Eddie Carmel
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 ($619,000 in current dollar terms).[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.[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).[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.