Prince Ucon and a blowtorch, Lincoln Heights, 1936

Item Overview

Title

Prince Ucon and a blowtorch, Lincoln Heights, 1936

Date Created

February 13, 1936

Date

1936-02-13

Publisher

Los Angeles Times

Language

No linguistic content

Collection

Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection

Notes

Description

Prince Ucon, Algerian Wonder Worker, The Man Who Defies Death, proclaimed himself to be the toughest prisoner the jail has ever had and proceeded to show the officers present by eating a series of old keys, bullets, sticking safety pins through his cheeks and shaving with a blowtorch. Following his thirty day conviction he proclaimed to the court, "Judge, do I have to eat that jail food that long or can I have some bolts occasionally - I'm liable to start chewing on the bars unless they give me my iron."
While holding the blowtorch a few inches from his face Ucon opens his mouth and sticks out his tongue.
Similar photograph appears with the article, "Razor Blade Menu Eaten," Los Angeles Times, 23 Jan 1936: A2.

Caption

Handwritten on negative: Prince Ucon
Text from negative sleeve: 3649 - Prince Ucon Algerian Showman arrested for vagrancy "toughest man in Lincoln Heights jail" (Fakir) (see others - #3460) [stamped:] Feb 13 1936

Physical Description

Extent

1 photograph

Medium

b&w nitrate negative

Keywords

Genre

cellulose nitrate film
news photographs

Names

Lincoln Heights Jail
Ucon, Prince, b. 1894

Location

Lincoln Heights (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Longitude

34.077472

Latitude

-118.224875

Resource type

still image

Subjects

Stunt performers--California--Lincoln Heights
Prisoners--California--Lincoln Heights
Tramps--American--California--Lincoln Heights
Turbans--California--Lincoln Heights
Metals