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Monster Midway: An Uninhibited Look at the Glittering World of the Carny
Iconic work on American carnivals of the mid-20th century and the characters who peopled them. The carny world was a special interest of Gresham who contibuted many articles on the subject for magazines such as Collier's , Life, Esquire and True. His earlier book, "Nightmare Alley", was a novel dealing with the sleazy underbelly of the carnival world.
- GenresNonfictionHistory
309 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1953
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About the author
William Lindsay Gresham
23 books100 followersWilliam Lindsay Gresham (August 20, 1909 – September 14, 1962) was an American novelist and non-fiction author particularly regarded among readers of noir. His best-known work is Nightmare Alley (1946), which was adapted into a 1947 film starring Tyrone Power.
Gresham was born in Baltimore, Maryland. As a child, he moved to New York with his family, where he became fascinated by the sideshow at Coney Island. Upon graduating from Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn in 1926, Gresham drifted from job to job, and worked as a folk singer in Greenwich Village. In 1937, Gresham served as a volunteer medic for the Loyalist forces during the Spanish Civil War. There, he befriended a former sideshow employee, Joseph Daniel "Doc" Halliday, and their long conversations inspired much of his work, particularly Gresham's two books about the American carnival, the nonfiction Monster Midway and the fictional Nightmare Alley.
Returning to the United States in 1939, after a troubling period that involved a stay in a tuberculosis ward and a failed suicide attempt, Gresham found work editing true crime pulp magazines. In 1942, Gresham married Joy Davidman, a poet, with whom he had two children, David and Douglas Gresham. Gresham was an abusive, unfaithful, and alcoholic husband. Davidman, although born Jewish, became a fan of the writings of C.S. Lewis, which led eventually to her conversion to Christianity. Davidman eventually fled her marriage to Gresham and later married Lewis, their relationship forming the inspiration for the play and movie Shadowlands.
Gresham married Davidman's first cousin, Renee Rodriguez, with whom he had been having an affair and who was herself suffering an abusive marriage. Gresham joined Alcoholics Anonymous and developed a deep interest in Spiritualism, having already exposed many of the fraudulent techniques of popular spiritualists in his two sideshow-themed books and having authored a book about Houdini with the assistance of noted skeptic James Randi. He was also an early enthusiast of Scientology but later denounced the religion as another kind of spook racket.
In 1962, Gresham's health began to take a turn for the worse. He had started to go blind and had been diagnosed with cancer of the tongue. On September 14, 1962, he checked into the Dixie Hotel — which he had often frequented while writing Nightmare Alley over a decade earlier. There, 53 year old Gresham took his life with an overdose of sleeping pills. His death went generally unnoticed by the New York press, but for a mention by a bridge columnist.
Gresham was born in Baltimore, Maryland. As a child, he moved to New York with his family, where he became fascinated by the sideshow at Coney Island. Upon graduating from Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn in 1926, Gresham drifted from job to job, and worked as a folk singer in Greenwich Village. In 1937, Gresham served as a volunteer medic for the Loyalist forces during the Spanish Civil War. There, he befriended a former sideshow employee, Joseph Daniel "Doc" Halliday, and their long conversations inspired much of his work, particularly Gresham's two books about the American carnival, the nonfiction Monster Midway and the fictional Nightmare Alley.
Returning to the United States in 1939, after a troubling period that involved a stay in a tuberculosis ward and a failed suicide attempt, Gresham found work editing true crime pulp magazines. In 1942, Gresham married Joy Davidman, a poet, with whom he had two children, David and Douglas Gresham. Gresham was an abusive, unfaithful, and alcoholic husband. Davidman, although born Jewish, became a fan of the writings of C.S. Lewis, which led eventually to her conversion to Christianity. Davidman eventually fled her marriage to Gresham and later married Lewis, their relationship forming the inspiration for the play and movie Shadowlands.
Gresham married Davidman's first cousin, Renee Rodriguez, with whom he had been having an affair and who was herself suffering an abusive marriage. Gresham joined Alcoholics Anonymous and developed a deep interest in Spiritualism, having already exposed many of the fraudulent techniques of popular spiritualists in his two sideshow-themed books and having authored a book about Houdini with the assistance of noted skeptic James Randi. He was also an early enthusiast of Scientology but later denounced the religion as another kind of spook racket.
In 1962, Gresham's health began to take a turn for the worse. He had started to go blind and had been diagnosed with cancer of the tongue. On September 14, 1962, he checked into the Dixie Hotel — which he had often frequented while writing Nightmare Alley over a decade earlier. There, 53 year old Gresham took his life with an overdose of sleeping pills. His death went generally unnoticed by the New York press, but for a mention by a bridge columnist.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 22, 2014
Before I get into this, I would like to recommend NIGHTMARE ALLY by William Lindsay Gresham as one of the most acclaimed novels in Noire. It is a wonderful carnie novel and was made into a movie as well. I just can't say enough about how much I love it,and regret that Gresham only had a couple of fiction novels. Gresham's other works were all nonfiction either about Houdini or about carnivals and fairs as in MONSTER MIDWAY.--Gresham's enthusiasm for fairs, carnivals, and midways was nearly boundless and throughout MM if you imagined his voice as a narrator from a 1940's documentary you would be very close to the style of his writing. As an enthusiast he heaps praise on every fair builder and carnival operator he comes in contact with.-- I purchased this wanting an insiders look at details of how tricks, gaffs, and performances were executed, and this book delivered far more than expected.-- I will run through a list just barely hitting the high spots: -"Geeks are not hired...you have to make a geek", geeks being the side-show "Wild Men" that bite the heads off live chickens. -You learn where the Ferris wheel received its name. Ferris was an engineer and bridge builder that designed a 250 feet tall wheel for the 1893 Chicago Worlds Fair. Keeping in mind the average wheel is 40'-60'contrasts the epic proportions of the original.-You learn what it takes to become a daredevil motorcyclist riding the vertical walls of wood silos known as Motor-Dromes.- A section on knife throwing techniques.-Traits and characteristics of side-show performers "with abnormalities".-Snake charmers and handlers.- Side-show banner painting.- Gypsy fortune tellers, with a discussion of all the issues people typically bring to a "mitt camp".-Mme Tussaud's Wax Museum.-The Great Houdini.-Fire-eaters, just don't cough or hiccup at the wrong time.-Sword swallowing and how to practice.-You too can be a Human Pincushion.-Auto-Thrill Show stunt driving.- The use of dynamite in thrill shows.-Barnstorming and stunt flying.-How roulette wheels are rigged (with hidden brakes).-The "Bullet-Catch to the Teeth".-The psychology of magicians.-End.. The book closes with a very personal touch: three letters from carnival performers writing home describing what it is like. Really valuable information here, I'm sure no one will be able to live without this.
May 13, 2018
As the title states this book is an in depth look at the carnival or the carnival scene as it was fifty years ago. It's a very interesting book. The author's writing style is different, detailed and sometimes (For me) it was difficult to understand everything described. If you want to read about the carny life as it used to be than seek out this book.
February 25, 2022
William Lindsay Gresham's first novel was his most famous. Nightmare Alley was published in 1946 and adapted into a movie in 1947. An unsuccessful and now forgotten second novel followed in 1949. It was seven years after the publication of Nightmare Alley, in 1953, that Gresham published his third book, Monster Midway, a non-fiction collection of essays about the world of the carnivals. His most famous novel had, in fact, been born of a lifelong fascination with carnies, psychics, and magicians. Gresham shared that fascination in Monster Midway.
Perhaps the most notorious passage from the novel and both movie versions is the sequence where Clem Hoatley explains to Stanton Carlisle how a geek is made. In the opening pages of Monster Midway, Gresham tells us how he learned this bit of carny lore. Gresham, like many young men in his generation, volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War. As he was waiting to muster out of the conflict, he got to know a fellow American who shared his interest in carnival life. "Clem Faraday was a sergeant of medics and my immediate superior... And he was also an old-time carny." Clem, it turns out, had worked a ten-in-one in the South that featured a geek show as a blowoff. (If I just confused you with some of that carny lingo, don't worry; the book includes a glossary.) When Gresham pressed for more information about the geek, Clem launched into the explanation of how you find an alcoholic or an ex-soldier who's addicted to morphine and use his addiction to gradually lure him into full-on geeking. That speech went straight into Nightmare Alley.
Each chapter in the book details a different aspect of carny life. Early in, Gresham goes into some detail describing the business side of running a carnival, which I admit I found a little boring; but he quickly moves on to describing the rides, the games, the freaks, the gypsy mind-readers, the motordromes and hell drivers, fire eaters, sword swallowers, snake handlers, and other exciting sides of the carnies. He devotes a long chapter to Houdini and other escape artists. (Houdini would be the subject of Gresham's next book.) Throughout, Gresham treats the reader to glimpses behind the scenes, explaining how it all works, and even revealing the secrets of some of the gaffs and grifts. Want a roadmap for doing the psychic mind-reader act? Gresham gives it to you.
All of his stories are backed up by interviews with real-life carnies, whose names Gresham shares. The chapter on freaks is revealing because it's clear that Gresham had gotten to know many of them personally, and many wisely used the money they earned in the carnies to build comfortable, normal lives for themselves afterward. Gresham also shares tales of how he tried out doing mind-reading and magic acts on his own, gaining some first-hand experience. It all adds up to a fascinating memoir of a world that is long gone. The carnivals, fairs, circuses, and amusement parks that exist today are far more wholesome and legit than the shows that would scrounge their way across America back in the days of the Depression and the War.
An informative article about Gresham's life and career can be found in The Writer's Chronicle from June 2006 at awpwriter dot org slash magazine slash writers slash aprendergast01.htm.
Perhaps the most notorious passage from the novel and both movie versions is the sequence where Clem Hoatley explains to Stanton Carlisle how a geek is made. In the opening pages of Monster Midway, Gresham tells us how he learned this bit of carny lore. Gresham, like many young men in his generation, volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War. As he was waiting to muster out of the conflict, he got to know a fellow American who shared his interest in carnival life. "Clem Faraday was a sergeant of medics and my immediate superior... And he was also an old-time carny." Clem, it turns out, had worked a ten-in-one in the South that featured a geek show as a blowoff. (If I just confused you with some of that carny lingo, don't worry; the book includes a glossary.) When Gresham pressed for more information about the geek, Clem launched into the explanation of how you find an alcoholic or an ex-soldier who's addicted to morphine and use his addiction to gradually lure him into full-on geeking. That speech went straight into Nightmare Alley.
Each chapter in the book details a different aspect of carny life. Early in, Gresham goes into some detail describing the business side of running a carnival, which I admit I found a little boring; but he quickly moves on to describing the rides, the games, the freaks, the gypsy mind-readers, the motordromes and hell drivers, fire eaters, sword swallowers, snake handlers, and other exciting sides of the carnies. He devotes a long chapter to Houdini and other escape artists. (Houdini would be the subject of Gresham's next book.) Throughout, Gresham treats the reader to glimpses behind the scenes, explaining how it all works, and even revealing the secrets of some of the gaffs and grifts. Want a roadmap for doing the psychic mind-reader act? Gresham gives it to you.
All of his stories are backed up by interviews with real-life carnies, whose names Gresham shares. The chapter on freaks is revealing because it's clear that Gresham had gotten to know many of them personally, and many wisely used the money they earned in the carnies to build comfortable, normal lives for themselves afterward. Gresham also shares tales of how he tried out doing mind-reading and magic acts on his own, gaining some first-hand experience. It all adds up to a fascinating memoir of a world that is long gone. The carnivals, fairs, circuses, and amusement parks that exist today are far more wholesome and legit than the shows that would scrounge their way across America back in the days of the Depression and the War.
An informative article about Gresham's life and career can be found in The Writer's Chronicle from June 2006 at awpwriter dot org slash magazine slash writers slash aprendergast01.htm.
October 23, 2012
A classic of an admittedly limited genre.
January 17, 2024
Did you ever wonder what it was like to work a traveling carnival in the early part of the 20th century across America? William Gresham lived that life and wrote "Monster Midway" to tell us about it. From the disreputable geeks to the esteemed daredevils, he covers it all both as a fascinated young spectator and an experienced adult. We learn how Houdini managed his escapes and some simple tricks for sword swallowing or fire eating. We know that games of chance are always rigged in favor of the house, but the author tells us how. I'm sure many of these tricks and secrets are still in use today. Throughout it all, Gresham never dehumanizes the "carnys" and even lays some popular myths to rest about those who chose that path. This book is long out of print but I got a copy on interlibrary loan.
July 19, 2022
I loved reading “Nightmare Alley” years ago, and looked into other titles by Gresham then. This one and “Grind Show” popped up, but were out of print and very expensive secondhand. Perhaps prompted by the recent Guillermo DelToro film (superb!) I looked again and found a new paperback edition of this title on eBay. It bears no ISBN or barcode, so I can’t add it here, but this (bootleg?) edition from “Dunce” books is clean and handsome. And given the prices I saw for original editions from the 1950s, $25 or so seemed a bargain. If you’re interested it’s worth seeking out, as it’s as good as I’d hoped.
This is an insider’s view of the world of the Carny. Not just the freaks, geeks and mentalists of “Nightmare Alley”, but also daredevils on motorcycles, in cars and planes, the rigged games on the Midway, magicians, the works! It’s delivered in a hard-boiled noirish kind of narrative that suits it well, and feels immediate and well informed. Gresham apparently was obsessed with Carny culture from his youth and spent a lot of time on the scene learning the ropes and getting to know the players.
Highly recommended to anyone interested in this sort of thing; I don’t see it available on Amazon so you’ll have to find the “Dunce” ppb edition on eBay, or elsewhere on the secondary market. Hope I can find a good new edition of “Grind Show” now too!
This is an insider’s view of the world of the Carny. Not just the freaks, geeks and mentalists of “Nightmare Alley”, but also daredevils on motorcycles, in cars and planes, the rigged games on the Midway, magicians, the works! It’s delivered in a hard-boiled noirish kind of narrative that suits it well, and feels immediate and well informed. Gresham apparently was obsessed with Carny culture from his youth and spent a lot of time on the scene learning the ropes and getting to know the players.
Highly recommended to anyone interested in this sort of thing; I don’t see it available on Amazon so you’ll have to find the “Dunce” ppb edition on eBay, or elsewhere on the secondary market. Hope I can find a good new edition of “Grind Show” now too!
November 26, 2015
Important work on Carny Life. An interesting chapter :The Romany Trade on Fortune Telling.
September 11, 2025
Monster Midway is a truly fascinating insider's look into the world of the carny, both parts glittery and grimy depending on where you're standing. It feels oddly contemporary for having been published in 1953, 72 years ago! It also reminded me a lot of James Randi because the author has a deep respect for stage magic but is also realistic and sarcastic about mentalists and others who use manipulate the audience for dollars. You might think the carnival is about games, tricks, and shows, but it's really about human nature and psychology. Topics include: danger, "motorcycling in a silo," knife throwers, freak shows (one of the most empathetic chapters - people are people despite appearances), the "Romany trade" (fortune tellers deeply skilled at reading people); sign painters and galleries of torture, fire eaters, bullet catchers, escape artists including a whole chapter on Houdini, reptile handlers, tricks of the midway games and trick car drivers. There's a really interesting breakdown of human "types" and how to deal with them, from the Wise Guy ("flatter him; he'll end up eating out of your hand") to Spinster and Career Girl (123-126). A microhistory of the carnival and also an exploration of human behavior, what a cool book!
"Taking kids to a carnival is a subject 'on which I have long contemplated writing a monograph.' In part, this book is probably it. But there is one secret with which I have done my best to indoctrinate parents for years: when your kid is on a merry-go-round never, never, never wave to him as he passes you. Stand there, so he can see you and feel reassured. But never wave to him. For he is not, at that moment, on the midway or in the present era. He may be Hopalong Cassidy in pursuit of the bad guys. Or he may be Ivanhoe, unhorsing Bois Guilbert. Wherever and whoever he is, for one golden moment, as the band organ blares and the horse leaps beneath him, he has left you for a more hazardous and colorful locale." (58)
"Taking kids to a carnival is a subject 'on which I have long contemplated writing a monograph.' In part, this book is probably it. But there is one secret with which I have done my best to indoctrinate parents for years: when your kid is on a merry-go-round never, never, never wave to him as he passes you. Stand there, so he can see you and feel reassured. But never wave to him. For he is not, at that moment, on the midway or in the present era. He may be Hopalong Cassidy in pursuit of the bad guys. Or he may be Ivanhoe, unhorsing Bois Guilbert. Wherever and whoever he is, for one golden moment, as the band organ blares and the horse leaps beneath him, he has left you for a more hazardous and colorful locale." (58)
March 17, 2022
If you want to know where the author of NIGHTMARE ALLEY got his ideas and some of his back story, this is the book to read. This is Gresham's account of the carnies he met, the peeks behind the canvas flaps he was granted, and the acts he saw--and in many cases learned.
This is the carnival of the 1930s through 1950s--filled with real danger, real sideshow and more than a little sleaze. Each chapter highlights a different aspect of the carnival from fire-eaters to motorcycle daredevils to magicians who catch bullets with their teeth (and sometimes died from the feat). If you love that era, loved NIGHTMARE ALLEY, or have any interest in the Carnival or variety entertainment, this is for you.
This is the carnival of the 1930s through 1950s--filled with real danger, real sideshow and more than a little sleaze. Each chapter highlights a different aspect of the carnival from fire-eaters to motorcycle daredevils to magicians who catch bullets with their teeth (and sometimes died from the feat). If you love that era, loved NIGHTMARE ALLEY, or have any interest in the Carnival or variety entertainment, this is for you.
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November 23, 2024I thought both movie versions of Nightmare Alley were a lot of fun, but I wanted to spend more time in the carnival portion of the story. It looks like the author of the original book did too, because this book is just carny stuff. Well, and a few chapters about things like Houdini, stunt driving, stunt flying, and the bullet catch trick, but those are all fun to read about too.
I'm pleased that this got reprinted at a reasonable paperback price, because otherwise I would still be coveting the expensive hardback.
I'm pleased that this got reprinted at a reasonable paperback price, because otherwise I would still be coveting the expensive hardback.
April 7, 2022
Another great book by an underrated great author. Read Nightmare Alley and this one if you can get your hands on a copy. What a shame this book hasn't been kept in print. He was an author before a time he would be fully appreciated.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews