Elephant is a 2003 drama film edited, written, and directed by Gus Van Sant. It takes place in the fictional Watt High School, in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon, and chronicles the events surrounding a school shooting, based in part on the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. The film begins a short time before the shooting occurs, following the lives of several characters both in and out of school, who are unaware of what is about to unfold. The film stars mostly new or non-professional actors, including John Robinson, Alex Frost, and Eric Deulen.

Elephant is the second film in Van Sant's "Death Trilogy" — the first being Gerry (2002) and the third being Last Days (2005) — in which all three are based on actual events.

Elephant was generally acclaimed by critics and received the Palme d'Or at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.^[1] As the first high-profile movie to depict a high school shooting since Columbine, the film was controversial for its subject matter and possible influence on teenage copy-cats.

Plot[link]

The film opens with Mr. McFarland (Timothy Bottoms) driving erratically down a residential street on the way to drop off his son, John (John Robinson). John notices damage to the car and realizes that his father is drunk, so John instructs him to move to the passenger seat and let him drive.

The camera then follows students as they walk down the hallways, talk to friends, and go to class. Many characters are shown in long tracking shots that do not turn away. Alex (Alex Frost) and Eric (Eric Deulen) are shown being bullied at school by the so-called jocks, one of whom diverts a teacher and then throws a spitball at Alex during science class. Later, Alex and Eric are shown at home ordering weapons from a website and receiving a rifle in the mail. While Alex is taking a shower, Eric gets in with him. He claims that he has never kissed anyone before, and the two kiss. The two are later shown formulating an attack plan. The next day, Alex and Eric prepare for the shooting, then make their way to school in silence in Alex's car.

After arriving at school, Alex and Eric encounter John outside and tell him to leave, as some "heavy shit's about to go down". Realizing what is about to happen, John attempts to warn others not to enter the school, to little effect. The two gunmen then enter the school, and after their plans to blow up parts of the school with propane bombs fail, begin shooting indiscriminately. Elias (Elias McConnell) photographs them entering the library where they open fire, shooting several students, including Michelle and presumably Elias.

Realizing that the gunfire is real, students now begin to panic, while teachers attempt to quickly evacuate everyone. The two boys separate, continuing their killing spree. Alex enters the bathroom where Brittany, Jordan and Nicole are, presumably shooting all three. Mr. Luce, cornered by Eric in a hallway, begs Eric to lower his weapon and talk to him, but Eric yells, "I ain't putting shit down!" and fires at him. He does speak to Mr. Luce, however; while he is doing so, he turns around suddenly to see Benny approaching him. Eric shoots and presumably kills Benny. Eric turns back to Luce and warns him not to bully kids like Alex and himself. He then agrees to let the man go, only to gun him down seconds later.

Alex enters the cafeteria and sits down (where he has apparently already opened fire, as a body can be seen in the background). Eric meets up with him, and they have a brief conversation, which ends when Alex shoots Eric in mid-sentence. Alex then leaves the cafeteria, showing no emotion over shooting Eric, and discovers Carrie and Nathan in a freezer. He tauntingly recites "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" to them to decide whom he should kill first. The film ends without resolution; the last shot is similar to the first, a cloudy blue sky.

Cast[link]

• Alex Frost as Alex, the more intelligent of the two killers, implied to be the one in charge. He is an accomplished but frustrated pianist and sketch artist. He and Eric have a short love affair before the massacre, both citing the fact that they had never been kissed.
• Eric Deulen as Eric, a slacker, Alex's friend, and the other killer. He is less intelligent than Alex, and Alex is obviously aware of this. He is shot in the chest by Alex near the end of the film, while talking about whom he had killed prior.
• John Robinson as John McFarland, Alex's friend who has trouble at school while managing his alcoholic father. Alex effectively saves his life by warning him to stay away from the massacre.
• Timothy Bottoms as Mr. McFarland, John's alcoholic father.
• Matt Malloy as Mr. Luce, the principal of the school. Cornered by Eric, who briefly spares him, he is presumed dead after being shot several times.
• Elias McConnell as Elias, an aspiring photography student building his portfolio with portraits of other students. Although not shown, he is presumed shot and killed in the library.
• Nathan Tyson and Carrie Finklea as Nathan and Carrie, a popular lifeguard/football player and his girlfriend. At least one of the two is shot and probably killed when Alex corners them in the cafeteria meat locker. Alex taunts Eeny, meeny, miny, moe and it is unknown which one he shot, if the other survived, or if he proceeded to murder both teens.
• Kristen Hicks as Michelle, a nerdy girl ashamed of her body. The film follows her through the locker room and into the library where she assists. She is the first to die during the massacre.
• Brittany Mountain, Jordan Taylor, and Nicole George as Brittany, Jordan, and Nicole, three bulimic girls who talk incessantly, gripe about parents, and squabble with one another. All are presumed shot and killed by Alex.
• Bennie Dixon as Benny, an athletic student who helps Acadia escape out of a window before approaching Eric. He is shot and presumed dead after trying to help Mr. Luce.
• Alicia Miles as Acadia, a close friend of John and a member of the Gay-Straight Alliance. She is assumed to have a panic disorder which causes her to freeze and break down in times of fear or stress. During the shooting, Benny discovers her standing still in a classroom and helps her escape from the school and the shooters.

Production[link]

The film began as a television film that Van Sant had intended to make about the Columbine High School massacre; eventually, the idea of a factual account was dropped.^{[citation needed]}

Elephant was filmed in Van Sant's hometown, Portland, Oregon in late 2002, on the former campus of Whitaker Middle School (previously Adams High School). Whitaker was closed by the Portland Public Schools in 2001 due to structural problems and safety concerns with the school building. The Whitaker/Adams building, completed in 1969, was torn down in 2007.

The script was "written" to its final form during shooting, with cast members improvising freely and collaborating in the direction of scenes.

JT LeRoy is credited as an associate producer for the film. JT is a pen name for author Laura Albert.

Title[link]

The title is a tribute to the 1989 BBC short film of the same name, directed by Alan Clarke. Van Sant originally believed Clarke's title referred to the story of several blind men trying to describe an elephant and each one drawing different conclusions based on which body part they were touching. Later, he found out that it was referring to the phrase "elephant in the room", a reference to the collective denial of some very obvious problem. Van Sant's film uses the earlier interpretation, as the same general timeline is shown multiple times from multiple viewpoints. Also, a more subtle allusion is to the elephant as the symbol of the Republican Party, which becomes relevant insofar as the film raises political questions about gun laws and homophobia in America.

The earlier film reflects on sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. Van Sant's minimalist style and use of tracking shots mirrors Clarke's film.^[2][3]

A drawing of an elephant as well as an image of an elephant on a throw on the bed can be seen in Alex's room, while he plays the piano.

Release[link]

Elephant premiered in North America at a benefit for the Outside In youth shelter in Portland, at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday, October 4, 2003, with several teenagers who appeared in the film in attendance.

The film was released for incremental distribution by HBO, in 100 theaters in the United States, beginning October 24, 2003. English language release on DVD and VHS began on May 4, 2004.

Critical reception[link]

Elephant currently carries a 70% 'Fresh' rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.^[4]

Box office[link]

Elephant was in release for 11 weeks in the United States, from October 2003 to January 2004. It grossed $1,266,955 domestically and $10,012,022 worldwide.^[5]

Relationship to Red Lake High School massacre[link]

The 2005 Red Lake High School Massacre was briefly blamed on the film Elephant as it was viewed by gunman Jeff Weise 17 days prior to the shooting.^[6] A friend of Weise said that he brought the film over to a friend's house and skipped ahead to parts that showed two students planning and carrying out a school massacre. Although they talked about the film afterwards, Weise said and did nothing to make anyone suspect what he was planning.^[7]

See also[link]

• Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the students behind the Columbine High School massacre
• Bowling for Columbine, a documentary about gun violence in America with emphasis on the Columbine massacre
• Duck! The Carbine High Massacre, a film made in 2000 inspired by the Columbine High School massacre
• Heart of America, another film revolving around a fictionalized school massacre
• Zero Day, another film inspired by the Columbine High School massacre made in 2003
• The Only Way, a 2004 independent film inspired by the Columbine High School massacre
• 2:37, a 2006 film set in Australia that follows the same themes and style

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Elephant (2003 film)

• Elephant
• Elephant at the Internet Movie Database
• Elephant at AllRovi
• Elephant at Box Office Mojo
• Elephant at Rotten Tomatoes

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Gus Van Sant
Van Sant at a screening of Paranoid Park, December 2007
Born	Gus Green Van Sant, Jr. (1952-07-24) July 24, 1952 (age 59) Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
Occupation	Film director
Years active	1982 - present
Notable work(s)	Drugstore Cowboy, Good Will Hunting, My Own Private Idaho, Milk, Elephant
Influenced by	Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, Stan Brakhage, Andy Warhol, Jonas Mekas

Gus Green Van Sant, Jr.^[1] (born July 24, 1952) is an American film director, screenwriter, painter, photographer, musician, and author. He is a two time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director — for Good Will Hunting (1997) and Milk (2008), both of which were also nominated for Best Picture — and won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for his film Elephant (2003).^[2] He lives in Portland, Oregon.

His early career was devoted to directing television commercials in the Pacific Northwest. In his films, he has dealt with themes concerning homosexuality and other marginalized subcultures.

His filmography as writer and director includes a 1994 adaptation of Tom Robbins' 1976 novel Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, which features a diverse cast (Keanu Reeves, Roseanne Barr, Uma Thurman, and k.d. lang, with cameos by William S. Burroughs and Heather Graham, among others); and My Own Private Idaho (1991), also starring Reeves as well as River Phoenix.

He wrote the screenplays for most of his early movies, and wrote one novel, Pink.^[3] A book of his photography has also been published, called 108 Portraits.^[4]

Early life[link]

Van Sant was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of Betty (née Seay) and Gus Green Van Sant, Sr, a clothing manufacturer^[1] and traveling salesman who rapidly worked his way up the corporate ladder into middle class prosperity. As a result of his father's job, the family moved continually during Van Sant's childhood. Van Sant is an alumnus of Darien High School in Connecticut and The Catlin Gabel School in Portland, Oregon. One constant in the director's early years was his interest in painting and Super-8 filmmaking; while still in school he began making semi-autobiographical shorts costing between 30 and 50 dollars. Van Sant's artistic leanings took him to the Rhode Island School of Design in 1970, where his classmates included David Byrne and other members of Talking Heads. It was also at RISD that Van Sant received an introduction to avant-garde directors like Stan Brakhage, Jonas Mekas, and Andy Warhol; this introduction quickly inspired him to change his major from painting to cinema.

Early career (1978–1989)[link]

After spending time in Europe, Van Sant went to Los Angeles in 1976. He secured a job as a production assistant to writer/director Ken Shapiro, with whom he developed a few ideas, none of which came to fruition. In 1981, Van Sant made Alice in Hollywood, a film about a naïve young actress who goes to Hollywood and abandons her ideals. It was never released. During this period, Van Sant began to spend time observing the denizens of the more down-and-out sections of Hollywood Boulevard. He became fascinated by the existence of this marginalized section of L.A.'s population, especially in context with the more ordinary, prosperous world that surrounded them. Van Sant would repeatedly focus his work on those existing on society's fringes, beginning with his 1985 film Mala Noche.

Mala Noche was made two years after Van Sant went to New York to work in an advertising agency. He saved $20,000 during his tenure there, enabling him to finance the majority of his tale of doomed love between a gay liquor store clerk and a Mexican immigrant. The film, which was taken from Portland street writer Walt Curtis' semi-autobiographical novella, featured some of the director's hallmarks, notably an unfulfilled romanticism, a dry sense of the absurd, and the refusal to treat homosexuality as something deserving of judgment. Unlike many gay filmmakers, Van Sant—who had long been openly gay—declined to use same-sex relationships as fodder for overtly political statements, although such relationships would frequently appear in his films.

Shot in black-and-white, Mala Noche earned its director almost overnight acclaim on the festival circuit, with the Los Angeles Times naming it the year's Best Independent Film. The film's success attracted Hollywood interest, and Van Sant was briefly courted by Universal; the courtship ended after Van Sant pitched a series of project ideas (including what would later become Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho) that the studio declined to take interest in.

Van Sant moved back to Portland, Oregon, where he set up house and began giving life to the ideas rejected by Universal. With the assistance of independent production company Avenue, the director made Drugstore Cowboy, his 1989 film about four drug addicts who rob pharmacies to support their habit. Cowboy met with great critical success; in addition to furthering Van Sant's reputation as a gifted director, it helped to revive the career of Matt Dillon, who played the junkie leader of the gang.

Indie and arthouse success (1990–1995)[link]

Drugstore Cowboy's exploration of the lives of those living on society's outer fringes, as well as its Portland setting, were mirrored in Van Sant's next effort, the similarly acclaimed My Own Private Idaho (1991). Only with the success of Cowboy was Van Sant now given license to make Idaho (a project he had originally pitched but was knocked back several times as the script was deemed 'too risky' by studios). Now New Line Cinema had given Van Sant the green light, he was on a mission to get the Idaho script to his first choices for his two young leads. After months of struggle with agents and managers over the content of the script, Van Sant finally secured River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves in the roles of Mike Waters and Scott Favor. Centering around the dealings of two male hustlers (played by Phoenix and Reeves), the film was a compelling examination of unrequited love, alienation, and the concept of family (a concept Van Sant repeatedly explores in his films). The film won him an Independent Spirit Award for his screenplay (he had won the same award for his Drugstore Cowboy screenplay), as well as greater prestige. The film also gained River Phoenix best actor honors at the Venice Film Festival among others. In addition, it helped Reeves—previously best-known for his work in the Bill and Ted movies—to get the critical respect that had previously eluded him.

Van Sant's next project, a 1993 adaptation of Tom Robbins' Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, was an excessive flop, both commercially and critically. Featuring an unusually large budget (for Van Sant, at least) of $8.5 million and a large, eclectic cast including Uma Thurman, John Hurt, Keanu Reeves and a newcomer in the form of River Phoenix's younger sister Rain (at Phoenix's suggestion). The film was worked and then reworked, but the finished product nonetheless resulted in something approaching a significant disaster.

Van Sant's 1995 film To Die For helped to restore his luster. An adaptation of Joyce Maynard's novel, the black comedy starred Nicole Kidman as a murderously ambitious weather girl; it also featured Van Sant favorite Matt Dillon as her hapless husband and, the third Phoenix sibling in as many projects, Joaquin Phoenix, as her equally hapless lover (River had died from a drug overdose a year and half earlier). It was Van Sant's first effort for a major studio (Columbia), and its success paved the way for further projects of the director's choosing. The same year, he served as executive producer for Larry Clark's Kids; it was a fitting assignment, due to both the film's subject matter and the fact that Clark's photographs of junkies had served as reference points for Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy.

Mainstream breakout (1997–2003)[link]

In 1997, the director gained mainstream acceptance thanks to Good Will Hunting, starring and written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. The film—about a troubled, blue-collar mathematical genius—was a huge critical and commercial success. In addition to taking in more than $220 million worldwide, it received a number of Academy Award nominations, including a Best Director nomination for Van Sant. It won a Best Screenplay Oscar for Damon and Affleck, and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Robin Williams. Van Sant, Damon and Affleck parodied themselves and the film's success in Kevin Smith's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

The success of Good Will Hunting afforded Van Sant the opportunity to remake the Alfred Hitchcock classic Psycho. As opposed to reinterpreting the 1960 film, Van Sant opted to recreate the film shot-for-shot, in color, with a cast of young Hollywood A-listers. His decision was met with equal parts curiosity, skepticism, and derision from industry insiders and outsiders alike, and the finished result met with a similar reception. Starring Anne Heche, Vince Vaughn, and Julianne Moore, Psycho, if not exactly a failure, wasn't much of a triumph, either. However, its mixed reception didn't deter the director, who was soon busy again with a number of projects. In addition to directing, he also devoted considerable energy to releasing two albums and publishing a novel, Pink, which was a thinly veiled exploration of his grief over River Phoenix's 1993 death.

Van Sant fared somewhat better with 2000's Finding Forrester, a drama about a high-school student from the Bronx (Rob Brown) who becomes unlikely friends with a crusty, reclusive author (Sean Connery). Critical response was mixed but generally positive, singling out Van Sant's skill at melding the performance styles of first-time actor Brown and Hollywood legend Connery. However, those same reviewers were less impressed with the script's schematic Scent of a Woman-meets-Good Will Hunting template.

[edit] Return to arthouse cinema (2003–present)

Van Sant, longing to return to more intimate production methods, decided to leave behind big-budget studio filmmaking for his next two features. Inspired by the works of Hungarian director Bela Tarr and American maverick John Cassavetes,^{[citation needed]} Van Sant retreated to the deserts of Argentina, Utah, and Death Valley for 2002's Gerry, a loosely devised, largely improvised feature in which stars Matt Damon and Casey Affleck—both playing characters named Gerry—wander through the desert, discussing Wheel of Fortune, video games, and nothing in particular. Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, the film earned as much derision as it did praise, polarizing audiences with its elliptical, purposefully uneventful storyline, punctuated by cinematographer Harris Savides' stunning landscape photography.^{[citation needed]}

It took Gerry over a year to make it to theaters, in which time Van Sant began production on his next film, the controversial Elephant. Approached by HBO and producer Diane Keaton to craft a fictional film based on the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, the director chose to shoot in his hometown of Portland, employing dozens of untrained teen actors to chronicle an "ordinary" high-school day—albeit one underlined by an unexpected tragedy. Melding improvisational long takes like those in Gerry with Savides' fluid camerawork, the finished film provoked strong reactions from audiences at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, who either embraced or rejected Van Sant's aesthetic decision not to offer a definitive rationale for his characters' homicidal tendencies. The consensus from the Cannes jury was unanimous, however: in a surprise decision, they awarded Elephant with their top prize, the Palme d'Or, and Van Sant with his first Best Director statue from the festival.^[2] The success of Elephant led Van Sant to show the U.S. premiere of Elephant as a fundraiser for Outside In, an organization working to help youth living on the streets of Portland, Oregon.

In 2005 Van Sant released Last Days, the final component of what he refers to as his "Death Trilogy," (the other parts being Gerry and Elephant). It is a fictionalized account of what happened to Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain in the days leading up to his death.

In 2006 Van Sant began work on Paranoid Park based on the book by Blake Nelson, about a skateboarding teenager who accidentally causes someone's death. The film was released in Europe in February 2008. He also directed the "Le Marais" segment of the omnibus film Paris, je t'aime.

Released in 2008, his feature film Milk is a biopic of openly gay San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk, who was assassinated in 1978, played by Sean Penn. The film was released to much acclaim and earned numerous accolades from film critics and guilds. Ultimately, it received eight Oscar nominations at the 81st Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning two for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Penn and Best Original Screenplay for writer Dustin Lance Black. Van Sant was nominated for Best Director.^{[citation needed]}

Van Sant's 2011 project Restless^[5] was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.^[6] Van Sant will begin production on Promised Land, starring Matt Damon and John Krasinski, in April 2012.^[7]

In media[link]

Van Sant has released two musical albums: Gus Van Sant and 18 Songs About Golf.

At the Broken Social Scene concert held in Singapore in July 2010, Kevin Drew said that the track Art House Director was written about Van Sant.

Van Sant plays himself in one episode of the HBO series Entourage.

Van Sant is directing the pilot for the Starz television program Boss, starring Kelsey Grammer.

Awards and nominations[link]

• Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
  • Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Screenplay^{[citation needed]}
  • National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Director
  • National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay
  • New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Screenplay

• My Own Private Idaho (1991)
  • Venice Film Festival Official Selection
  • Toronto Film Festival FIPRESCI Prize

• Good Will Hunting (1997)
  • Berlin Film Festival Official Selection^[8]
  • Academy Award nomination for Best Director
  • Directors Guild of America (DGA) nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement In Motion Pictures
  • Satellite Award nomination for Best Director^{[citation needed]}

• Psycho (1998)
  • Razzie Award for Worst Director

• Finding Forrester (2000)
  • Berlin Film Festival Prize of the Guild of German Art House Cinemas

• Gerry (2002)
  • Toronto Film Festival Vision Awards - Special Citation^{[citation needed]}

• Elephant (2003)
  • Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or^[2]
  • Cannes Film Festival Prix de la mise en scène^[2]

• Last Days (2005)
  • Cannes Film Festival Official Selection^[9]

• Paranoid Park (2007)
  • Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Director (also for Milk)
  • Cannes Film Festival Prix du 60ème anniversaire (also acknowledging his body of works)^[10]

• Milk (2008)
  • Academy Award nomination for Best Director
  • Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Director (also for Paranoid Park)^{[citation needed]}
  • Broadcast Film Critics Association Award nomination for Best Director
  • Directors Guild of America (DGA) nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement In Motion Pictures
  • Satellite Award nomination for Best Director

Filmography[link]

Feature films[link]

• Mala Noche (1985)
• Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
• My Own Private Idaho (1991)
• Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993)
• To Die For (1995)
• Good Will Hunting (1997)
• Psycho (1998)
• Finding Forrester (2000)
• Gerry (2002)
• Elephant (2003)
• Last Days (2005)
• Paranoid Park (2007)
• Milk (2008)
• Restless (2011)

Short films[link]

^[11]

• Fun with a Bloodroot (1967) (2 min 20 sec, 8 mm color)
• The Happy Organ (1971) (20 min, 16 mm black and white)
• Little Johnny (1972) (40 sec, 16 mm black and white)
• 1/2 of a Telephone Conversation (1973) (2 min, 16 mm black and white)
• Late Morning Start (1975) (28 min, 16 mm color)
• The Discipline of DE (1978) (9 min, 16 mm black and white, adaptation of William S. Burroughs' short story, narrated by Ken Shapiro)
• Alice in Hollywood (1981) (45 min, 16 mm color)
• My Friend (1982) (3 min, 16 mm black and white)
• Where'd She Go? (1983) (3 min, 16 mm color)
• Nightmare Typhoon (1984) (9 min, 16 mm black and white)
• My New Friend (1984) (3 min, 16 mm color)
• Ken Death Gets Out of Jail (1985) (3 min, 16 mm black and white)
• Five Ways to Kill Yourself (1986) (3 min, 16 mm black and white)
• Thanksgiving Prayer (1991) (2 min, 35 mm color, written by and starring William S. Burroughs)
• Four Boys in a Volvo (1996) (4min, color)
• Paris, je t'aime (2006) (segment "Le Marais")
• Chacun son cinéma / To Each His Own Cinema (2007) (segment "First Kiss") (3 min)
• 8 (2008) (segment "Mansion on the Hill")

Music videos[link]

^[12]

• "Thanksgiving Prayer" by William Burroughs (1990)
• "Fame '90" by David Bowie (1990)
• "I'm Seventeen" by Tommy Conwell & The Young Rumblers (1991)
• "Under the Bridge" by Red Hot Chili Peppers (1992)
• "Bang Bang Bang" by Tracy Chapman (1992)
• "Runaway" by Deee-Lite (1992)
• "The Last Song" by Elton John (1992)
• "San Francisco Days" by Chris Isaak (1993)
• "Just Keep Me Moving" by k.d. lang (1993)
• "Creep" (alternate version) by Stone Temple Pilots (1993)
• "Understanding" by Candlebox (1995)
• "The Ballad of the Skeletons" by Allen Ginsberg with Paul McCartney, Philip Glass, Lenny Kaye et al. (1996)
• "Weird" by Hanson (1998)
• "Who Did You Think I Was?" (turntable version) by John Mayer Trio (2005)
• "Desecration Smile" by Red Hot Chili Peppers (2007)

Executive producer[link]

• Kids (1995)
• Speedway Junky (1999)
• Tarnation (2003)
• Wild Tigers I Have Known (2006)
• Lightfield's Home Videos (2006)
• Howl (2010)
• What's Wrong with Virginia (2010)
• Act Up! (2012)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Gus Van Sant on Myspace
• Gus Van Sant at the Internet Movie Database
• Gus Van Sant on Charlie Rose
• Works by or about Gus Van Sant in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Gus Van Sant collected news and commentary at The Guardian
• Gus Van Sant at the New York Times Movies
• Future Movies Paranoid Park interview (01/2008)
• Interview (11/2003)
• Senses of Cinema essay
• Reverse Shot Gus Van Sant: Vague Recollections
• Literature on Gus Van Sant

Joseph Merrick
Joseph Merrick photographed, c. 1889
Born	Joseph Carey Merrick (1862-08-05)5 August 1862 Leicester, England
Died	11 April 1890(1890-04-11) (aged 27) The London Hospital, England

Joseph Carey Merrick (5 August 1862 – 11 April 1890), sometimes incorrectly referred to as John Merrick, was an English man with severe deformities who was exhibited as a human curiosity named the Elephant Man. He became well known in London society after he went to live at the London Hospital. Merrick was born in Leicester and began to develop abnormally during the first few years of his life. His skin appeared thick and lumpy, he developed an enlargement of his lips, and a bony lump grew on his forehead. One of his arms and both feet became enlarged and at some point during his childhood he fell and damaged his hip, resulting in permanent lameness. When he was 11, his mother died and his father soon remarried. Merrick left school at 12, and had difficulty finding employment. Rejected by his father and stepmother, he left home. In late 1879, aged 17, Merrick entered the Leicester Union workhouse.

In 1884, after four years in the workhouse, Merrick contacted a showman named Sam Torr and proposed that Torr should exhibit him. Torr agreed, and arranged for a group of men to manage Merrick, whom they named the Elephant Man. After touring the East Midlands, Merrick travelled to London to be exhibited in a penny gaff shop on Whitechapel Road which was rented by showman Tom Norman. Norman's shop, directly across the street from the London Hospital, was visited by a surgeon named Frederick Treves, who invited Merrick to be examined and photographed. Soon after Merrick's visits to the hospital, Tom Norman's shop was closed by the police and Merrick's managers sent him to tour in Europe.

In Belgium, Merrick was robbed by his road manager and abandoned in Brussels. He eventually made his way back to London; unable to communicate, he was found by the police to have Frederick Treves' card on him. Treves came and took Merrick back to the London Hospital. Although his condition was incurable, Merrick was allowed to stay at the hospital for the remainder of his life. Treves visited him daily and the pair developed quite a close friendship. Merrick also received visits from the wealthy ladies and gentlemen of London society, including Alexandra, Princess of Wales.

Merrick died on 11 April 1890, aged 27. The official cause of death was asphyxia, although Treves, who dissected the body, said that Merrick had died of a dislocated neck. He believed that Merrick—who had to sleep sitting up because of the weight of his head—had been attempting to sleep lying down, to "be like other people". The exact cause of Merrick's deformities is unclear. The dominant theory throughout much of the 20th century was that Merrick suffered from neurofibromatosis type I. In 1986, a new theory emerged that he had Proteus syndrome. In 2001 it was proposed that Merrick had suffered from a combination of neurofibromatosis type I and Proteus syndrome. DNA tests conducted on his hair and bones have proven inconclusive.

In 1979, Bernard Pomerance's play about Merrick called The Elephant Man débuted, and David Lynch's film, also called The Elephant Man, was released the following year.

Early life and family[link]

Merrick photographed in 1889

Joseph Carey Merrick was born 5 August 1862 at 50 Lee Street in Leicester to Joseph Rockley Merrick and his wife Mary Jane (née Potterton).^[1] Joseph Rockley Merrick (c. 1835 – 1897) was the son of London-born weaver Barnabas Merrick who moved to Leicester during the 1820s or 1830s, and his third wife Sarah Rockley.^[2] Mary Jane Potterton (c. 1834 – 1873) was the daughter of a Yorkshire agricultural labourer and had some form of physical disability. As a young woman she worked as a domestic servant in Leicester before marrying Joseph Rockley Merrick, then a brougham driver, in 1861. The following year, Joseph Carey Merrick was born, apparently healthy, and had no outward symptoms of any disorder for the first few years of his life. Named after his father, he was given the middle name Carey by his mother, a Baptist, after the preacher William Carey.^[3] The Merricks had two more children, William Arthur (born 1866) who died of scarlet fever aged four and Marion Eliza (born 1867), who was born with physical disabilities and died in 1891.^[4]

A pamphlet entitled "The Autobiography of Joseph Carey Merrick", produced c. 1884 to accompany his exhibition, states that he started to display symptoms at approximately five years of age, with "thick lumpy skin ... like that of an elephant, and almost the same colour".^[5] According to a 1930 article in the Illustrated Leicester Chronicle, he began to develop swellings on his lips at the age of 21 months, followed by a bony lump on his forehead and a loosening and roughening of the skin.^{[6][nb 1]} As he grew, a noticeable difference between the size of his left and right arms appeared and both his feet became significantly enlarged.^[6] The Merrick family explained his symptoms as the result of Mary's being knocked over and frightened by a fairground elephant while she was pregnant with Joseph.^[6] The concept of maternal impression—that the emotional experiences of pregnant women could have lasting physical effect on their unborn children—was still common in 19th-century England.^[8] Merrick held this belief about the cause of his affliction for his entire life.^[9]

In addition to his deformities, at some point during his childhood, Merrick suffered a fall and damaged his left hip. This injury became infected and left him permanently lame.^[10] Although affected by his physical deformities, Merrick attended school and enjoyed a close relationship with his mother.^[10] She was a Sunday School teacher, and his father worked as an engine driver at a cotton factory, as well as running a haberdashery business.^[10] On 19 May 1873, less than three years after the death of her younger son William, Mary Jane Merrick died from bronchopneumonia.^[11] Joseph Rockley Merrick moved with his two children to live with Mrs. Emma Wood Antill, a widow with children of her own. They married on 3 December 1874.^[12]

Employment and the workhouse[link]

Merrick left school aged 13, which was usual for the time.^[13] His home-life was now "a perfect misery",^[5] and neither his father nor his stepmother demonstrated affection towards him.^[12] He ran away "two or three" times, but was brought back by his father each time.^[5] At 13, he found work rolling cigars in a factory, but after three years, his right hand deformity had worsened and he no longer had the dexterity required for the job.^[13] Now unemployed, he spent his days wandering the streets, looking for work and avoiding his stepmother's taunts.^[1] Merrick was becoming a greater financial burden on his family and eventually, his father secured him a hawker's licence which enabled him to earn money selling items from the haberdashery shop, door to door.^[14] This endeavour was unsuccessful, since Merrick's facial deformities rendered his speech increasingly unintelligible and prospective customers reacted with horror to his physical appearance. Housewives refused to open doors for him and now people not only stared at him but began to follow him out of curiosity.^[14] Merrick failed to make enough money as a hawker to support himself. On returning home one day in 1877, he was severely beaten by his father and he left home for good.^[15]

Merrick photographed in 1888

Merrick was now homeless on the streets of Leicester. His uncle, a barber named Charles Merrick, heard of his nephew's situation, sought him out and offered him accommodation in his home.^[16] Merrick continued to hawk around Leicester for the next two years but his efforts to earn a living met with little more success than before. Eventually, his disfigurement drew such negative attention from members of the public that the Commissioners for Hackney Carriages withdrew his licence when it came up for renewal.^[16] With young children to provide for, Charles could no longer afford to support his nephew. In late December 1879, now 17 years old, Merrick entered the Leicester Union Workhouse.^[17]

Merrick became one of 928 residents in the workhouse.^[18] The group was segregated by age and sex, and therefore Merrick was housed with the other men between 16 and 60.^[19] On 22 March 1880, only 12 weeks after entering, Merrick signed himself out of the workhouse and spent two days looking for work. With no more success than before, he found himself with no option but to return to the workhouse. This time he stayed for four years.^[20] Around 1882, Merrick underwent surgery on his face. The protrusion from his mouth had grown to 8–9 inches and severely inhibited his speech and made it difficult to eat.^[21] He was operated on at the Leicester Infirmary and had a large part of the mass removed.^[5]

Life as a curiosity[link]

Merrick concluded that his only escape from the workhouse might be through the world of human novelty exhibitions.^[22] He knew of a Leicester music hall comedian and proprietor named Sam Torr. Merrick wrote to Torr, who came and visited him at the workhouse. Torr decided that he could make money exhibiting Merrick, although to retain Merrick's novelty, he would have to be a travelling exhibit.^[22] To this end, he organised a group of managers for Merrick: music hall proprietor J. Ellis, travelling showman George Hitchcock, and fair owner Sam Roper. On 3 August 1884 Merrick departed the workhouse to start his new career.^[23]

The showmen named Merrick the Elephant Man, and advertised him as "Half-a-Man and Half-an-Elephant".^[23] They showed him around the East Midlands, including in Leicester and Nottingham, before moving him on to London for the winter season. George Hitchcock contacted an acquaintance, showman Tom Norman, who ran penny gaff shops in London's East End exhibiting human curiosities. Without a meeting, Norman agreed to take over Merrick's management and in November, Hitchcock travelled with Merrick to London.^[24]

When Tom Norman first saw Merrick, he was dismayed by the extent of his deformities, fearing his appearance might be too horrific to be a successful novelty.^[25] Nevertheless, he exhibited Merrick in the back of an empty shop on Whitechapel Road. Merrick had an iron bed with a curtain drawn around to afford him some privacy. Norman observed Merrick asleep one morning and learned that he always slept sitting up, with his legs drawn up and his head resting on his knees. His enlarged head was too heavy to allow him to sleep lying down and, as Merrick put it, he would risk "waking with a broken neck".^[26] Norman decorated the shop with posters that had been created by Hitchcock, depicting a monstrous half-man, half-elephant.^[27] A pamphlet titled "The Autobiography of Joseph Carey Merrick" was created, outlining Merrick's life to date. This biography, whether written by Merrick or not, provided a generally accurate account of his life. It contained an incorrect date of birth but, throughout his life, Merrick was vague about when he was born.^[28]

Norman gathered an audience by standing outside the shop and drawing a crowd through his showman patter. He would then lead his onlookers into the shop, explaining that the Elephant Man was "not here to frighten you but to enlighten you."^[27] Drawing aside the curtain, he allowed the onlookers—often visibly horrified—to observe Merrick up close, while describing the circumstances leading to his present condition, including his mother's accident with an elephant.

The Elephant Man exhibit was moderately successful, and made money primarily from the sales of the autobiographical pamphlet.^[26] Merrick was able to put his share of the profits aside, hoping to earn enough to one day buy a home of his own.^[30] The shop on Whitechapel Road was directly across the road from the London Hospital, an excellent location, as medical students and doctors visited the shop, curious to see Merrick.^[26] One visitor was a young house surgeon named Reginald Tuckett. Like his colleagues, Tuckett was intrigued by the Elephant Man's deformities and told his senior colleague Frederick Treves.^[31]

Frederick Treves first met Merrick that November at a private viewing, before Norman opened the shop for the day.^[26] Treves later recalled in his 1923 Reminiscences that Merrick was "the most disgusting specimen of humanity that I had ever seen ... at no time had I met with such a degraded or perverted version of a human being as this lone figure displayed."^[32] The viewing lasted no more than 15 minutes after which Treves returned to work. Later that day, he sent Tuckett back to the shop to ask if Merrick might be willing to come to the hospital for an examination. Norman and Merrick agreed.^[33] To enable him to travel the short distance without drawing undue attention, Merrick wore a costume consisting of a huge black cloak and a brown cap with a hood that covered his face, and rode in a cab hired by Treves.^{[34][nb 2]}

At the hospital, Treves examined Merrick, observing that he was "shy, confused, not a little frightened, and evidently much cowed."^[32] At this point, Treves assumed that the Elephant Man was an "imbecile".^[32] He measured Merrick's head circumference at 36 inches (91 cm), his right wrist at 12 inches (30 cm) and one of his fingers at 5 inches (13 cm) in circumference. He noted that his skin was covered in papillomata (warty growths), the largest of which exuded an unpleasant smell.^[36] The subcutaneous tissue appeared to be weakened and caused a loosening of the skin, which in some areas hung away from the body. There were bone deformities in the right arm, both legs, and, most conspicuously, in the skull.^[37] Despite the corrective surgery to his mouth in 1882, Merrick's speech remained barely intelligible. His left arm and hand, although small, were not deformed. His penis and scrotum were normal. Apart from his deformities and the lameness in his hip, Treves concluded that Merrick appeared to be in good general health.^[38] Norman later recalled that Merrick went to the hospital for examination "two or three" times^[33] and during one of their meetings, Treves gave Merrick his calling card.^[1] On one of the visits, Treves had photographs taken and he provided Merrick with a set of copies which were later added to his autobiographical pamphlet.^[39] On 2 December, Treves presented Merrick at a meeting of the Pathological Society of London in Bloomsbury.^[40] Eventually, Merrick told Norman that he no longer wanted to be examined at the hospital. According to Norman, he said he was "stripped naked, and felt like an animal in a cattle market."^[41]

During this time in Victorian England, tastes were changing in regard to freak show exhibitions like the Elephant Man. Shows like Norman's were a cause for public concern, both on the grounds of decency and due to the disruption caused by crowds gathering outside them.^[42] Not long after Merrick's last examination with Frederick Treves, the police closed down Norman's shop on Whitechapel Road, and Merrick's Leicester managers withdrew him from Norman's care.^[41] In 1885, Merrick went on the road with Sam Roper's travelling fair.^[43] He befriended two other performers, "Roper's Midgets"—Bertram Dooley and Harry Bramley—who on occasion defended Merrick from public harassment.^[35]

Europe[link]

The dampening of public enthusiasm for freak shows and human oddities continued and the police and magistrates became increasingly vigilant in closing shows down. Merrick remained a horrifying spectacle for his viewers and Roper grew nervous about the negative attention the Elephant Man drew from local authorities.^[35] Merrick's group of managers decided that he should go on tour in Continental Europe, with the hope that authorities there would be more lenient. Merrick's management was assumed by an unknown man (possibly named Ferrari) and they left for the Continent.^[44] The Elephant Man was no more successful there than in England, and similar action was taken by authorities to move him out of their jurisdictions. In Brussels, Merrick was deserted by this new manager, who stole Merrick's £50 (2012 equivalent £4,000) savings.^[45] Abandoned, Merrick made his way by train to Ostend, where he attempted to board a ferry for Dover but was refused passage.^[46] He travelled to Antwerp and was able to board a ship bound for Harwich in Essex. From there, he travelled by train to London and arrived at Liverpool Street station.^[47]

Merrick arrived at Liverpool Street Station on 24 June 1886, safely back in his own country, but with nowhere to go. He was not eligible to enter a workhouse in London for more than one night and would be accepted only by Leicester Union, where he was a permanent resident. Leicester was still 98 miles (158 km) away.^[48] He approached strangers for help, but his speech was unintelligible and appearance repugnant. He drew a crowd of curious onlookers until a policeman helped him into an empty waiting room, where he huddled in a corner, exhausted. Unable to make himself understood, his only identifying possession was Frederick Treves' card.^[49] The police contacted Treves, who went to the station. Recognising Merrick, Treves took him in a hansom cab to the London Hospital. Merrick was admitted for bronchitis, washed, fed, and put to bed in a small isolation room in the hospital's attic.^[50]

London Hospital[link]

With Merrick admitted into the hospital, Treves now had time to conduct a more thorough examination. He discovered that Merrick's physical condition had deteriorated over the previous two years and that he had become quite crippled by his deformities. Treves also suspected that Merrick now suffered from a heart condition and that he had only a few years left to live.^[51] Merrick's general health improved over the next five months under the care of the hospital staff. Although some nurses were initially upset by his appearance, they overcame this and cared for him.^[52] The problem of his unpleasant odour was mitigated through frequent bathing and Treves gradually developed an understanding of Merrick's speech. A new set of photographs was taken. The question of Merrick's long-term care had to be addressed. Francis Carr Gomm, the chairman of the hospital committee, had supported Treves in his decision to admit Merrick, but by November, long-term plans needed to be made. The London Hospital was not equipped or staffed to provide care for the incurable, which Merrick clearly was.^[52]

Carr Gomm contacted other institutions and hospitals more suited to caring for chronic cases, but none would accept Merrick. Carr Gomm wrote a letter to The Times, printed on 4 December, outlining Merrick's case and asking readers for suggestions.^[53] The public response—in letters and donations—was significant, and the situation was even covered by the British Medical Journal.^[54] With the financial backing of the many donors, Carr Gomm was able to make a convincing case to the committee for keeping Merrick in the hospital. It was decided that he would be allowed to stay there for the remainder of his life.^[55] He was moved from the attic to two rooms in the basement adjacent to a small courtyard. The rooms were adapted and furnished to suit Merrick, with a specially constructed bed and—at Treves' instruction—no mirrors.^[56]

Merrick settled into his new life at the London Hospital. Treves visited him daily and spent a couple of hours with him every Sunday.^[57] Now that Merrick had found someone who understood his speech, he was delighted to carry on long conversations with the doctor.^[57] Treves and Merrick built a friendly relationship, although Merrick never completely confided in him. He told Treves that he was an only child, and Treves had the impression that Merrick's mother, whose picture Merrick always carried with him, had abandoned him as a baby.^[57] Merrick was also reluctant to talk about his exhibition days, although he expressed gratitude towards his former managers.^[58] It did not take Treves long to realise that, contrary to his initial impressions, Merrick was not intellectually impaired.^[57]

Treves observed that Merrick was very sensitive and showed his emotions easily.^[59] At times Merrick was bored and lonely, and demonstrated signs of depression.^[60] He had spent his entire adult life segregated from women, first in the workhouse and then as an exhibit. The women he met were either disgusted or frightened by his appearance.^[61] His opinions about women were derived from his memories of his mother and what he read in books. Treves decided that Merrick would like to be introduced to a woman and it would help him feel normal.^[62] The doctor arranged for a friend of his named Mrs. Leila Maturin, "a young and pretty widow", to visit Merrick.^[32] She agreed and with fair warning about his appearance, she went to his rooms for an introduction. The meeting was short, as Merrick quickly became overcome with emotion.^[62] He later told Treves that Maturin had been the first woman ever to smile at him, the first to shake his hand.^[32] She kept in contact with him and a letter written by Merrick to her, thanking her for the gift of a book and a brace of grouse, is the only surviving letter written by Merrick.^[63] This first experience of meeting a woman, though brief, instilled in Merrick a new sense of self-confidence.^[64] He met other women during his life at the hospital, and appeared taken with them all. Treves believed that Merrick's hope was to go to live at an institution for the blind, where he might meet a woman who could not see his deformities.^[64]

Merrick wanted to know about the "real world", and questioned Treves on a number of topics. One day he expressed a desire to see inside what he considered a "real" house and Treves obliged, taking him to visit his Wimpole Street townhouse and meet his wife.^[65] He filled his days with reading and constructing models of buildings out of card. He entertained visits from Treves and his house surgeons. He rose each day in the afternoon and would leave his rooms to walk in the small adjacent courtyard, after dark.

As a result of Carr Gomm's letters to The Times, Merrick's case attracted the notice of London's high society. One person who took a keen interest was actress Madge Kendal.^[66] Although she probably never met him in person, she was responsible for raising funds and public sympathy for Merrick.^[67] She sent him photographs of herself and employed a basket weaver to go to his rooms and teach him the craft.^[68] Although Kendal never visited Merrick, other ladies and gentlemen of high society did, bringing him gifts of photographs and books. He reciprocated with letters and hand made gifts of card models and baskets. Merrick enjoyed these visits and became confident enough to converse with people who passed his windows.^[69] A young man, Charles Taylor, the son of the engineer responsible for modifying Merrick's rooms, spent time with him and played the violin.^[67] Occasionally, he grew bold enough to leave his small living quarters and would explore the hospital. When he was discovered, he was always hurried back to his quarters by the nurses, who feared that he might frighten the patients.^[69]

On 21 May 1887, two new buildings were completed at the hospital and the Prince and Princess of Wales came to open them officially.^[70] Princess Alexandra wished to meet the Elephant Man, so after a tour of the hospital, the royal party went to his rooms for an introduction. The princess shook Merrick's hand and sat with him, an experience that left him overjoyed.^[71] She gave him a signed photograph of herself, which became a prized possession, and she sent him a Christmas card each year.^[32]

On at least one occasion, Merrick was able to fulfil a long-held desire to visit the theatre.^[72] Treves, with the help of Madge Kendal, arranged for him to attend the Christmas pantomime at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Treves sat with some nurses, concealed in Baroness Burdett-Coutts's private box.^[73] According to Treves, Merrick was "awed" and "enthralled". "The spectacle left him speechless, so that if he were spoken to he took no heed."^[32] For weeks following the show Merrick talked about the pantomime, reliving the story as if it had been real.^[74]

Last years[link]

On three occasions Merrick left the hospital and London on holiday, spending a few weeks at a time in the countryside.^[75] Through elaborate arrangements that allowed Merrick to board a train unseen and have an entire carriage to himself, he travelled to Northamptonshire to stay at Fawsley Hall, the estate of Lady Louisa Knightley.^[75] He stayed at the gamekeeper's cottage and spent the days walking in the estate's woods, collecting wild flowers.^[76] He befriended a young farm labourer who later recalled Merrick as an interesting and well-educated man.^[63] Treves called this "the one supreme holiday of [Merrick's] life", although in fact there were three such trips.^[32][77]

Merrick's condition gradually deteriorated during his four years at the London hospital. He required a great deal of care from the nursing staff and spent much of his time in bed, or sitting in his quarters, with diminishing energy.^[63] His facial deformities continued to grow and his head became even more enlarged. He died on 11 April 1890, at the age of 27.^[78] At around three o'clock in the afternoon, Treves' house surgeon visited Merrick and found him lying dead across his bed. His body was formally identified by his uncle, Charles Merrick.^[79] An inquest was held on 15 April by Wynne Edwin Baxter, who had come to notoriety conducting inquests for the Whitechapel murders of 1888.^[78]

Merrick's death was ruled accidental and the certified cause of death was asphyxia, caused by the weight of his head as he lay down.^[80][81] Treves, who performed an autopsy on the body, said that Merrick had died of a dislocated neck.^[81] Knowing that Merrick had always slept sitting upright, out of necessity, Treves came to the conclusion that he must have "made the experiment", attempting to sleep lying down, trying to sleep like other people.^[81]

Treves dissected Merrick's body and took plaster casts of his head and limbs. He took skin samples, which were later lost during the Second World War, and mounted his skeleton, which remains in the pathology collection at the Royal London Hospital.^[82] Although the skeleton has never been on public display, there is a small museum dedicated to his life, housing some of his personal effects.

Medical condition[link]

Ever since Joseph Merrick's days as a novelty exhibit on Whitechapel Road, his condition has been a source of curiosity for medical professionals. His appearance at the meeting of the Pathological Society of London in 1884 drew interest from the doctors present, but none of the answers nor the attention that Treves had hoped for. The case received only a brief mention in the British Medical Journal and the Lancet declined to mention it at all.^[83] Four months later, in 1885, Treves brought the case before the meeting for a second time. By then, Tom Norman's shop on Whitechapel Road had been closed, and the Elephant Man had moved on. Without Merrick, Treves made do with the photographs he had taken during his examinations. One of the doctors present at the meeting was Henry Radcliffe Crocker, a dermatologist who was an authority on skin diseases.^[84] After hearing Treves' description of Merrick, and viewing the photographs, Crocker proposed that Merrick's condition might be a combination of dermatolysis, pachydermatocele and an unnamed bone deformity, all caused by changes in the nervous system.^[42] Crocker wrote about Merrick's case in his 1888 book Diseases of the Skin: their Description, Pathology, Diagnosis and Treatment.^[85]

In 1909, dermatologist Frederick Parkes Weber wrote an article about von Recklinghausen disease (now known as neurofibromatosis type I) in the British Journal of Dermatology.^[86] He gave Merrick as an example of the disease, which German pathologist Friedrich Daniel von Recklinghausen had described in 1882.^[87] Symptoms of this genetic disorder include tumours of the nervous tissue and bones, and small warty growths on the skin.^[88] One characteristic of neurofibromatosis is the presence of light brown pigmentation on the skin called café au lait spots.^[89] These were never observed on Merrick's body.^[90] Neurofibromatosis type I was the accepted diagnosis through most of the 20th century, although other suggestions included Maffucci syndrome and polyostotic fibrous dysplasia (Albright's disease).^[90]

In a 1986 article in the British Medical Journal, Michael Cohen and J. A. R. Tibbles put forward the theory that Merrick had suffered from Proteus syndrome, a congenital disorder identified by Cohen in 1979. They cited Merrick's lack of reported café au lait spots and the absence of any histological proof that he had suffered from neurofibromatosis type I.^[91] Unlike neurofibromatosis, Proteus syndrome affects tissue other than nerves, and it is a sporadic disorder rather than a genetically transmitted disease.^[92] Cohen and Tibbles said that Merrick showed the following signs of Proteus syndrome: "macrocephaly; hyperostosis of the skull; hypertrophy of long bones; and thickened skin and subcutaneous tissues, particularly of the hands and feet, including plantar hyperplasia, lipomas, and other unspecified subcutaneous masses."^[91]

In a letter to Biologist in June 2001, British teacher Paul Spiring speculated that Merrick might have suffered from a combination of neurofibromatosis type I and Proteus syndrome.^[93] This hypothesis was reported by Robert Matthews, a correspondent for The Sunday Telegraph.^[94] The possibility that Merrick had both conditions formed the basis for a 2003 documentary film entitled The Curse of The Elephant Man that was produced for the Discovery Health Channel by Natural History New Zealand.^[95][96] During 2002, genealogical research for the film led to a BBC appeal to trace Merrick's maternal family line. In response to the appeal, a Leicester resident named Pat Selby was discovered to be the granddaughter of Merrick's uncle George Potterton. A research team took DNA samples from Selby in an unsuccessful attempt to diagnose Merrick's condition.^[97] During 2003, the filmmakers commissioned further diagnostic tests using DNA that was extracted from Merrick's hair and bone. However, the results of these tests proved inconclusive and therefore the precise cause of Merrick's medical condition remains unknown.^[95][96]

Legacy[link]

In 1923, Frederick Treves published a volume entitled The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences, in which he detailed what he knew of Merrick's life and their personal interactions. This account is the source of much of what is known about Merrick, but there were several inaccuracies in the book. Merrick never completely confided in Treves about his early life, so these details were consequently sketchy in Treves' Reminiscences. A more mysterious error is that of Merrick's first name. Treves, in his earlier journal articles as well as his book, insisted on calling him John Merrick. The reason for this is unclear; Merrick clearly signed his name as "Joseph" in the examples of his handwriting that remain.^[98] In the handwritten manuscript for The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences, Treves began his account by writing "Joseph" and then crossed it out and replaced it with "John".^[99] Whatever the reason for the error, it is one that persisted throughout much of the 20th century; later biographers who based their work on Treves' book have continued the error.

Treves' depiction of Tom Norman, the showman who exhibited Merrick, was as a cruel drunk who ruthlessly exploited his charge.^[100][101] In a letter to the World's Fair newspaper, and later in his own memoirs, Norman denied this characterisation and said that he provided his show attractions with a way of earning a living, and that at the London Hospital, Merrick was still on display, but with no control over how or when he was viewed. According to Nadja Durbach, author of The Spectacle of Deformity: Freak Shows and Modern British Culture, Norman's view gives an insight into the Victorian freak show's function as a means of survival for poor people with deformities, as well as the attitude of medical professionals of the time.^[102] Durbach cautions that both Treves' and Norman's memoirs must be understood as "narrative reconstructions ... that reflect personal and professional prejudices and cater to the demands and expectations of their very different audiences".^[103]

In 1971, anthropologist Ashley Montagu published The Elephant Man: A Study in Human Dignity which drew on Treves' book and explored Merrick's character.^[104] Montagu reprinted Treves' account alongside various others such as Carr Gomm's letter to the Times and the report on Merrick's inquest. He pointed out inconsistencies between the accounts and sometimes disputed Treves' version of events; he noted, for example, that while Treves claimed Merrick knew nothing of his mother's appearance, Carr Gomm refers to Merrick carrying a painting of his mother with him,^[105] and he criticised Treves' assumption that Merrick's mother was "worthless and inhuman".^[105] However, Montagu also perpetuated some of the errors in Treves' work,^[106] including his use of the name "John" rather than "Joseph".^[105]

Between 1979 and 1982, Merrick's life story became the basis of several works of dramatic art; these were based on the accounts of Treves and Montagu. In 1979, a Tony Award-winning play, The Elephant Man, by American playwright Bernard Pomerance was staged.^[107] The character based on Merrick was played by Philip Anglim, and later by David Bowie.^[108] In 1980 David Lynch released The Elephant Man film, which received eight Academy award nominations. Merrick was played by John Hurt and Frederick Treves by Anthony Hopkins. In 1982, US television network ABC broadcast an adaptation of Pomerance's play, starring Anglim.^[109]

In 1980, Michael Howell and Peter Ford published The True History of the Elephant Man, presenting the fruits of their detailed archival research. Howell and Ford brought to light a large amount of new information about Merrick. In addition to proving that his name was Joseph, not John, they were able to describe in more detail his life story. They refuted some of the inaccuracies in Treves' account, showing that Merrick's mother did not abandon him, and that Merrick deliberately chose to exhibit himself to make a living.

The musician "Brian Carol" more commonly known by his stage name "Buckethead" also dedicated an album to him entitled "Elephant Man's Alarm Clock".^{[citation needed]}

The sludge band Mastodon made several song in tribute of Merrick. One named "The Elephant Man" and an acoustic piece "Joseph Merrick". The title of their song "Pendulous Skin" is also a reference to him.^{[citation needed]}

References[link]

Notes

Footnotes

Bibliography

Further reading[link]

• Drimmer, Frederick (1985), The Elephant Man, New York: Putnam, ISBN 0-399-21262-0 

External links[link]

Media related to Joseph Merrick at Wikimedia Commons