June 1, 1880 [Chicago, Illinois] – January 28, 1953 [Los Angeles, California]
Fuller was an accomplished, award-winning singer in his youth as a solo soprano. After his voice broke, he worked at odd jobs as a choirmaster and organist. Due to a series of what appears to be freak accidents, including being hit by a horse’s hoof and a fall during a “test of courage,” he eventually had a heart attack from overwork in adulthood. Fuller was eventually not able to walk or sit, and so he began traveling around the United States in a wooden wagon in which he could lie down. Like Vachel Lindsay, he became an itinerant performer, and though his poetry is of no great quality, it was probably greatly augmented by his voice. Fuller had to contend with legislation that prohibited disabled people from appearing in public. He wrote many works of prose about his sufferings, with some accusing him of exaggerating his ailments. He had bit parts in two films by Cecil B. DeMille.
