World's tallest woman dies

August 13, 2008 10:07 PM

"It is needless to say my social life is practically nil and perhaps the publicity from your book may brighten my life," she wrote to Guinness World Records as a teenager. Sandy Allen, recognized in 1974 as the tallest woman alive, has died.
posted by Knappster (44 comments total)

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posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:14 PM on August 13, 2008

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posted by dawson at 10:18 PM on August 13, 2008 [4 favorites]

Hello Sandy Allen
The world's tallest woman
We made friends in New York
Don't know if you'll remember
I'm bound to say I felt uneasy
when I first laid eyes on you
But I liked the way you talked
Like a living hoper
Towering over our heads in more ways than one
The hand that shook my hand was awesome
It still amazes me

Hope you're happy - Sandy Allen
Hope your garden is blooming
We're all staring at the mirror
tryin' to put our faces on
Appearance never held you back
Must be when you're number one
you don't have to try so hard

Hello Sandy Allen, hello Sandy Allen, hello...
posted by scody at 10:23 PM on August 13, 2008 [11 favorites]

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posted by bowline at 10:29 PM on August 13, 2008

She seemed like a cheerful and classy lady.
posted by KokuRyu at 10:40 PM on August 13, 2008

Saw an interview of her recently. She indeed came across as a charming lady.

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posted by darkstar at 10:44 PM on August 13, 2008

Ahh, I was just showing my kids some old polaroids of meeting Sandy Allen at Ripley's Believe It Or Not on Clifton Hill in Niagara Falls back in the early 80s I guess.

As I recall, the audience (about 30 or so people) were ushered into a room with a large chair with its back to you. An announcer's voice boomed out of nowhere and gave an introduction and at length the chair turned around and there was Sandy Allen herself. She then stood up for maximum effect - and the rest of the time basically posed for pictures and presumably answered dumb questions like how's the weather up there.

I still recall how invasive it all felt and how embarrassed I was for her. In retrospect, it probably says more about me at the time - I was 9 or so - than the lady herself.
posted by stinkycheese at 10:47 PM on August 13, 2008

I'm from IN and they just showed her in the local news, didn't even know who she was until this but she seemed like a nice woman from the youtube clip. That's all I got to say about that.
posted by BrnP84 at 10:49 PM on August 13, 2008 [1 favorite]

"I've never had a date in my life."

I think I'm going to cry.
posted by airways at 10:59 PM on August 13, 2008 [9 favorites]

In the 1980s, she appeared for several years at the Guinness Museum of World Records in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Well, pardon me, I stand corrected. No pun intended.
posted by stinkycheese at 11:00 PM on August 13, 2008

Born a few years too soon for the WNBA and world fame and travel?
posted by Cranberry at 11:05 PM on August 13, 2008

No doubt about Yao Defen now.
posted by tellurian at 11:20 PM on August 13, 2008

It must have been a very lonely life in such a freakish body, being forever gawked and pointed at, but seemingly never connected with. Despite this, she seems like she handled her lot in life with grace and dignity.
Big is indeed beautiful.

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(please excuse the sentences ending in prepositions)
posted by nudar at 11:24 PM on August 13, 2008 [1 favorite]

Thanks, scody. Those were exactly the lyrics that starting going through my mind the second I read the post.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:38 PM on August 13, 2008

I saw a television show about her that showed her going to elementary schools to give speeches about how being "different" wasn't something to be ashamed of. She just oozed positivity and warmth. The children flocked to her for hugs when she was done speaking.
posted by amyms at 11:39 PM on August 13, 2008 [6 favorites]

Interesting thing about the list of tallest people. If you follow the current and former list of links, of people standing 7'7" to 8'11", and read the articles, the general theme is of extreme poor health, back pain, youthful deaths. Then there's a list of tallest people in various sports. Professional basketball players, mostly: from 6'10" to 8'.5", clustering around the 7'7" mark. I'd expect these people to be in good health at the very least, probably significantly fitter than most people are. It's almost as if there's a "magic height range". Shorter than that height, and you're fine. Taller, and you're screwed.

On the other hand though, it's a tiny sample size, and most of these sportspeople are comparatively young.
posted by aeschenkarnos at 11:45 PM on August 13, 2008

There was a strange documentary shown here a few months ago called The World's Tallest Women and Me, in which the presenter met Sandy Allen and [the slightly taller] Yao Defen. It was pretty heartbreaking.
posted by cillit bang at 12:32 AM on August 14, 2008

I met her and had my picture taken with her at the Guinness Book museum in Niagara Falls way back when. She seemed very cheerful and warm despite having to basically perform as a sort of sideshow. RIP Sandy; hopefully you and Robert Wadlow will hit it off in Heaven.
posted by Oriole Adams at 1:09 AM on August 14, 2008

I'd expect these people to be in good health at the very least, probably significantly fitter than most people are.

Being that big has health complications all it's own.

Their problem that the very large/tall have is that gravity is always, always working against them. Of course there are exceptions, but on the whole, very tall/large people tend to die at a markedly earlier age. Imagine if every single heartbeat you had had to push an exponentially larger amount of blood through a geometrically larger artery.

As an amusing cross-reference, check Guinness' own list of the eldest recorded people, and look for a reoccurring fact. Virtually none of them are tall or large, or really average. They're almost to a person small or undersized. (With a few outliers)

I'm simplifying, but it's the reason we don't have forty foot tall ants.
posted by Sphinx at 1:21 AM on August 14, 2008 [1 favorite]

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posted by self at 1:36 AM on August 14, 2008 [2 favorites]

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posted by Smart Dalek at 4:20 AM on August 14, 2008

I'm simplifying, but it's the reason we don't have forty foot tall ants.

I thought that was the square-cube thingy.

What a neat person--I always feel a bit small (no pun intended) when I read about people who remain gracious and positive despite being dealt black aces and eights.
posted by maxwelton at 4:38 AM on August 14, 2008 [3 favorites]

What airways said.

dot
posted by fixedgear at 4:51 AM on August 14, 2008

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posted by aerotive at 5:01 AM on August 14, 2008

I think I saw her on a couple talk shows back in the day.

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posted by jonp72 at 5:12 AM on August 14, 2008

I'm simplifying, but it's the reason we don't have forty foot tall ants.


True, we don't. But Sandy Allen's nephews came the closest.
posted by flarbuse at 5:25 AM on August 14, 2008 [14 favorites]

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posted by contessa at 6:14 AM on August 14, 2008

My social life is practically nil... I've never had a date in my life.

Why must we treat people who are physically different from the "norm" in such a way? I stand accused...
posted by orange swan at 6:35 AM on August 14, 2008

In the summer of 1979, she came to the small amusement park I was working at in Niagara Falls and went on a few rides. I remember feeling quite sad, watching her sitting in the Tilt-A-Whirl as people gawked, me included, I confess.
posted by davebush at 7:23 AM on August 14, 2008

Sphinx, it all boils down to the inverse square-cube law. If you double someone's size, their weight increases by a factor of eight, but the strength of their bones and the power output by their heart only increases by a factor of four...
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 7:42 AM on August 14, 2008

So do midgets live very long lives?
posted by orange swan at 7:48 AM on August 14, 2008

(just wanted to mention that the song mentioned by scody and stavrosthewonderchicken is a real gem by Neil Finn of The Split Enz)
posted by sineater at 7:58 AM on August 14, 2008

Midgets also die very young; none of the famous little people made it to their fifties. I don't really know why.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 7:58 AM on August 14, 2008

I saw a television show about her that showed her going to elementary schools to give speeches about how being "different" wasn't something to be ashamed of.

"It's OK To Be Different"?
posted by Knappster at 8:19 AM on August 14, 2008

Book recommendation: The Giant's House, about a romance between a librarian and a very-lightly fictionalized Robert Pershing Wadlow. I've stood next to statues of Wadlow at a Ripley's museum in Branson (similar to the one that Sandy Allen worked at) and at the Empire State Building, and was awed each time.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:56 AM on August 14, 2008

I saw her a few years ago at a Indiana Pacers game smoking a cigarette in a wheelchair. I did not have the will to go talk to her, but my brother-in-law did and said she was nice person. I am sure she had a pretty tough life growing up in small town south-eastern Indiana. I hope she is in a better place now.
posted by internal at 9:02 AM on August 14, 2008

Hadn't heard of her before. Saw the headlines, but probably wouldn't have read the articles if it didn't show up here. Thanks for the anecdotes, folks!

I'm simplifying, but it's the reason we don't have forty foot tall ants.
That, and forty foot talll magnifying glasses.
posted by inigo2 at 9:16 AM on August 14, 2008

Davebush, you worked at Maple Leaf Village? I used to love their giant Ferris Wheel. Can't picture Sandy Allen squashed into a car on the Tilt-a-Whirl, though.
posted by Oriole Adams at 10:02 AM on August 14, 2008

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posted by Cosine at 10:35 AM on August 14, 2008

I saw Neil in concert a few years ago....someone in the audience yelled out "Sandy Allen" and he swung right into a sweet acoustic version. The backup band looked pretty confused. I've always admired Sandy Allen, I admit, simply because of this song.
posted by Malla at 11:26 AM on August 14, 2008

I have a Polaroid of Sandy Allen from the Ripley's Museum. I was about 6 or 7 when it was taken. She's standing behind my mom, my older brother, and me. She struck a silly pose before it was taken -- resting her elbow on my mom's head, her giant hand on top of me. The museum workers, for some reason, found this hilarious, and I remember them literally doubling over in laughter. As a self-centered child back then, I assumed they were laughing at me, so in the picture, I have an angry scowl.

As I got older, I figured the workers weren't laughing at me, but at Sandy's pose or at Sandy herself. Now, reading those obits, I hope for Sandy's sake that those people were laughing at me, and not at her.
posted by hhc5 at 11:46 AM on August 14, 2008

I saw Neil in concert a few years ago....someone in the audience yelled out "Sandy Allen" and he swung right into a sweet acoustic version.

Aw, that's great. I like to think that folks all over the world have been humming it for the past couple of days. I've been looking for performance footage of it (either by Split Enz or Neil solo) but I haven't found any so far, which seems a little surprising.
posted by scody at 1:14 PM on August 14, 2008

RIP Sandy. She was a wonderful part of my childhood, as I was a Guinness book fanatic. I always wanted to visit the Guinness museum in hopes of meeting her.
posted by glycolized at 1:39 PM on August 14, 2008

Little People (midget is a derogatory term because it came from circus side show days) in the past did not live extra long lives. Many little people are so due to skeletal dysplasias which can cause various other health issues. At one time those medical issues were not well controlled. However, now a days, little people can live quite long lives.
I myself am a little person, al beit a very tall little person at almost 4'8" :) Through the Little People of America and my orthopedist, I met a lot of little people when I was growing up. LPA's website has information on a lot of different

It does occur to me (thinking aloud here) that I've heard that Primoridal Dwarfs are afflicted with a higher tendency toward stroke. Off-hand I'm not finding any resources outside of a PDF report. People with primoridal dwarfism are unique in that they are small from birth and they are proportional.

At any rate, for most of us a medically unusual size is a symptom of other, larger issues.
posted by Librarygeek at 2:06 PM on August 14, 2008