He would be buried alive for sometimes up to two days with the vital assistance of a hidden breathing apparatus after audiences would pay 25 cents to witness his burial and then were issued return tickets to see him being "revived" again. Tod's act became one of the top attractions and by 21 years of age he had worked at every carnival and sideshow job imaginable including a time with Ringling Brothers Circus as a clown. Furthermore he appeared in vaudeville with such acts as "Mutt and Jeff" and "The Lizard and the Coon" for the Willard & King Company and then for Chicago's Whallen & Martel Burlesque Company where he appeared as an illusionist, an acrobat, a singer and dancer, and in a blackface routine called "The Whirl of Mirth" with comedian Charlie Murray who later became a favourite of Mack Sennett. The acts took young Tod on tours of Europe, the Far East and Africa.

Tod Browning
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