Admiral Dot

Admiral Dot (1859 or 1863 – October 28, 1918), born Leopold S. Kahn, was a dwarf performer for P. T. Barnum.[1]

Admiral Dot
Admiral Dot in 1875
Born
Leopold S. Kahn

1859 or 1863
Died(1918-10-28)October 28, 1918
White Plains, New York, US
Spouse(s)Lottie Naomi Swartwood

Biography

He was born in 1859[1] or 1863[2] in San Francisco to Gabriel Kahn and his wife Caroline. His mother had given birth to ten children, of which three survived. His two dwarf brothers were known as Major Atom and General Pin (born 1881). Their mother was declared insane and jailed after trying to drown General Pin when he was two years old.[3] Barnum wrote: "During the week we spent in seeing San Francisco and its suburbs [in 1869], I discovered a dwarf more diminutive than General Tom Thumb was when first I found him, and so handsome, well-formed and captivating, that I could not resist the temptation to engage him. I gave him the soubriquet of Admiral Dot, dressed him in complete Admiral's uniform, and invited the editors of the San Francisco journals to visit him in the parlours of the Cosmopolitan Hotel. Immediately there was an immense furore, and Woodward's Gardens, where "Dot" was exhibited for three weeks before going east, was daily thronged with crowds of his curious fellow citizens, under whose very eyes he had lived so long undiscovered."[2]

Starting in 1877 he performed with the American Lilliputian Company.[4] In the 1890s he toured with Adam Forepaugh's circus.[5]

He married dwarf Lottie Naomi Swartwood on August 14, 1892. They had two children a daughter Hazel Kahn Golden (1892-1918) and a son Gabriel Kahn (1896-1982).[1][4] He died of the 1918 influenza pandemic at his home in White Plains, New York on October 28, 1918, aged 59 years.[1]

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References
  1. "Admiral Dot Dying of Pneumonia" (PDF). The New York Times. October 26, 1918. Retrieved 2009-07-24.
  2. Phineas Taylor Barnum (1880). The Recollections of P.T. Barnum. p. 307.
  3. "A Midget's Demented Mother" (PDF). The New York Times. July 26, 1883. Retrieved 2011-09-09.
  4. "A Wedding Of Midgets. Admiral Dot Kahn and Lottie Naomi Swartwood Married". The New York Times. August 15, 1892. Retrieved 2011-09-09.
  5. John Springhall (2008). The genesis of mass culture: show business live in America, 1840 to 1940. Macmillan. p. 43. ISBN 0-230-60449-8.


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