21 August, 2015
One of them was Robert Pershing Wadlow who was also known as the Giant of Illinois. Robert Pershing Wadlow was the tallest man who ever lived.MessageToEagle.com - It is truly odd that so many people still refuse to accept the existence of giants when there is irrefutable proof people of very height statue were present in various part of the world.
Robert Wadlow with his mother, father, brothers and sisters.
Born on Feb. 22, 1918, in Alton, Illinois Robert was a normal sized baby at eight pounds and six ounces but he quickly began to grow due to an over active pituitary gland. When he was six months, he weighed 30 pounds. A year later, he weighed 62 pounds. At the age of 8 Robert had grown to 6' and weighed 169 pounds.
| In time, Robert's size began to life difficult for him. He required leg braces to walk and had little feeling in his legs and feet. However, despite these difficulties, he never used a wheelchair. Life changed when Robert was nine. Due to Robert's rare and unwieldy stature, Robert Wadlow was sensationalized during the 1920's and 1930's. Newsreel photographers and newspaper reporters came and documented him for the masses. Before long, he was known around the world. |
People flocked to Alton to see the "giant boy" themselves. Some behaved respectfully, some did not. Circuses still recruited people with deformities to be in freak shows at this time. Offers came in for Robert to go on display because of his remarkable height. His family wanted nothing to do with this.
Robert tried to live a normal life and he enjoyed photography, reading, collecting stamps, and listening to the radio. In school he maintained good grades, got along with others, and played with other children.
For a long time he refused to be treated as a human exhibit, but then he received a good offer from the Ringling Brothers Circus and accepted to appear only two times a day for three minutes at a time at Madison Square Garden and at the Boston Garden.
A documentary about Robert Wadlow.
He continued participating in tours and public appearances, though only in his normal street clothes. His shoes were provided to him free of charge by a shoe company for which he did promotional work and appearances.
Robert was also a Freemason and was raised to the degree of Master Mason under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Illinois A.F & A.M. Wadlow's 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 (eighteen days before his death), he was measured at 8 ft 11.1 in (2.72 m) by doctors C. M. Charles and Cyril MacBryde of Washington University in St. Louis.
Robert Wadlow and his father.
Robert Wadlow and his family in 1939.
On July 4, 1940 (11 days before his death), during a professional appearance at the Manistee National Forest Festival, a faulty brace irritated his ankle, causing a blister and subsequent parasitic 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, he died in his sleep at the age of 22
Robert Wadlow died at the age of 22.
Robert was entombed in a coffin 10 feet long and weighing 1,000 pounds, requiring a dozen pallbearers and eight other assistants. Robert's funeral was attended by 27,000 people. Robert's parents buried their son's body under a vault of concrete because of fears for the sanctity of his body.
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