HIGH POINT CONFIDENTIAL: The Flim-Flam Man Carnival musician’s love life made headlines in 1929

HIGH POINT — When the first annual High Point Community Fair opened its gates to the public in September 1929, the entertainment lineup included quite a cast of characters.

There was Charles “The Human Frog” Gaylor, a contortionist.

There was Walter Stanton and his menagerie of barnyard animal imitations. No, really.

And don’t forget Chief White Eagle, who billed himself as “The Indian With the Iron Skull.” His act apparently was to place a large slab of stone on his head and allow a man to pound it with a sledgehammer. Talk about a hardheaded man.

But the real showstopper — the guy who had the whole town buzzing — was Leonard Hayes, an otherwise unassuming fellow from Richmond, Virginia, who, according to the High Point Enterprise headline, “does not remember all of his wives.”

We’ll call him “The Flim-Flam Man” because, as you’ll see, he really needed a nickname — more so for what he did away from the fair than what he did at the fair.

“Here’s a fellow who has been married so many times he can’t remember the exact number,” The Enterprise wrote.

“He can recall three times he has wed, and there may be more. He knows one wife died, and he has two living now, and maybe more. He says he doesn’t know. He does not remember where all of his weddings took place and the names of his wives.”

Despite all that, Hayes — a traveling musician who performed with the band that came to the High Point Community Fair — was preparing to add yet another wife to his collection while he was here in town.

That’s when the local police stepped in, arresting Hayes and his bride-to-be, an unnamed girl who gave her age as 17. They claimed they were about to get married, but both were charged with, ahem, immoral conduct.

“She was a little old for Hayes, according to his own testimony, for most of his brides ... have been 14 years of age,” The Enterprise reported.

The couple met at a fair in Tennessee, and Hayes persuaded the teenager to come with him to High Point, where they would tie the knot. They got to town on a Saturday night and rented a room at a local boarding house.

Once they got to their room, the girl told Hayes they needed to get married right away. He replied that he was broke, but he would get his paycheck on Wednesday and they would go straight to the courthouse.

“She said she believed the man and agreed to stick to him,” The Enterprise reported.

But the Flim-Flam Man — er, Hayes — told a different story altogether.

“He said she had asked him to take her along with him and that he agreed reluctantly,” the newspaper reported. “He said he realized the seriousness of transporting a girl from one state to another.”

Specifically, that was a potential violation of the Mann Act, a federal law that made it a felony to transport a girl or woman across state lines for the purpose of prostitution, debauchery or any other immoral purpose.

Of course, given Hayes’ track record of marrying multiple 14-year-old girls, he probably didn’t have a lot of credibility in the courtroom, and the local judge sentenced him to a year in prison.

It was time for the music man to face the music.

Hayes couldn’t have been too surprised at the outcome, though. When he was on the witness stand, the prosecutor asked him if he’d ever been arrested.

“Enough times to fill a book,” Hayes replied.

Based on the chapter he wrote in High Point, that must’ve been some book.