His Carnival Sideshow On Coney Island Saved Thousands Of Premies
For more than three decades, Martin Couney had run infant incubator exhibits primarily at Coney Island in New York City.
Although he was displaying premature babies to the public as part of a carnival attraction, his show helped to save the lives of thousands of babies who were born too soon.
A sign above the entrance to the attraction read “Living Babies in Incubators.” The infant incubator exhibit was built for $75,000, which equates to $1.4 million today. It was painted in red, white, and blue.
When the attraction was held at the Chicago World’s Fair grounds, which took place in 1933 and 1934, people paid 25 cents and flocked to see it.
Desperate parents brought their tiny infants to him and regarded Couney as a savior who offered medical help to babies written off by mainstream medicine, as there were few treatment options available for premature babies for much of the 20th century.
Martin Couney may have been in charge of the exhibit, but he was not a doctor. A Chicago pediatrician named Dr. Julius Hess helped him run the exhibit, though. They worked with a team of six nurses and two wet nurses.
They wore starched white uniforms and tended to babies in glass and steel incubators. The babies were also dressed in dolls’ clothes because they were too small to fit the clothes sold in stores.
Since the exhibit was such a success, Couney held a “Homecoming” celebration on July 25, 1934, for babies who had “graduated” from the incubators the previous summer at the Chicago World’s Fair.
In 1933, Couney and Hess cared for 58 babies, and 41 of them returned for the reunion with their mothers.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
The event was broadcast live across the fairgrounds and on local radio. The radio announcer described Couney’s exhibit as an important medical facility, not an entertaining carnival sideshow:
“The Incubator station for premature babies…is not primarily a place of exhibiting tiny infants. Instead, it is actually a lifesaving station, where prematurely born babies are brought from leading hospitals all over the city, for the care and attention that are afforded. The place is spick and span, with doctors and graduate nurses in constant attendance.”
Many medical professionals saw Couney’s career as an abomination. The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children accused Couney of exploiting the babies and endangering their lives several times. However, none of the complaints had any ground.
By the 1930s, Couney was finally taken seriously for his work. He attracted the attention of some of the leading pediatricians in America, and doctors even sent premature babies to him since few hospitals had incubators.
Couney accepted premature babies from all backgrounds and did not take payment from any of the parents. In 1903, it cost $15, equivalent to roughly $405 today, to care for each baby. Couney covered the costs with the entrance fees.
Throughout his career, Couney took in approximately 8,000 babies. He claimed to have saved around 6,500 of them.
There is no way to determine the exact number, but even so, it is clear that Couney played an instrumental role in saving the lives of many American babies. He is also considered a heroic figure in American medical history.
More About:News