Elsa Mars

Elsa Mars is a fictional business owner and a central character featured on the FX Network television series American Horror Story. Played by actress Jessica Lange, she was one of the main characters featured in the season four storyline, "Freak Show".

Biography
Elsa Mars was a German citizen and a middle-aged woman in the 1930s. She became a victim of bizarre experiments, which included the removal of her legs during filming of a snuff movie. She managed to get out of Germany and came to the United States as an expatriate. Using a pair of wooden prosthetic legs, she sought to fulfill her dream of being an entertainer.

Settling down for a bit in Jupiter, Florida, she started up Fräulein Elsa's Cabinet of Curiosities, which was a carnival sideshow attraction, showcasing various human oddities. During her time as manager and owner of the sideshow, she had encounters with several individuals whose goals were in opposition to Elsa's, not the least of which included an unscrupulous businessman named Stanley and the psychotic Dandy Mott.

In 1952, Elsa Mars sold the freak show to Chester Creb before moving out to Hollywood to become a television star. She was quite successful, but ultimately grew extremely unhappy. Having always regarded herself as a "freak", she no longer had any joy in her life without her fellow sideshow performers, whom she later learned had all been brutally murdered by Dandy Mott.

It was a rule amongst her people that no one was to perform on Halloween night or else the ghost of Edward Mordrake and his troupe of spirit freaks would appear before them to claim their lives. Elsa Mars elected to do one more show on the "Elsa Mars Hour", which was a special Halloween event. The ghost of Edward Mordrake appeared before her after the show, and she was ready to be taken by him. Mordrake agreed to end her life, but told her that she had no place among his kind.

Notes & Trivia



 * Playing the role of Elsa Mars is actress Jessica Lange's fourth and final character on American Horror Story. In season one's "Murder House", she played Constance Langdon (a role which she briefly resumed for "Apocalypse" in season eight). In season two, she played Jude Martin. In season three she played Fiona Goode.
 * The season four finale, "Curtain Call", may have been so-titled not only for its entertainment reference, but also to signify Jessica Lange's final appearance on the show as a series regular.


 * Elsa Mars' had two connections to characters featured in "Asylum". The character of Arthur Arden from "Asylum" was one of her tormentors in Germany during World War II. The character of Pepper from "Freak Show" was also one of the mental patients from "Asylum".


 * Elsa Mars was rejected from becoming part of Edward Mordrake's ghost troupe. Instead, a scene with Elsa's soul journeying to the afterlife shows her reuniting with her family from the freak show, thus giving this tragic character a peaceful ending.


 * As of season eight's "Return to Murder House", all of the characters portrayed by Jessica Lange up until this point are now deceased.

Appearances

 * 1) American Horror Story: Monsters Among Us
 * 2) American Horror Story: Massacres and Matinees
 * 3) American Horror Story: Edward Mordrake (Part 1)
 * 4) American Horror Story: Edward Mordrake (Part 2)
 * 5) American Horror Story: Pink Cupcakes
 * 6) American Horror Story: Bullseye
 * 7) American Horror Story: Test of Strength
 * 8) American Horror Story: Blood Bath
 * 9) American Horror Story: Tupperware Party Massacre
 * 10) American Horror Story: Orphans
 * 11) American Horror Story: Magical Thinking
 * 12) American Horror Story: Show Stoppers
 * 13) American Horror Story: Curtain Call