The Owlman," Martin Joe Laurello shocked 20th-century audiences with his ability to turn his head almost completely from front to back.
In the 1920s and 1930s, traveling circuses and "freak" shows became a phenomenon across America. People with unusual looks or talents were brought on stage for audiences to admire.
Joe Laurello started out on such shows. But unlike most of his colleagues, Laurello at first glance looks completely normal, without any "mutant" features. In fact, his special abilities are not innate but the result of years of training.
Martin Joe Laurello in a head-spinning demonstration. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Born in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1885 as Martin Emmerling, Joe Laurello changed his name after coming to America in 1921, joining the flood of Europeans seeking wealth, fame, or a better life in America.
Realizing that people with special abilities are loved in society and can make a lot of money, he spent three years practicing turning his head more than 120 degrees, satisfied with every additional centimeter he achieved.
Laurello first performed at the Dreamland circus show at Coney Island amusement park in New York. Laurello used the stage name "Owlman", named after the animal that can rotate its head 270 degrees.
What fascinated many audiences was that Laurello could drink beer while spinning his head. However, he could not smoke or breathe. Advertising flyers described Laurello as the man with the "spinning head." He performed regularly with famous circuses such as Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, touring cities across the United States.
Laurello was advertised as "the only man in the world who can walk straight ahead and look straight back".
Laurello's head spinning performance. Video : YouTube/nominusyes
While Laurello rose to stardom, his personal life was in decline. He married his first wife, Laura Precht, and had a son, Alexander, but the couple divorced after a few years.
He remarried to Emilie Wittl and had two children, but later estranged them. Wittl filed a police complaint and Laurello was arrested by Baltimore police for desertion on April 30, 1931, while performing.
"Laurello stood on the podium with his back to the crowd but his face looking straight at the audience," the press reported at the time. "He winked at the audience and at the two officers. They winked back and arrested him."
Laurello remained a constant attraction for many years. Times Square and the 1939-1940 World's Fair in New York both displayed a rotating model of his head.
The biggest controversy of Laurello's life was his alleged Nazi sympathies. "He was a fascist," said Percilla Bejano, a former colleague of Laurello's. "He didn't even like the American flag."
Not much is known about Laurello's final years. His last recorded performance was in 1952, three years before he died of a heart attack.
Some say he had to “dislocate some vertebrae” to turn his head. Others say he was born with a “twisted” spine. No X-rays have been released, so these theories remain unproven. Laurello has claimed that anyone can do what he does with enough practice.
Vu Hoang (According to ATI )
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