The Elephant Man was a real person called Joseph Merrick, and Dr. Frederick Treves really did work at the London Hospital. In the video below an archivist (a person who takes care of the history of a school/hospital/etc.) talks about these real people:
Pictures of Joseph Merrick (no spoken words, just music)
Scientists have worked out how the Elephant Man was able to speak:
If we understand what happened to his bones, we might be able to better understand what causes cancer:
