Nellie Lane

Biography

Nellie Blanche Lane was born in West Virginia to parents Charles Lane and L. Jenny Showalter and had two brothers and one sister. She attended high school in Murray City, Utah, always being a big girl she was frequently the target of school bullies, not letting the taunts get to her she came to embrace her large size after joining the John Robinson Circus in 1918 as a sideshow attraction under the stage name: "Jolly Nellie" boasting a great size of 642 pounds. In 1923 Nellie made her way to Los Angeles where she naturally landed the role of the sideshow fat lady in the film Circus Days (1923) starring child star Jackie Coogan a silent film about a young boy who runs away from home to join the circus. Long considered a lost film until 2010 where a print was discovered in Russia and presented to the Library of Congress. In 1926 Nellie again landed the role of the sideshow fat lady in another silent film Spangles (1926) starring Marian Nixon a story loosely based on real life equestrienne May Wirth. That same year on tour in Hawaii she met Carl Leon Terrell a motorcyclist also on tour doing a motordrome act. Terrell had broken his leg after one of his acts went wrong and Nellie would take care of him during his recovery. It was during this time that they fell in love and they married shortly after his recovery. Her husband eventually became a circus owner and the couple toured the world with Nellie continuing as her sideshow act and Carl continuing his motordrome act. In 1933 Nellie's 15-year-old sister, Alice went with them. Nellie and Carl divorced at an unknown date. Nellie did make 1 more appearance on film as an uncredited extra in the 1947 talkie Nightmare Alley (1947). A film about a con-man named Stanton Carlisle, a mentalist whose lies and deceit prove to be his downfall. Starring Tyrone Power in the title role. She can be seen in the background performing her fat lady circus act two minutes into the film. This is her last known appearance on film. Nellie died of cancer on September 5, 1955 at Los Angeles County General Hospital. She was cremated on September 12, 1955 at the Los Angeles County Crematory. On November 11, 1955, her ashes were mailed to Rose Hills Memorial Park, a prominent cemetery in Whittier, California. There they were inurned in the Santa Rosa Corridor of the El Portal de la Paz Mausoleum. Arrangements for this inurnment were made by Nellie's brother, Carl.