Eddie Carmel

Eddie Carmel's abnormal growth started when he was a teenager. He suffered from acromegaly because of a pituitary gland tumor that was incurable at the time. As an adult, the only work he could find involved exploiting his freakishness. With his best friend, Irwin Sherman, they worked together as stand-up comedians in New York. Carmel starred in a B-grade monster movie (The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962)) and made two 45-rpm records ("The Happy Giant" and "The Good Monster"). He joined the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Baliey Circus from 1961 to 1968. They presented him as "The World's Greatest Giant" and "The Tallest Man on Earth." His height was billed at 8' 9" (a 14-inch exaggeration). He very much wanted to be respected for his talent and said, "I'd like someday to reach the point when I'm known as the reverse Mickey Rooney." He developed severe kyphoscoliosis (abnormal curvature of the spine) at the time of his death that shortened his height to about 7 feet (213 cm). Eddie died at the age of 37 in Montefiore Hospital.