Oofty Goofty

Leonard "Leon" Borchardt (April 26, 1862 – death date unknown), better known as Oofty Goofty, was a German sideshow performer who lived in San Francisco, California in the late 19th century and Houston, Texas in the early 20th century.

Goofty was born Leonard Borchardt (sometimes Burkhardt) in Berlin on April 26, 1862. He was Jewish. In 1900, Goofty told a Houston Daily Post reporter that he came to the U.S. on the SS Fresia as a stowaway in 1876, was found by the captain and made to work for three crossings to earn his passage, and was finally able to immigrate by 1878. According to Goofty, he drifted from city to city before finding himself penniless in Detroit, Michigan during a snowstorm on January 27, 1883, and enlisted in the United States Army for five years. Goofty was placed in Company K of the First Cavalry and stationed at the Jefferson Barracks Military Post.

He was described as being 5 ft 4 in tall, with brown eyes, black hair, and a dark complexion. According to Goofty, his fellow soldiers teased him because he was Jewish; he would be the first man the Native Americans would scalp in a fight. Goofty says that when orders came deploying him to Washington Territory, he deserted shortly afterwards on April 9, 1883. He was apprehended the same day, and then escaped from military custody a few days later.

Author Herbert Asbury wrote that he got the name "Oofty Goofty" from a February 1884 appearance at a Market Street sideshow, where he was billed as the "Wild Man of Borneo". He was adored by his fans and was often taken out by his fans who provided him with steak, hence his stage name.

Goofty's career as a wild man came to an end after about a week, when he took ill, unable to perspire because of the tar on his skin. Doctors at the city's Receiving Hospital tried for days to remove the tar, but could not do so, presumably because of the horsehair. The tar finally came off after he was doused with tar solvent and left to lie on the hospital's roof. Afterwards he worked as baseball team mascot. After losing several games, the baseball team kicked him and made him walk several hundred miles back home.

...
Wikipedia