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Johnny Eck, born John Eckhardt, Jr. (August 27, 1911 – January 5, 1991) was an American freak show performer born with the appearance that he was missing the lower half of his torso. Eck is best known today for his role in Tod Browning's 1932 cult classic film, ''Freaks''. He was often billed as the amazing "Half-Boy" and "King of the Freaks". Besides being a sideshow performer and actor, Johnny Eck was also an artist, photographer, illusionist, penny arcade owner, Punch and Judy operator, and expert model-maker. ==Early life== Robert Eckhardt and John Eckhardt, Jr. were born on August 27, 1911 to Amelia and John Eckhardt, Sr. in Baltimore, Maryland. Eck was born with a truncated torso due to sacral agenesis. Though Eck would sometimes describe himself as "snapped off at the waist", he had unusable, underdeveloped legs and feet that he would hide under custom-made clothing. At birth, Eck weighed two pounds (0.9 kg) and was less than eight inches (20 cm) in length. He would eventually reach a total of eighteen inches (45 cm) tall. Though Eck capitalized on the resemblance between himself and Robert, the twins were fraternal. Aside from the sacral agenesis, Eck was healthy. Eck was walking on his hands before his brother was standing when he was a year old.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=JOHNNY ECK - The Half-Man )〕 Both of the Eckhardt twins could read by the age of four.〔Hornberger, 79.〕 The twins had an older sister named Carolyn who educated Eck at home until he and his brother enrolled in public school at age seven. He recalled that larger students would "fight each other for the 'honor' or 'privilege' of lifting () up the stone steps" to school, and that school windows were blacked out to discourage throngs of curious onlookers from peering in at Eck during his studies. In spite of the scrutiny, Eck remained consistently upbeat about his birth defect. When asked if he wished he had legs, he quipped, "Why would I want those? Then I'd have pants to press."〔 He challenged those who did have legs by asking, "What can you do that I can't do, except tread water?" Amelia Eckhardt intended that Eck go into the ministry, and the young Eck was often called upon to perform impromptu sermons for guests. "I would climb atop of a small box and preach against drinking beer and damning sin and the devil," Eck recalled in an autobiographical fragment. These sermons quickly came to an end when Eck began passing around a saucer for donations. At an early age, Eck developed an interest in painting and woodworking, and would spend hours with his brother carving and painting elaborate, fully articulated circuses. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Johnny Eck」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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