Biography for
Schlitze More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

10 September 1901, The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA

Date of Death

24 September 1971, Los Angeles, California, USA (pneumonia)

Birth Name

Simon Metz

Nickname

The Pinhead

Mini Biography

Schlitze was born in Yucatan, Mexico in 1881. His real name was Simon Metz, and his sister was also a pinhead. He was exhibited by Barnum as Maggie, the last of the Aztecs. Because the Mayans and other Meso-American cultures bound the heads of their elite to give them a cone shape, it is easy to see how Schlitze and the so-called Aztec children got their show names. For most of his career, Schlitze was dressed and exhibited as a girl, mainly because dresses simplified his bathroom needs.

Schlitze was placed in an institution after 30 years in the sideshow business, where his health began to decline sharply. Mr. Sam Alexander, a Canadian promoter, took Schlitze back on the road, where he remained on the sideshow circuit until he died at age 80 in 1961.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous

Trivia

Although dressed and exhibited as a female, Schlitze the "pinhead" was, in fact, a man.

A victim of birth defect microcephaly as evidenced by smaller than normal cranium.

In the movie Freaks (1932), Phroso the clown compliments Schlitze on "her" new dress, offering to buy "her" a new hat. Schlitze is said to have loved hats and new dresses, as well as playing with string, playing games, dancing and singing. He had a relatively developed intellect for a microcephalic, although his lines in the movie Freaks are mostly incomprehensible. Schlitze could count to ten and taught himself to imitate the tone of director Tod Browning's voice.

Schlitze was placed in an institution after 30 years in the sideshow business, where his health began to decline sharply. Mr. Sam Alexander, a Canadian promoter, took Schlitze back on the road, where he remained on the sideshow circuit until he died at age 70 in 1971.

Schlitze was cartoonist Bill Griffith's inspiration for his famous "Zippy the Pinhead" comic strip (along with a Barnum and Bailey sideshow pinhead exhibited named "Zip the What-is-it"). According to Schlitzie's keeper, the pinhead had been taught to talk by California speech experts, and could count up to ten but refused to speak the word eight. Schlitzie's head contained only two ounces of brains.

The Ramones song "Pinhead" is about him.

Because his guardians had predeceased him, Schlitze was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave in Los Angeles County. When visitors to the Find-a-Grave website lamented this on the message board, an impromptu online fund-raiser was coordinated and a gravestone purchased and placed.

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