ARGENTINA: Corpse Blackamon

A favorite for long with Argentine circusgoers was "Blackamon, the Living Corpse." A swarthy, stocky Italian, Corpse Blackamon favored satin turbans and gaudy oriental robes, fascinated the steeply banked audiences in Buenos Aires' permanent single-ring circus by sticking pins through his cheeks and arms. Invariably he climaxed his performance by shuddering, screaming, and going into a trance. Uniformed attendants lifted the rigid Blackamon into a specially prepared glass-faced coffin, buried him eight feet deep in the sandy floor of the circus ring. For three hours he would remain there while...

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