At one point, Johann Petursson was the tallest man alive. He was officially dethroned during his lifetime by the colossal Robert Wadlow but he is arguably the better remembered giant due to his showmanship, personality and longevity. Johann was born in Dalvik, Iceland on February 9, 1913. He began life as Johann Svarfaelingur, the third child of nine and the only one of extraordinary size. By the time he was twenty-years-old, Johann stood a purported eight feet, eight inches tall and wore a size 24 shoe. He was a gentle man, a man of soft words and warmth. Despite towering over them, children loved Johann and he was more than happy to hoist them onto his shoulder.
During his adolescence Johann was a popular young man, due more to his outgoing personality than his height. In fact, he wasn’t treated as a ‘big deal’ in his town and the locals barely raised an eyebrow when the giant walked by. Petursson was just another one of the lads, well liked by all. Unfortunately, due to his height, he was unemployable in his hometown. Johann could not squeeze into the tiny local shops.
In 1934, Johann left for Denmark and it was there that he realized he could earn a living simply by exhibiting himself. He had a fine suit made to fit his mammoth frame, his measurements were taken by a team of three men, and he then set off in search of fame and fortune.
Johann Petursson proved to be quite successful throughout Europe. He performed in music halls in an act with two dwarfs. His tiny partners would play miniature accordions while Petursson stood between them and played instruments of enormous proportion. The act continued for several years until World War II. During the conflict Petursson found himself stranded in Copenhagen where he took a job in the shipyards and waited out the war.
Unlike many giants, who are actually quite physically frail, by all reports Johann was in good health and incredibly strong. His time at the shipyard went quickly and effortlessly. At the end of the war Petursson resumed touring Europe until he was discovered by John Ringling, of the Ringling Bros., and was contracted to appear in the United States.
Johann Petursson began touring with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey show during their 1948 season. Dressed in his Edwardian top hat and tails he began to command a salary of $200 a week. He also began selling giant-sized rings as souvenirs. While these rings fit his finger, one could also pass a silver dollar through them.
Petursson’s time with Ringling Bros. was brief. He soon joined a sideshow managed by Glen Porter and it was under the management of Porter that Johann would develop his most famous trademark. Porter, aware of Johann’s Icelandic and Nordic roots had his wife craft a costume consisting of Viking regalia and a giant helmet. Johann became known as The Viking Giant and his marketability instantly soared.
Eventually, Johann proved so popular and such a shrewd businessman that he broke away from management and went into business for himself. Petursson created a ‘Single-O’ show, a travelling show in which he was the only attraction. He saved over $50,000 in just five years which was a sizeable amount considering the era. Johan then decided to exhibit his enormous dimensions on the movie screen. In 1950 he starred opposite Jayne Mansfield as the prehistoric giant Guadi in Prehistoric Women. Thirty years later, he was featured in Carny, opposite Jodie Foster and Gary Busey. In 1981, he was featured in the astounding documentary Being Different with fellow marvel Robert Melvin.
At the age of 69, an incredible age for a giant, Johann initially retired to Gibsonton, Florida. His health, however, proved to falter quickly and soon he joined his brother in his beloved hometown of Dalvik. Johann Petursson died there on November 26, 1984. A museum now sits not far from his grave. His possessions still draw curious crowds and a stir sense of wonder.Watch a video of Johann here.
Labels: gigantism
From the BBC News:When veterinarians at Royal Jidi Ocean World in China were unable to extract plastic shards from the stomachs of two dolphins, using traditional implements, someone had the bright idea to call Bao Xishun.
The 54 year old Mongolian herdsman recently claimed the title of World’s Tallest Man and is listed by Guinness as standing 7ft 8.95in tall. Veterinarians thought the giants could use him incredible reach, which measures over a meter, to manually pluck the shards. This is exactly what the gigantic man did. Boa saved the two dolphins by reaching into their stomachs and pulling out the dangerous plastic shards with his own hands.
Still, the entire event sounds like a headline from World Weekly News.
Read more about the story here.
image: Bao Xishun, elbow-deep into a dolphin.
There is no precise definition of the degree of height that qualifies a person to be termed a ‘giant.’ However the term is usually applied to persons whose height is beyond the upper 1% of the average population. Typically this means that persons at or above the 7 foot mark qualify. However, in recent years the term has been used solely to describe those individuals whose height is the result of a medical condition, like pituitary gigantism, and is not commonly used to describe genetically gifted individuals.Giants have been around for millennia – and not just in mythology.
Perhaps the first written account of a true giant comes from the bible in the form of Goliath himself. Goliath was said to stand ‘taller than six cubits’ which equals about nine and a half feet. At first this seems a great exaggeration, and it very well may be, but one must realize that those with gigantism never stop growing. Robert Wadlow, the tallest man medically documented, stood nearly nine feet tall before his early demise at the age of twenty-two. Given a few more years, it is likely that he would have passed the nine and a half foot mark. Furthermore, early quasi-plausible records of men standing over nine feet are plentiful though questionable.
The great writer Pliny the Elder mentions in his Naturalis historia that in the reign of Claudius - A.D. 41-54 - a gigantic man standing over nine feet and named Gabbaras was brought to Rome from Arabia, the modern Middle East. Claudius immediately placed the giant at the head of his famed Adiutrix legions and the giant so amazed his follow troops that a cult of worship quickly sprung up around him.
Other credible accounts include the fact that in Sir John Soane’s Museum in London there resides and Egyptian sarcophagus crafted for a man over nine feet in height. Less credible accounts include Saint Christopher, a third century cannenite, was said to be a gigantic man as well. His height is often exaggerated to some 13 feet; however more conservative accounts credit him between seven and eight feet. Also there are several accounts, made by friends and enemies, that the Emperor Maximilian was close to eight feet in height.
The case of John Middleton is fairly well documented. Middleton (pictured above) was an English giant commonly known as the Childe of Hale. He lived in the village of Hale, near Liverpool between the years of 1578 and 1623. It was said that Middleton grew to a height of ‘Nine feet three’ – this is according to not only legends and tales of the man, but it is documented on his tombstone as well. Furthermore when Middleton visited King James I in 1620, serving as body guard to the sheriff of Lancashire - Sir Gilbert Ireland - a portrait was made of Middleton and his handprint was taken and still exists today– on display at a collage in Oxford.
Many giants lack the strength their form suggests, however Middleton and the men listed above seem to be exceptions. Middleton even beat the King's champion in wrestling and received £20. Oddly enough, he was robbed while returning to Hale.
Lastly, another giant of impressive strength and size is one Mills Darden. Not only was Darden a giant, he also holds the distinction of being the largest documented human being to walk the earth. Standing at seven and six inches tall, Darden also weighed over 1000 pounds – between 1020 to 1080 during his lifetime. He was born on October 7, 1799, near Rich Square, North Carolina and was farmer and saloon owner. Mills Darden died on January 23, 1857 taking with him the reputation of being an incredibly powerful, though sensitive man. He refused newspaper interviews or to be photographed and as a result, no photograph exists of Mr. Darden.
Read more about giants in Mutants by Armand Marie Leroi.
Read more about John Middleton, The Childe of Hale, here.
image: a painting of John Middleton.
Today I, J. Tithonus Pednaud, have an interview with CBC Radio One. I though it was only fitting to induct perhaps the most famous of all Canadian Human Marvels.Anna Swan was born in Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia on August 6th, 1846. She was a large baby. She began her life at eighteen pounds and simply continued to grow. By the age of four she was almost five feet tall. By the time she was sixteen, Anna towered over her parents and 12 siblings. When she was done growing Anna stood a staggering seven feet, eleven and a half inches tall.
She began her exhibition career shortly after her seventeenth birthday. She started at the very top, working with P. T. Barnum in his New York Museum. Anna was often paired with the famous midget Tom Thumb, to better accentuate both of their statures.
Anna made a great deal of money under the management of Barnum. Unfortunately, her career with the famous promoter was rife with disaster. The original Barnum Museum caught fire while Anna was on exhibit there and she barely escaped with her life. Trapped on an upper floor, Firemen were unable to carry her to safety. Instead, an outside wall was demolished and a crane was called to facilitate the rescue. When Barnum rebuilt his museum, Anna returned only to lose all of her possessions in a second museum fire. Anna quit the business for a time and returned to Nova Scotia. However, in 1869, Barnum invited her on a tour of the United States.
While on tour Anna met a Kentucky gentleman named Martin Van Buren Bates. Bates had been a Confederate Captain during the Civil War. He was charming, soft spoken and eloquent. He also happened to be nearly eight feet tall. The pair fell in love and married on June 17th, 1871. The pair, billed as the ‘World’s Tallest Couple’ were showered with wedding gifts. Queen Victoria herself provided the gown and diamond ring.
The Gigantic couple settled in Seville, Ohio and used their vast career earnings to build a colossal home. The ceilings were fourteen feet high, every door was at over eight feet in height and every piece of furniture was custom build for their frames. The pair continued to tour, but only sparingly.
In 1872 Anna gave birth to her first child. The little girl weighted eighteen pounds, just like her mother had, but unfortunately did not survive long after birth. In 1879 the couple had another child, this time a twenty-two pound boy. Sadly, he too did not survive past infancy.
Despite these tragedies, the two titans lived together in their custom home quite happily in love. In 1888, one day before her forty-second birthday, Anna passed away unexpectedly. Her husband, Martin, erected a great funeral monument to his wife.
Atop her grave towers a fifteen foot statue of a Greek Goddess.
Although Martin later remarried he insisted that, upon his death, he be laid to rest next to his beloved Anna and their children. He request was granted and today they rest together.
Image: Anna Swan pitch card. From the author's collection.
To learn more about Anna Swan and other Marvels purchase Carny Folk or American Sideshow.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The tallest man in recorded history, Robert Wadlow, spent less than a year in the circus – and none of it officially in the sideshow. Wadlow, and those who today watch over his legacy, are adamantly against associating Robert with the sideshow or the word freak.While Wadlow was a giant, he was far from being a freak. In fact aside from his remarkable height he was beyond normal. He was a kind, intelligent man who is still remembered as a gentleman some 60 years after his passing.
He was the first born of a normal sized couple and was born on Feb. 22, 1918. By all accounts, Robert was a normal sized baby at eight pounds and six ounces but he quickly began to grow – within twelve months he ballooned to just over forty-four pounds. At the age of five he was five and a half feet tall and at the age of 9 he stood six feet, two inches.
His family was constantly hounded by showmen begging for a chance to display the human marvel. However the Wadlow family insisted that Robert experience as average an upbringing as possible – given the circumstances. Wadlow even joined the Boy Scouts when he was thirteen and became the largest Boy Scout in history – he was seven feet, one inch and weighed 340 pounds.
In high school Robert was popular and active in many extracurricular activities, even serving as the advertising manager for the yearbook. He was completely accepted by his peers. However, when he attended college he lost that acceptance and struggled with the stares. It bothered him so much that he dropped out and returned to his parents quite penniless.
That is when his brief stint with Ringling Bros. began. His 1937 contract was brief and had strict conditions and terms. First, Robert would only attend shows at Madison Square Garden and the Boston Garden. He would display himself only two times a day for three minutes. He refused to allow any exaggeration of his height via media releases or standard height enhancing sideshow trickery like platform shoes, top hats and trick photography. Furthermore, Robert would only display himself in the centre ring and refused any association with the sideshow. Despite all of these restrictions, Robert proved to be incredibly popular.
Robert was so popular that following his time with Ringling Bros. he signed a fabulous contract with The International Shoe Company. The deal included quite a bit of travel and personal appearances and in just under a year Robert had made over 800 appearances and traveled over 300,000 miles. Perhaps most importantly, the company provided Robert with free shoes - a big deal when you are a size 37 and your shoes cost over $100 a piece.
Robert’s feet always gave him a lot of trouble and due to the weight they had to support, they formed blisters often. Believe it or not, it was a blister that killed the gentle giant.
On July 4th, 1940 – after appearing in a Forth of July – Robert developed a blister. That blister became infected and Robert was unable to check into a hospital as they could not accommodate a man of his size. The infection progressed as Robert was attended to in a makeshift medical facility based in Robert’s hotel room. Surgery, antibiotics and blood transfusions were not enough and Robert passed away on July 15th, 1940 at 1:30am. He was only twenty-two and stood eight feet, eleven inches.
His funeral was attended by 40,000 mourners. It took twelve pallbearers to hoist his thousand pound casket. A life sized statue of Robert Wadlow still stands in his hometown of Alton, Illinois.
It is a testament to a man who was the very definition of a Human Marvel.
Watch a short documentary on Robert Wadlow here.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Hungarian Sisters - The Scottish Brothers - The Biddenden Maids
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Dedicated to vindicating those people who were once labeled as freaks. Within this page 'Human Marvel' replaces the terms freak and human oddity.The Human Marvels Website is Licensed.
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