How and where to find giants on the internet
October 14, 2011 9:29 AM Subscribe
The Tallest Man collects information and photographs of giants. Despite its title, it includes giants of both genders. "My goal is to build an online image database of giants from 7'2" and upwards. Initially I had 7'6" as my lower criterium, but as so many of the famous touring sideshow giants from the past were below that height, I have lowered the height to be able to include Cliff Thompson, Eddie Carmel, Jim Tarver and Siah Khan." Perhaps you can help identify an unknown giant? Many have already been identified.
Neato! I grew up in St. Augustine, FL, home of a Ripley's museum, and always used to love the creepy life-sized statue of Robert Wadlow.
Not to be a stickler, but you may want to include a NSFW tag, at least after the entry for Eddie Carmel.
posted by saladin at 9:40 AM on October 14, 2011 [1 favorite]
Not to be a stickler, but you may want to include a NSFW tag, at least after the entry for Eddie Carmel.
posted by saladin at 9:40 AM on October 14, 2011 [1 favorite]
Isn't it hard to be an unknown giant? It's not like you can blend in anywhere but the NBA.
posted by tommasz at 9:47 AM on October 14, 2011
posted by tommasz at 9:47 AM on October 14, 2011
I hate that I have to scroll down for what feels like five minutes to get the list of tallest women, many of whom were much taller than most of the men on that list. /grump
posted by lydhre at 9:56 AM on October 14, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by lydhre at 9:56 AM on October 14, 2011 [1 favorite]
I found this page initially because I finished reading a book called The Giant's House which is about a romance between a librarian and a giant obviously based on Robert Wadlow [the shoe advertisements, the ankle brace causing his death, etc] and I wanted to read more about him since I was a serious Guinness Book consumer as a kid. I was surprised this site had never been on MeFi before, it's pretty obviously a labor of love and they have a really active discussion board.
you may want to include a NSFW tag
NSFW is a lot more for "this might get you in trouble" than "you might see a nipple" which is all I saw on the Eddie Carmel link.
to get the list of tallest women
I found that really weird too and was wondering if the site started out as men only, but according to the Internet Archive, it's always been that way.
posted by jessamyn at 10:01 AM on October 14, 2011
you may want to include a NSFW tag
NSFW is a lot more for "this might get you in trouble" than "you might see a nipple" which is all I saw on the Eddie Carmel link.
to get the list of tallest women
I found that really weird too and was wondering if the site started out as men only, but according to the Internet Archive, it's always been that way.
posted by jessamyn at 10:01 AM on October 14, 2011
In college, for the final project in my bioarchaology class, I analyzed a skeleton that had been (seriously, guys) hanging untouched in a closet in the anatomy lab for several decades. The story was that there was a guy...a giant, if you will...who lived in the neighborhood and was befriended by an old med school professor, and left his body to the school after he died. Or maybe he was paid for it. (Never found out...the professor died in the 90s and none of his (living) colleagues remembered anything about it.)
Anyway, as I'm taking all my measurements and such, it becomes pretty clear that the guy had acromegaly (which, turns out, is a pretty sucky thing to have). He was only about 6'5", so not a contender for this list (particularly since I don't know anything about him or his life, not even his name), but it's cool nonetheless.
Some pictures: giant skull vs. normal skull, oversized bottom jaw, again, barrel chest, body.
That's in inches, if you're wondering. Didn't have a metric tape measure. Yes, I'm a terrible scientist. If you'd like to read my (sciencey, boring, unless you're really into osteology) paper, memail me.
posted by phunniemee at 10:09 AM on October 14, 2011 [1 favorite]
Anyway, as I'm taking all my measurements and such, it becomes pretty clear that the guy had acromegaly (which, turns out, is a pretty sucky thing to have). He was only about 6'5", so not a contender for this list (particularly since I don't know anything about him or his life, not even his name), but it's cool nonetheless.
Some pictures: giant skull vs. normal skull, oversized bottom jaw, again, barrel chest, body.
That's in inches, if you're wondering. Didn't have a metric tape measure. Yes, I'm a terrible scientist. If you'd like to read my (sciencey, boring, unless you're really into osteology) paper, memail me.
posted by phunniemee at 10:09 AM on October 14, 2011 [1 favorite]
I've spent a fair amount of time wondering about Robert Wadlow: how much taller he would have gotten, whether modern medical science could have saved his life, whether there would have eventually come a time when he wouldn't have been able to stand up even with a full-body brace, what a house built to his scale would have been like for a person of average height. He could have cosplayed as a Na'Vi.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:15 AM on October 14, 2011
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:15 AM on October 14, 2011
I was a serious Guinness Book consumer as a kid.
Me too! I'm looking forward to a post about obese twins on minibikes.
posted by bondcliff at 10:16 AM on October 14, 2011 [3 favorites]
Me too! I'm looking forward to a post about obese twins on minibikes.
posted by bondcliff at 10:16 AM on October 14, 2011 [3 favorites]
I played basketball through college, the tallest player I opposed was Mark Eaton at 7'4". I'm 6'8" I felt dwarfed.
posted by pianomover at 10:19 AM on October 14, 2011
posted by pianomover at 10:19 AM on October 14, 2011
I just wanted to point out that some of these giants have the coolest names. Not just the ones we know, like Manut Bol (7'7") and Yao Ming (7'6"), but check these out: Vikas Uppal (8'2"), Sultan Kösen (8'3"), Öndör Gongor (7'9"), Angus MacAskill (7'9"). There are more, but those are proper giant names.
posted by jabberjaw at 11:11 AM on October 14, 2011
posted by jabberjaw at 11:11 AM on October 14, 2011
Submitted for your consideration: Some good music to listen to while reading the linked material.
posted by jbickers at 11:59 AM on October 14, 2011
posted by jbickers at 11:59 AM on October 14, 2011
@bondcliff - Me too! I'm looking forward to a post about obese twins on minibikes.
Hey! I remember seeing them at an outdoors show in Los Angeles about 1970! Could say I wanted to do that when I grew up - but I'd be lying.
I'm 6'4" and am always in awe of tall people. My wife, 5'4", can't figure that out since EVERYbody is taller than she is!
posted by Man with Lantern at 12:52 PM on October 14, 2011
Hey! I remember seeing them at an outdoors show in Los Angeles about 1970! Could say I wanted to do that when I grew up - but I'd be lying.
I'm 6'4" and am always in awe of tall people. My wife, 5'4", can't figure that out since EVERYbody is taller than she is!
posted by Man with Lantern at 12:52 PM on October 14, 2011
This is fascinating. Robert Pershing Wadlow was always the first entry in the Guinness Book of Records that I would get every year for Christmas. Even before opening this site I could have told you how tall he was when he died.
As I kid I felt a little peeved on his behalf that he never made it to 9' tall - 8'11.5 was just sooo close. Probably didn't bother him too much though.
posted by jontyjago at 2:05 PM on October 14, 2011
As I kid I felt a little peeved on his behalf that he never made it to 9' tall - 8'11.5 was just sooo close. Probably didn't bother him too much though.
posted by jontyjago at 2:05 PM on October 14, 2011
Every one whose entry I have so far looked at, has been a very sickly person, extreme ectomorphs, spindly limbs etc, who has lived a short life in poor health and often in seclusion. How tall can a healthy person be?
posted by aeschenkarnos at 3:32 PM on October 14, 2011
posted by aeschenkarnos at 3:32 PM on October 14, 2011
If you go down to the people in the low 7' range, you find a lot of basketball players who appear to not have major health issues. This guy is 7'8". He has a brain tumor [responsible for his height] that was removed in 2005. This guy was 7'11" and lived to be 77 but they note on the page that that was extremely unusual.
posted by jessamyn at 3:50 PM on October 14, 2011
posted by jessamyn at 3:50 PM on October 14, 2011
There was a guy in Austin in the upper-7-foot range, but I can't remember his name. He was oldish when I saw him in the mid-90's, and I believe I heard that he died, but I haven't stumbled upon him on that site, & there is a band from austin called The Tallest Man On Earth that's really screwing with my google searches. I saw him downtown a few times when our shop was at 5th & Lavaca.
posted by Devils Rancher at 4:27 PM on October 14, 2011
posted by Devils Rancher at 4:27 PM on October 14, 2011
I was a serious Guinness Book consumer as a kid.
Book of Lists for me. Which is why I can always picture Robert Pershing Wadlow with his high school French class.
posted by Glinn at 6:27 PM on October 14, 2011
Book of Lists for me. Which is why I can always picture Robert Pershing Wadlow with his high school French class.
posted by Glinn at 6:27 PM on October 14, 2011
Initially I had 7'6" as my lower criterium
That's bloody short for a bike race.
(not that it's wrong, of course, just archaic)
posted by howfar at 7:33 PM on October 14, 2011
That's bloody short for a bike race.
(not that it's wrong, of course, just archaic)
posted by howfar at 7:33 PM on October 14, 2011
there is a band from austin called The Tallest Man On Earth
That dude is Swedish.
posted by drjimmy11 at 9:09 PM on October 14, 2011
That dude is Swedish.
posted by drjimmy11 at 9:09 PM on October 14, 2011
Also, can we get a Gheorge Mursean/My Giant shout-out?
posted by drjimmy11 at 9:10 PM on October 14, 2011
posted by drjimmy11 at 9:10 PM on October 14, 2011
And then there was Shawn Bradley, who was on the losing end of the most amusing basketball fight ever.
posted by drjimmy11 at 9:13 PM on October 14, 2011
posted by drjimmy11 at 9:13 PM on October 14, 2011
In re: to the NBA, incidentally, most of the truly great big men have topped out in the 7'1" - 7'2" range. Bigger players tend to be just too slow, too awkward or too injury-prone. Yao Ming was exceptionally skilled but his career was derailed by injury. Mark Eaton, who pianomover played against was an outstanding defender but never did much on offense.
posted by drjimmy11 at 9:20 PM on October 14, 2011
posted by drjimmy11 at 9:20 PM on October 14, 2011
You can bet that being tall is/was the central fact of these peoples lives, I'm tall but nowhere near where these people live and I've heard it all my life -- "Ah, you're going to play basketball!" "Do you like playing basketball?" "Basketball basketball basketball blah blah blah" and I don't even like the game, we played baseball and football in my neighborhood. I enjoyed watching it in the Bulls heyday but I'm one of these people who think the baskets should be raised to fifteen feet off the floor so it's again a game of skill and not so much genetics, or genetics and skill, or whatever it is; it's a huge testament to the skills of Michael Jordan that he was *only* 6'5" yet was able to do what he did in that game.
But -- I am not kidding -- the whole basketball question thing started when I was a little kid. Or, rather, not so little as the other kids were. But like first grade, no kidding.
Being as how I've always been tall -- the shortest I've ever been is tall for my age -- it's my normal, I don't see myself as a galoot but rather as just a mope, pretty much, staggering down the road, scratching myself. But I've learned that others see me differently, learned fast (once I got out of the trades anyways, where it doesn't matter much if at all) learned fast that thing about shaking hands while hurriedly sitting down in job interviews with guys that are considerably shorter than I, learned also that women like a guy who can reach the top shelf, and I can easy prove that -- just open your browser on any dating site and look at their criteria. It's totally lame, but I have absolutely benefited, for no reason, really, other than Danish genes fed US food.
Aren't Danes the tallest people overall? (hang on -- google) Our friend google pretty much says Dutch then Danes...
I've got a buddy here in town three inches taller than I, because I am not at all used to that he seems a giant to me. I've only once been around guys from a basketball team, they walked into a convenience store I was in -- jesus h. christ! Now THEY were galoots -- man.
I've only a few times dated women over six foot tall and I'm looking to date more of them if you'll be so kind as to forward their phone number. The tallest woman I went out with -- thus far -- was 6'8" and she was a cutie, too, but turned out she was all immutably into jesus and that was the end of that. But I loved walking with her, looking up at her and watching her talk and just being with her, I sure did want to touch her. She was funny, too, this wild sense of the ridiculous, big laughter, no doubt helpful in her life. And of course we talked about the whole being tall thing, that it is a big piece in our lives -- imagine a woman her size buying clothing, imagine -- since I got all those lame-o basketball questions/statements/blah blah blah and I'm a guy, shorter than her, too -- imagine how many she got her whole life; I bet she got some of that jive today.
So I looked at the women on that site and know that it's the number one fact in their life. Does anyone think to ask of their love for poetry, or do they think Robert Redford is hot, or whatever else -- no, nobody asks them that stuff at all. Look at how many of them -- at least in earlier times -- ended up as sideshow freaks, Barnum and Bailey, etc and etc. Now there's a life that looks like fun. Not only the women, men too, but I sortof got caught by the women on that site, thinking about them, what was it like to live in their heart.
Pro Tip, if you're looking for clothing -- Eddie Bauer. Yep, you've absolutely got to pick your spots or you'll look like some east coast golfer dope but everything they sell they sell in tall sizes, for just a couple of bucks more. And not just men, women too.
posted by dancestoblue at 12:17 AM on October 15, 2011
But -- I am not kidding -- the whole basketball question thing started when I was a little kid. Or, rather, not so little as the other kids were. But like first grade, no kidding.
Being as how I've always been tall -- the shortest I've ever been is tall for my age -- it's my normal, I don't see myself as a galoot but rather as just a mope, pretty much, staggering down the road, scratching myself. But I've learned that others see me differently, learned fast (once I got out of the trades anyways, where it doesn't matter much if at all) learned fast that thing about shaking hands while hurriedly sitting down in job interviews with guys that are considerably shorter than I, learned also that women like a guy who can reach the top shelf, and I can easy prove that -- just open your browser on any dating site and look at their criteria. It's totally lame, but I have absolutely benefited, for no reason, really, other than Danish genes fed US food.
Aren't Danes the tallest people overall? (hang on -- google) Our friend google pretty much says Dutch then Danes...
I've got a buddy here in town three inches taller than I, because I am not at all used to that he seems a giant to me. I've only once been around guys from a basketball team, they walked into a convenience store I was in -- jesus h. christ! Now THEY were galoots -- man.
I've only a few times dated women over six foot tall and I'm looking to date more of them if you'll be so kind as to forward their phone number. The tallest woman I went out with -- thus far -- was 6'8" and she was a cutie, too, but turned out she was all immutably into jesus and that was the end of that. But I loved walking with her, looking up at her and watching her talk and just being with her, I sure did want to touch her. She was funny, too, this wild sense of the ridiculous, big laughter, no doubt helpful in her life. And of course we talked about the whole being tall thing, that it is a big piece in our lives -- imagine a woman her size buying clothing, imagine -- since I got all those lame-o basketball questions/statements/blah blah blah and I'm a guy, shorter than her, too -- imagine how many she got her whole life; I bet she got some of that jive today.
So I looked at the women on that site and know that it's the number one fact in their life. Does anyone think to ask of their love for poetry, or do they think Robert Redford is hot, or whatever else -- no, nobody asks them that stuff at all. Look at how many of them -- at least in earlier times -- ended up as sideshow freaks, Barnum and Bailey, etc and etc. Now there's a life that looks like fun. Not only the women, men too, but I sortof got caught by the women on that site, thinking about them, what was it like to live in their heart.
Pro Tip, if you're looking for clothing -- Eddie Bauer. Yep, you've absolutely got to pick your spots or you'll look like some east coast golfer dope but everything they sell they sell in tall sizes, for just a couple of bucks more. And not just men, women too.
posted by dancestoblue at 12:17 AM on October 15, 2011
And another thing -- look at how many of us hunker down, trying to fit in with the squatty-body people all around us, it's only when I walk up to another guy near tall as I am that I stretch my spine up tall and then watch him do the same. We do it without thinking about it but we do it, most of us, just trying to fit in, best I can figure.
posted by dancestoblue at 12:23 AM on October 15, 2011
posted by dancestoblue at 12:23 AM on October 15, 2011
That dude is Swedish.
Oops! They must have played some gigs here, or something. Now i've borked the google search results for "tallest man Austin" even worse.
posted by Devils Rancher at 5:51 AM on October 15, 2011
Oops! They must have played some gigs here, or something. Now i've borked the google search results for "tallest man Austin" even worse.
posted by Devils Rancher at 5:51 AM on October 15, 2011
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posted by DU at 9:34 AM on October 14, 2011