Just doing a quick search, I found that Merrick had joined the freak show to be exhibited on his own accord. I assume then that he wasn't beaten. Since he did make this choice on his own, did he not mind being exhibited?
shareHe wanted to survive. He needed to make a living and this was one of the few options left for him. It was one of the few options for many people with disabilities or disfigurements in those days.
It's hard to have a regular job if you're considered a freak and people start screaming at the very sight of your face. Can't you imagine how tough that would be?
I highly doubt it was enjoyable to be leered and sneered at. But it probably beat living under a bridge.
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they treated him well. the movie had been fictionized to make it more interesting. i hope oneday, the real true story is made
shareThere is a great deal of fiction in the movie.The real Merrick's London showman, Tom Norman, was not a brutal drunk like the fictional "Bytes." Norman was a well-respected showman and founder of a temperance society. He and Joseph Merrick were friends and business partners. Norman paid all of Merrick's expenses and split their earnings fifty-fifty. In a few weeks, Joseph saved up fifty pounds, as much as a typical working family made in a whole year. Ever since Treves wrote his memoirs with the character of the cruel showman, the Norman family has been appalled and embarked on a campaign to clear Tom Norman's good name.
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