MASTER regurgitator

That's right, folks, Hadji Ali was more than just an amateur regurgitator: he was a consummate pro. The video above is from a 1927 Spanish-language Laurel and Hardy movie, Politiquerias; it highlights Ali's most famous vaudeville act, which was described in an ode to the dedication of vaudeville performers that was a part of Karen Abbott's Gypsy Rose Lee biography American Rose:

Consider how many times Chaz Chase, the ‘Eater of Strange Things,’ consumed lit matches in order to make the trick appear effortless, or the practice schedule of Hadji Ali, the master regurgitator, famous for swallowing a gallon of water followed by a pint of kerosene. After his assistant set up a small metal castle a few feet away, Hadji Ali spat kerosene in a six-foot stream and set the structure ablaze. He then opened his throat and, with the aim and velocity of a fire hose, purged the water and killed every flame.

I was seriously sad to come to the end of this book. If you like Gypsy, or even just strange people doing strange things, pick it up. Structural and stylistic deficiencies aside, it is fascinating, and there are plenty of little gems that will make your eyes bug out in disbelief. (Including an inference from Morton Minsky about Gypsy and her monkey Woolly Face that is, in the words of a friend, "seriously lurid.")

Gypsy!

Guiltily loving every minute of Karen Abbott's American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare, the Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee, hearsay or not, disconcerting shifts in time and voice or not. An amazing anecdote from early in the book (guess grit runs in the family!):

[Gypsy's] great-great-grandmother emigrated from Norway and set out for the West Coast in a covered wagon. She made it as far as the Sierra Nevada mountains when her party was stranded by a blizzard. Most of the party died, frozen or starved or devoured by wolves. Rescue workers whisked Grandma to the nearest settlement and undressed her, discovering what appeared to be horsemeat strapped around her body, hidden from the other survivors. She alone appeared plump and healthy. On closer inspection, the rescue team discovered that it wasn't horsemeat after all but rather the flesh of her less fortunate companions.