The Original Head Turner
If you are a fan of Chinese action movies or cartoons, you must have seen a fist fight in which a powerful opponent hits a man so fiercely that his head turns 180°. This seemingly impossible thing can be made to look natural through special effects, which in the era of Martin Joe Laurello was not possible, so he had to do it by himself. Martin or as he was popularly known “The Man with the Revolving Head” had the ability to turn his head completely backwards. Unbelievable isn’t it, but it’s true.
Born in 1885 with a twisted spine, Martin made his abnormality his greatest gift and rose to fame as “the Human Owl”. He performed sideshows with Ripley’s Believe it or Not, Ringling Brothers and other popular groups of that era. In one of his videos from the documentary movie “The Incredible Life and Times of Robert Ripley: Believe it or Not”, he is seen doing things that seem impossible for normal human beings, like twisting the entire upper body and walking.
Whenever he twisted his head, his spine took the shape of a question mark, may be trying to say “what is going on?” Well Martin Joe Laurello definitely knew what was going on as he continued to perform around the world till the age of 66. He was married to Amelia Emmerling and moved to America in the 1920s to perform and display his unique abilities.
Apart from showing off his ‘head turning skills’, he used to train dogs to perform acrobatics and was also a ventriloquist, giving voice to wooden dummies, a popular source of entertainment back in his days. Surely after reading this, most people would try to twist their necks, sprain it and will realize that not all can be Martin Joe Laurello.
