Eddie Carmel

Eddie Carmel, born Oded Ha-Carmeili (Hebrew: עודד הכרמלי) (March 16, 1936 – August 14, 1972) was an Mandatory Palestine-born entertainer with gigantism and subsequent acromegaly resulting from a pituitary adenoma. He was popularly known as "The Jewish Giant", "The Happy Giant," and "The World's Biggest Cowboy." Carmel was listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as 9 feet (274 cm) tall, and billed at the heights of 8 ft 9 in (268 cm) and 9 ft 0.625 inches (276 cm) tall, though he may have more realistically been around 7 ft 3 tall. He was variously a mutual funds salesman, carnival sideshow act, film actor, rock and roll band singer, and stand-up comedian. He was made famous by photographer Diane Arbus' picture Jewish Giant, taken at Home with His Parents in the Bronx, N.Y. in 1970, a print of which sold at auction for $421,000 in 2007 ($519,000 in current dollar terms). At the time of his death at age 36, he had shrunk several inches, due to kyphoscoliosis.

Eddie Carmel
עודד הכרמלי
Jewish Giant, taken at Home with His Parents in the Bronx, N.Y., 1970, Diane Arbus.
Born
Oded Ha-Carmeili

(1936-03-16)March 16, 1936
Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine
DiedAugust 14, 1972(1972-08-14) (aged 36)
Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, New York
Other names"The Jewish Giant", "The Happy Giant," and "The World's Biggest Cowboy.
Alma mater
OccupationMutual funds salesman, carnival sideshow act, film actor, rock and roll band singer, stand-up comedian
Years active1958–69
Known forListed by the Guinness Book of World Records as 9 feet (274 cm) tall, and billed at the heights of 8 ft 9 in (268 cm) and 9 ft 0.625 inches (276 cm) tall.

Early life

Oded Ha-Carmeili (Hebrew: עודד הכרמלי) was born in Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine (now Israel), to Orthodox Jewish immigrants, weighing 16 pounds, and was Jewish.[1][2][3][4] An only child, he was raised in the Bronx, New York, after his parents Isaac (Itzhak; an insurance salesman born in Poland) and Miriam (née Pines) Ha-Carmeili (born in the United States, and later a secretary at the Jewish Theological Seminary) relocated back to the United States when he was two years old so his mother could care for an ailing relative.[5][6][1][3][4] His parents were 5 feet 6 inches tall, but his maternal grandfather in Poland was known as the tallest rabbi in the world, at 7 feet five inches (226 cm).[7][3][8][4] He lived with his parents on Elgar Place in Co-op City in the Bronx.[9][7]

At 10 years of age Carmel was 6 feet 1 inch tall.[4] At 15 years of age he was 6 feet 6 inches tall, and was diagnosed with gigantism and acromegaly.[10][11][3][12] When he graduated Taft High School in 1954 he was 7 feet tall.[3][8][13] He studied at City College of New York for two years where he was elected vice president of his class, majoring in business and joining the Dramatic Club, and Baruch College.[3][8][4][14][5]

Carmel was listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as 9 feet (274 cm) tall, and billed at the heights of 8 ft 9 in (268 cm) and 9 ft 0.625 inches (276 cm) tall, though he may have more realistically been around 7 ft 3 tall.[15][16][3][17] He had a size 24 shoe.[3] He was popularly known as "The Jewish Giant," "The Happy Giant," and "The World's Biggest Cowboy."[18] "Eddie" was his nickname from his youth, and Carmel was a stage surname.

Career

In 1958, Carmel sold mutual funds at an office near Times Square in Manhattan, New York.[8]

Due to his condition, Carmel's primary work was in carnival sideshows, including appearances at Hubert's Dime Museum and Flea Circus on West 42nd Street in Times Square, Milt Levine's World of Mirth show, and in the 1960s in Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (which billed him as being 9 feet and 5/8 of an inch tall, and 500 pounds).[11][19][3][20] He also acted in a few films, such as the science fiction horror film The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962) and 50,000 B.C. (Before Clothing) (1963).[19][3]

He formed and played with a rock and roll band, Frankenstein and the Brain Surgeons.[8][3] Carmel also recorded two novelty 45 records, "The Happy Giant" and "The Good Monster," and the single "The Happy Monster's Song".[3][8][13]

For a time Carmel, with his best friend, Irwin Sherman, worked together as stand-up comedians in New York.[21][13] He stopped working in 1969, as his physical condition and arthritis made movement difficult, and he required two canes when he walked, later a wheelchair, and ultimately he was unable to get out of bed.[3][13]

Carmel was made famous by photographer Diane Arbus' picture Jewish Giant, taken at Home with His Parents in the Bronx, N.Y. in 1970, his back arched against the low ceiling of the apartment where he lived with his parents, when he was 34 years old, two years before his death.[7][22][23][24][25][11] As the photo was taken, he joked: "Isn't it awful to have midget parents?"[3][25] Arbus remarked on her photo, "You know how every mother has nightmares when she’s pregnant that her baby will be born a monster? … I think I got that in the mother’s face…"[26] The photo inspired his cousin to make an audio documentary about him in 1999.[27] A print of the photo was sold at auction for $421,000 ($519,000 in current dollar terms) in 2007.[27] A print of the photo was sold at a Christie's auction for $583,500 ($609,000 in current dollar terms) in 2017.[28]

Death

On August 14, 1972, Carmel died of a heart attack at age 36, in Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, New York.[13][29] At the time of his funeral, he had shrunk several inches, due to kyphoscoliosis (curvature of the spine, a mixture of scoliosis and kyphosis).[30]

References
  1. Lubow, Arthur (April 9, 2014). "The Woman and the Giant (No Fable)". The New York Times.
  2. Heinlein, Sabine (May 23, 2014). "The Jewish Museum Trivializes the Jewish Giant". Tablet Magazine.
  3. Hartzman, Marc (2006). American Sideshow. Penguin. ISBN 978-1-4406-4991-2.
  4. McHarry, Charles (April 4, 1961). "On the Town; The Gentle Giant; Clipped From Daily News". p. 47 – via newspapers.com.
  5. Sugrue, Francis (May 6, 1963). "The Happy Giant; Clipped From The Daily Times". p. 6 – via newspapers.com.
  6. Rodes, David (September 24, 2014). "Lunchtime Art Talk Recap: David Rodes on Diane Arbus | Hammer Museum". hammer.ucla.edu.
  7. "Eddie Carrel, 500‐Pound Giant At Ringling Circus, Dies at 36". July 31, 1972 – via NYTimes.com.
  8. Charyn, Jerome (2015). Bitter Bronx: Thirteen Stories. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-87140-498-5.
  9. "Death Takes Gentle Giant at 36; The Record from Hackensack, New Jersey on August 1, 1972 · 31". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  10. Stewart, David (April 23, 2001). "Isay's people: survivors holding on with dignity". Current.
  11. Wender, Jessie (April 8, 2014). "The Subject of an Arbus". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  12. Acton, David (2004). Photography at the Worcester Art Museum: Keeping Shadows. Worcester Art Museum. ISBN 978-0-936042-10-7.
  13. "The Jewish Giant". storycorps.org.
  15. Russell, Alan; McWhirter, Norris D. (1987). The Guinness book of records 1988. Guinness Book. ISBN 978-0-85112-868-9.
  16. The National Jewish Monthly. 88. B'nai B'rith. 1974.
  17. "The Tallest Man - Eddie Carmel". Archived from the original on 2012-11-06. Retrieved 2012-12-02.
  18. Vogel, Carol (2007-12-18). "A Big Gift for the Met: The Arbus Archives". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  19. Heller, Jules; Heller, Nancy G. (2013-12-19). North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-63889-4.
  20. Solomon, Zachary (June 17, 2014). "The Jewish Giant at the Freak Show".
  21. Berger, Phil (2000-11-14). The Last Laugh: The World of Stand-Up Comics. Cooper Square Press. ISBN 978-1-4617-3199-3.
  22. Dean, Michelle (2016-06-20). "'Diane Arbus' examines a photographer who specialized in human mystery". Christian Science Monitor. ISSN 0882-7729. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  23. Jacobs, Steven L.; Garber, Zev (2009). Maven in Blue Jeans: A Festschrift in Honor of Zev Garber. Purdue University Press. ISBN 978-1-55753-521-4.
  24. Davis, Lennard J. (2013). The Disability Studies Reader. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-13456-3.
  25. Lubow, Arthur (2014-04-09). "The Woman and the Giant (No Fable)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  26. "Diane Arbus: Photographer of Flaws". March 14, 2011. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
  27. Sayej, Nadja (2018-04-09). "Diane Arbus' daring early work: 'It was a story that went untold, until now'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  28. Christie's, Lot 25B (17 May 2017). "Diane Arbus, A Jewish Giant at Home". www.christies.com. Retrieved 2020-06-27.
  29. "Eddie Carmel, 500-Pound Giant At Ringling Circus, Dies at 36". The New York Times. July 31, 1972. p. 30. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  30. Schultz, William Todd (2011). An Emergency in Slow Motion: The Inner Life of Diane Arbus. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 9781608196814 – via Google Books.
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