Roaming through the fourth floor of the Lauderdale Library last night, I came across several bound volumes of a now-defunct magazine called Night & Day. As I flipped through the yellowing pages of the July 1953 issue, my one good eye was caught by a story about a fellow named Max Palmer, who became known as the Clarksdale Giant, among other monikers.
The Night & Day story was short, so I’ll just quote it here: “Max Palmer was a normal-sized Clarksdale, Mississippi, boy until he was 14. ‘Then something went haywire,’ he says. Max stopped growing upward when he hit 8′6″ at age 19, but continued to add weight, to the tune of 450 pounds. He wears a size 10 hat, size 64 suit, size 20 shoe on his right foot, size 21 shoe on his left. He has a 22-inch neck, 50-inch chest, 49-inch waist, and 19-inch hands. At 25, he makes his size work for him in the movies. The man with Max [the photo I’ve scanned below] is a healthy 6″2″. Eat your Wheaties every day.”