The Elephant Man -- Myth, Misconceptions, and the Musical

[NotHardUp1]

I heard a periphery of the buzz last year about The Elephant Man musical, but never any more about it. Last week, I happened across the 1980 movie that starred John Hurt. I hadn't seen it probably since it was in the cinema.

It occurred to me that I had misremembered some of the story, as well as the fact the movie embellished the historical account with dramatic license. I think he deserves to be remembered for who he was and the life he lived, not a romanticized fiction.

So, here is a list of factoids, some of them true, some myths or misconceptions. Can you spot any of the bogus "facts"?

1. His name was John Merrick
2. He was born with his deformities, but developed elephantiasis before the age of three, an infection by a parasitic worm that deforms the bone and skin.
3. His mother abandoned him as an infant.
4. He worked for years as a cigar roller.
5. He lived in a workhouse for years when he couldn’t support himself and his uncle couldn’t afford to support him.
6. He was kidnapped and taken on the road in a travelling freak show.
7. He was a staunch atheist.
8. Queen Victoria visited him when he lived in the hospital.
9. His doctor believed him to be of low intelligence.
10. He slept seated upright, with his head resting on his knees.
11. He lived to be almost 50.
12. He died from suicide.
13. His skeleton was kept and displayed but was finally buried.

He was a remarkable human. We do well to remember his life when we are tempted to bemoan our own.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

OK, his name was Joe Merrick, at birth he looked like a normal baby . . . I'm not sure if any of the details listed above are true.

 

[LeicsDom]

He was born in Leicester
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Merrick

 

[NotHardUp1]

Yes, he was Joseph Merrick, not John. He had a brother named John who died as a child. The mix-up apparently came from Dr. Treves who wrote about Merrick and was instrumental in getting him accommodated at the hospital so he could live there.

It is also true that Merrick didn't fully trust Treves and that he didn't fully disclose his history to Treves.

Others researching and writing about Merrick assumed the doctor knew what he was saying, and copied his misnomer, causing many to refer to Joseph incorrectly.

And true, at birth he appeared normal, and his deformities were not really evident until he reached the age of 12.

The Wiki article is a good read. Merrick is an icon for so many with disfigurement, even if it is as simple as acne, a cauliflower ear, or something more noticeable.

It is quite painful to consider how much suffering, physically and emotionally, that Merrick endured.

 

[Vannie]

I didn't know he died so young

 

[unloadonme]

Number 2 is nonsense. I don't think he was born with any deformities and whatever it was which caused them as he developed, it was most certainly not elephantiasis. That's a tropical disease caused by nematodes in the lymphatic system which leads to lymphoedema. It does not cause skeletal deformity.

 

[spunkfunker]

I thought that Michael Jackson had his skeleton at Neverland, at least that's what I remember hearing as a child.

 

[unloadonme]

I thought that Michael Jackson had his skeleton at Neverland, at least that's what I remember hearing as a child.

His skeleton is in a medical school in London.

 

[Alistair]

I thought that Michael Jackson had his skeleton at Neverland, at least that's what I remember hearing as a child.

I thought the same.

Edit. He tried to buy the bones in 1987. Seems he was fascinated with Merrick

MICHAEL Jackson was obsessed with the Elephant Man and would spend hours sitting alone with the skeleton, it has been revealed.

 

[NotHardUp1]

I didn't know he died so young

It is really hard to face that he suffered all that happened to him from age 12 to when he died at age 27. The events are all so horrible that it makes Dickens' characters all appear to live in Paradise.

Number 2 is nonsense. I don't think he was born with any deformities and whatever it was which caused them as he developed, it was most certainly not elephantiasis. That's a tropical disease caused by nematodes in the lymphatic system which leads to lymphoedema. It does not cause skeletal deformity.

Absolutely correct, but many a person blurs the two when hearing "The Elephant Man." That moniker was a marketing angle his handler used to promote the travelling freak show, and they were common at the time, but were winding down and eventually shut down by authorities.

There is no certainty to the disease that Merrick had but there are a couple of recent theories, the most prominent one concluding he had Proteus Syndrome, which is about as rare as diseases get. Additionally, he fell and broke a hip as a boy and it became infected and he was lame for the rest of his life. It seems so unfair.

His skeleton is in a medical school in London.

That is true, although his soft tissue was buried in a cemetery. Deformity or no, and rare disease or no, it seems more than a bit barbaric to keep his actual skeleton on display, even for medical science, since he was a named modern person who may or may not have donated his remains to science. I never read on anything that touched upon how his skeleton came to be on display, if he consented or not.

It would seem to be more respectful to make a cast and take tissue samples and inter the body as any other person in our culture today.

To the conjecture about Michael Jackson, that is fair, as in the late 70's he apparently made offers to buy the skeleton but it was never for sale. There is some discussion here that the offers were more a publicity stunt to keep Jackson's name in the headlines: https://kerryhennigan.wordpress.com...-michael-jackson-and-the-elephant-mans-bones/

I see Alistair and I were digging up the Jackson bit at the same time, so meh. We tied.

 

[unloadonme]

I'll call you on the Queen Victoria point too. He may have had important visitors, but not that important.

 

[Cormac135]

There's some BBC reporter who suffers from the same affliction.

 

[NotHardUp1]

I'll call you on the Queen Victoria point too. He may have had important visitors, but not that important.

As close to the truth as can be though. Princess Alexandra visited him following the articles published about him in the papers, and actually entered his rooms at the hospital. After that, she sent him a Christmas card every year.

With Queen Victoria's fixation on photographs of handicapped and deformed people, I imagine he was in her collection. Purely conjecture.

 

[NotHardUp1]

There's some BBC reporter who suffers from the same affliction.

He has my sympathies. I'm not sure I am strong enough to endure that degree of deformity. I've always felt akin to the Elephant Man after seeing the movie, but a psychological connection is quite different than the real suffering.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

If the 1980 David Lynch movie, "The Elephant Man", stayed with documented facts with no embellishments it would have been just as amazing, imho.

 

[NotHardUp1]

Yes, it would have, but I don't begrudge a storyteller his craft. Taking an artistic liberty with telling a tale can often convey a truth even if it is not the individual's truth, or even if it is, but not coalesced into a single expedient event.

Likewise, additions help create universal themes that all can connect with.

The perceived discrepancies I noted were not harmful, and may actually come from some lengthier writing or biography, but from articles I read, seem like fictions.

And not everything I listed in the OP is from the Lynch film, but several are likely misconceptions or even faulty syllogisms.

I have no idea what liberties the musical takes, but if it is anything like Hamilton, it would have more to say about the times of the creator than the times of the subject.

And, there is also the age-old problem of WHOSE documented facts. Dr. Treves was considered authoritative, yet he didn't even have his first name correct, writing it as John. His perceptions of Merrick's family and childhood were also wrong, as Joseph didn't fully entrust him with the true details.

That said, by the time Treves met Merrick, his speech was severely impaired and unintelligible to most people on the street, so that may have been a factor.

 

[Cormac135]

He has my sympathies. I'm not sure I am strong enough to endure that degree of deformity. I've always felt akin to the Elephant Man after seeing the movie, but a psychological connection is quite different than the real suffering.

Here's the chap here,

Adam Pearson, seems to be doing rather well for himself, i saw him winning an ep of Celebrity Mastermind, came across as rather charming.

 

[NotHardUp1]

Thank you.

John Merrick was described as both well-educated and refined, a very difficult feat to imagine in that era, deprived of schooling after age 13, which was the norm then.

His deformities prevented him from being able to earn a living outside the freak business. I'm glad our world has changed in the century plus since then.

Mr. Pearson appears to have a less severe form. I wish him a long and fulfilling life.

So many people in this world have bodies that fight them, hurt them, and hinder them. Would that all could be healed.