GEORGE AND WILLIE MUSE

There are two different stories as to how Willie and George landed in the circus.

The first account is one that was passed down through families in the area and was used as a cautionary tale for black Americans at the time.

The story goes that in 1899, a man in the circus industry had caught sight of the peculiar looking boys and lured them away with candy into a wagon, kidnapping them.

He came to be known as James “Candy” Shelton.

The other story is a bit more complicated and alleges that the boys’ mother, Harriet Muse, had exchanged the boys for money and expected them to be returned but became increasingly worried as time passed without her sons. There was a notice found in Billboard magazine in 1949, allegedly credited to Harriet, alerting others that her boys were stolen.

It is unclear if she wrote the notice given that she was illiterate (could not read or write) and that newspapers routinely lied and falsified information.

Willie and George were exhibited as young as the age of ten and were told the incredibly traumatizing lie that their mother was dead.

They were forced to work in ill conditions and according to a letter written anonymously to the FBI in 1946, they slept with thousands of bed bugs in a show wagon and were required to do degrading and humiliating tasks.

The little pay they earned along the way was used for much needed clothing.

The condition under which they worked, and their forced performing and bondage, has been equated to circus slavery, often plaguing black sideshow performers.

They were billed as “Eko and Iko” and had numerous outrageous claims associated with their birth and early life.

They were marketed as aliens from Mars, “sheep-headed cannibals”, “Ecuadorean white savages”, cavemen, descendants of monkeys, and other degrading and ridiculous falsities.

Given they had pale skin and course hair, their hair was often styled into dreadlocks that stood atop of their head-almost like they were sprouting (a sight to white audiences).

The Ringling Bros. circus, one of the most successful at the time, had traveled to Roanoke, Virginia in 1927.

Harriet asserted it came to her in a dream that her boys would be there that day, and she ventured out to claim her children.

This was a dangerous feat, as Virginia was home to one of the largest Ku-Klux-Klan chapters in the country and racial relations were cruel and unforgiving.

Harriet went into the sideshow tent, made her way to the front of the crowd, and her sons, leaving their instruments, went to be reunited with her instantly.

Finally, their beliefs had been confirmed, their mother was not dead.

Ringling lawyers swarmed the reunion as well as law enforcement and she was able to convince them all that they were, indeed, her own.

The boys returned with their mother to their quaint, tiny shanty.

A day later, in a bold move, Harriet took Ringling to court for backwages and won a settlement, though the money is mostly spent by the boys’ stepfather causing them to return to the circus nearly a year later.

This time, just like the McCoy twins, on their own terms.

The Muse brothers were blessed with an innate musicality and were rumored to be able to play any song after listening to it once.

They credited their gift to God and, in the difficult seasons of their lives, stayed steadfast in their faith to Him and the bond and devotion of brotherhood.

Now they were able to receive compensation and sent much needed support to their family.

During their career, they met the queen at Buckingham Palace and headlined at Madison Square Garden.

By middle age, due to their eye complications, both boys were blind.

After their mother died, they came into a sum of money that allowed them to retire and purchase a house that their family still owns today.

Willie died first in 1972 and George lived to be a staggering 108 years old, dying in 2001.

Even through the tragedies of their lives, they always had each other.

An author, named Beth Macy, was able to finally convince their great-niece, Nancy Saunders, to create a book about their lives.

That book is titled “Truevine” and goes on to illustrate and cement the legacy of the Muse brothers.