Stephan Bibrowski (1890–1932), better known as Lionel the Lion-faced Man, was a famous sideshow performer. His whole body was covered with long hair that gave him the appearance of a

lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...

; this was likely due to a rare condition called hypertrichosis. Bibrowski was born in 1890 in

Wilczogóra, Grójec County Wilczogóra is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Belsk Duży, within Grójec County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It lies approximately north of Belsk Duży, west of Grójec, and south of Warsaw Warsaw ...

Gmina Belsk Duży __NOTOC__ Gmina Belsk Duży is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Grójec County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. Its seat is the village of Belsk Duży, which lies approximately south-west of Grójec and south of Warsaw. T ...

Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It w ...

with 2.5 cm hair covering his body. His mother (Benedetta) blamed the condition on the mauling of his father (Michael) by a lion, which she claimed to have witnessed while pregnant with Stephan. She considered Stephan an abomination and gave him up to a German impresario named Sedlmayer when he was four years old. Sedlmayer gave him his stage name and started exhibiting him around Europe.Phänomen Freakshows
/ref> By the time he was put on exhibit, Lionel's hair had grown to on his face and hung about everywhere else. His body was almost entirely covered with hair, the only exceptions being the palms of his hands and the soles of his feet. In 1901, Lionel traveled to the United States and started appearing with the Barnum and Bailey Circus. He toured with the circus from then on, occasionally going back to Europe. In his act, Lionel performed gymnastic tricks, and also spoke to people to show his gentle side that sharply contrasted with his appearance. He settled in the U.S. in 1920, becoming a popular attraction, and moved to New York City, where he was a fixture at

Coney Island Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, Manhattan Beach to its east, L ...

. By the late 1920s, Lionel retired from his sideshow career and moved back to Germany. He was reported to have died in Berlin from a heart attack in 1932 at forty-one years of age.

References

External links

* Homberger, Francine (2005). ''Carny Folk''. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Bibrowski, Stephan 1890s births 1932 deaths People with hypertrichosis Sideshow performers German expatriates in the United States