As told by one myopic, short Jewish girl. As an adolescent I aspired to 5'6". It seemed the ideal height. I believe my younger half-sister (with the 6'+ father) achieved 5'6", but of course she wanted to be taller. I am, and always have been listed on my driver's license as 5'4". The only nice thing about the DMV is that they take your word for it. They might give you an eye test, but they don't measure you.
But am I really 5 feet and 4 inches tall? Not really. No. It hurts to admit my true height is five feet, three and three quarter inches. Does it sound taller writing it out? Even standing up as straight as I can, I've never hit that 64" mark. I've studied this, and people over six feet seem to only ever roughly know how tall they are. Unless they play for the NBA they'll say, "Oh, about 6'1" I guess". People under 5'6" always know exactly how tall they are, at least to the quarter inch.
My mother was tiny, maybe 5', and petite too, as her mother was before her. I think by the time we were 13, our shoes were too big for her to steal. She always told me that one day I would tower over her, always holding her hand high above her head. In later years I was indeed taller than her, but I never felt that I towered. Rather I felt like a bull standing next to a baby deer. But that is an entirely different subject.
So I find myself saying the same thing to the monkeys, although their father is 5'6", while mine was 5'9". They are shorter than most. Jon Stewart is also 5'6" and I always pay careful attention to how tall he is in relation to the guest he is greeting. Why? I cant help it.
If you stand up straight you can pass for taller. I think I've succeeded in that. Some people my height can't leave the house without an extra 2 or 3 inches added. Personally I am incapable of wearing high heels or platform shoes. I've never wanted the height badly enough to suffer in uncomfortable shoes. My vanity expresses itself in other ways. We'll get to that another time.
Jimmy Stewart, Gary Cooper and Joel McRae, are some of my favorite- and the best- classic Hollywood actors. They were very tall and very, very lean, which made them look even taller. Standing next to one of the great tiny actresses made the difference even look more extreme, yet somehow they don't look silly together. I tried to find a quick list of contemporary actor's heights, but found instead a number of sites devoted to the speculation and "outing" of the shoe lift wearing leading men of today.
Conan O'Brien is listed as 6'4" in the IMDB, yet I've always thought he was 6'5". I remember passing him on the street in Harvard Square, and feeling as if I'd suddenly turned into a hobbit, and slipped into a Tolkien novel. Loping down the street, he seemed not of this world.
Jimmy Stewart: 6'3"
Gary Cooper 6'3"
Joel McCrea 6'3"
Ray Milland: 6'2"
Clark Gable 6'1"
Cary Grant: 6'1& 1/2"
Robert Mitchum: 6'1"
Humphrey Bogart: 5'8"
~~~~~~~~~~
Many of the the famous starlets of yesteryear were 5'4" or less.
Elizabeth Taylor: 5'2"
Carole Lombard: 5'2"
Margaret Sullavan 5'2" & 1/2"
Jean Arthur: 5'3"
Bette Davis: 5'3"
Claudette Colbert: 5'4 & 1/2"
Ginger Rogers: 5'4 & 1/2"
If you don't know who all of these people are, then you shouldn't be reading this. Unless you look them up and watch their movies right away.
But am I really 5 feet and 4 inches tall? Not really. No. It hurts to admit my true height is five feet, three and three quarter inches. Does it sound taller writing it out? Even standing up as straight as I can, I've never hit that 64" mark. I've studied this, and people over six feet seem to only ever roughly know how tall they are. Unless they play for the NBA they'll say, "Oh, about 6'1" I guess". People under 5'6" always know exactly how tall they are, at least to the quarter inch.
My mother was tiny, maybe 5', and petite too, as her mother was before her. I think by the time we were 13, our shoes were too big for her to steal. She always told me that one day I would tower over her, always holding her hand high above her head. In later years I was indeed taller than her, but I never felt that I towered. Rather I felt like a bull standing next to a baby deer. But that is an entirely different subject.
So I find myself saying the same thing to the monkeys, although their father is 5'6", while mine was 5'9". They are shorter than most. Jon Stewart is also 5'6" and I always pay careful attention to how tall he is in relation to the guest he is greeting. Why? I cant help it.
If you stand up straight you can pass for taller. I think I've succeeded in that. Some people my height can't leave the house without an extra 2 or 3 inches added. Personally I am incapable of wearing high heels or platform shoes. I've never wanted the height badly enough to suffer in uncomfortable shoes. My vanity expresses itself in other ways. We'll get to that another time.
Jimmy Stewart, Gary Cooper and Joel McRae, are some of my favorite- and the best- classic Hollywood actors. They were very tall and very, very lean, which made them look even taller. Standing next to one of the great tiny actresses made the difference even look more extreme, yet somehow they don't look silly together. I tried to find a quick list of contemporary actor's heights, but found instead a number of sites devoted to the speculation and "outing" of the shoe lift wearing leading men of today.
Conan O'Brien is listed as 6'4" in the IMDB, yet I've always thought he was 6'5". I remember passing him on the street in Harvard Square, and feeling as if I'd suddenly turned into a hobbit, and slipped into a Tolkien novel. Loping down the street, he seemed not of this world.
Jimmy Stewart: 6'3"
Gary Cooper 6'3"
Joel McCrea 6'3"
Ray Milland: 6'2"
Clark Gable 6'1"
Cary Grant: 6'1& 1/2"
Robert Mitchum: 6'1"
Humphrey Bogart: 5'8"
~~~~~~~~~~
Many of the the famous starlets of yesteryear were 5'4" or less.
Elizabeth Taylor: 5'2"
Carole Lombard: 5'2"
Margaret Sullavan 5'2" & 1/2"
Jean Arthur: 5'3"
Bette Davis: 5'3"
Claudette Colbert: 5'4 & 1/2"
Ginger Rogers: 5'4 & 1/2"
If you don't know who all of these people are, then you shouldn't be reading this. Unless you look them up and watch their movies right away.
"Loping" is a great word. It brings to mind a bit the way characters walk in Robert Crumb cartoons like the dudes in "Keep On Truckin.'" It does my heart good to know all these beauties of the past were at least a few inches shorter than me. You are absolutely right that short people all know how tall they are to the quarter inch but 6 footers couldn't care less. There's a maxim in their somewhere - maybe not as profound as Tolstoy's "....All unhappy families are unhappy in a different way" but pretty good (I wonder if that's true by the way.) I look at it this way: anyone can be born 5'9'' or 6 foot, but it is the rarer man who is born the way he is and not only accepts himself instead of feeling lacking, but can be even celebratory about whatever cards he was dealt (even like an extra head or something), make it his own, and find the grace and charm in his own alignment of limbs and facial features. It has been done before...charisma always trumps geometry. And Al Pacino is like 5'7''. We Jews and Italians and Japanese are a short but resourceful and talented people.
ReplyDeleteVery good. Charisma always trumps geometry. I love that.
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