Death of the Last Sideshow Fat Man
Marc Hartzman/AOL News
While there is no shortage of fat men in America, only one over the past few decades called himself a professional.
Weighing 607 pounds, Bruce Snowdon was a sideshow fat man from 1977 to 2003, billed as "Harold Huge." His death on Nov. 9 at the age of 63 marks the end of a long, heavy tradition dating back centuries.
This weekend, his loved ones will honor him and lay his ashes to rest.
"Bruce was exactly as advertised: the last fat man on show on the carnival midways," said James Taylor, publisher of the sideshow journal Shocked & Amazed.
Until the mid-1960s, traveling carnivals frequently featured fat acts. But sideshows declined in popularity as waistlines expanded and obesity became less of a laughing matter.
As the years went by, spotting a man who weighed more than quarter of a ton was not that unusual – and that was bad news, if you were in Snowdon's line of work.
Snowdon managed to persevere. In fact, one of his last gigs, as a sideshow performer in Tim Burton's 2003 fantasy "Big Fish," was one of the highlights of his career.
In one scene, Snowdon can be seen sprawled out in a giant tub being washed by Ewan McGregor. The role left him with a handsome paycheck and a urinary tract infection that plagued him in his later years.
Strangely, no one outside of Snowdon's St. Petersburg, Fla., nursing center knew of his death until the middle of this month. He had checked in just weeks earlier and left no family contact information. It wasn't until a banker managing his trust learned the news and told his surviving brother, sister and cousin.
Snowdon never married and had no children. He did, however, keep a yard full of chickens, including five roosters that woke the neighbors bright and early every morning.
"He was an eccentric guy, a good-hearted guy," said Snowdon's cousin, Tom Lawless, who was surprised he didn't hear the news much sooner.
The nursing home had cremated his body before his survivors learned of his passing.
Snowdon's sideshow predecessors were often portrayed as jolly fat men – although any joy typically came from receiving a paycheck, which, at the time, may have been difficult to find elsewhere because of their unusually large size.
But this fat man was different. He was a college-educated heavyweight who was content with his size and enjoyed his job.
"Bruce was always pretty into it; he was very canny about the public and what it wanted," said Taylor.
Performing shirtless, he would jiggle his belly and answer questions, 99 percent of which were in regards to his actual weight, he claimed.
"I don't mind being enormously fat," Snowdon told me in a 2003 interview while eating his second ice cream sandwich. "I come from a long line of fat people. My old man tortured himself for 40 years going from 200 to 300 [pounds] and back again. He eventually lost the weight, but he also lost his mind."
Man this might be the saddest thing I've ever read. Our society has gotten so overweight that the idea of seeing a 700 pound man was no longer shocking. Now you can see that on The Biggest Loser every week and you don't have to get off your lazy ass and go to a carnival to watch that. Snowdon was supposed to serve as our society's cautionary tale or worst case scenario freak but in the end he died alone and unappreciated. Sorry Harold Huge, we all failed you.
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