Robert Wadlow was the tall boy. He didn’t min the ribbing about the weather up there, but there were worse drawbacks to being the tallest man in the U.S.A. Up where he belongs…
Until the last months of Wadlow’s Ringling Brothers and touring period of public appearances, Wadlow remained surprisingly cheerful. “I think folks would be a lot better off if they used their handicaps instead of fussin’ about ‘em,” he said, pointing out with a grin that despite his own handicap, “I’m getting along all right.”
—Robert Wadlow – age 12, with Primo Carnera – World heavy weight champion. Mr.Carnera is 6’5″.
—At the age of 13, he joined the Boy Scouts. Robert was the largest Boy Scout in the world. His weight was 270 pounds, and his height was 7’4″. It took 14 yards of 36″ wide material to make his Boy Scout uniform.—Read More:http://blubabalu.blogspot.ca/2012/03/robert-pershing-wadlow-gentle-giant-and.html
Wadlow made jokes about how he always gave his hand-me-down clothes to his father and how he was lucky enough to be able to peek into hotel rooms through transoms without having to climb up on a ladder. He often spoke of how fortunate he was, compared to his friends back in Alton, Illinois, to have had the chance to see places like New York, Washington, the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, and Hollywood.
Wadlow liked being asked for his autograph, being on the radio, and being the center of attraction wherever he went. Occasionally, someone in a crowd would make a cruel joke about his height, but Wadlow never let himself get upset. “Ninety-nine percent of the people are O.K.,” he remarked, “the other one per cent are just plain ignorant, so why should I let them worry me?” He met all sorts of famous people, including Jack benny, Primo Carnera, Milton Berle, Maureen O’Sullivan, New York’s mayor La Guardia, and the governors of a number of different states. In Baton Rouge the state legislature made him an honorable citizen of Louisiana, and in the state of Washington he dined with the governor.
At the time Wadlow appeared with the Ringling Brothers, in the spring of 1937, he was 8 feet 5 1/2 inches tall, weighed 480 pounds, and was still growing. Earlier, when he was twelve, doctors in St. Louis had diagnosed his problem as an acute case of hypertrophy of the pituitary gland, and agreed that he would probably never stop growing until part of the gland was removed. This operation, they admitted, could easily prove fatal, so Wadlow’s parents refused to let them perform it. By that time, the Wadlow’s had four other children, two girls and two boys, all normal-sized. ( to be continued)…
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