"London Hospital of 1886--a doctor ponders Merrick's appalling case.
As the slide show proceeds, a small scrim is swept aside, and there, wearing nothing
but a rough cloth diaper, all wax-white skin and elegant bone, arms and legs extended
as though tacked to a zodiac, stands David Bowie. Wordless and unmoving, he is nevertheless
an electric presence. As the doctor details the particulars of Merrick's affliction--an incurable
infestation of bone, skin and nerve tumors known as multiple neurofibromatosis—Bowie's sleek
frame starts to sag and wither. His arm stiffens, his leg droops and curls, his spine crooks
outward, and his head begins to bobble benignly. Provided with a cane and a tattered cloak,
the character is complete, and as Bowie hobbles off downstage, every eye in the house stays
on him. It's an entrance that Ziggy Stardust himself might have envied, had he lived to see
thirty-three.
November 13, 1980; page 10
![[Return]](return.gif)