Horace Ridler

Horace Leonard Ridler (26 March 1882 – 1965)[1] was a professional freak show and sideshow performer, exhibited for his heavy tattoos under the stage names The Great Omi and The Zebra Man.

Prior to his freak show and sideshow work, he served in the British Army, reaching the rank of acting Major in the Machine Gun Corps.

[citation needed] By his own account, Horace Leonard Ridler was born into a wealthy family living outside London, and enjoyed a relatively privileged childhood marked by travel, private schooling and comfort.

While today this story seems completely implausible, at the time, a general lack of knowledge about many areas of the globe provided an opportunity for performers to play on the audience's ignorance and fantasies.

On 6 June 1939, Ridler, now The Great Omi, and his wife Omette arrived at the World's Fair in Queens, New York, having crossed the Atlantic on the ship Laconia and taken up residence at the Hotel Claridge in Times Square.

Twenty-two million people attended the fair, where Omi was appearing at John Hix's Odditorium, alongside Betty Broadbent nicknamed the Tattooed Venus, Iron Eyelids, the Anatomical Wonder, and Marvello the Fingerless Pianist, all for an entry price of 40 cents (equivalent to $8.76 in 2023).

In early 1941, Omi toured both Australia and New Zealand, and spent much of the latter part of the year performing at the beach sideshow Happyland and Bert Lorous Jr.'s "World Fair Freaks" show in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The Rubin-Cherry show next travelled to Phoenix, Arizona, closing their season in early 1942, and Omi and his wife then criss-crossed America before returning to England.