The Life of Percilla Bejano

While crawling the internet for Carnival history information and photos, we have come across the story of Percilla Bejano many times. She was a fascinating woman: a performer, singer, dancer, showman, and businesswoman, who appeared in American traveling sideshow exhibits, television shows, and movies. Her career spanned almost the entire 20th century!

It was shocking to learn she does not already have a Wikipedia page - although, interestingly, she does have one on the Spanish version of Wikipedia. So, we decided to make one for her.

Who was Percilla Bejano?

Percilla was born Percilla Roman on April 26, 1911 in Bayamon, Puerto Rico.

Percilla as a baby, ca. 1911

She was born with two rows of teeth (hyperdontia) and hypertrichosis, a condition which causes excessive hair growth all over the body. Her father took her to many doctors in New York City to find answers, and the doctors all told him there was no cure. So he started exhibiting Percilla for money, and eventually hired showman Carl Lauther to manage and promote the young Percilla’s career as “The Monkey Girl”. After her father was killed in Gainesville, Florida, Lauther and his wife adopted her and raised Percilla (now Percilla Lauther) as their own daughter.

Lauther signed Percilla on to multiple shows and exhibits, one of which was Johnny J. Jones Exposition’s “Oddities of the 20th Century”. On that show, she met the love of her life, Emmitt Bejano, known as “The Alligator Boy” due to his lamella ichthyosis.

They eloped and married in secret at midnight, due to the strict, overprotective nature of Percilla’s adoptive father, Carl Lauther. Afterwards, Emmitt was fired from Lauther’s show.

Percilla and Emmitt, performing together.

They lived, worked, and performed together for over fifty years as a “power couple” billed as “The World’s Strangest Married Couple” until Emmitt’s death in 1995.

Percilla and her husband Emmitt were some of the last living veterans of American “freak show” culture.

They retired from traveling shows in the ‘80s but continued making appearances: they both starred in the American movie Carny (1980) with Jodie Foster and Gary Busey, the British television show The Secret Cabaret (1990), and the Canadian documentary film Being Different (1981) narrated by Jason Alexander.

Percilla and Emmitt, enjoying life together.

In the video below, Percilla discusses how she met and married Emmit:

Percilla’s Legacy

She lived so long, there are color videos of her at a Christmas party in Gibsonton, Florida (known as the Showman Capital of America) during her retirement years. She did interviews for movies and TV where she talked eloquently about her own life, in her own words.

As of May 2025, there is still no English Wikipedia page for her. It’s currently in “draft” mode until some mysterious “higher-ups” at Wikipedia decide to approve it, which they say could take up to three months.

We will update this page with any news about Percilla’s Wikipedia page.

Learn more about Percilla’s life:

This post would not be possible without the following amazing resources:

• International Independent Showmen’s Museum article
• Doc’s Midway Cookhouse article about Percilla The Monkey Girl

About the Author

This blog is a branch of Apron: the Amusement Professionals Network.

Apron is a free-to-join network of Carnival Workers (Games, Food, Rides, Novelties, Artists, Circus, and Maintenance) that aims to promote Traveling Carnival History, industry news, resources, and information for anyone to learn more about or succeed within the industry.