Bonham that she has cirrhosis, despite years of sobriety. As Jimmy wails, Ethel and the others crowd around him in comfort.Įthel finds out from Dr. Moments later, a truck dumps Meep's corpse at the foot of the freak show.
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Jimmy intends to confess to free Meep, which confused Ethel. Ethel says that Dell is bad news and tells him to stay away from him. Ethel assumes the police roughed Jimmy up. Ethel later awakens a drunk Jimmy who is distraught at what happened to Meep and blaming himself. She tells him that he is not welcome there, but Dell claims that Elsa deputized him as her new second in command.Įthel was present when the police search the camp for a dead officer and found the dead officer's badge under Meep's bed, and she watches as the officer put Meep in his car and drove away. While Desiree was gone from the trailer, Ethel takes the opportunity to visit Dell. Ethel agrees that Elsa is gifted enough to be a true star, though her face shows concern when Elsa isn't looking.Įthel observes her ex-husband Dell Toledo arriving, a trailer (bearing Desiree) in tow. She was put in charge of the twins making sure they eat their food and she also described Elsa's rescue of her from a drunk tank, where she was reunited with her son, Jimmy.Įthel went into Elsa's tent to discuss the twins, Elsa confesses to Ethel that she brought the twins into the show to draw crowds, not for the family of carnies, but for her own glory. Ethel was concerned by Elsa's actions of bringing them there whether they were brought for the good of the show or to be part of the Carnival family. When Bette and Dot Tattler, a pair of conjoined twins, were brought to the freak show to be the new headliners.
For fourteen years, Ethel was the bearded lady of the freak show, and the second in command and friend to Elsa Mars. She is also most likely to be in her early to mid 50's.Įthel is introduced along with the other freaks as a member of Fräulein Elsa's Cabinet of Curiosities. She even nearly killed Dell when he tried to harm the infant Jimmy. With a strong maternal instinct, Ethel is willing to do anything to protect her son.
Even when Elsa admits her selfish reasons of adopting Bette and Dot, Ethel stands by her. She's Elsa's second in command, and she tolerates no disrespect to either herself or Elsa. Other than that, Ethel appears normal rather short and stout, with a thick Baltimore accent.Įthel is a very headstrong and respected woman among the Freak Show performers, although she claims no outsider ever treated her as the woman she is. Her deformity is simply the fact that she has a beard. Later on, while Jimmy was crying, Dell tried to kill the baby, Ethel caught him and told him to leave, and she would raise her son on her own. Out of desperation for money, Dell arranged a show and charged tickets to let people watch Ethel give birth to their son, Jimmy, who was born with deformed fingers. He convinced her that the upper class would rather see her do cultured acts than comedy, and changed her performances to reciting Shakespeare on stage, which turned out to be a horrible failure.Īt one point they were penniless, unemployed, and Ethel was carrying their unborn child. When she met Dell Toledo, he convinced her to do solo acts instead of moving to Paris with her troupe. During her performances, she would surround herself with the prettiest girls she could find in a dance routine, only to reveal herself and have the audience laugh with her at her deformity. Ethel was in her own troupe before meeting her ex-husband Dell.