Tom Norman on the BBC

Image via WikipediaTom Norman was a pioneer of the fairground industry in Victorian Britain. He was famed for his presentation of the freak-show. Norman was known for the way he would blend the accepted "science" of the era with outright fantasy to provide a back-story for the various "freaks" that were exhibited on his fairs.

The most famous of Norman's employees was Joseph Merrick "The Elephant Man". Contrary to popular belief, largely put across in David Lynch's* fictionalized account of Merrick's life, there is scant evidence that disabled people were especially abused or used like slaves. Often the opportunity to earn by exploiting one's condition - and Merrick was on 50/50 box office split with Norman - was a better alternative to begging, hawking goods or a life in the workhouse. Details of this and the bad representation that sideshows, circuses and their closely related forms of entertainment endure to this day were presented in my article "Circus and Other 'Low' Arts: A Defence"

Circus and Other "Low" Arts: A Defence

Joseph Carey Merrick "The Elephant Man" (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I recently re-watched one of my favourite films, “The Elephant Man”. Released in 1980, this is perhaps one of director David Lynch’s most conservative pieces. The director’s notoriously surreal style is restricted to short dream sequences instead of dominating the piece as he is often want to do. I like some of Lynch’s work, particularly “Lost Highway”, and I am also an admirer of the two stars of the film, Anthony Hopkins, who plays the compassionate Dr. Treves, and John Hurt, who plays his most famous patient and the film’s eponymous hero, the tragically disfigured and disabled John Merrick (actually a portrayal of the real-life Joseph Carey Merrick). When I saw this film as a child it was the first feature I ever recall moving me to tears. Imagine my horror years later when I heard a rumour that Mr. Merrick was once an employee of my Victorian ancestors. Later on I found that this rumour was suspicious at best, but what I did uncover was a very different story about the life of Joseph Merrick. I also had to face the fact that a loved film “The Elephant Man” reflects much of the Edwardian snobbery that set a firm divide between the “high art” of straight theatre, a representative of dignity in the film, and the "low art" of sideshows, which the film depicts as the representative humiliation and exploitation.