Robert Wadlow

Robert Wadlow
Photographic postcard of Robert Wadlow compared to his father, Harold Franklin Wadlow, whose height was 5 ft 11.5 in (1.82 m)
Born Robert Pershing Wadlow
(1918-02-22)February 22, 1918
Alton, Illinois
Died July 15, 1940(1940-07-15) (aged 22)
Manistee, Michigan, USA[1]
Cause of death infection of left ankle
Nationality American
Other names
  • The Gentle Giant
  • The tallest man who ever lived
  • The Gentleman Giant
  • The Boy Giant
  • The Alton Giant
  • The Illinois Giant
Years active 1918–1940
Height 8 ft 11.1 in (272 cm)[2]
Weight 439 lb (199 kg)[3]

Robert Pershing Wadlow (February 22, 1918 – July 15, 1940), also known as the Alton Giant and the Giant of Illinois, was an American who became famous as the tallest person in recorded history for whom there is irrefutable evidence. He was born and raised in Alton, Illinois.[1]

Wadlow reached 8' 11.1"[2][4][5] in height and weighed 439 lbs at his death at age 22. His great size and his continued growth in adulthood were due to hyperplasia of his pituitary gland, which results in an abnormally high level of human growth hormone. He showed no indication of an end to his growth even at the time of his death.

Early life

Wadlow was born in Alton, Illinois on February 22, 1918 to Harold Franklin and Addie May (Johnson) Wadlow, and was the oldest of five children. He was taller than his father by the age of 8, and in elementary school they had to make a special desk for him due to his size. By the time he had graduated from Alton High School in 1936, he was 8' 4".[1] After graduating he enrolled in Shurtleff College with the intention of studying law.

Later years and death

Wadlow's size began to take its toll: he required leg braces to walk and had little feeling in his legs and feet. Despite these difficulties, he never used a wheelchair.[6]

Wadlow became a celebrity after his 1936 U.S. tour with the Ringling Brothers Circus. He appeared with Ringling Brothers at Madison Square Garden and the Boston Garden in the center ring, never in the sideshow.[7] During his appearances, he was dressed in his normal clothes and refused Circus request to wear a top hat and tails.[7]

In 1938, he did a promotional tour with the International Shoe Company. They provided him his shoes free of charge.[8] Examples of the shoes still exist in several locations throughout the U.S., including Snyder's Shoe Store of Ludington and Manistee, Michigan, and the Alton Museum of History and Art. He continued participating in tours and public appearances, though only in his normal street clothes.[9] Wadlow rationalized that he was working in advertising, not being exhibited as a freak.[7] He possessed great physical strength until the last year of his life, when his strength and his health in general began to deteriorate rapidly.[10]

Wadlow was a member of the Order of DeMolay, the Masonic-sponsored organization for young men. He was also a Freemason. In 1939, he petitioned Franklin Lodge #25 in Alton, Illinois, and by late November of that year[11] was raised to the degree of Master Mason under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Illinois A.F. and A.M.. His Freemason ring was the largest ever made.

One year before his death, Wadlow passed John Rogan as the tallest person ever. On June 27, 1940 (18 days before his death), he was measured at 8' 11.1" by doctors C. M. Charles and Cyril MacBryde of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.[1]

On July 4, 1940, during a professional appearance at the Manistee National Forest Festival, a faulty brace irritated his ankle, causing a blister and subsequent infection. Doctors treated him with a blood transfusion and emergency surgery, but his condition worsened due to an autoimmune disorder, and on July 15, 1940, 11 days after contracting the infection, he died in his sleep at the age of 22.[12][1] His coffin measured 10' 9" long by 2' 8" wide by 2' 6" deep, weighed 1000 lbs and was carried by twelve pallbearers and eight assistants.[1][13][14] His body was buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Upper Alton, Madison County, Illinois.

Legacy

A life-size statue of Wadlow stands on College Avenue in Alton, opposite the Alton Museum of History and Art. It was erected in 1986, in honor of the well-known native.[1][15] Others stand in the Guinness Museums in Niagara Falls, Ontario and Gatlinburg, Tennessee, as well as several of the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museums. A group of six life-size models of him, made by artist James Butler, exist, and are shipped and displayed in replica caskets.[16]

Another life-size statue of Wadlow may be viewed at Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum in Farmington Hills, Michigan. In front of it is a small, quarter-operated "TV-box", which plays a short, documentary movie about his extraordinary short life.

Wadlow is still affectionately known as the "Gentle Giant".[17]

In music

The 1998 song "The Giant of Illinois", by The Handsome Family (and later covered by Andrew Bird) honors Wadlow. In 2005, Sufjan Stevens recorded "The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders" about Wadlow for the Illinois album. A picture of Wadlow with his family is featured on the back cover of the VHS version of the Talking Heads music video compilation, Storytelling Giant.

Height chart

Wadlow's shoe, size 37 AA (US, size)[2]
Wadlow's shoe compared to a size 12
Age Height Weight Notes Size of Year
Birth 1 ft 8 in (0.51 m) 8 lb 5 oz (3.8 kg)[3] Normal height and weight Average February 22, 1918
6 Months 2 ft 10 1⁄2 in (0.88 m) 30 lb (14 kg)[18] 2 year old August 22, 1918
1 Year 3 ft 6 in (1.07 m) 45 lb (20 kg) When he began to walk at 11 months, he was 3 ft 3 1⁄2 in (1.00 m) tall and weighed 40 lbs. 5 year old February 22, 1919
18 Months 4 ft 3 1⁄4 in (1.30 m) 67 lb (30 kg)[18] 8 year old August 22, 1919
2 years 4 ft 6 1⁄4 in (1.38 m) 75 lb (34 kg) 10 year old 1920
3 years 4 ft 11 in (1.50 m) 89 lb (40 kg) 12 year old 1921
4 years 5 ft 3 in (1.60 m) 105 lb (48 kg) 14 year old 1922
5 years 5 ft 6 1⁄2 in (1.69 m)[18] 105 lb (48 kg)[18] At 5 years of age, attending kindergarten, Robert was 5' 6 1/2" tall. He wore clothes that would fit a 17-year-old boy. 15 year old 1923
6 years 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) 146 lb (66 kg) 15 year old 1924
7 years 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) 159 lb (72 kg) Height of adult male 1925
8 years 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)[19] 169 lb (77 kg)[19] 1926
9 years 6 ft 2 1⁄2 in (1.89 m)[19] 180 lb (82 kg) Weighing 180 pounds, he was strong enough to carry his father (who was sitting in a living room chair) up the stairs to the second floor. 1927
10 years 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)[20] 211 lb (96 kg)[20] 1928
11 years 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) 241 lb (109 kg) 1929
12 years 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m)[21] 287 lb (130 kg) 1930
13 years 7 ft 4 in (2.24 m)[22] 270 lb (120 kg)[22] World's tallest Boy Scout, averaging a growth of 4 inches (10 cm) per year since birth and wearing size 19 (U.S.) shoes.[17] 1931
14 years 7 ft 5 in (2.26 m) 331 lb (150 kg) 1932
15 years 7 ft 10 in (2.39 m) 354 lb (161 kg) 1933
16 years 8 ft 1 1⁄4 in (2.47 m)[23] 374 lb (170 kg) 1934
17 years 8 ft 3 in (2.51 m)[24] 382 lb (173 kg) Graduated from high school on January 8, 1936 and was 8 ft 3 in (2.51 m).[24] Height of Sultan Kosen, the tallest living man. 1935
18 years 8 ft 4 in (2.54 m) 391 lb (177 kg) 1936
19 years 8 ft 6 1⁄2 in (2.60 m)[9] 480 lb (220 kg)[9] 1937
20 years 8 ft 7 1⁄4 in (2.62 m) 488 lb (221 kg) 1938
21 years 8 ft 8 in (2.64 m)[25] 491 lb (223 kg)[25] 1939
22.4 years 8 ft 11.1 in (2.72 m)[26] 439 lb (199 kg) At death, he was the world's tallest man according to the Guinness World Records.[2] June 27, 1940

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Robert Pershing Wadlow". Alton Museum of History and Art. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Tallest Man". Guinness World Records. March 19, 2010. Archived from the original on March 19, 2010. Retrieved March 19, 2010. at Wayback machine
  3. 1 2 Drimmer 1991, p. 50.
  4. ↑ "World's Tallest Man". Worlds Largest Things Traveling Roadside Attraction. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
  5. ↑ "Robert Wadlow, World's Tallest Man, Alton Illinois". Roadside America. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
  6. ↑ "On This Day in 1918: The tallest man in the world is born". Guinness World Records. February 22, 2018. Retrieved August 18, 2018.
  7. 1 2 3 Joe Nickell (2005). Secrets of the Sideshows. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813123585, p. 89
  8. ↑ "Alton Museum of History and Art - Robert Pershing Wadlow - Alton's Gentle Giant". www.altonweb.com. Retrieved August 18, 2018. line feed character in |title= at position 67 (help)
  9. 1 2 3 Drimmer 1991, p. 60.
  10. ↑ "Measuring 8 ft 11 inches, Wadlow was the tallest man in history. At age eight, he was taller than his father". The Vintage News. October 21, 2016. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
  11. ↑ Robert Wadlow "worlds tallest man, worlds tallest mason" Archived September 14, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Illinois Freemasonry Magazine, Vol. 15, No. 1, Winter 2009 p.5
  12. ↑ Drimmer 1991, pp. 68, 70.
  13. ↑ "Tallest man ever". Guinness World Records.
  14. ↑ Hartzman, Marc (2006). American sideshow : an encyclopedia of history's most wondrous and curiously strange performers. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin. p. 432. ISBN 9781440649912. OCLC 460991173.
  15. ↑ Brannan, Dan (July 14, 2010). "Wadlow died 70 years ago Thursday". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on January 31, 2011. Retrieved March 4, 2011.
  16. ↑ "The King of Giants". The World's Strangest Mysteries. New York: Gallery Books. 1987. p. 702. ISBN 9780831796785. OCLC 17192393.
  17. 1 2 Colombraro, Rosemarie (February 2007). "Standing tall: he world's tallest Boy Scout". Boys' Life. Irving, TX: Boy Scouts of America: 24–25. ISSN 0006-8608. OCLC 1027475257.
  18. 1 2 3 4 Drimmer 1991, p. 51.
  19. 1 2 3 Drimmer 1991, p. 52.
  20. 1 2 "Ten-Year-Olds". The Pittsburgh Press. October 28, 1928. p. 39. OCLC 2266185, 9208497, 751750633. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
  21. ↑ Drimmer 1991, p. 54.
  22. 1 2 Drimmer 1991, p. 55.
  23. ↑ Drimmer 1991, p. 56.
  24. 1 2 Drimmer 1991, p. 58.
  25. 1 2 Drimmer 1991, p. 66.
  26. ↑ Drimmer 1991, pp. 50, 68.

Further reading

  • Brannan, Dan (2003). Boy giant : the story of Robert Wadlow the world's tallest man. Alton, IL, US: Alton Museum of History and Art. ISBN 9780965022859. OCLC 53210546.
  • Drimmer, Frederick (1991). "The Tallest Man in the World". Born different : amazing stories of very special people. New York: Bantam. pp. 48–71. ISBN 9780553158977. OCLC 1028856157. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
  • Fadner, Frederic; Wadlow, Harold F. (1944). The gentleman giant; the biography of Robert Pershing Wadlow,. Boston: B. Humphries, Inc. OCLC 4904888.
  • Hamilton, Sandra (1993). Looking back and up : at Robert Pershing Wadlow, the gentle giant. Alton, IL, US: Alton Museum of History and Art. OCLC 29307342.
  • Phillips, Jennifer (2010). Robert Wadlow : the unique life of the boy who became the world's tallest man. Shoreline, WA: Nose in a Book Pub. OCLC 709592729.
  • Robert Wadlow on IMDb
  • Leone, Charles A. (1975). "The Story of Robert" (documentary film). YouTube. Turquoise Film/Video Productions. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
  • Footage of Robert Wadlow
  • Alton Museum of History and Art article
  • Graveyards.com: Upper Alton Cemetery
  • Robert Wadlow at Find a Grave
Records
Preceded by
John Rogan		 Tallest recognized person ever
1939–present		 Incumbent
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