He had a sense of wonder and joy that audiences loved and kept them coming back to see him. His cause of death was listed as bronchial pneumonia brought on by medullary depression. While performers who were more able-minded might have had some say in this, those with intellectual disabilities like Schlitzie likely had no choice whatsoever. In 1960 Shlitze appeared in the sideshow for the E.K. This meant that sideshow performers often moved between circuses and constantly visited new cities. Even as he got older and could no longer travel, he still performed on the streets of Los Angeles, selling his old sideshow photos.One sad truth about sideshow performers is that a great many of them had shorter-than-average lives. The location of his grave was known, Section E, Tier 21, Grave 69 at Queen of Heaven Cemetery in Rowland Heights, California, but the plot was completely undecorated. Born Shlitze Surtees, according to his Certificate of Death.
They often had medical conditions that gave them their unique traits, but in many cases, those same conditions claimed them at an earlier age than the typical lifespan of the time. While Schlitzie never had a family per se, the circuses he worked for made sure to treat him that way.Schlitzie's most famous role, by far, was in 1932's This was not Schlitzie's only role, however. He Schlitzie had been unwell for a while and spent some time in the hospital, but he was eventually transferred to Fountain View Convalescent Home, where he spent his remaining days. His talents included dancing, singing, and counting to ten, although he generally omitted the number 7 from his count. In 1924 and again in 1925 Shlitze appeared with the Congress Of Freaks at Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey, in New York's Madison Square Garden (Koo Koo the Bird Girl and Harry Doll, Shlitze's co-stars in the yet-to-be-filmed-then 1932 Tod Browning FREAKS movie, appeared with him on the show). Schlitzie was in the institution for about three years, and it was during one of his performances inside the hospital that he came to the attention of Bill Unks, a janitor there who took the job during the off-season of his regular profession — a circus sword-swallower. All photos uploaded successfully, click on the Done button to see the photos in the gallery. That's a physical condition, not a mental state. He was buried on October 7th, 1971.While Schlitzie was wildly popular and in-demand his whole life, he wasn't able to perform in his old age as much as he could when he was younger, and working in the sideshow doesn't exactly come with a retirement plan. The reason why he was able to do this is a bit depressing, though. Additional roles as a furry manimal in Island Of Lost Souls with Charles Laughton and Bela Lugosi, directed by Sideshow's Erle C. Kenton for Paramount Pictures, and a cameo in Tomorrow's Children, produced and released on the States' Rights market by Bryan Foy, and directed by Crane Wilbur (1934), have both been credited to Shlitze, but closeup photo clips from these films clearly seem to disprove these claims. Previous to Schlitzie, the display and exhibiting of ‘pinheads’ was nothing new. Shlitze went before Hollywood's cameras once again as pinhead Princess Betsy in Columbia Picture's Meet Boston Blackie (1941). Shlitze Surtees's earthly remains were interred October 7, 1971, in an unmarked grave at Queen Of Heaven Cemetery in Rowland Heights, California. In 1924 and again in 1925 Shlitze appeared with the Congress Of Freaks at Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey, in New York's Madison Square Garden (Koo Koo the Bird Girl and Harry Doll, Shlitze's co-stars in the yet-to-be-filmed-then 1932 Tod Browning FREAKS movie, appeared with him on the show). However, his Certificate of Death lists his name as Shlitze Surtees, surname of his "official guardian" George Surtees, a chimp handler and barker of carnival standing for many years, who also appeared with a trained chimp act for Ted Metz on the Mix circus during Shlitze's time there. Please reset your password.This account has been disabled. He suffered from microcephalus, or smaller than normal cranium (his mental age was that of a 3-year-old). Schlitzie's depression had reached a point where they didn't think he'd last much longer in the hospital, so the doctors released him to Unks and Alexander, who soon had him back on the road.