Shay Duffin's Story
Hi, my name is Shay Duffin and you may have seen me playing character roles in such films as Titanic, Raging Bull, Seabiscuit, to name 3 of 41, or on TV's Star:Trek, Murder She Wrote, Law and Order, to name two of 300 TV appearances. My main claim to theatrical international fame, is my one-man show, based on the works of my old Dublin neighbor, author, IRA rebel, poet, playwright and international drunk, Brendan Behan.
One of the times I was on the "KUPS" TV talk show in Chicago, the other guest was the late Dudley Moore, and he was discussing his club foot, until I blew his mind when I showed him mine, both of them. He immediately dubbed me "The President of The Clubbed."
Yes, I have (had) two of them (Congenital Telipes) that were successfully operated on 60 odd years back by the late Dr. Somerville-Large in the Dublin Orthopedic Hospital. A gentle genius of a man, with magic hands, to whom I owe everything.
In 1989 when I twisted my ankle while performing in Philadelphia, I was taken to a hospital, and the attending doctor was in total awe at the brilliance of such a magnificent operation done so long ago. He X-rayed both and took many pictures for the archives.
Growing up in Dublin, thanks to a caring mother, for the first five years of my life I received biweekly "out patients" therapy, then at age seven I spent two years in hospital having them pointed in the same direction as my nose. When they removed the original 2 month old plaster casts, the right leg had to be reopened and redone, followed by lots of months of needles and dipping feet in what seemed and felt like boiling water. Primitive but effective.
When finally released at age seven, I wore heel to thigh braces until I was 13 when I was finally freed of them. Funny, but in Primary school, they also acted as my Chastity Belts against the Holy Romin' hands of the Irish Christian Brothers. But thats another story.
I still have the 10-inch scars running up the back of my legs, and my toes are still a little lopsided. To see my feet they look 85%, but they have carried me 110% over the years, and thanks to the physical training care of my bike-racing champion brother Gerry, when I was 17, I rode in the All Ireland 100-Mile Bicycle Racing Championship. I finished 5th out of a field of 100. The winner later went off to Europe and was 4th in the Tour de France, and later in the year, won the World Championship. So I was a fair peddler, despite those smaller calves and slim lower legs; but during those racing days I had 25 inch thighs. I was also a successful amateur boxer and Greco Roman Champion wrestler, I sang and danced my way through years of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas on the stages of Ireland. After moving to America, I even waltzed my way onstage in Carnegie Hall to entertain a full house for an hour. The night before I danced an Irish gig on the Jack Parr Show.
And thet's about it in a nutshell. By the way, my first cousin also had 2 clubs, and was attended by Dr Haughton in the same hospital as I.
Oh! Nazi Josef Geobels also had a clubfoot. What a shame they never 'put him down' at birth, like they would a horse.
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