ONE MAN'S GIANT-SIZE ANGUISH; NPR SEGMENT REVEALS STRUGGLE.

Byline: Fred Shuster Staff Writer

Eddie Carmel was an 8-foot-9-inch Bronx, N.Y., native best-known as the subject of a famous photograph by Diane Arbus. But to Carmel's cousin Jenny Carchman, he was much more than that.

Carmel, whose extreme size was a result of acromegaly, a disease of giantism, was a frightening mystery, a member of the Carchman family who was never discussed. When his name was mentioned, Carchman's dad burst into tears.

Today, National Public Radio's ``All Things Considered'' presents ``The Jewish Giant,'' a poignant 22-minute audio documentary about Carmel, who pursued a career in the entertainment business but could only find work that exploited his size.

Carmel was the subject of Arbus' ``A Jewish Giant at Home With His Parents in the Bronx, N.Y.,'' which was featured in Time, Newsweek and other magazines in 1972 - the year Carmel died from the then-incurable glandular disease at age 36. Arbus' photo hangs in the Museum of Modern Art.

``The Jewish Giant'' - which airs today at 1:30 p.m. on KPCC-FM (89.3) and 4:30 p.m. on KCRW-FM (89.9) - documents how Carmel lived with being different, of being viewed as unique and bizarre.

``He was a sideshow attraction and he knew he was more than that, but there was no way to express it,'' says Milton Levine, a carnival barker who worked with Carmel in the Worlds of Mirth sideshow. ``He was trapped - a normal, healthy brain inside the body of a giant.''

Carchman was 8 when she saw the Arbus photograph depicting Carmel in a dark Bronx living room, his parents looking up at him in wonder and sorrow, and learned the giant was her cousin. A photographer herself, Carchman eventually began filming a documentary about Carmel but decided to abandon it in favor of a radio piece produced by her close friend, Stacy Abramson of Sound Portraits Productions.

``When my mother first showed me the photo, I was horrified, terrified,'' Carchman, 28, said. ``I was mesmerized because it's such an unbelievable shift. The child is so much larger than the parents. I wondered how Arbus could have gotten so close to such a scary scene. Then to hear my mother say he was my cousin was even more frightening. To think I was related, that it was in my genetic structure.''

The documentary tracks Carmel as he grows from a normal child to become so large he can hardly fit through the doors of his high school. After two years at a city college, Carmel begins trying for a show business career. He attempts standup comedy, voice-over work, cuts a novelty record called ``The Good Monster'' and lands a bit part in a Hollywood horror flick, ``The Brain That Wouldn't Die,'' in 1963.

When all else fails, the only thing left for Carmel was the sideshow, where he remained until a few years before his health deteriorated and his heart gave out.

``We took this project on because we thought it would be challenging to tell the story of a photograph in sound,'' Abramson said. ``There's something about not having people see him, you suspend your preconceived notions and prejudices and ideas. For me, it's kind of a fairy tale in its most basic sense. It's about being different, that it's what's inside that counts.''

The ``Jewish Giant'' includes archival sounds from Carmel's career along with frank and emotionally charged recollections of his family and friends.

``It was a huge effort,'' Abramson said. ``It's almost like cultural anthropology. We had to track down all these people who knew or remembered Eddie.''

Carchman says she's heard several stories as to how Arbus came to take Carmel's picture. The late photographer may have seen the giant working at a sideshow at Madison Square Garden or author Gay Talese may have introduced them.

``To hear the story on radio, you suspend your prejudices that come up when you see his photo,'' Carchman said, who added that she has 70 hours of material on Carmel, including video and audio tape.

The ``All Things Considered'' piece may lead to a traveling presentation for schools or a biography of Carmel.

``Investigating your family history is wonderful,'' Carchman said. ``You're recording a time that's going to be obsolete. You can tell from her voices that, for instance, my grandmother represents a time in the Bronx from the '50s and '60s that's gone now. To hear her talk about what it was like to walk into the street then, it's uncovering history.''

THE FACTS

What: ``The Jewish Giant'' on National Public Radio's ``All Things Considered.''

What: A poignant 22-minute audio documentary about Eddie Carmel, an 8-foot-9-inch Bronx native who became the Ringling Brothers Circus' Tallest Man on Earth and was the subject of a famous Diane Arbus photograph.

When: 1:30 p.m. today on KPCC-FM (89.3); 4:30 p.m. today on KCRW-FM (89.9).

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Isaac Carmel, 5 feet 4 inches tall, reaches to adjust his 8-foot-9-inch son's necktie in this 1961 photograph.

Corbis/Bettmann-UPI