British Pathe archive

[Never Wrong]

Takes a while to find the right search terms and then weed through the irrelevant ( ) historical stuff - so I thought I'd assemble this for posterity by name and height (as attributed on this site.

John Petursson 7'7" 1948

Albert Johan Kramer 7'8.25" 1920

Albert Johan Kramer 7'8.25" 1924

Clifford Thompson ??7'5"?? 1940

Gilbert Reichert 7'6" 1933

Jim Tarver ??7'5"?? year unknown

Ted Evans 7'8.5" 1946

Ted Evans 7'8.5"

Ted Evans 7'8.5" 1950 FOUND BY MASK

Ted Evans I think??? Don't know though - this guy looks shorter??? And the Brit press would surely label Evans I'd think 7'8.5" 1950

Kurt Zehe "Gargantua" 7'2"?? 1952 FOUND BY MASK

John Middleton (about him-not of him - he'd been dead a century or two) 7'9" 1940

Georghe Mitu ??7'5"?? 1935

Unknown Giant (A young Al Tomaini??) ??7'4"?? 1936

Jack Earle (Geez he's big in this film) 7'7.5" 1928

Jack Earle 7'7.5" 1929

Jack Earle 7'7.5" 1931

Unknown African Giant 7'2" 1930

Unknown (to me) Giantess Unknown Height 1927

"Otto" Unknown (to me) French Giant Unknown Height 1910

Unknown Hungarian Giant unknown height 1967

Unknown Tall Brit 1914

VERY INTERESTING Unknown Giantess and Unknown Giant - looks a little like a reaally skinny Aasen- but it can't be look at the small feet! 1932

Robert Wadlow 8'11.1" (8'1.5" in this video age 17) 1935

Robert Wadlow 8'11.1" (8'4" in this video (a year later than the one above ) 1936

Robert Wadlow 8'11.1" (8'4" in this video also 1936

John Aasen 7'4"???? (looks taller in this vid) Unknown date

4:16 mark Leon Ketchell 7'3"?? 1936 FOUND BY MASK

It is clear that our boy Robert plays in a different height league than anybody else on here. Please discuss and identify any of the unknowns. I might have missed a few videos - so if some other intrepid soul wants to wander through that morass - have at it.

[aramx]

Takes a while to find the right search terms and then weed through the irrelevant ( ) historical stuff - so I thought I'd assemble this for posterity by name and height (as attributed on this site.

John Petursson 7'7" 1948

Albert Johan Kramer 7'8.25" 1920

Albert Johan Kramer 7'8.25" 1924

Clifford Thompson ??7'5"?? 1940

Gilbert Reichert 7'6" 1933

Jim Tarver ??7'5"?? year unknown

Ted Evans 7'8.5" 1946

Ted Evans 7'8.5"

Ted Evans I think??? Don't know though - this guy looks shorter??? And the Brit press would surely label Evans I'd think 7'8.5" 1950

John Middleton (about him-not of him - he'd been dead a century or two) 7'9" 1940

Georghe Mitu ??7'5"?? 1935

Unknown Giant (A young Al Tomaini??) ??7'4"?? 1936

Jack Earle (Geez he's big in this film) 7'7.5" 1928

Jack Earle 7'7.5" 1929

Jack Earle 7'7.5" 1931

Unknown African Giant 7'2" 1930

Unknown (to me) Giantess Unknown Height 1927

"Otto" Unknown (to me) French Giant Unknown Height 1910

Unknown Hungarian Giant unknown height 1967

Unknown Tall Brit 1914

VERY INTERESTING Unknown Giantess and Unknown Giant - looks a little like a reaally skinny Aasen- but it can't be look at the small feet! 1932

Robert Wadlow 8'11.1" (8'1.5" in this video age 17) 1935

Robert Wadlow 8'11.1" (8'4" in this video (a year later than the one above ) 1936

Robert Wadlow 8'11.1" (8'4" in this video also 1936

John Aasen 7'4"???? (looks taller in this vid) Unknown date

It is clear that our boy Robert plays in a different height league than anybody else on here. Please discuss and identify any of the unknowns. I might have missed a few videos - so if some other intrepid soul wants to wander through that morass - have at it.

Well I think I was one who showed you the link to these vids? Anyways, John Aasen was making himself look 8,10" by posing with two very short but normally-proportioned individuals. It worked, but as we all know he is nowhere near 8,10".

I think all those antique vids of giants are very impressive. Especially the Wadlow ones. I haven't seen much footage of Wadlow near or at his peak height, though still looked incredibly tall even at 8,4". I've seen live footage of Don Koehler before too but that link doesn't work anymore

[The Tallest Man]

Well I think I was one who showed you the link to these vids? Anyways, John Aasen was making himself look 8,10" by posing with two very short but normally-proportioned individuals. It worked, but as we all know he is nowhere near 8,10".

I think all those antique vids of giants are very impressive. Especially the Wadlow ones. I haven't seen much footage of Wadlow near or at his peak height, though still looked incredibly tall even at 8,4". I've seen live footage of Don Koehler before too but that link doesn't work anymore

I thank you both for the initial link to British Pathe and the seperate searches. They are impressive video's indeed. They don't make 'm like that anymore.

Now if only I knew a way to put them on this website as a video and not just a link to the page. I have been thinking about using my own camcorder but I think the videos are a bit too small for that.

The Tallest Man

[The Tallest Man]

VERY INTERESTING Unknown Giantess and Unknown Giant - looks a little like a reaally skinny Aasen- but it can't be look at the small feet! 1932

Please discuss and identify any of the unknowns.

The 'giant' in this video is a 'giant' called Uranus.



The original caption of the picture reads:

"Circus giant holding dwarf woman

05/10/1929 - Paris, France. Freaks at the Luna Park Circus in Paris. Photo shows the giant Uranus who measures 7 foot 5 inches, holding the woman midget Simone who is only 30 inches tall."

I don't think he is really that tall. I think that he is about 7'1" or 7'2" at best. Some people (some of whom quite knowledgeable on the subject of giants) claim that Uranus is the same as the German giant Jakob Nacken, who later during the second world war became a Nazi. If Uranus is indeed Jakob Nacken than he might be as tall as 7'3" - 7'3.5".

The picture seems to be taken at the same time as the recording of the video. The girl (or woman) looks the same, and the clothes are the same I believe. The years are different. The video says 1932, and the photo says 1929. Maybe those were their circus costumes. Interesting video though, because I've had that picture for a long time and it was the only footage/image I had of him.

I don't know who the giantess is in that video. My knowledge on giantesses is not that great, if the giantess is not a really famous one.

The Tallest Man

[The Tallest Man]

Gilbert Reichert 7'6" 1933

Interesting video. I have had a picture of an (to me) unknown giant. Having seen this video I now think that giant might be a young Gilbert A. Reichert. What do you think?



The Tallest Man

[The Tallest Man]

Ted Evans I think??? Don't know though - this guy looks shorter??? And the Brit press would surely label Evans I'd think 7'8.5" 1950

Definitely Ted Evans. Weird that they suddenly forgot his name.

The Tallest Man

[The Tallest Man]

John Aasen 7'4"???? (looks taller in this vid) Unknown date

That's John Aassen. John Aassen apparantly had another growth spurt in his 30's. If that is true he is 'only' about 7'1 - 7'2 in this video. The 2 shorter gentlemen in the video are the size of Danny Devito. If Aassen is 23 in the video than the video was taken in 1913 or early 1914. Aassen was born on 5 March 1890.

Here is John Aassen next to Harold Lloyd (a known 5'10"). He took over the role after George Auger (who was initially casted for this movie) died in 1922. It was taken during the filming of the movie Why worry? which was released in 1923.



The Tallest Man

[aramx]

John Aasen 7'4"???? (looks taller in this vid) Unknown date

That's John Aassen. John Aassen apparantly had another growth spurt in his 30's. If that is true he is 'only' about 7'1 - 7'2 in this video. The 2 shorter gentlemen in the video are the size of Danny Devito. If Aassen is 23 in the video than the video was taken in 1913 or early 1914. Aassen was born on 5 March 1890.

Here is John Aassen next to Harold Lloyd (a known 5'10"). He took over the role after George Auger (who was initially casted for this movie) died in 1922. It was taken during the filming of the movie Why worry? which was released in 1923.


I thought so. They posed Aassen next to two relatively short people to make him look his claimed 8,10". btw, how tall did this giant eventually get? 7,4"?
The Tallest Man

[The Tallest Man]

I thought so. They posed Aassen next to two relatively short people to make him look his claimed 8,10". btw, how tall did this giant eventually get? 7,4"?

I think that 7'4" was probably the top end of any assumption about his height at his peak.
Also, I seem to have written his name wrong, it should be with 1 s.

He has a website dedicated about him with some pretty good pictures:

Johan Aasen website

However, even they are exaggerating his height by many inches. Basically, they don't know it either.

The Tallest Man

[Never Wrong]

Do you know this "Otto" giant?

And is that a young Tomaini or a young Earle in that midget video.

And yes, Aramx - it must have been you that gave the link to British Pathe - as I surely didn't find it - I was just trying to codify the interesting videos in a single place such that they could be referenced and catalogued more easily.

Don't Kramer and Earle seem a lot taller than Evans on these vids?