Original subtitles

Are you home?

Hi, honey.

How was your day?

How was your day?

Tough.

Suppose we're stuck here Suppose that this image in the mirror will never pop

back

Consider a dream from which there is no awakening, that it is forever and ever

in this lifetime.

Think of Alice, held hostage on the other side of the looking glass, not

step back into what we call reality.

Or Gulliver on his travels, unable to return, diminished or enlarged, forever

in eternity.

Well, our leading players...

already know that state, the state that challenges our sense of what we think of

as normal.

They are like pictures in the exhibition of our dreams, but they're real.

They were children as you were, born in the normal way, loved and loving, yet

altered by forces hard to understand into something mythic, mysterious,

sometimes most brave, sometimes even beautiful.

But always...

profoundly human.

They must live in our world, and we must live in theirs.

If we were they, what would our world look like?

How would people look at us?

This is a place like none other.

Gibsonton, Florida.

Just nine miles south of Tampa.

Known as the carnival capital of America.

Being different here is almost a point of pride.

Being different amongst this congress of special people is a way of life.

To be average would be unusual.

It is their winter quarters, and the day begins in a strangely normal way.

Staring and gawking that takes place is the kind of small -town curiosity that

goes with a normal day in a town that is largely mobile, set on wheels, and

ready to hit the road.

Perhaps here we can challenge our own concept of normal.

and meet people who are, after all, only human.

They are us.

They tell us to step right up, and on the inside, behold the people of wonder.

The morning sound is apt to be the warm -up barking of the impresario of

extraordinary people, Ward Hall.

The Circus Sideshow is where you see the strangest people in all of the world.

Human oddities gathered together from all over the earth. And here today you

going to see such strange people as Pete Teherne, Puba, the little dwarf who

eats and breathes fire and flame.

He can bend red -hot bars of steel over his tongue.

He can bite the ends from red -hot horseshoes. He can drink burning

like you and I would drink iced tea.

Nine feet and a fiery.

I

came

from Minnesota.

I was born in 1930.

Right now, I'm 50 years old.

I was joined in this show.

1954, I was with them every cent.

I do love them.

Fire -eating.

Sometimes I get to work the snake.

Oh, that's why I do the clowning.

To make little kids happy.

Today you are going to witness the one and only Ronnie and Donnie Galleon.

Two people who must live as one.

Two young men in their mid -twenties who have lived together every

minute. Every second of their lives.

They have never been apart for even an instant because the Galleon brothers are

Siamese twins.

They are joined together by flesh and blood.

Well, actually, it was one of her fastest deliveries.

This is their father.

They were born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1951.

They were natural birth.

Donnie, the little one, he was head first. He came to where they were

The doctor couldn't get him any farther, and he thought the cord was wrapped

around him. Finally, he saw he had Siamese twins.

Just fortunately, we had a good doctor.

Donnie was head first. Ronnie was feet first. They each had their legs out

beside the other.

The doctor told me right away, he says, they'll probably die. I saw them when

they was about five minutes old, and I just knew in my heart, I knew they were

going to live.

Now, they were in the hospital the first 20 months of their life under

observation. They decided they couldn't separate them, and they sent them home.

And we had them home for two years always always did we never put them on

exhibition? Well, we had offers the day they were born to put them on the

exhibition We always said we would never do it But we were constantly hound of

death people want to see you in regards to where they go or what to do their own

Exhibition this way they get something from it.

What else can Siamese twins do Ronnie? The big one has always been a good

-natured kid, but Donnie little when he's temperamental Usually he wins his

No, all we do is fight

Because he won't be sporting a black eye?

Or he could be sporting a black eye.

You actually hit each other?

Yes.

Well, that's true.

They are joined in a duet for a lifetime, living each moment in

Each step, each breath, walking, talking, or sleeping is a compromise

two living souls.

The original and famous Siamese twins, Chang and Eng, who, by the way, were

really Chinese, challenged the imagination with the fact that they

fathered 22 children.

The female set of twins used to sing, I love all things that God has done,

whether I'm created two or one.

Ronnie and Donnie in many ways are normal, but they are the end of their

Ronnie and Donnie, they can never reproduce. They can never have family.

can never reproduce.

That's one reason they can never be separated.

They each have their own stomachs, small intestines, and part of the large

intestines. The descending colon down to the rectum is where they're joined.

Donnie has the rectum.

They each have their own kidneys, but there's only one large bladder between

them. Ronnie has the organ.

They were born that way.

Now, at the time they were born, it was impossible.

They said you'd lose one and probably both. You should try to separate them.

Today it is possible. There was a doctor in to see us two weeks ago.

He was a plastic surgeon, and he told them they could be separated.

Ronnie says no way.

Because we like it how we are.

We can play baseball, we're left -handed, we can catch the ball, and go

and fishing.

Is one of you a better hitter than the other?

Yes, we both are.

But I'm the better shot with a rifle or a shotgun.

Because we own a .22 rifle, 12 -gauge shotgun together, pump, and I'm the

shot.

Uh -huh.

And don't brag.

Did they ever get jealous of each other, by the way, when you were talking?

I was curious about that.

No.

Because we are like brothers.

We're like one another.

Why be jealous of one another?

Where I go, he goes. Where I go, he goes. Where I go, he goes.

There

is

an old saying, laugh and grow fat.

Shakespeare requested, let me have men about me that are fat.

And beware the lean and hungry look.

Now we've also got people of another kind in here.

Because in here you're going to see the biggest, fattest, funniest people in the

world. Number one, Big Paul Fish.

A man who is so big and so fat, it takes four girls to hug him and a boxcar to

lug him.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and those of you in the Twilight

Zone, my name is Paul Fish. I'm the fattest man in the world.

I weigh 729 pounds.

I'm 29 years of age from Columbus, Ohio.

I stand 5 feet 8 inches tall and have about an 80 -inch waistline.

Any questions, ladies and gentlemen?

What are the difficulties of being your size?

Well, actually, the main difficulties I have are caused by other people.

They tend to, shall we say, manufacture difficulties for

me. They think there are many things that I can't do, so they try to

them, things like this, and in the end usually cause more difficulties than

they've smoothed out for me.

In folklore, the fat man is supposed to be the jolly man.

Actually, the jolly fat man is a myth as far as I'm concerned.

You figure we're more susceptible to heart disease, kidney disease, lung

failure, liver trouble.

What the hell have we got to be jelly about?

Ho, ho, ho.

I'm the biggest, fattest, funniest girl you'll ever meet in your life.

is Big Joanne Pintella.

Her professional name is Big Pepsi from Boston, that big girl from the big city.

You know, there's an old saying, if a little piece of sugar is sweet, a big

piece is much sweeter. And she is the biggest, maddest, sweetest girl you ever

saw in your life. And when she entertains, you'll swear she must be

jelly because jam don't taste like that.

Us American women.

If we're fat, we want to be skinny. If we're skinny, we want to be fat. If

got blonde hair, we want black. If we've got black hair, we want blonde.

We're never satisfied with what we've got.

I go with a city fireman in Columbus, Indiana.

He's 5 '8 and weighs 155 pounds, so that can't be too difficult.

You have a picture of him, I think. Yes.

I find most men attractive.

I like my mustaches.

They got to have pretty teeth and be clean and neat, and that is the only

thing that it takes.

I don't feel sorry for myself, and I don't think God intended to do anything

wrong. To me, God's got a funny sense of humor.

He made some of us short, some of us tall, some of us fat, some of us skinny.

He made an elephant and he made a zebra. What else can I say?

Have you seen Dolly Regan, that strange half -woman, half -baby, a woman who has

a head just as normal and just as charming as any other 50 -year -old

she has a body like the body of an infant child. That's right. Her head,

face matured, but her body has remained the same as it was when she was a baby.

One of the reasons that I'm called a half -lady and a half -baby.

It's simply because I'm a very small person, and my name is Dolly Regan.

My name is Scott. Also, my married name is Scott.

I am a widow.

I have been a widow since 1978, September 78.

I joined carnival business when I was 23 years old in 1942.

The man sent my girlfriend to ask me if I would come to the sideshow.

So I go to the side show and they start talking to me.

And they said, now you would make a beautiful stone lady. Just beautiful. I

23 years old.

And of course, when I was 23, I was quite pretty.

She wheeled me over there and I don't even remember the interview.

I was so nervous.

I went in there and I go in and I see a lady with a lot of hair on her face.

She's a bearded lady.

It was almost too much for me.

But when they started to talk to me, I'd never earned my own living. I mean, how

much do you make selling newspapers?

Some people say people who exhibit themselves, why did they do it? What

your reaction be to those people? My reaction is, I've had that. I've had

approach me on that so many times.

I don't want to be confined.

I don't want to be put away.

I don't feel like I should be put away.

I've got a mind of my own.

And I've got a body of my own, and hell, the body wants to move around. I don't

want to be stuck somewhere.

If I grow older, and God forbid if I become senile, and they have to

put me away, all right, then I'll have to be put away. But up until then, let

have my independence.

I've not had a bad life, no.

I've traveled.

I've been from one end of Canada.

to the other end of canada i've been from one end of the united states to the

other end of the united states plus the bahamas plus mexico and hawaii where i

got lost you've had in many ways an extremely normal kind of social

yes i've been married my first marriage was very good my second marriage was not

too good this is quite true but my third marriage was very good also They say

you had three husbands. How about your social life, your physical social life?

You mean sex?

Is that what he's referring to? All right, yeah, very well.

Thank you.

Didn't your husband build some kind of special thing for you to smoke?

You are referring to this?

See this little stick here?

I smoke my cigarette with this. I poke people with this thing.

I reach books, I reach papers, I reach everything with this little stick.

I was stopped in, would you like to know about that too, about me being stopped

in Detroit, Michigan by a policeman?

He was chasing me down the midway, chasing me like crazy because I was

smoking a cigarette with this, and this was during the time when pot smoking was

a very, very serious offense.

And I hear this clump, clump, clump, clumping behind me.

And some little kids were yelling, Lady, there's a policeman behind you. He

wants you.

There's a lady.

There's a policeman behind you.

So I stopped for the policeman, and he takes my cigarette, holds it under his

nose, and he's quite perturbed because it wasn't pot.

So ever since then, this has been my Roach clip.

Do you feel sorry for yourself in any way?

No, I don't think so.

I guess on occasion maybe I have.

I bet you on occasion you have, too.

And in our show today, the tallest man in all the earth, from Reykjavik,

Iceland, Johan Petersen.

Johan Petersen stands 8 feet, 2 inches in height. He weighs 600 pounds.

This is hard to believe, but this is used to show the size of my ring,

you know.

This is a dollar.

Silver dollar, see.

Silver dollar, see.

That's a long time ago.

These pictures were taken when I was young and good -looking.

So I was not too good -looking, but I was strong at that time. I couldn't care

two ladies, one of each hand.

That's a really good picture.

There's the other picture taken in Hollywood.

There's this one of the Hollywood stars, I guess you remember her.

Betty Davis.

Yeah, Betty Davis.

Wonderful woman.

This is, well, when I was a Viking giant,

you know.

This is one of the costumes, you know, Viking giant costumes.

I worked in this business for many years.

This one I might take it back from the shows, you know.

That's from the old good days, you know.

One time ago.

Yes.

If you want to go in and see the wrecking dance here, you're going to

tickets. All we have to do is to go in and see, right? All set up. All we got

do is sell tickets.

Yeah.

Well, it's nice to reminisce it. This is over here. Here.

They are, of course, part of a passing parade.

It is the imagination of man that makes him remarkable.

The couple that lives here has been married happily for 42 years.

Now, what did he do with my shovel?

Never can find that shovel.

Where's my deer? He always takes off when I go to plant something.

I'm known as the alligator or the crocodile skin man. My name is Emmett

and here is my wife, Priscilla.

I'm known as Priscilla the monkey girl.

And we are called the strangest married couple.

We eloped.

We eloped and got married.

We eloped. He never proposed.

He eloped and said, this is it.

We eloped and at 3 o 'clock in the morning.

I knew he was the one for me and I guess he knew that I was the one for him. So

we eloped.

I went up and picked her up at 3 o 'clock in the morning out of her

She threw all of her clothes into a bed sheet because she didn't want her

adopted father to know that she was leaving.

But he found us.

Priscilla, what appealed to you about Emmett? What was it about Emmett that

found so attractive?

Well, one thing, I was better looking than I am now.

I just took that out of my mouth.

That's one thing you know. See, you don't look good.

What they are, their personality.

And what's inside.

I can see all the beautiful things. They've got a good heart.

That means a lot.

Do you like being totally unique in the world? Yes, I do. I really do.

We're different. We're different. We know that.

And I was teasing him the other day. I said, I think I'll shave and dye my hair

blonde.

You have a new look. He said, you do? Then I'm going to walk out on you.

He says, I love you as you are.

Even in Gibsonton, there is a certain challenge for Priscilla to go out

in an ordinary supermarket.

Just like I went to the store a couple weeks ago, and the lady says, oh, I feel

sorry for you. Are you doing anything for your teeth?

And I says, no, ma 'am. I says, I only had one pull.

But it's getting along fine. She says, you did. I had all of mine at once, he

said.

And it just gave me a fit.

She says, I know that you got it. I said, yeah, I don't want to catch cold.

And that's all it was. Passed it on. Passed it off.

I could have just went like that and boo.

She would have had them all in that store running.

What does love mean to you?

Love is much happiness, I think.

And to be loved.

and companionship, and to be loved by people that come in the show to see you

from time to time, the year to year, and my neighbors.

Thank you, Bob.

My son.

I really didn't have very many problems. I was proud of my mother and father the

way they were, and I accept them the way they were. They were just mother and

father to me.

There's a lot of love and happiness for us.

Even though we are like this.

Being different is what we are.

Each of us a lonely star.

But when we find the one, we shine with an inner sun.

Their dance.

The hit the road party.

The time to go on the road at the International Showman's Association at

Gibsonton.

They move through life knowing who they are.

They move from their world to our world.

But even though you are now a so -called normal person, in your own lifetime,

you could become a human oddity, a freak of nature.

And if you doubt that statement, go visit a veteran's hospital and see the

lying in those beds without arms, without legs, without faces, stranger

oddities than we dare present in this show.

But you don't have to go to war to become a freak of nature, to become a

humanodity, because we manufacture humanodities every day and night in

automobile accidents across this great land.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's showtime right now.

We're ready to start.

So if you care to go, don't wait. Now is the time.

Let's go see what the world contains besides yourself.

We share this world.

In fact, we contain multitudes.

It seems to be natural to make ourselves lighter than air, to float above the

earth, to escape from our bodies.

But in the end, where we land, there's

always the awe and confrontation.

of what is different.

The falls, of course, have always been there.

But now the town of Niagara Falls is living with another giant.

The biggest, the fastest, the tallest, the greatest, the most, the zaniest, the

zaniest, the best.

They're all here at the Guinness Museum of World Records.

The Guinness Museum of World Records is proud to present a special live

appearance with Sandy Allen, the world's tallest woman.

Sandy Allen, she's been on the Johnny Carson Show and the Merv Griffin Show,

she's inside the Guinness Museum right now.

Good afternoon, all you short people. How are you doing today?

My name's Sandy Allen, and I'm the tallest living woman in the world. I'd

to welcome you to the Guinness Museum.

My height is 7 feet 7 and 1 fourth inches.

I'm 24 years old, and I weigh approximately 440 pounds, give or take

two.

When I was born, I was just an average -sized baby, but I soon began to grow

pretty rapidly.

By the time I was 10, I was standing 6 feet 3 inches tall.

So you short guys in the audience, just eat your hearts out.

By the time I was 14, I stood 7 '1". Have any of you folks got any questions

you'd like to ask me?

Don't hesitate. I've been asked everything from how's your sex life to

is your toothbrush, so nothing comes across as a surprise.

Do you have any kids?

No, I'm not married. This is my 11 -year -old brother sitting here, so as you

can see, there's nothing really that great about his stature.

He's a big help to me. He's out here visiting me from Indiana.

Anybody else?

Yes. Do you eat above average?

Well, for breakfast this morning, I only had three shark people.

I don't think that's too much.

We live in a time when we're dazzled by statistics.

As far as we know, she's the largest living woman on Earth.

You're cheating. You're standing up on the stage.

It's too bad he wasn't the tallest one. Can you imagine the money he'd make

playing basketball?

He could support me for a change.

I was about...

Let me see.

One or two years old when she first found out, you know, I was just barely

learning to talk.

And then I found out she was larger than my mother.

And I knew something was going on.

Okay, now I'm going to try and see if I can get this sleeve length here.

Hold on.

Hold on.

Got it? Her shoe size is 22.

Okay. All her clothes must be custom -made.

Want to sit down?

Might as well.

How are things at Guinness? Anything exciting?

Crazier than ever. You know, the other day, some fellow came in. He was very

serious. And he came in and he said, Are you the one that's 101 years old?

Good thing I'm not violent. I'd have punched him in the nose.

Stand up straight now, Shorty, so we can get you in this picture here.

It doesn't bother me to go out with shorter men, because if it did, I would

never get to go out. Face it, you know. I don't know that many tall men, and

there aren't that many. They're that close to my size.

The tallest man I ever went out with was about 7 '2 or 7 '3.

But we didn't hit it off very well, so that kind of went down the tubes.

She has made her choice to be on exhibition.

Well, nobody's forcing me to do this.

My height is there. Why not take advantage of it?

Like I said, I'm proud of my size. I'm not running away from it.

I'm doing this in order to show people that I was able to handle the problems

that were presented to me by my size. Now, why can't you handle yours?

I'm kind of hungry. I'd like some fried chicken. Can we have a picnic today?

Picnic? The large bones of giants create difficulties as they grow older, and

Sandy Allen today has problems walking and even standing.

I'm definitely not a tough person. My 11 -year -old brother could beat me up,

actually, I think.

I'm not, I'm what they call a gentle giant. Let's put it that way.

Oh, I'm sorry. Am I hurting your shoulder?

Just a little bit there. Okay, I won't lean so hard.

I love you.

I love you, too.

I've got to keep a positive thought on my side.

Although sometimes it gets me down. I'm not perfect. I'm only human.

The

distance

between what we call different and what we know as glamorous is a measure of

intention.

My name is Kathy Hindman.

I'm from Atlanta, Georgia, and I'm 6 '2". Beautiful short women now are a

dozen. You know, tall ones are hard to find.

What are the advantages then? You make it sound like there are a lot of

advantages. Oh, yeah.

Intimidating men.

I love it.

And just being noticed.

Your job opportunities are better.

And all around nice.

It gives you a warm feeling that you're wanted.

It really does.

I mean, who wants to be the average person walking down the road and nobody

turn around and look at, even to say, I mean,

who would want to be that average?

The little people of America have come for their annual convention.

They challenge our sense of perspective.

Little people of the land.

Like waves on a beach, each one different from each. They may look very

but within their tall.

Living in two worlds, friends and ours.

Even a star looks tiny from far.

Measured by science, they may not win any prize.

They may look small, but they...

little people in the world. Billy Barty, actor, organized the little people of

America. He is their eloquent spokesman.

In competing for roles, he long ago, out of necessity, learned how to have fun.

Mr. Scott in.

Yeah, good.

Hey,

I was just checking up on the part you had me up for.

Yeah.

I want you to know I missed out on that motion picture walking tall by three

feet. How long has he been at it?

Let's put it this way. I've been in the business since I was three years old.

Naturally, I played a part of a baby.

My dad asked me to stand on my head for a director in front of Samuel Goldwyn

Studios when they were shooting outside.

And I stood on my head, and the director saw it and put me in a picture.

That was a midsummer night's dream.

What was your role in that? I was a mustard seed.

Mickey Rooney played the puck.

And I started when I was three years old, so I...

I really don't know what else I would have done.

Your own parents, were they normal size?

Yes, yes. We don't like to use the word normal because we haven't really found

out what normal is yet.

We like to use the word average height.

And my parents are average height. I have two sisters that are of average

height. And this usually runs in most little people's families.

I married a lonely lady from Milan, Idaho.

And a very talented, very good woman.

And she's taught me a lot. I've never learned, but she's taught me a lot.

Billy and his family live in North Hollywood, a suburb of Los Angeles.

Well, I have two children. They're 17 and 9.

One small, and one is going to be big.

Lori, she's 17 years old.

We just treat her like any other daughter.

She's a little person.

She has some specific problems, but like any other teenager or anybody.

As she may have a little bit more being a little person, but it's a tough age

for anybody.

Of course, when Brayton came along, he was four or five years old and could

reach everything.

Children know that there's something different, but they don't know

My Italian coming out. They know something different, but they...

aren't sure what it is. And they say, you're a little daddy, you're a little

mommy, you're a midget. And then the parents go, hey, quiet, don't say that.

know, that's some kind of a dirty word or something.

And it's not.

If they would just say, they're just little people, and the problem would be

solved. Okay, Chris.

There you go, Chris.

That's the way, Braden.

Nice feeling, Braden. I just wanted that one. Sorry.

Time. Time.

Time. No, I got perspiration all over.

Can you wipe the water off? We do have a lot of physical problems because we

have a body that is compact into a frame that is under 4 '10".

And everything is right together.

And so we have back problems, but it doesn't... to really stop us.

Something's the matter here, women.

Oh, that's much better. Huh?

Oh, all right. Oh, okay. All right.

In the early days, it was mostly noted that little people were in show

And through that show business, they kind of had a little organization going.

But they didn't really have a successful organization.

Well, our first convention took place at the Riverside Hotel in Reno.

in 1957 on April 3rd. We had 20 little people attending.

Just last year, we had over 600 attend.

So, we are growing.

I think we, as an organization, really have had a positive outlook towards

ourselves and our lives.

And I think this has really been an asset. And we are proving that we can

about do anything that anybody else can.

Okay,

you want to straighten up those wrists.

Ready?

Go, Greg. Come on, Greg. Come on, Greg.

Come on, Greg.

Come on, Greg. Come on, Greg.

Come on, Greg.

Come on, Greg.

For little people, like all people, there are moments of challenge, of

and victory.

And I love golf. In fact, I even have my own little people golf tournament.

I'm a good putter.

I'm close to the ground.

I think that we have changed a lot of people's thinking, and we

have tried to help the little person to live up to his

individual potential.

And as our motto in the organization has been for over all these years,

think big.

Yay!

We are headed in that direction.

We feel that we live in two worlds. We live in a big world and we also live in

little world. And you cannot isolate yourself from either world.

People of the land.

Like waves on a beach, each one different from each. They may look very

but within their tall.

Living in two worlds, there's a loss.

Even a starless time you prefer.

Measured by suns, they may not win any prize.

They may look small, but they think tall.

Little people of the land.

My name is Yiget Beste.

My name is Rial Beste. I'm Yiget's husband.

I'm three feet nine and a half.

I'm six feet tall.

Once upon a time, there was a couple who lived in a palace.

That time is now.

Their name is Bastien.

For the Bastiens of Montreal, a mixed marriage, there is the daily challenge

living in a mixed world, a mixed world of size.

They jointly operate and live in a magic museum, the Midget Palace.

This is the museum.

It was built in 1913 by the Count and the Countess Nicole.

They were both small.

And they started that place. It was open to public.

And also they were living here. And Mr. Nicole, before he started the place

here, he used to travel with the circus Barnum and Billy.

And he met his wife while he was traveling.

And they got married in 1906 in Massachusetts.

And after they moved here, and they started that place here 67 years ago.

And now my husband and I, we are living here.

As palaces go, it is small, but everything has been delicately

practical, right down to a midget grand piano.

And there's a room with big furniture for my husband, and we also have a

bedroom.

Of course, here...

The furniture are all small.

I got used to it myself.

It's very easy. Same as if you get would come and live in my quarters, which we

do have other quarters, which are tall furniture.

She has to adapt to them.

I find out that it's easier to bend down than to climb to reach something.

Since Real has been previously married,

How has he found this marriage?

Sex, I don't think there's any problem.

Myself, I didn't find any.

Like I said before, we were married, I was married for the third time, and I

don't find it much different.

I think it's maybe a little bit better.

The only thing that's not normal on me is the height.

That's the only thing.

For the children of Montreal, the Midget Palace is a hospital for sick and

injured dogs.

They find an understanding doctor in Huguette Bastion.

Huguette is a master in fixing dolls. You probably see all kinds of dolls

around. These are customers that do bring them here.

We do that.

To get her, sometimes she has a problem in pulling some legs, so I pull the legs

for her.

But

life

changes outside once you get leaves this delicate shelter.

As soon as I get out of here, it's another world.

Everything is so big.

If you have to take a bus, well, the steps are too high.

You have to take the elevator, well, the bottoms are too high also.

And plus the crowd, I can't stand a big crowd.

Everybody walking with their hands on their purse in my face.

There's a lot of problems.

The Bastions have dared to be different.

They live in a practical palace.

And their only decree is that the world outside try to be tolerant and to

understand.

I don't know. If we did live ourselves in all of a small world, I don't know

we would feel.

This is my personal idea that life...

For me, in a little place, it's much easier than life for little people in a

place.

...is everywhere.

This is the heartland of America.

At the Lancaster Christian Church, where a special memorial service is being

held, is hardly where you'd expect to find a modern -day elephant man, Bob

Melvin.

With his wife Virginia and his family he has come to give Thanksgiving and to be

honored We would welcome

all of you to this special memorial program as we pay tribute their own

Melvin My relationship with Robert Owen Melvin better known to us as

Bob did not begin when he was born in 1920

Our ancestors were among the early settlers of Schuyler County.

Bob's mother, Hazel, and I were first cousins.

There has always been a close family relationship, and this is carried down

the present generation.

And this is carried down to the present generation.

We salute you, Bob. May you have continued happiness in your hometown

are respected and admired.

Will you stand, please?

It's a town which takes little notice of Bob Melvin's being different.

For him, a village of memory.

Born in 1920 in the half of Blossom Square.

I love kids, and kids love me. I mean, my only regret is

I didn't have two or three, no.

It is a place where people count their blessings and know their friends.

The people of Lancaster, Missouri have known Bob since birth, and they openly

embrace him and think nothing unusual about the man who has been called the

who has two faces and his wife.

He was born and raised here in Lancaster, and I was born and raised in

which is just three miles west.

So I grew up with him and knew him all my life, and we just always went to the

same places, roller skating and just...

you know just run around in a group for oh probably a year and a half or before

we got married and just Sort of drifted in together that way with just you know

running around with a group skating and dancing And just I don't know it just

sort of grew on us all right, I know medically and I've been examined by some

the best doctors in the United States and I'm concerned this is

God's

The way he was putting me on there for some reason, I don't know why.

Do you think he played you a dirty trick? No, I do not.

I have never felt that way.

I'm not that type of person.

You know, looks is only skin deep, and he's really a terrific person.

25 years ago, this world was a lot different.

You couldn't, people kept people like me.

in headaches and never let anybody see them.

Well, see, I was never treated that way. I was out here in the small area.

I had never felt that I was denied.

In fact, I was denied very little. And I guess because he never ever made, you

know, it never ever made a difference in the way in his life or the way he acted

or... or anything he never ever made a handicap out of it and i maybe i guess

that's the reason why no one else ever did i never got there wasn't a ladder

that i wanted to climb that i didn't at least get to the next to the last step

he has a very special relationship with his grandson right he sure does

we go bike riding tomorrow

We had a big day today, didn't we?

You've done a real job. I'll make a pro out of you.

Who's going to feed your rabbit? I'll feed him. I want to.

Feed him?

Yeah.

Give him a kiss.

That's not good.

Is it necessary?

Yeah.

You better go home and come back.

Each man is no less than me.

I believe that a leaf of grass is no less than the journey work of the stars.

Bob Melvin has accepted his own creation, but is grateful that his

grandson were born what we call normal.

Elsewhere today, some, especially the young, Try to be something other than

themselves. To disguise and twist what they are.

To freak out.

human spirit is contained in this extraordinary man. My name is Gervais

I don't do very much in particular right now, but I'm studying to be a karate

teacher.

I've been taking karate for about five years, off and on.

And my ambition is to, like, teach it to the handicapped.

I feel, you know, it's a really important thing to do. It's also very

the head and the body, and really good for coordination.

A lot of handicapped people, they stay within their own groups of handicapped

people. I think that's wrong.

Because they limit themselves a lot.

I think one of the reasons why I do so much is because all my friends are

normal. Normal, yeah.

And so it's like either keep up or stay behind.

And I've never been a good one to stay behind.

to me that I'll go in for a job interview, an office job or whatever,

and right away they ask me, can you sign your name?

And I've gone through school and I've gotten this far in life, you know, I can

sign my name. I can sign, I can do anything, you know, except maybe ride a

bicycle, I've never learned how.

People are constantly underestimating me.

When I was seven years old, I saw Peter Pan on TV and I promised myself never to

grow up.

And I guess most of the physical stuff to me is play.

Do you feel your body restricts you?

Physically, no.

In society, it does a lot.

People are constantly trying to do things for me and it really bothers me.

One of the kind of funny things that happens to me, funny in a way and

way it isn't, it's like about once every month and a half, without fail, I get

onto a crowded bus and some like 69 -year -old lady that weighs about 100 or

maybe 85 pounds will get up and offer me her seat.

And it usually happens on a bad day. At the end of a bad day, it makes you want

to kill.

Being handicapped, I've learned to see into people's hearts and minds a lot

easier.

I've almost compared it to being like an alien from a different planet.

I almost feel like apart from everybody.

I can sit back and watch the rest of the people, and I don't really feel part of

them.

But I do.

When I was born, my right leg was deformed, shorter than my left leg.

So when I was three years old, actually it was my mother who suggested to the

doctors that my leg be amputated. And the doctors, you know, they kind of

freaked out because they've been thinking about it for a year, but they

want to suggest it to my parents because they thought they'd be totally against

it. And it's probably one of the better things that's happened.

Because instead of having an artificial leg that no one can tell, I would have

to walk around with a brace and I wouldn't be able to do, I wouldn't be

mobile as I am.

I've never really had to work for anything.

I've been lucky that way. It's just all the good things have just come to me.

Perhaps his greatest triumph is that he has found the advantages

of being himself.

Like if I had my choice of being born handicapped and then having some

operation, like I would rather have been born the way I am and learn the lessons

I've learned.

about self -sufficiency and compassion, and then become

normal later on, just for the convenience of it.

Being handicapped sometimes, like I said, it's a great advantage.

My handicap can happen to anybody.

Train accident, your flight falls, someone's walking along the train tracks

flips, falls, train comes over, there you are.

That scares people, you know, they're very attached to their body.

And I've learned not to be so attached.

Out of the shadow, searching for sun.

You can't live on pity. Look out for number one. Keep your eye on your

And you'll be better in the end.

Look and just keep looking. In the inner city of Buffalo, Bill Cole

discovered in midlife how to cope with a drastic change.

He says he's doing fine.

Yeah, I'm doing good. I'm doing good.

shirt on?

I bought it over there, yeah.

But I don't go for the, you know, I say, you said that again, like this shirt,

because then you'll come from England.

Scottish. I'm as Scottish as I are as everything else.

When I was a young fella, I left home, I started hoboing.

In other words, riding freight trains, side door pullman.

When I was 32 years old, I got run over by the railroad train.

I went to sleep on the railroad track.

And then I woke up, in the hospital and i'm no leg and i raised the sheet up and

said oh my god and

i would live a pretty rough life i would drink wine i would mess around with no

good people i live in saint louis working on river boats been in new

no good people now it's a different life which i'm gonna start if i live i'm

gonna start going to church when i come back off my trip I'm going to start

going to church. I got a few nice clothes and things. I'm going to start

to church. It must be something that's keeping me here.

Bill hates to be confined and makes his daily rounds with the street people.

I can't live on pity.

Take them green stuff and make me live.

And I have that green stuff and them silver to live.

I can't live on pity.

If I live on pity, I sit in the room in the corner all day.

Wait somebody to do something for me. I don't want nobody to do nothing for me.

I do my own. I go shopping if I want to.

Pick out things I want.

Do anything I want to do.

How are you, Miss Carol?

Oh, just fine.

I like to eat good.

I ain't very fat, but I just love it. You know what I mean?

And the things I like to eat, you wouldn't know what it is. Like chitlins,

maws.

cornbread, black -eyed peas. I love soul food.

Born on, I miss my mother used to make chicken and dumplings.

Get a big pan, make, make a, put dough around it, put black, I mean, put, what

do you call that, blackberries, peaches, and then put dumplings in there.

How you doing, Miss Carol?

Hi, Bill.

Hang on a minute, I'm going to wipe the counters.

So is a beautiful day. The local shopkeepers all know and like him.

He's watched their children grow up.

One -hour Chris doing.

She's in school. She's doing fine. Good place for her. Right.

I love people.

That's what keeps me going.

If I'd sit back in the corner, wait on me, wipe my back, do this. I don't want

to do nothing for me if I can do it myself.

If I had to wait on them, when I need them, they ain't there.

When I got disability, when I want you, you ain't there. Then I'm stuck. I pin

on somebody. I pin on myself and the good man.

Have a good day. Same to you.

We'll take care of you.

There's a lot of people who like to drink wine.

I don't touch it once in a year, baby.

But I do not mingle with it every day.

Hello, girls. How you doing?

There's a lot of things in life inside of getting drunk.

A lot of things.

Oh, just fine. Nice day.

I think I'll go and look the joint over a little bit.

Have a nice day.

Thank you. Thank you.

The action, they say, is at the Cozy Bar in Bill Cole's Buffalo.

And as Bill will tell you, the world is full of all kinds.

It just depends on how you look at it and who's doing the looking.

In the neon pavement, on the hot granite ground,

under the flashing indigo sun, the actors of the...

And I began to imagine, what would it be like to climb a mountain?

And I saw myself, I saw myself trudging up some steep mountain trail.

And sure enough, several weeks later, there I was.

I was on the mountain.

See you on top.

At Mount Baldy in California, the remarkable runner is Peter Strudwick.

Well, I started off in a couple of hundred yards, Mike.

My heart was beating heavily and my lungs were really moving hard.

I couldn't understand what it was. I wasn't used to this kind of experience.

Now, I only had 2 ,000 feet to go from where they let me off.

All I had to do was look up and I could see the peak a couple of thousand feet

up above me. I could have got up that thing with my hands in my pockets.

Just four trail miles.

But it was 200 yards at first, and then it was every 100 yards I was stopping

and resting. I was going down to rest.

And then it was every 50 yards, and then every 40 yards, and I was falling on my

knees, and I was beginning to cry.

I was scared. I was all alone. There was nobody else on the trail.

I got to the top of the mountain, and I went down on my knees again and again,

and I cried.

But I got to the top of the mountain, and I think you'll agree that was a

victory. That was a victory.

But it was also a defeat, because I'd made some discoveries about myself.

And I wasn't happy about what I'd found.

He believed strongly in a kind of self -creation.

What makes 51 -year -old Strudwick a remarkable marathon runner is that he

born with no feet.

My mother had measles in the first trimester.

Her pregnancy the first three months and when I was born I just did not have the

digits and feet When

I'm alone I never feel

in any way deformed or Have any physical defects.

It's always one in comparison with with other people who are

Looking at me staring at me because I'm different

Most of us perform at a level

which is so far below our capabilities.

It's absurd and I'm just Scratching the surface of my physical abilities. I know

that I could run much faster and much farther I

Was born in Berlin Germany

on the 19th of January, 1930.

And I left Europe just before the Second World War.

I had to leave.

I left Marseille 18 days before the occupation of Paris.

Just a short time after I'd left France, children were put on trains, and they

disappeared toward the east, and they were never seen from again, like Anne

Frank.

I think that there's a good chance that I would have been destroyed.

But then the problem with destroying, the culling out the weeds, so to speak,

with humans is that you get people like Lord Byron, who was a clubfoot, and

Steinmetz, who was a hunchback, and Einstein, who probably couldn't have run

mile if his life depended on it.

So how does one know what we can really do?

He preaches a kind of evangelism for the power of running. He says, come run

with me.

Hi, I'm Pete Strudrick, and I'd like to share some of my experiences with you.

When I first ran a marathon, I was 39 years old, and it felt like at 20

miles that the bones of my legs were coming right through my stumps.

I only had five weeks to train, but I got through the run.

And that was my victory.

But I was last to start the race. They fired the gun.

And a couple of minutes after they fired the gun, this mob of about 2 ,000

people had taken off.

And there I was, clumping along behind them. But I finished.

I finished. And I knew that if I just finished that race, that would be my

victory as long as I lived.

And that's the way it's turned out.

Think of something you want very much in your life.

Something that's personal for you.

Now, persist in that thing. Hang in there.

Endure. Get that thing that you want.

I think that's the message of me finishing that first marathon. It is for

But it takes more than imagination.

It takes motivation.

It takes discipline.

See, sometimes I get hurt.

I twist an ankle or something silly like that, and I can't run. I

can't run for a while. But would you believe that I can train in my head?

The important thing is to visualize yourself being strong in this way. So I

picture a cheetah on a Serengeti plane, flat out, actually running, and I can

see it. I can look down off on the side, and I'm running. I'm running past it.

And this helps me.

Isn't that amazing? Doesn't that blow you away? That really gets me when I

of that.

That's the power of your mind.

I'm running because I'm alive.

Because this is one of many ways that I can express and spend the strength.

Spend the goodies.

Enjoy the goodies of life.

A reporter asked me one time, Pete, what's the most important thing in your

life? And I said, getting up after I get knocked down.

To realize your dream and not to be buried 40 years before they put you

the ground.

It's important to be on the living edge of the experience.

I want the whole world. It's my world. It's your world. I want it all.

preacher, and pilot.

Peter Strudwick says, call me a fanatic if you will, and you'll be right.

But I'll be out there running and talking for as many years as I can until

as old as my mountain.

The simple wish of Sam Early of Nazareth, Kentucky, is to become an

mechanic.

He is one of ten children, the rest all physically normal.

His mother died at birth.

He claims that balancing comes naturally to him and finds no problem maneuvering

himself on hands that have also become feet.

When Sam is not studying mechanics, he and his wife Colleen enjoy camping and

walking.

I was born with legs that were deformed.

When I was 12, I had them taken off and I was fitted for artificial legs.

I don't use them very much. They sort of stay in the closet.

How old are you, sir?

Twenty. What was your childhood like?

I guess it was just like anybody else's childhood.

It was just a child. Did you go to a regular school?

Yeah, I went to public schools.

I'm going to go down and see what they call it.

Together, the Earleys feel there's nothing they cannot try or enjoy.

And traveling on a second honeymoon, Colleen remembers their courtship.

When we were both about nine, we started going to a summer camp for the

handicapped. It was in Carrollton, Kentucky, and we met there, and we just

riding. And then we, I believe it was the summer of 78, I started going down

see Sam.

on weekends, and then we attended the same college.

And then we got married.

How old are you, Colleen?

21.

Now, Colleen, can you tell us about your condition?

Were you born with it, or did it develop later? Yes, sir. I have cerebral palsy.

Did you feel, Colleen, that, you know, was this really going to be tough, being

married to somebody who has no legs?

Well, I didn't have a lot of time to think about it. We decided to get

and three days later, we were married.

So I just thought that I loved him and it was worth a try,

you know.

We got married real quick, so I didn't really have time. It didn't even hit me

that I was married until the day I got married.

So we had a train go through during our wedding. Neither one of us heard it.

That's how aware we both were.

And Sam, you seem to have swept your awkward feet. How do you do that?

I guess it's just natural charm or something.

One prior hand at pinball.

Sam, do you feel frustrated that you can't go dancing like some of your

might?

We do it anyway.

We go dancing.

Well, how do you do that?

We just dance.

Would you like to have kids yourself?

Later on. Later on.

Lots later on.

So you have no disability in terms of being able to have kids? No.

Did you feel handicapped?

No, no. Well, no.

We do what we want to do.

If we can't do it, we don't need to be doing it anyway.

Well, Sam, you don't sound like you have too many problems.

Is life really that easy for you?

Well, it's just life.

How about you, Colleen?

It's not hard.

I like it.

Just like yours, I guess, except this one, I'm a little bit shorter.

on the lonely road from Dallas to Athens in a place called Maybank, is the home

of our choice for superstar Louise Capps.

The dance Saturday?

What?

Huh?

Oh, okay. All right, that sounds like a winner.

Okay, then it'll be Saturday night, for sure.

Bye, we'll talk to you later.

All right, bye -bye.

Come on, everybody on the floor. Let's go. Texas two -step time.

Fill the floor up. Let's go, Boogie.

Come on, we need some fast two -steppers out there. You can do it. Hey, Boogie.

Oh, let's show them what East Texas can do.

Each chapter having no meaning until I woke up today.

Thought about what I've been doing. Seems I've just been wasting my time.

In Gun Barrel City, the country boogie club, 28 -year -old Louise says she has

beautiful life with a few minor problems.

It's kind of difficult that he'd find a partner to dance with me.

But after I find one, it's pretty nice, you know.

I like to chase good -looking men, especially if they're chasing me back.

I get along pretty good,

you know. But I've had a few ups and downs.

Like game rooms, go and shoot pools. A lot of people don't like me.

shooting pool with them because they don't want me using my feet, but they

adjusted to it.

They're used to me, you know.

She seems able to aim at any goal and achieve it. Her lifestyle is simple, and

you can't help wondering what fantasy she might have if she were wealthy.

If I could be rich, go buy me a gigantic quarter horse ranch.

Have horses, some cattle.

All kinds of beautiful saddles.

Oh, I'd love it. That'd be great.

Have a whole bunch of good -looking ranch hands.

I like the horseback ride.

Watch these rocks. They're hot.

Louise Capps is horsewoman, mother of two, and artist at many things.

I would like to see my kids grow up.

And be happy and choose what they'd like to do. My son wants to be a

veterinarian. Okay, Jeff.

How short are we going to go this time with it? Not very short. Not very short.

Okay.

Not very short. Let's see. Find one here.

Be still.

Yep. Turn around here this way. Let's see.

Let's get some of this right here, okay?

Okay. Okay.

Want to cut a little bit of this up here?

Look at all these little fire waves. We'll just trim them off.

Does that sound like a winner to you?

Yeah. Yeah.

You ready for school to get out?

Yep. Get up. There you go.

We're not going to have any eyeballs left if I keep that up.

Now, gotcha.

You ever heard that advertising?

Gotcha.

Huh? You cut too much of my hair and I'm going to cut yours.

Oh, okay.

Is that a promise?

Yep. I can't let them, you know, run over me or anyone else because I've

been taught to be treated with firmness, you know.

Be nice to people that's nice to you, you know, and be respectful.

That's the most important.

Oh, it was after dinner Sunday evening.

And we picked up the paper, and there was a spread about this little armless

baby that was a ward of the Ellis County Court.

Catherine Capps, Louise's adopted mother, remembers the first day she saw

And I said, you know, there's a child we could do something for.

She was very shy the first evening we brought her home.

And I was a little bit concerned because Mr.

Caps jumped up to pick her up because she bumped her head against the side of

the playpen. And that's when I woke up and said, leave her alone. She'll take

care of herself.

She's all right.

She was a pretty little baby and a very alert little baby from the very

beginning.

Of course, in my moments by myself and taking care of her, I would think,

supposing she loses her bottle.

And I go outside to take care of something, and I don't get back in time

care of it.

Won't that be terrible? The poor little thing will cry her eyes out.

Well, I went in to check on her, and there she was. She had one leg up

in a comfortable position on the mattress, and the other leg bowed in

a way that her toes on her right foot was holding the bottle.

She had the nipple in her mouth.

So I said, well, that's no problem for me from then on.

Well, early in life, I had told her that she was going to have to learn to do

things for herself and learn to do them well.

And it was not a question of her being able to do them 100%. She was going to

have to learn to do them 101 % in order to keep up with the rest of the crowd.

How old were you when you got married?

Twelve and a half.

How did that happen?

Well, it's just that I decided that everybody else was getting married, so I

figured I would too.

I was 12 and a half, and Bob was 15.

That really broke my heart.

I thought, oh dear, think of all the things she's going to miss.

I've been married three times.

One, two, three.

What happened to number two and number three?

Well, number two...

He made up his mind he just didn't want to be married anymore.

And more or less, in my opinion, I made a promise, a big promise to my dad

when I was growing up about 9 or 10 years old, that whether I was married or

not, I was going to have a son that looked just like me, with big brown

big dimples, and a daughter with blue eyes and blonde hair.

So my second husband would come along with blue eyes and, of course, the

hair. And I got what I wanted out of it when he decided he wanted out of being

married. So I let him go.

And how about Nola?

Oh, Nola, what would you like?

I have this one already made. How about that?

Shopping with her daughter, Nola, she refuses help.

Now just think for a moment about getting dressed without the use of arms.

I always wanted to be a model for people like myself, model clothes, and

create things that would be easy for people to put their clothes on and off

with.

I take a coat hanger and stretch it out diamond shape

and use it to zip my britches, my slacks, my jeans.

Of course, it looks weird when you're going out and you've got this coat

hanging off your purse and people go, I don't know what she does with that, you

know.

I mastered that when I was about seven years old with the coat hanger.

And I don't know, I've just never had any real problems in dressing, you know.

Can I have a t -shirt?

Do your children think you're peculiar because you don't have any arms?

No, they think I'm far out.

They think I'm neato.

Let's go.

All right.

We go, like, during the summer, we go swimming.

They don't need an inner tube or a wrap down yet.

Her natural mother, part Indian, was an alcoholic and died when Louise was a

child.

She robs with her kids as if she was one of them.

You know, I mean, you get out there and your 10 -year -old son throws you across

the water, you know.

You come back up and your daughter rides your shoulders.

You just have a blast.

As far as they're concerned, I'm normal, you know.

I've always pictured myself as normal.

Just because I was born without arms didn't mean I didn't have the rest of me

together, you know.

But I can't stand people's point where they say, you're handicapped. Do you

handicapped? No way.

I feel normal.

I mean, I might not look normal.

Sometimes I don't act too normal, but that's natural. You've got to be a

crazy to get along in the world.

What is handicap in your opinion?

That's what I love to ask people.

In my opinion, handicap is a person that...

believe in themselves being handicapped. If they won't get up and learn how to

do something for themselves and they have ability to do it, they are

handicapped. Man, I've got it together.

I think I'm super.

I think I'm talented.

I consider myself very fortunate that I can do as many things.

I mean, you know, if I was to sit around and go...

I wonder how I do this. I mean, can you picture me picking up a brush and

going... All my life. God.

That's what happens. The brush peels off my mouth.

I like using my feet.

I get depressed, bored, disgusted with myself sometimes. With myself.

And with the outside world.

Then I go out with friends that don't even realize that I have this handicap,

people so call it, or disability.

I just get out with them and forget all about it. Or a lot of times I'll get out

in the car and come to Mother's and say, here, watch Nola, watch Jeff, I'll be

back. And I'll just drive off, get out and freak a few people out, pull up

behind them, bump the horn and wave at them.

Believe me, they move.

They don't waste any time.

I'd love to go to California or somewhere like that, get on their

drive along, pass a local officer and go, you know, wave at him, wink a

Can you imagine him going, Hey, Mac, you see this?

That would be a trip.

I'd like to be a bunny sometime one of these days, but that's just like I said,

it's a fantasy.

A bunny? Yeah, a playboy bunny.

Seriously, I would.

I think I'd be a cute bunny. Can you see me carrying a tray under my chin?

Can you see any guy going, wow, Mac, I think it's time for us to go home?

Seriously, I think it'd be great.

The Lady Louise is queen of her town.

She married at twelve, was a mother at fifteen.

She's made of stardust and sweetness and steel. She's a super lady

from a small Texas town.

The Lady Louise is queen of her town.

Being different is the poetry of life.

As the scarecrow says in The Wizard of Oz, I am convinced that the only people

in the world worthy of consideration are the unusual ones.

For the common folk are like the leaves of a tree and live and die unnoticed.

These exceptional people that we've met here have just begun to know a little.

must be noticed, for their lives are a kind of triumph of the human spirit.

Each one of them, in his own way, has answered, I'm happy to be alive each

day.

From deep inside their outer shells, they've shown us that life is a pure

and we live by an invisible sun within us.

So,

Next time when we pass a mirror, we might just glance and wonder,

who is it that's looking back at us?

Being different is what we are.

Each of us a lonely star, but when we find the one, we shine with

an inner sun.

Life is a pure flame, and none of us the same.

To feel is to know, real beauties glow,

better than never thought.

We could love each other a little bit more.

Open up our hearts and open up our souls.

We could love each other a little bit more.