Joseph Merrick

Joseph Carey Merrick (5 August, 1862 – 11 April, 1890), known as "The Elephant Man" gained the sympathy of Victorian era Britain because of the extreme deformity of his body. Early biographies of Merrick inaccurately give his first name as "John"; an error repeated in many later versions, including the 1980 film The Elephant Man and in the BBC 2 television programme I'm Alan Partridge. The stage play calls him Adam throughout, except for a brief acknowledgement of his name as "Joseph" after his death, when Treves "corrects" a person who wants to call him "Joseph".

Life

Born in Leicester to Mary Jane Merrick and Adam Rockley Merrick, he had a younger brother and sister. He began showing signs of deformity at age two or five (Sources differ).http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3084483.stm His mother died when he was 11. According to family accounts, she too was "crippled." His father remarried, but his stepmother did not want the younger Joseph. She gave her husband an ultimatum: "Joseph, or me," and her husband responded by throwing Joseph out of the house.

He was forced to earn a living by selling shoe polish on the street where he would be constantly harassed by local children. For the better part of his life he was unemployable, so as a last resort he took a job as a sideshow attraction. He was treated decently, and made a small amount of money. However, when sideshows were outlawed in the United Kingdom in 1886, he travelled to Belgium to find work. There, he was mistreated and abandoned by a showman.

He was cared for at the hospital until his death at the age of 27 on 11 April, 1890 from suffocation while sleeping, which was apparently accidental. Merrick was unable to sleep horizontally due to the weight of his head, but he may have intentionally tried to do so in this instance in an attempt to imitate normal behaviour.

He returned to popular attention in 1979 and 1980 when two high profile productions made Merrick their subject. His life story became the basis of a 1979 Tony Award-winning play, and in the following year an Academy Award-nominated film. Each production took a different approach to the story, but both were called The Elephant Man.

Merrick's preserved skeleton is on permanent display at the Royal London Hospital.

Medical condition

In 1971 Ashley Montagu suggested that Merrick suffered from neurofibromatosis type I, a genetic disorder also known as von Recklinghausen's disease. This disease is still connected with Merrick in the mind of the public. However, in 1979, Michael Cohen first identified a condition which came to be named Proteus syndrome by Rudolf Wiedemann in 1983. In 1986 it was argued that Proteus syndrome was the condition from which Merrick actually sufferedTibbles JA, Cohen MM Jr The Proteus syndrome: the Elephant Man diagnosed. British Medical Journal (Clin Res Ed). 1986 Sep 13;293(6548):683-5.. Unlike neurofibromatosis, Proteus syndrome (named for the shape-shifting god Proteus) affects tissue other than nerves, and is a sporadic rather than familially transmitted disorder. In July 2003, Dr. Charis Eng announced that as a result of DNA tests on samples of Merrick's hair and bone, she had determined that Merrick certainly suffered Proteus syndrome, and may have had neurofibromatosis type I as well. His PTEN gene (often mutated in the Proteus syndrome) appears to have been healthy (i.e., not mutated). As it stands, many people still mistakenly refer to his condition as elephantiasis (sometimes misspoken as "elephantitis.").http://www.proteinwisdom.com/index.php/weblog/entry/19322

In 2002 a television research team, along with genealogists put out a BBC appeal to trace the Merrick family line. In response to the appeal, a Leicester resident named Pat Selby was discovered to be the granddaughter of Merrick's uncle. A research team took her DNA samples in order to try to diagnose the condition that caused his deformities. The TV crew also discovered that Merrick's sister, Marion Eliza, also suffered from a crippling disease called myelitis. Marion Eliza died at the age of 24.

In popular culture

In a Calvin and Hobbes story arc, in which Calvin's face is frozen in a face he was making, at the dinner table, he covered his face with a tablecloth with eyeholes (Similar to Joseph's hood in the movie), saying "But I won't let it bother you. See? Elephant man!"
In the mid-1980s, singer Michael Jackson reportedly attempted to purchase Merrick's remains from the London Hospital Medical College. A press release on May 29 1987 from Jackson's manager, Frank DiLeo, stated that the singer "has a high degree of respect for the memory of Merrick. He has read and studied all material about the Elephant Man, and has visited the hospital in London twice to view Merrick's remains. His fascination with their historical significance increased with each visit, along with hopes to add them to his collection of rare and unusual memorabilia at his California compound." He went on to claim that Jackson had no intentions to exploit the remains for profit and only wished to treat them as art or antiques. Michael Jackson's offer of US $1 million was turned down. He went on to extensively deny that he had tried to obtain the Elephant Man's Bones. In 1993, during an interview at his Neverland Ranch, he told Oprah Winfrey that it was "another stupid story. I love the story of the Elephant Man, he reminds me of me a lot, and I could relate to it, it made me cry because I saw myself in the story, but no I never asked for the... where am I going to put some bones? And why would I want some bones?"http://www.rotten.com/library/sideshow/elephant-man/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,103448,00.htmlhttp://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1107191939457_102601139 In a 1989 music video for the song "Leave Me Alone", Jackson could be seen dancing alongside a claymation version of the Elephant Man's Bones.http://www.fast-rewind.com/elephantman.htm This was most likely a self-parody, as other parts of the video dealt with how he felt he was unfairly portrayed by the press.

Howard Stern, in a chapter about Michael Jackson in his book Miss America, wrote that he had heard the report that Jackson had bid US $1 million for Mr. Merrick's remains. As an on-air bit, he called the London Hospital Medical College live on the air, and bid US $2 million. His "bid" was rejected as well.
The British band Suede released a song titled "Elephant Man" on the album "Head Music" in 1999.
The band The Fall of Troy has a song jokingly titled "Whacko Jacko Steals the Elephant Man's Bones".
Heavy metal band Mastodon have a song on their Leviathan album titled "Joseph Merrick", as well as the final track on their Remission album, entitled simply "Elephant Man".
The Avant-Garde guitarist Buckethead makes numerous references to The Elephant Man including a song on the album Bucketheadland 2 called "The John Merrick Elephant Man Bones Explosion" and an album called "The Elephant Man's Alarm Clock". During live performances he will sometimes play a sampling of dialogue from the 1980 film.
Merrick briefly appears as a character in the 2001 film about Jack the Ripper, From Hell. He is played by Anthony Parker.
The song "I Had $1000000" target="_blank" >^*" by Barenaked Ladies includes the line "I'd buy you John Merrick's remains... All those crazy elephant bones". This is an obvious reference to Michael Jackson's alleged attempt to purchase the bones for US $1 million.
The band Murder City Devils recorded a song "Bride of the Elephant Man". The song included the lyrics "John Merrick, your prayers are all heard first", and "Tell me John, tell me I'm forgiven".

References

Online references

External links

1862 births | 1890 deaths | Leicesterians | Sideshow attractions | Famous patients