Percilla Bejano, also known as The Monkey Girl, was a sideshow performer and a person born with a rare condition known as hypertrichosis.
Life
Percilla Bejano was born 26 April 1911 in the town of Bayamon, just south of the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan. Even as a child Percilla's hirsuteness drew attention from both the public at large and the medical community. As a baby, Percilla and her parents traveled to New York City to be examined by a team of doctors. She remained in New York for seven months before returning to Puerto Rico.
On a subsequent trip to the States, Percilla's father approached showman Karl L. Lauther, who took an immediate shine to Percilla. Lauther put her on his show and hired a woman to help her father look after the little star, now known as the Little Hairy Girl. Percilla's father stayed with her for a while, but was tragically shot and killed one night in Gainesville. According to Percilla's father's wishes, and with the help of an attorney, Lauther became Percilla's new adoptive father.
By all accounts Lauther treated Percilla well, but did not fail to exhibit his daughter at every possible opportunity. It was while in his employ that Percilla acquired the stage name she would carry for the rest of her career. To drive home the comparison, Lauther would exhibit Percilla with a trained chimpanzee named Josephine who rode a bicycle and smoked cigarettes.
It was while performing with the Johnny J. Jones Exposition that Percilla became acquainted with the love of her life, Emmitt Bejano, the Alligator-skinned Man (a.k.a. Lobello). A romance blossomed between the two and — to escape Lauther's protective wrath — the couple eloped one night in 1938, returning to the stage platform as the World's Strangest Married Couple. A year later Percilla gave birth to a daughter, Francine, but the infant quickly succumbed to pneumonia.
Percilla and Emmitt worked together for Ringling Brothers and other shows for a number of years. They appeared together in the 1980 film Carny opposite Jodie Foster and Gary Busey. Percilla and Emmitt enjoyed many years of restful retirement together at their home in Tampa. Their long romance ended with Emmitt's death in 1995. Percilla herself passed away in her sleep in February 2001.