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CHICAGO – Though he entered the world as the younger of a pair of fraternal twins, John Eckhardt Jr. (1911-1991) was unique from the start. He had a birth defect that afflicted the lower half of his body. In his words, he looked as if he was “snapped off at the waist,” and he enhanced this effect with custom-tailored clothes that concealed his underdeveloped legs and feet.

At the tender age of 12, Eckhardt was recruited to perform in a sideshow and transformed himself into Johnny Eck, billed during the course of his unusual career as “The Most Remarkable Man Alive” and “The Amazing Half-Boy.” His best-known and most enduring role was his film debut as the Half-Boy in Tod Browning’s 1932 cult classic Freaks.

Eck’s talents were many and wide-raging, and they were on full display in a lot offered in Potter & Potter Auctions’ July 29 sale titled Circus, Sideshow & Oddities. It was a group of six wooden circus figurines, carved with a pen knife sometime in the 1930s. They consisted of two leaping horses, one white and one black, and four human performers. All stood about two inches tall, and though the lot notes don’t state it explicitly, Eck personally carved them all for a show of his that rendered the Johnny J. Jones Exposition as miniatures. Estimated at $600-$900, the Eck figures earned $4,250.

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Set of six wooden figures carved in the 1930s by sideshow star Johnny Eck, which sold for $4,250 at Potter & Potter Auctions.
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Leaping black horse from a set of six wooden figures carved in the 1930s by sideshow star Johnny Eck, which sold for $4,250 at Potter & Potter Auctions.
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Leaping white horse from a set of six wooden figures carved in the 1930s by sideshow star Johnny Eck, which sold for $4,250 at Potter & Potter Auctions.
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Quartet of human circus performer figures from a set of six carved in the 1930s by sideshow star Johnny Eck, which sold for $4,250 at Potter & Potter Auctions.
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