Here's Johnny

Johnny Eck (August 27, 1911 - April 28, 1991) was born without legs and with a truncated spine, reaching a full-grown height of 18 inches. Turning his physical deformity into his livelihood, Johnny Eck began a remarkable career which took him from carnivals to vaudeville to Hollywood.



At the age of 10, Eck was performing a duo act with his normal-sized twin brother, Robert, featuring magic tricks and Johnny's famous one-armed handstand. Their most memorable bit, though, was described by Wikipedia thus:

Robert would be "recruited" from the audience for a hypnosis stunt, then kept on-stage for a sawing-in-half illusion. During the illusion, Robert would be switched with Eck and a dwarf wearing trousers that covered his whole body, disguising him as the subject's pelvis and legs. Raboid would saw between Eck and the dwarf. Eck would then chase his "legs" across the stage.


WITH TWIN BROTHER ROBERT, C. 1940'S

In 1932, Johnny Eck made a memorable appearance in director Tod Browning's infamous movie, Freaks. The film so disturbed and repulsed audiences, it had the distinction of being banned in most cities and countries for three decades; MGM virtually disowned the project, and in the few areas where it did receive release, it was often in a highly-censored version. Perhaps what audiences and critics of the time found the most disturbing and difficult to grasp, was Browning's obvious sympathy for his cast of human oddities (all culled from real-life sideshows), and the moral that the true "freaks" were the "normal" characters who treat the oddities with disdain and outright cruelty. It's a strange, beautiful, frightening film which still packs a wallop, and Johnny Eck is absolutely charming in it.


THE CAST OF FREAKS (1932). JOHNNY ECK IS FRONT AND CENTER.

If Freaks didn't make Johnny Eck the next Gable, it didn't hurt his career, either. He also appeared, in costume, as "The Gooney Bird" in three of MGM's Tarzan films. Aside from his occasional acting jobs, Johnny kept busy with his stage act, and also found time to do remarkable woodwork, including a full, miniature-scale functioning circus. He kept up a voluminous personal correspondence, much of which he embellished with his own watercolors; in addition, Johnny also was an accomplished screen painter.


JOHNNY WITH HIS HANDMADE MINIATURE CIRCUS, 1927


1985 POSTCARD FROM JOHNNY ECK, FEATURING HIS ARTWORK

Always warm and accessible to his fans, Johnny abruptly retreated into seclusion after a 1988 beating and robbery at the home he shared with Robert. Johnny passed away from a heart attack in 1991 at the age of 79; Robert died four years later. The twins are buried beneath one tombstone.

For Johnny Eck to have survived and thrived so well, for his fierce intelligence and embrace of the arts, we are in quiet awe. By all accounts, his talent was matched by his gentlemanly warmth, resilience and general positivity. Read more about him at The Johnny Eck Museum, from which many of these images originate.