 Howerton 's career began at a young age , when his father entered him into a local vaudeville show . In 1923 , at the age of ten , Howerton joined the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus , where he starred as a major attraction . The circus was the largest of the kind , with 800 performers and over 1000 animals . Although he was only ten years old , the circus sought to exaggerate his diminutive size by claiming that he was 18 years old . He was billed as the smallest man in the world , exhibited and known to the public under the name , " Major Mite " . The " Major Mite " moniker had previously been used by an American comedian who died in 1900 , and a 19th @-@ century circus performer , William E. Jackson , who died in 1901 , at 24 , 2 ft 9 in ( 0 @.@ 84 m ) tall and weighing 26 pounds ( 12 kg ) . Accompanied by his mother , Howerton spent 20 years with Ringling <unk> and also worked with the Cole Brothers Circus , the Coney Island Dreamland Side Show , and the World Circus Sideshow . 
