The Pain Proof Prince
Okay, this may shock you 3 times as you look through the picture XD
So, it's Jim (a.k.a. Gem) having to do his usual painful looking things on the stage. He's kinda matured a lot here.
The setting was originally somewhere in between the Great Depression and WWII, so to all his friends Jim Hoods claimed he had to do that for money since public entertainment was a rather stable income, while it was incredibly hard to find a normal job.
His stage name was Gem and he masqueraded as the prince of Persian fakirs, claiming that his assistant John Hoods (who was in fact his older brother) brought him to America from his Persian trip.
His performance was a plain bellydance in the beginning, then Jim would use various accessories to make it more and more challenging – it was a frightening and painful sight making the crowd gasp in awe, at the same time the dance itself seemed to become more and more inspired and intense as he went on challenging his body.
Back in the 1920-30s it was a whole different time – freak circuses were still very common, I still remember the b/w documentary about all kinds of circus freaks, there was also a short film about the man who could pierce his torso through with a rapier because he didn't feel pain, then again remember the elephant man and so on. Back then it was considered "normal" to pay for seeing such abnormal performances, so naturally the artists were trying to amaze the public doing all kinds of oddities.