About

This site was developed by Frankie's grand niece, Lori Keith. Uncle Frankie was my grandmother's brother. I've been collecting memorabilia around Uncle Frankie for a number of years for a few reasons.

• For his history and circus history. If his history isn't captured or collected now, it could be lost.

• For family connections. It's rare for a family to have such a unique character to be a part of our tree. For instance, how many people can show a photo of their family member with Babe Ruth?

• For inspiration. I think I met Uncle Frankie when I was a toddler and have no memory of it. But through all of the items I've collected, I've developed an understanding of who he was that makes him the most inspirational person in my life.

Being born as a midget in the early 1900's would have given him almost no chance at the American dream, quite the opposite. He was given a big sack of lemons in life which he was fortunate to have a little luck, a whole lot of determination, and hard work to be able to make the best, sweetest pitcher of lemonade from.

He was a super hard worker and he used his talent to make others who were given a sack of lemons happy, like consistently being on the promotional troop to visit children's hospitals to bring the circus to the sick kids. There's evidence of him painting the circus trains to keep the train cars looking in tip-top shape -- typically headlining performers are more primadonna than rolling up your sleeves to help out the team and earn extra dollars -- or maybe he loved the spotlight so much he'd do anything to be in front of the camera.

Either way, he left a long trail of pieces of his life we're able to pick up, enjoy, and share with others.

The Future

The ultimate goal of the collection I've amassed is to eventually split it up and hand it to the future generations of the Saluto descendants to keep his memory alive and to provide inspiration and entertainment for years to come.

Please Share Your Stories!

If you have any memories of Frankie Saluto, please share them with us! We'll gladly add any written, oral, audio, or video content you can send to us. Help us to make Frankie Saluto's life story as complete as possible!

Many thanks!

Lori Keith