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. 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 Joseph Rockley Merrick, he had a younger brother and sister. He began showing signs of deformity at age two or five (Sources differ).[1] 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.
After making his way back to London, Merrick had the good fortune of befriending the well-known Victorian doctor, Frederick Treves, who discovered him at Liverpool Street train station suffering from a severe bronchial infection. In his role as physician at London Hospital, Treves enabled Merrick to be given a permanent home at the hospital. There, he thrived. He became something of a celebrity in Victorian high society, eventually becoming a favourite of Queen Victoria. Treves later commented that Merrick always wanted, even after living at the hospital, to go to a hospital for the blind so that he could find a woman there who would not be frightened of his appearance. In his later years, he found some solace in writing, composing both prose and poetry.
He was cared for at the hospital until his death at the age of 27 on April 11, 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.
Merrick's preserved skeleton was previously on display at the Royal London Hospital. While the remains can no longer be seen by the public, there is a small museum mostly centered around his life and has a few items from his past.
He returned to popular attention in 1979 and 1980 when two high profile productions made him 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, in which he was played by John Hurt. Each production took a different approach to the story.
Joseph Merrick was originally thought to be suffering from elephantiasis, a disease whose name was partially inspired by the "Elephant Man". In 1971, Ashley Montagu suggested in his book The Elephant Man: A Study in Human Dignity that Merrick suffered from neurofibromatosistype I, a genetic disorder also known as von Recklinghausen's disease. This disease is still strongly associated with Merrick in the mind of the public; however, it was postulated in 1986 that Merrick actually suffered from Proteus syndrome (a condition which had been identified by Michael Cohen just seven years earlier).[2]. 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.
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
File:Michaeljacksonleavemealone.jpgMichael Jackson dancing with a depiction of Merrick's skeleton in the video for "Leave Me Alone". In the mid-1980s, singer Michael Jackson attempted to purchase Merrick's remains from the London Hospital Medical College. A press release on May 291987 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 later 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?"[3][4][5] 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.[6] 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.
Perhaps as a parody of this, American post-hardcore band The Fall of Troy have a song titled, "Wacko Jacko Steals The Elephant Man's Bones".
The Canadian band Barenaked Ladies also makes a reference to the Michael Jackson incident in their song "If I Had $1000000" with the line "If I had a million dollars, well I'd buy you John Merrick's remains, oh all of them crazy elephant bones"
According to the band's story, deadboy and the Elephantmen frontman Dax Riggs found his faith in God's benevolence tested so much after viewing the Elephant Man documentary as a child, that he left his life with a devout Jehovah's Witness practicing family to live with his father. He later created the band, aptly named after his childhood catharsis.
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.
Rapper Immortal Technique makes a reference to Merrick in his song "Freedom of Speech."
Rapper Necro makes a reference to Merrick in the Circle of Tyrants song "Carnivores".
Merrick has been mentioned several times in the television series Seinfeld. In the episode "The Pitch," George walks out on a meeting with NBC executives because he felt his (non-existent) 'artistic integrity' was being jeopardized. Later, at the coffee shop, Jerry finally unloads his frustrations with George's many eccentricities: "Your artistic integrity?! You are a sick individual! You need professional help! And I'm not talking about some $80 a week appointment. You need a team a scientists working around the clock trying to figure you out. Like they did with the Elephant Man!"
Merrick was again mentioned breifly, when George was describing how he felt about his (then) current relationship; "It's like one of those 'elephant man' sideshows, where they pull off the sack, and everyone goes "Oooh, Aaah."
The Elephant Man, a film first released on 3 October, 1980 , features Mary Jane's son "John" speaking highly of her. "She has the face of an angel," he says. John is depicted looking at a small picture of his mother very often in the film.
Mary Jane died from bronchial pneumonia on May 19, 1873. Joseph was re-married to Emma Wood Antill on December 3, 1874, and she soon convinced her new husband to send the deformed Joseph away.
Joseph Rockley Merrick died from chronic bronchitis on 30 January, 1897.
Further reading
Following are books about or inspired by Joseph Merrick
Ashley Montagu, The Elephant Man: A Study in Human Dignity
Michael Howell and Peter Ford, The True History of the Elephant Man
Christine Sparks, The Elephant Man! (based on the movie)
^http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3084483.stm. In an autobiographical note which appeared on the reverse side of his 'Freak Show' pamphlet, Merick mentions that his deformity begun developing when at the age of five [1].
^Tibbles JA, Cohen MM Jr The Proteus syndrome: the Elephant Man diagnosed. British Medical Journal (Clin Res Ed). 1986 Sep 13;293(6548):683-5.
