Isaac W. Sprague

Isaac W. Sprague (May 21, 1841 – January 5, 1887) was an entertainer and sideshow performer, billed as the living human skeleton.

[2] Although normal for most of his childhood, Sprague began irreversibly losing weight at age 12 after feeling ill after swimming.

[6] In 1865, he was offered a job at a circus sideshow, where he became known as "the Living Skeleton" or "the Original Thin Man".

[3] The next year P. T. Barnum, the director of the circus, hired Sprague to work at his (newly reopened and successful) American Museum Freak show.

[4] His condition also kept him from finding real work anywhere other than Barnum's, so he continued to tour off and on throughout the country and eventually overseas.

[4] Sprague married Miss Tamar Moore shortly after 1868 and the couple had three strong, healthy, robust sons.