Sandra Reed

Sandra Dee Reed was an American sword swallower born with albinism. She started working for the Slim Kelly and Whitney Sutton sideshow of James E. Strates Shows at the age of 24 as a lecturer before being trained in sword swallowing and later performing in the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Career

Reed was offered a job by showman Whitney Sutton at the New York State Fair in 1969, initially to be a lecturer on albinism. Her family was supportive—her sister Doreen, also albino, also joined as a lecturer, their father joined to sell tickets, and their mother previously worked in vaudeville and girl shows.
She learned sword swallowing from Ricky Richiardi in Gibsonton, Florida, in 1969.
In the mid-1970s she married and performed with Harold “Big Jim” Spohn, billed as “the fat man”.
From 1975 to 1977 she held the Guinness World Records title for most swords swallowed simultaneously by a woman.
An illustration of Reed swallowing swords was used for the cover art of volume one of James Taylor’s carnival history magazine Shocked and Amazed! for which she was interviewed in 1995.