Carrie Akers, a.k.a “The Wart Hog”

Carrie Akers, the dwarf fat lady was three feet tall and weighed 300 lbs — and she was mad about it. So much so that she left P.T. Barnum after working for him only a couple of years in the late 1880s. None of her co-workers, including Barnum, could stand to work with her. It is for this reason, and not for her size or looks, that posterity remembers her as “The Wart Hog.”

For more on performing little people please check out Rose’s Royal Midgets and Other Little People in Vaudeville.