How the Elephant Man Defied ALL Medical Knowledge

hey 42 here it's safe to say most of us have our body image hang ups these days for some people it's acne for others it's hair loss some people worry they look old before their time counting gray hairs and trying to smooth out crow's feet whilst others fear exactly the opposite fearing people won't take them seriously because they can't yet grow a magnificent and perfectly formed mustache which is of course absolutely true mostly these are silly things they seem like a big deal to us but in reality we're the only ones who ever really noticed them but imagine for a moment that your body image hang up was not some inconsequential issue like the slightest hint of moves when you wear a tight t-shirt but an overall appearance so frightening that children burst into tears when they look at you and nuns cross themselves when passing you in the street because that was the fate of a man born in leicester in 1862 joseph carey merrick's appearance was so twisted and horrifying that he still talked about to this day more than 150 years later and whilst his real name might not be familiar to you his stage name almost certainly will be the elephant man believe it or not joseph merrick actually came into this world as apparently healthier baby as any other with no visible signs of deformity or abnormality whatsoever and he stayed that way a happy normal child until just before his second birthday when a strange bony lump appeared on his head and his lips began to puff up like he'd been given the world's first and worst lip job by the age of five the skin across his whole body had started to become rough and bumpy turning a strange grayish colour his right arm seemed to be growing faster than his left giving him a lopsided appearance and his feet swelled almost beyond recognition becoming huge and club-like basically he made quasimodo look like miss universe so yeah the next time you find yourself staring in the mirror with one critical eye on your curdled complexion and the other on your receding hairline just remember compared to joseph merrick you're basically a supermodel anyone who's attended school anywhere in the world will know that children can be cruel little buggers and we can only imagine the bullying joseph must have endured at the hands of his peers thanks to his increasingly monstrous appearance but he made the best of it sticking out his lessons until the age of 13 which was normal for the time joseph was very close to his mother and it was she who got him through those difficult early years no matter what the other children said or did no matter how many people stared at him or called him names he knew his mum would be there to greet him at the end of the day a wide smile on her face that showed no trace of the fear and disgust everyone else treated him with his mother's name was mary and as well as the standard bumper dose of love mothers always have for their children mary's was bolstered by a healthy chunk of guilt too after all her son's terrible deformities were all her fault or at least she thought they were you see during her pregnancy joseph's mother had been frightened half to death by a rampaging elephant that had escaped from a travelling circus she believed that intense fear had imprinted itself on her unborn child so that as he'd grown it had started to show itself through physical deformities it sounds like absolute nonsense and it is obviously but maternal impression the idea that experiences during pregnancy can impact a child later in life was widely accepted medical science at the time and most thought this was the reason for joseph's remarkable appearance whether through love guilt or a combination of the two joseph's mother managed to shield her son from the worst a world had to offer until she died of pneumonia that is when joseph was just 11 years old from that moment on his life became a misery his father didn't hang about in getting himself a new wife remarrying the very next year and joseph's stepmother was shall we say less than impressed with her newly acquired and seriously misshapen son by this time joseph's deformities had grown even more extreme his spine had begun to twist and the growths on his head had ballooned to frightening proportions becoming so heavy he could no longer sleep lying down for fear of asphyxiating instead having to get what rest he could with his head propped on his knees his lips flopped like the trunk of an elephant making eating a challenge and his speech almost unintelligible children in those days were expected to pay their way and at 13 joseph managed to find work rolling cigars in a factory not only could he now pay for his keep but he also had the excuse to get out the house where he was mercilessly taunted by his father and stepmother unfortunately joseph's deformities were showing no sign of slowing down and within three years his right hand had become so large and twisted he no longer had the necessary dexterity to roll cigars desperate to make a living despite this setback joseph managed to get a hawker's license entitling him to sell basic goods from door to door but yeah if ever there was a person utterly unsuited to being a door-to-door salesman it was joseph merrick not only did he have trouble walking thanks to his bent spine and oversized feet but turning up on people's doorsteps unannounced in what looked like the world's most terrifying and realistic halloween costume was only ever going to end one way with a lot of screaming you really do have to hand it to joseph though it must have taken incredible courage to go from house to house knowing exactly the reaction he was going to get when the owner opens the door and unwilling to stay at home any longer with parents who simply didn't want him joseph ultimately ended up where so many poor and desperate people did in victorian england the workhouse workhouses were originally conceived as a kind of welfare safety net for the have-nots giving society's neediest individuals food and shelter in return for their labor but in reality they were horrific prison-like institutions where conditions were squalored food was little more than gruel and the work was both never ending and back-breaking joseph would spend four brutal years in the workhouse his health deteriorating with each passing month most people would have probably given up at this point but joseph was a fighter he decided he wasn't going to spend the rest of his days working his oversized fingers to the bone he was going to get himself out there no matter what if you've seen the david lynch film about joseph merrick's life simply titled the elephant man starring john hurt and anthony hopkins you may think you know what happens next joseph ends up as an act in a freak show in london he's caged beaten and considered nothing more than an animal by those who use his terrible appearance to line their own pockets but the real story was actually far more interesting and inspiring the elephant man was a great success on its release in 1980 it was nominated for eight oscars and though it didn't win any it did lead to the creation of a brand new award category film critics were so outraged that john hurt's remarkable transformation into the grotesquely deformed shambling elephant man went unrecognized that the academy introduced a new award the following year best makeup it's been a category ever since but whilst the elephant man is an excellent film it turns out david lynch's seminal work played somewhat fast and loose with the truth with more than a few glaring errors cropping up here and there in the script not least the fact that they got the main character's name wrong he's called john throughout the film portrays joseph well john but will stick with the correct name as a victim exploited and mistreated for the benefit of the evil men who put him in their shows but in reality he was anything but and it was joseph himself who came up with the idea of becoming the star of attraction in a freak show as far as he was concerned if you've got it flaunt it even if it in this case happens to be one of the most extravagantly deformed anatomies in the history of mankind joseph found himself an agent and he was soon touring central england as the elephant man the headline act in a brand new novelty where he would appear in front of ever-growing audiences who were equal parts amazed and disgusted by the sight of him whilst i'm sure the reactions joseph got from the public were hard to bear it seems that to him at least they were worth it not only was he making a good living and standing on his own two club feet but outside of the shows themselves he was also getting his first taste of what it meant to be normal as the leading act in a freak show he was surrounded by people like him or if not quite like him people who were just as different as he was from everyone else the act was a success and soon enough joseph was ready to try and make it big in the capital he secured the services of prominent showman tom norman who specialized in freak shows to act as his manager in london and boarded a train south full of optimism but things got off to a rocky starts the first time he and norman met with the showman so appalled by joseph's appearance he feared his new star attraction was too freakish even for a freak show which when you think about it is really saying something for this reason they started small showing joseph not on the stages of grand theatres but in the back of a shop on white chapel road which is famous for its multicultural restaurants and for being worth bugger all in monopoly but it turned out norman's fears were unfounded people flocked from all over the city to catch a glimpse of the elephant man with their own eyes and pretty soon joseph was the biggest freak in town in a good way as had been the case in the midlands he was an equal partner in the venture meaning he got to keep half the money they made from ticket receipts and an autobiographical pamphlet they were selling early merch basically although the shop was small and had a limited capacity it turned out white chapel road was the perfect location to exhibit the elephant man because it happened to be directly opposite london hospital that meant as well as the regular punters curious doctors and medical students would frequently pop in to have a look at the walking talking medical marvel inside one such doctor was frederick treves a famous surgeon who would later save king edward vii from death by appendicitis who quickly became fascinated with the elephant man it's easy to guess from the pictures we have what people must have thought of joseph when they first saw him but in trev's case we don't have to guess because he went to the trouble of noting it down for us in great detail in his words joseph was the most disgusting specimen of humanity that i have ever seen at no time have i met with such a degraded or perverted version of a human being as this lone figure displayed wow don't sugarcoat it or anything freddy but in the war between curiosity and disgust that waged and treats his mind that day it was ultimately curiosity that won out and he asked joseph to come over to the hospital for a medical examination the notes from the exam give us a sense of just how deformed joseph had become by this point trees measured his head at 91 centimeters around almost twice that of the average adult man whilst also compiling a long list of other deformities including warty growths covering much of his body the largest of which gave off a foul smell sagging skin that hung like fleshy curtains and bone deformities in the right arm both legs and on the skull in fact pretty much the only parts of joseph that appeared in full working order were his left arm and his penis and scrotum thanks to the freak show's success joseph was able to save 50 pounds from his earnings that's the equivalent of almost 6 000 pounds today it was a significant sum more than he'd ever seen before in his life and even more significant was the freedom and confidence it gave him joseph was now a self-made man living by his own means not held back by his deformities but actually profiting from them for a short time he was the king of novelty show in london but there was a problem on the horizon his kingdom was about to come under attack had joseph being born 20 years earlier he would have probably gone on to have a long and affluent career but towards the end of the 19th century sentiment towards freak shows across victorian london was changing and people were starting to view them not as wholesome fun for all the family but as distasteful exploitative and morally corrupt as perhaps the most famous freak in the capital it wasn't long before the police arrived to shut the elephant man down instead of searching for a new location for his show joseph did what he always did in difficult times he made a bold decision it was time for a european tour a contact was found on the continent and joseph set sail for belgium with money in his pockets and a bright future ahead of him little did he know it then within a matter of days he would lose both it quickly became apparent that public sentiment towards freak shows was just as unfavorable in europe as it had been back home and the elephant man did not go down well with the locals joseph's new manager soon became unhappy with the situation so unhappy in fact that instead of working hard to try and turn things around he simply stole joseph's life savings and kicked him out onto the street it would have been dangerous and scary for anyone but for joseph it was catastrophic he found himself alone and penniless on the streets of brussels a city he didn't know utterly unable to communicate with the locals who spoke no english not that it would have made any difference if they had when he approached strangers to ask for help they either ran from him in horror attacked him in fear or simply followed him everywhere he went in disgusted fascination but somehow he managed to pawn off the few possessions he still had left to raise money for a ticket home the journey was long and complicated and joseph was hassled and gawked at every shambling step of the way as he went from train to train unable to sleep or even find a moment's peace when he finally made it to the port of ostend in north west belgium where he planned to take the ferry to dover the captain of the ship turned him away for fear he would frighten the other passengers joseph did eventually make it back to london but by then he'd changed he had no money and no prospects and the small degree of confidence he built up in his chosen career as a novelty act had been shattered he was eventually found by the authorities curled up in the corner of a waiting room at liverpool street station shaking and alone the only thing he had on his person was the business card of frederick trees the doctor who'd examined him months earlier trees was called and joseph was taken back to london hospital where he was given rooms in the attic medical professionals had been fascinated by joseph's case ever since trees first stumbled upon the elephant man in a small shop on white chapel road yet even with the huge advances in medical science we've seen since to this day nobody has been able to conclusively prove what was wrong with joseph merrick the extent of his deformities was so great it's even been suggested they may have been the result of multiple disorders acting on his ravaged body in tandem but whatever afflicted poor joseph it's fair to say trees on his colleagues had absolutely no idea what they were dealing with and even less chance of actually treating him which posed something of a problem joseph had nowhere to go but if he couldn't be treated he had no business staying at the hospital in the end the hospital's chairman wrote a pretty much unprecedented letter to the times newspaper asking the general public for help think of it like an early gofundme campaign the response was unexpectedly enormous and enough money flooded in from wealthy benefactors touched by the story to pay for permanent rooms at the hospital for the rest of joseph's life but the letter in the times had another unexpected effect in one more twist in joseph's remarkable life story he suddenly found himself a celebrity amongst london's high society in time he was corresponding with famous actresses attending shows and visiting stately homes in the south of england the london elite couldn't get enough of the elephant man his charm and warmth was so at odds with his monstrous outward appearance he even had a brush with royalty when the prince and princess of wales he would be king and queen consort of england a few years later visited the hospital to officially open two new buildings princess alexandra personally requested a meeting with joseph where she shook his hand and sat with him for a few hours i'd love to say joseph merrick went on to live a long and happy life in london hospital but once again just when things were going well for him happiness was snatched away and this time for good he died on the 11th of april 1890 at the age of just 27. he was found lying on his bed the cause of death recorded as asphyxiation caused by pressure on his windpipe from his oversized head his deformities had finally beaten him whilst a true story of the elephant man is a sad one it's also inspirational joseph merrick was dealt terrible hand after terrible hand in the game of life but all the same he never stopped playing and he even managed to win a few if you'll forgive me for guessing a little sentimental in this one i'll leave you with a poem joseph merrick used to include at the bottom of his letters just below his signature tis true my form is something odd but blaming me is blaming god could i create myself a new i would not fail in pleasing you if i could reach from pole to pole or grasp the ocean with a span i would be measured by the soul the mines the standard of the man thanks for watching you can now buy my new book sticker flag in it on amazon or get the audio book on audible you'll find a link to both in the description below thank you

Channel: Thoughty2

Views: 1,657,495

Rating: 4.9477668 out of 5

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Id: PGwNpbAlWgE

Length: 20min 55sec (1255 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 04 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Drugbugz]

Ah the Elephant man with pendulous skin, who’s name be Joseph Merrick.

[u/RazorHoof_]

Brann goes in depth on the subject on his latest appearance on The Jasta Show (Jamie Jasta’s podcast)