ZANDU

THE

QUARTER BOY

"Mom and Dad were perfectly normal people, and naturally it was quite a shock to them when I was born this way.  There were ten kids of us in the family but I was the only freak."    So began Johnny Gilmore in a 1958 interview.      Johnny was born in Marshalltown , Iowa in 1913 with the entire lower part of his body missing.

Johnny attended shool like all kids, getting around in a wheel chair, and even graduated from junior college. He started in the business when in his 20's.   "The circus is the only place in the world where a freak can be a real human being and have the companionship of people like himself (and be) just another guy on the payroll."

As can be seen above, Johnny had a life-long love for music that began in his high school days as a member of the school  band. "He is still an accomplished musician and has never neglected his music in his travels all over the globe as a freak", a reporter noted.

Johnny as "Zandu" must have been quite successful in order to merit having a banner made just for him.  He was sometimes billed as from Morocco.  Since most of the carnival patrons didn't know the difference he was pictured as from "Turkey".