Half Boy

Okay I am finally getting round to starting the series on some of the characters from the film Freaks that I alluded to a couple of blips ago! Some of their stories are quite uplifting and others rather sad. I will start with a somewhat mixed one.

Handsome, acrobatic and charismatic, Johnny Eck was known as the Half-boy and was supposed to be cut off at the waist but in fact he did have legs, they were just very small. He kept up the illusion of being a half-boy by keeping his legs folded underneath him and having a specially made suit which appeared to end at the waist.

He had a twin brother called Robert who he managed to outpace from an early age, running on his hands before Robert could walk. The brothers were signed up to a circus sideshow in 1923 at the age of 12, Johnny only agreeing to join if Robert could come too. They often capitalised on their physical resemblance, I would have loved to have seen their "sawing a man in half "act! The brothers continued a career in entertainment, even after the sideshow had fallen out of favour, but despite this, they were rather poor when they retired, mainly due to poor managers and being taken advantage of. The final straw came when the brothers were robbed and Johnny was restrained by having one of the thugs sit on him. The brothers became recluses, Johnny proclaiming that if he wanted to see freaks all he needed to do was look out of the window. He died a few years later aged 79, his brother following him a few years after that. A sad and ignoble end to a once much-loved performer.

You can see Johnny in action in this short video clip.