Alton Illinois pickup. Anybody from here?

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Posted By: Silver King

I'm traveling and went into an antique store yesterday in Alton Illinois to see if they had any cards. Was told that they sold 35 Goudeys to sombody for $700 a few days ago and that the buyer intended to put them all on ebay. Wondering if anybody from here got the cards?

robert shaw

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Posted By: barrysloate

Alton, Illinois is famous as the home of the tallest man who ever lived, Robert Wadlow. He stood 8'11" and was nicknamed the Alton Giant.

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

I guess that's a NO for Barry.......

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Posted By: barrysloate

No, I guess it wasn't me...but I am just full of tidbits of useless information, don't you think?

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Posted By: Steve f

It's true about Barry,

Go on, ask him about Sundae toppings distribution. "I've never met a man that knows so much about nothing." Tia

Incidentally, During Bikeweek, we stay in a little village in Cow Hampshire called Alton. There aren't any tall people, but they do lack a town dentist.

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Posted By: Josh Adams

Alton is about 4 hours away from me, but I have not heard of this find.

"See, they put the fudge on the bottom."

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Posted By: Max Weder

I believe it was these two gentlemen who made the Goudey find.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Which guy is Robert Wadlow?

That's actually a well known photo of Robert and his father. Robert was quite famous, he toured with the Ringling Brothers Circus, and even did promotional work for a shoe company (he had size 37 shoes). There are also many photos of him with movie stars. But he only lived to the age of 22. Giantism is a disease and giants don't have long lives.

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Posted By: George Dreher

From what I recall, the young man died of a simple foot infection, deadly in 1940 but not with the medical advances of today. His father was normal height and he could carry dad up the stairs at age 5! Could you imagine a man-sized kindergarten kid?

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Posted By: barrysloate

As a boy scout he was 7' 5" ! He did die of a foot infection, but I think his huge size resulted in poor circulation in his body...the heart has to work so hard pumping blood, and I think that exacerbated the infection. Of course, today he would have also had surgery to remove the tumor on his pituitary, and never would have reached his extraordinary height.

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Posted By: Ken McMillan

Actually, I will be going through Alton tomarrow. It's just a dirty little river town on the Mississippi. They do have a river boat however and lots of mosquitos.

Kmac

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Posted By: Clint

I remember as a kid we got to see his shoes. Don't remember where it was but I could fit inside of them. Pretty amazing.

-Clint

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Posted By: Silver King

I'm still in Alton, no other cards to be located however there is an antique shop that auctions off things once a month and I understand a few card collectors frequent the auction. I will be heading back to CA and will miss the next auction.

The Robert Wadlow statue is about 1 mile from here and very cool, lifesize statue. If you go into Fast Eddies bar, one of Wadlows size 37 shoes is on display and it's so big it doesn't look real. The thing is solid leather and must weigh a few pounds. Those are some expensive Jordan's but he didn't need to jump. Fast Eddies has 1/2 pound burgers for $0.99, huge shishkabobs for 1.89 and a bunch of other great food.

robert shaw

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Posted By: John S

When I was a kid I was fascinated by the pictures of Waldo that were in the Guiness Book...I simply could not conceptualize anyone being that tall. I recall that he was still growing up until the time of his death. Does anyone have the picture of Waldo standingin a crowd on the streets of St. Louis?

(Sorry Robert to continue the hijacking of your thread...I did not purchase the Goudeys)

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Posted By: barrysloate

Just type Robert Wadlow into Google. He has many websites, some of which are picture galleries. He was the most famous giant who ever lived. When he was in a high school a news team interviewed him and took live footage, which I have seen. I wouldn't be surprised if you could find that on youtube. I remember they awarded him with a certificate stating he was the tallest man who ever lived.

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Posted By: Silver King

No problem on hijacking the thread to talk about Wadlow. Without anybody fessing to picking up the cards, the thread is dead baby.....Zed's dead (pulp fiction). I was sort of hoping somebody picked up the cards but obviously nobody has come forth. I was hoping to hear about the cards, ya know, wondering what somebody picked up a week before I arrived.

I like talking Wadlow, I was born in this little town and there is a lot of weird history. Rated in the top 10 most haunted cities in America. The bullets that killed Lincoln were made here. A Great White shark swam up the Missississippissisiipppis River and was caught here. Lincoln Douglas debates downtown. Slave trades and underground tunnels, tours available. Poverty, rich all living next to each other. All this within a 5 mile radius. Very cool.

I asked around the dozen or so antique shops looking for Wadlow items and found out that this isn't the town to find things. He's a hero in this small town and nobody is parting with any Wadlow memorabilia. I wish some of my relative who live here had something of his, but nobody does. There is a very cool picture in Fast Eddie's of Wadlow with some school kids. It's hard to imagine the size of Wadlow, makes most NBA players look like average size people.

robert shaw

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Posted By: barrysloate

I've read that after Robert died, his family destroyed all his clothes so that the general public wouldn't have access to them. He was enough of a spectacle in his life, and they wanted to protect him after his death. I too have found him fascinating, and have seen dozens of pictures of him. His height was so extreme that it is almost impossible not to look. He could never walk down a street without everybody staring at him. It couldn't have been a good life, though it brought him great fame, and it was sadly a short one.
A couple of years ago I read an obituary of a Ringling Brothers performer who had died in his late eighties. When he was interviewed late in his life and asked to talk about what it was like in the circus, one of the first things he said was "I knew Robert Wadlow personally." I guess people who met him never forgot him.