Billy was working at Stuart's Wax Works in Edinburgh during the off season. Now, it was well known that when business was good and as long as the crowds were under control Billy never cared how many shows he did. It was a Saturday and the crowds were enormous. The Scotchmen found Billy's act much to their liking and the Dutchman's photos, which formed a considerable part of his income,  were selling like crazy.  Show after show, huge pieces of Scotch granite, some weighing upward of 200lbs,  were placed on his head and smashed. Over and over again, show after show,  Billy continued on. Ten shows were done, 20, 30, 40 shows into the afternoon and early evening Billy perservered until finally he had enough and called it a day - 55 shows later!     Billy worked his act for the last time in Huber's Museum, New York.  When it closed in 1910 Billy decided to retire and became the superintendent of a moving picture house on fourteenth street.    Of Billy's personal life very little is known. It is believed his family came to the U.S. and settled in Chicago and that he was married to a long-haired lady who was also in the  sideshow business.    Regrettably, I can not say for certain when Mr. Wells  died but  it is a testament to his memory that never before or since has anyone ever been able or willing to duplicate his act.

Detail, B&B 1903 season. That's Billy next to Hugo, under his outstretched arm. Also note Louise, the Leopard girl, Eli Bowen - the man with feet but no legs and Mlle. Clifford, sword swallower, far right.

Others tried the act but none were as successful at it as "Mexican Billy"

"Opull" did this and other acts

Erich Weiss as "Harry Houdini".  Houdini knew Billy Wells and mentions him in his book "Miracle Mongers and Their Methods".  "He had been a good showman", he wrote of Billy "and his was one of the best liked working acts." In 1894, the two of them worked the same stand at a Trenton museum where Harry and his wife, as "the Houdinis" were doing Metamorphosis.

Known as Lubin

Unid: photo taken in the U.S.