Prince Randian

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Prince Randian

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Prince Randian (b. 1871–d. December 19, 1934), also billed as "The Living Torso", was a successful side show performer in the 1930s. He starred alongside several other such performers in the 1932 movie Freaks, where he was mistakenly credited as "Rardion". Born without limbs, he was introduced as the "the human caterpillar who crawls on his belly like a reptile".

[edit] Biography

Prince Randian, whose real name has been lost to history, was born in Demarara, British Guyana, in 1871, the child of British Indian servants. Little is known about his early life or how he was discovered, but it seems his incredible adaptability did not go unnoticed. He was brought from British Guyana to the U.S. by P.T. Barnum in 1889. Randian appeared in freak shows, where he demonstrated the ease and facility with which he could shave, write, paint, and roll cigarettes - all without arms or legs. He was even fairly efficient at moving from place to place, wriggling his hips and shoulders in a snakelike motion. Randian is also said to have been a skilled carpenter. The box in which he kept his smoking materials was built by Randian himself, using his mouth and shoulders to manipulate his tools; he often joked that he would someday build his own house.

In a memorable scene from the movie Freaks, Randian is seen lighting a pre-rolled cigarette using only his lips, tongue and teeth. With the cigarette already in the right corner of his mouth, he leans over and grasps a matchbox between his lips on the other side. Showcasing the great dexterity that was a necessity for his life, he then sets the box down, opens it with his lips and tongue, and selects a match from the box with his lips. Another quick movement flips the box onto its side to expose the striking strip, and he maneuvers the match lengthwise in his mouth to strike it against the box. He then uses his chin to push the box flat again. Finally, he sets the burning match on the top of the matchbox, shifts the cigarette to the center of his mouth and touches its tip to the flame, taking a deep draw and then blowing out the match.

Randian was a clever and quick-witted man who could speak English, German and French in addition to Hindi, his native language. However, in the film Freaks, he speaks his only line of dialogue in an accent rendering the words nearly incomprehensible. (After demonstrating his ability to light a match and a cigarette using only his lips, Randian asks a physically normal man, in English: "Can you do anything with your eyebrows?")

Randian married early in life a Hindu woman known only as Princess Sarah, who remained devoted to him throughout his long show career. The couple had four children together and the family eventually settled in Paterson, New Jersey.

Randian died at the age of sixty-three on December 19, 1934, having toured carnivals and museums in America for forty-five years.

People who worked with Randian recalled that he was fond of perpetrating a certain practical joke. He would conceal himself in a box or some other receptacle too small to hold a normal person. He would wait patiently until some victim came along, then wait a few more minutes until that person was confident that he or she was completely alone. Then, Randian would suddenly scream.