|
|
Prince Randion was born in India around 1871. When young his family moved to the Berbice/Demarara region of British Guiana, South America. Armless and legless since birth, Mr. Randion stood 3' tall in his adult years. By faith he was a Hindu and by race he was a self-described African Black / East Indian. Purportedly brought over to the States by P.T. Barnum, Randion actually first came to the U.S. in 1894, some 3 years after the Showman's death. By 1906, when this photo was taken, he was married and the father of at least two daughters - Elizabeth and Wilhelmina and a son, Richard. Mr. Randion travelled back and forth between the U.S. and the West Indies until finally deciding to make a home in New Jersey in 1916, first in Plainfield and then (permanently) to Paterson. His wife and two daughters, who had been living in the Virgin Islands, came to join him in the Spring of 1919.. On stage, using his chin, shoulders, lips tongue and teeth, Randion would demonstrate to the audience how he could shave himself, play marbles, cut paper patterns, fill and smoke a pipe, play the flute, cut hair, sharpen knives and razors, roll cigarettes, thread needles and make kites. Though he was in show business his entire life, Randion was an educated, well-read man and part-time artist. |
|
