George And Willie Muse — ‘The Men From Mars’
PRGeorge and Willie Muse stand with their parents after being rescued from the circus.
George and Willie Muse were born in the 1890s in Virginia. They were Black, but born albino, and soon caught the eye of a “freak hunter” named James Herman “Candy” Shelton. In 1899, when George was just six and Willie was nine, Herman abducted them from their sharecropping community and forced them to become sideshow performers.
Billed as “Eko and Iko, the Ambassadors from Mars,” the Muse brothers were compelled to grow out their hair and wear colorful, garish garments. Shelton claimed that they’d been discovered in the wreck of a spaceship in the Mojave desert, and pocketed thousands from their appearances — though the brothers saw very little of their earnings themselves.
Even worse, circus operators lied to George and Willie Muse and told them that their mother was dead, in order to discourage them from thinking about their family members or trying to escape. However, their mother Harriett was very much alive. And she was working tirelessly to find her sons.
Incredibly, she was able to free them — by attending a performance herself in 1927. The brothers, who by that point were in their mid-30s, immediately recognized their mother in the crowd. Before long, they were reunited and finally allowed to go back home with their family.
Robert StaufferAs sideshow performers, the Muse brothers were billed as “Eko and Iko.”
They then signed a new contract with better terms (though their wages were sometimes still stolen) and were able to support themselves and their family.
The brothers retired in the mid-1950s and spent their later years telling stories about their harrowing experiences. In 1972, George Muse died of heart failure. Willie lived until 2001, when he died at age 108.
