Biography

Johnny Eck was born John Echkardt, twenty minutes after his twin brother Robert. The boys entered the sideshow circuit at the age of 12, where John was billed as "Johnny Eck, The Half-boy." Johnny went on to play a role in Tod Browning's Freaks (1932) before returning with his brother to Baltimore, where he became a screen painter. Johnny died January 5, 1991, at the age of 79, in the house where he was born.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Christina Dunigan <cdunigan@hotmail.com>

Johnny Eck was born John Eckhardt, Jr. on August 27, 1911 in Baltimore, MD at the home of Amelia and John Eckhardt, Sr., twenty minutes after his fraternal twin, Robert. At birth, Johnny weighed two pounds and was less than eight inches in length. He was born with a truncated torso due to "sacral agenesis," and although Johnny would sometimes describe himself as "snapped off at the waist" or "a broken doll," it left him with unusable, underdeveloped legs and feet that he would eventually hide under custom-made clothing. He would eventually reach a height of 18 inches; it is estimated that he would have stood five foot-seven inches, the height of his brother.

At a year old, Johnny was walking on his hands before Robert could stand, and they could both read by the age of four. They had an older sister named Carolyn who educated them at home until they both enrolled in public school at the age of seven. Eck recalled that larger students would fight for the privilege or honor of lifting him up the stone steps to school, and that the school windows were blacked out to discourage curious onlookers from peering in at him during his studies. In spite of this, Johnny remained consistently upbeat about his birth defect, and when he was asked if he wished he had legs, he quipped, "Why would I want those? Then I'd have pants to press." He also challenged those who did have legs by asking,"What can you you do that I can't do, except tread water?" Johnny and his brother developed an interest in painting and woodworking, and would spend hours carving and painting elaborate, fully articulated circus scenes.

In late 1923, the brothers attended a performance at a local church of stage magician John McAslan, who asked for volunteers for his act. To his surprise, twelve-year-old Johnny bounded onto the stage on his hands. The magician convinced him to join the sideshow and act as his manager. Eck agreed, but only if his brother was employed along with him. His parents signed a one-year contract and Robert was assigned with looking after his brother, but Johnny later claimed that the magician changed the contract from one to ten years by adding a zero. After legal issues, they left McAslan and signed with carny Captain John Sheesley. Eventually, Eck would work with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, among other venues and was billed as "Johnny Eck the Half-Boy - The Greatest Living Curiosity." Although Johnny traveled with his brother Robert and used Robert's normal stature to emphasize his own abnormal physique, he was billed as a "single-o," or solo sideshow act. He often appeared in a tuxedo jacket while perched on a tasseled stool, and his performances included sleight-of-hand, acrobatic feats, juggling, tightrope walking. and included his famous one-armed handstand. When the Eckhardt's home was facing foreclosure due to the oncoming Great Depression, Johnny performed for Ripley's Believe It or Not Odditorium at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. It was there that he was billed as "The Most Remarkable Man Alive."

Eck went to the Canadian Exposition in the summer of 1931, and while performing in Montreal, he was approached by a talent scout from MGM film studios and asked to appear in director Tod Browning's Freaks (released in 1932). Johnny said that he didn't realize he would be in a motion picture until he arrived in Los Angeles, and commented that he didn't feel comfortable mingling with his fellow cast members, whom he described as a "happy, noisy crowd...childish, silly and in a world all their own," At one point, he complained that they had gone Hollywood, wearing sunglasses and acting funny. He got along very well with Browning, and would later say that "Browning wanted me to stay as close to him as possible. He told me whenever I have an empty seat or chair, you are to sit alongside me while we shoot." Johnny was also disappointed by how much of his part in the film had been trimmed; nearly thirty minutes were cut by the censors, and this footage has yet to been found. Eck claimed that Tod wanted to do a follow-up picture with him, along with his brother Robert, where they would play a mad scientist's creation, but Browning's career was irretrievably damaged by the release of Freaks, which was eventually given an X rating and banned in numerous countries. Browning no longer had any clout in Hollywood to do the project and so the project was abandoned.

After Freaks, Johnny was featured as a bird creature, or "Gooney Bird," in three Tarzan movies: Tarzan the Ape Man (1932), Tarzan Escapes (1936) and Tarzan's Secret Adventure (1941). In order to create and design the bird costume, a full body cast was taken, and it turned him into one of the most unique creatures in film history.

In 1937, Johnny and Robert were recruited by the magician and illusionist Rajah Raboid for his show called "Miracles of 1937." The trick they would perform would become one of the greatest illusions of all time. Raboid performed the traditional "sawing a man in half" routine, except with an unexpected twist. At first, Robert would pretend to be a member of the audience and heckle the magician during his routine, resulting in Robert being called onstage to be sawed in half himself. During the illusion, Robert would then be switched with his twin brother, Johnny, who played the top half of his body, and a dwarf who would play the bottom half, concealed in specially-built pant legs. After being sawed in half, the legs would suddenly get up and start running away, prompting Johnny to jump off the table and start chasing his legs around the stage, screaming, "Come back! I want my legs!" Occasionally, he would even chase the legs into the audience. The reaction was amazing - people would scream and sometimes run out of the theater in terror. As Eck would describe it, "The men were more frightened than the women - the women couldn't move because the men were walking across their laps, heading for the exit." The illusion would end with stagehands picking up Eck and setting him atop his "legs," then twirling him offstage to be replaced by his twin Robert, who would loudly threaten to sue Raboid and then storm out of the theater. Their act was so popular that they played to packed houses up and down the East coast.

In addition to film, sideshow and stage, Eck also pursued other interests; he and his brother were musicians, leading their own 12-piece orchestra in Baltimore, Johnny conducting and Robert playing the piano. Eck continued his love of drawing and painting, choosing such subjects as pretty girls, ships and self-portraits. He was also a race car enthusiast and the driver of his own custom-built race car, the "Johnny Eck Special," which was street legal in Baltimore. In 1938, Eck climbed to the top of the Washington Monument on his hands.

When sideshows lost their popular appeal, the Eckhardt brothers returned to 622 North Milton Ave. in Baltimore, MD, the same red brick house that the family had lived in since 1906 and where they lived for the rest of their lives. They bought a penny arcade in Baltimore until a business tax forced them to close, and later bought a used children's train ride in a local park, where Johnny acted as the conductor. Johnny also became a screen painter, learning the craft from William "Pop" Oktavec, a grocer and local folk artist who invented the art form in 1913.

In retirement, Eck would sit on the steps on his porch with his Chihuahua, Major, telling stories about his life. He and Robert often performed Punch and Judy puppet shows to entertain the children who would come to visit, but the neighborhood was increasingly becoming less and less safe due to drugs and crime. The video release of Freaks in the 1980's attracted a new generation of fans and brought more visitors to the house, some of whom Johnny wasn't entirely comfortable with, telling a friend, "You'd be surprised to see these 'avid' fans. I say they are crazy." Despite having a notable career since the 1920's, Eck expressed dismay at his own circumstance because he had very little to show for his success, attributing this to being taken advantage of by unscrupulous managers, sharp crooks and even best friends. In 1985, he wrote, "I am so embarrassed - I would love to be financially able to entertain these wonderful people in a refined way - a tiny sandwich, cold Cola or something."

In January, 1987, the 76-year-old Eckhardt brothers was robbed in an ordeal that lasted several hours. One of the thieves sat on Johnny and mocked him while the other took their valuables. Thereafter, they went into seclusion and became virtual recluses, no longer invited visitors into their home. Eck would later say, "If I want to see freaks, all I have to do is look out the window."

On January 5, 1991, Johnny suffered a heart attack in his sleep and died at the age of 79. His brother Robert passed away on February 25, 1995 at the age of 83. They are buried under one headstone in Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: mgnylander@yahoo.com