Half-Pint Hercules" by William Lindsay Gresham (from
Collier's, February 23, 1952)
Steve Lorenz is a midget who has been working as a strong man at a carny for years, but during the war years he was employed at an airplane factory. Because of his size, he was able to reach places and do assembly that normal-sized persons could not and was greatly appreciated for his skill. But when the war ended, so did his employment at the aircraft factory, so he went back to the carny.
Besides being very strong (he could straighten and bend horse shoes with his bare hands), Steve was also a talented mechanic, among other skills. He came from a prominent family that was embarrassed by his, size keeping him essentially hidden from view. Among the carny folk he found people that accepted and respected him -- something he also had briefly during the war year at the factory. But he also met with rude and ignorant comments from the carnival's customers, full-sized people who considered it fair game to make fun of him. Steve had met, fell in love with, and married another midget at the carnival, Dora. now his insecurities are getting the best of him. He's afraid of having a child with Dora. What if it were normal-sized and grew up embarrassed by his parents and hating them? What of it were a midget and had to endure what Steve had when he was younger? Various pressures led Steve to blow up at a rude customer, frightening off others and reducing the day's take. Steve is glum and down in the dumps and generally feeling sorry for himself.
Then a news item came over the radio. A six-year-old girl was strapped in a well. Efforts to save her failed when a tunnel collapsed and killed one of the rescuers. Microphones lowered into the well could hear shallow breathing and authorities fear that she may not survive. Steve came out of his funk and drove the 60 miles to the site. There, recue workers \try to dissuade him from trying to reach the girl through the narrow pipe that had been built. Steve's response: "I'm a mechanic, a welder, and an acrobat. I've got a Red Cross First Aid Instructor's card. I've got no children of my own to be left orphans, Now, do I take a chance on that pipe or do more guys get killed going down that big hole in the sand that's always caving in?"
The well had been built thirty years before and went down two hundred feet. A shift in the earth had burst the pipe some eighty feet down and it now sloped off at an angle. The girl was trapped about fifteen feet from the angle of the pipe. The pipe is very rusty and there might be a pocket of water surrounding it. If the girl is tightly wedge, a section of the pipe will have to be cut out, perhaps risking both the girl and Steve of drowning. The girl may injured and need a shot of morphine. Steve will have to rescue her using only a cold chisel, a small sledge, and a hacksaw. He will not be able to maneuver well in the pipe.
So you know what's going to happen. Steve goes down and rescues the girl. But it's not easy and there's a lot that goes on. It's a thrilling rescue and, for a moment, it seemed like Steve was not going to survive. But he does. And he has that epiphany the readers had all been hoping for. Just because you are thirty-eight inches tall does not make you less of a man. And Steve is now thinking about becoming a father. The end.
A good story, told realistically.
William Lindsay Gresham (19009-1962) is best known for his first novel, Nightmare Alley (1946), which was adapted for a 1947 film starring Tyrone Power, and was later filmed in 2021 with Bradley Cooper. Nightmare Alley takes place in a second-rate carnival and remains one of the most significant noir novels published. Gresham was fascinated with sideshow and carnivals and they inspired mush of his work, including his nonfiction book Monster Midway (1954). Grindshow: The Selected Writings of William Lindsay Gresham (2013) contains 24 articles and stories about "fairgrounds, spook shows, and hucksters." Another noted work was his biography Houdini: The Man Who Walked Through Walls (1959), written with the assistance of magician and skeptic James Randi.
Gresham was an alcoholic and serial adulterer who had occasional bouts of violence. His wife, Joy Davidman, who was suffering from cancer, went to England to visit writer C. S. Lewis, with whom she had had a warm correspondence. In her absence, Joy asked her cousin. Renee Rodiguez, to stay with Gresham and look after their two children. When Joy was in England Gresham and Renee began an affair Gresham eventually divorce Joy and married Renee. Joy, meanwhile became a non-sexual companion to Lewis; she loved him and he respected her intellect -- eventually they married and he later fell in love with her.
Gresham eventually joined Alcoholics Anonymous but by that time he was going blind and had developed cancer of the tongue. He committed suicide at age 53. The only notice of his death in the New York paper was by Albert H. Morehead, a bridge columnist for the New York Times.
The February 23, 1952 issue of Collier's is availnable online at Internet Archive.
