Born Sandra Elaine Allen on June 18, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois, USA, and passing away on August 13, 2008, in Shelbyville, Indiana, USA, Sandy Allen was the tallest woman on Earth from 1976 until 2008, standing at an astounding 7 feet 7 inches (231.7 centimeters). Although she is not one of the two tallest women over 8 feet (see Zeng Jinlian and Trijntje Keever), Sandy Allen is still the third tallest woman in recorded history.
Sandy Allen’s Extreme Growth
A native Chicagoan, Sandy Allen was born in 1955. At age 10, she was 6 feet 3 inches tall (190 cm), and by the time she was 16, she was already 7 feet 1 inch (216 cm).
In 1976, Sandy Allen was officially named the tallest living woman by the Guinness Book of World Records. The following year, she released a book titled “Cast a Giant Shadow.”
Sandy, realizing she was lonely due to her extraordinary height, decided to contact the Guinness Book of Records committee to bring some excitement into her life. The last time Guinness was this excited was probably when they documented the height of Robert Wadlow (1918–1940), the tallest man on record.
-> See also: Giantess: History of a Mythological Being
Once Lonely Now a Star
Once Sandy Allen was documented as the tallest woman on Earth in the Guinness Book of Records, everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Howard Stern soon invited her to appear on their own talk programs.
In 1977, Sandy sought treatment at one of the clinics in an effort to halt the progression of her tumor in the pituitary gland which was responsible for her gigantism and unusual height.
Many extremely tall people with gigantism tried to get medical assistance to stop their unusual growth, like Suleiman Ali Nashnush who underwent a similar operation in Rome around 1960.
The Tallest Actress in History
After Sandy Allen’s rise to fame as the tallest living woman, the famous filmmaker Federico Fellini approached her in 1975 about starring in his film Fellini’s Casanova (1976). She played the role of Angelina the giantess who proves to be one of the few women with whom Casanova does not fall in love.
Fellini must have a thing for tall people like her since he also approached (and successfully cast) another extremely tall person, Suleiman Ali Nashnush, in his 1969 movie Fellini Satyricon.
Five years later, Sandy also starred in another TV movie called Side Show (1981), in which she played the role of Goliatha. She is also featured in the 1981 documentary Being Different, in which she appears at about 0:30:20.
The Challenges of Being a Giantess
However, Sandy’s gigantism had unintended repercussions, such as reduced pituitary function, atrophying leg muscles, poor blood circulation, and overall malaise.
At some point, the wheelchair was how she moved around. Sometime later, muscle atrophy set in after she was incapacitated in bed.
Sandy Allen spent her last years in the same nursing home in Shelbyville, Indiana, where Edna Parker, 115, one of the oldest women on record, also resided. They died the same year.
The nursing home death record shows Sandy’s death on August 13, 2008, at the age of 53.
Postmortem
Rita Rose, a close friend of the family, said that Sandy had chronic blood infections, Type 2 diabetes, respiratory problems, and kidney failure. Problems like diabetes and kidney failure are not alien to people with gigantism, as seen in Radhouane Charbib or John F. Carroll.
Allen was postmortem honored at Shelbyville High School with a scholarship in her name. Her manager, John Kleiman, presented Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museums with a collection of her personal effects. New Zealand band Split Enz wrote a song about her called “Hello Sandy Allen,” which appeared on their 1982 album Time and Tide.
Before her death, numerous online sources listed Allen as the world’s second-tallest woman, after the Chinese lady Yao Defen. The legitimacy of Yao Defen’s official height was challenged, thus Guinness World Records continued to name Sandy Allen as the tallest. She stayed the tallest woman on Earth for 18 years.
Why Sandy Allen Was So Tall
Sandy Allen had gigantism, which was the result of a tumor in the pituitary gland. The pituitary gland is an organ that sits in a cavity at the bottom of the skull. It is only about a centimeter in size.
This “master gland” secretes several hormones, including growth hormone. A tumor in this organ can result in the overproduction of growth hormone, a condition called “gigantism”.
Overproduction of growth hormone causes bone growth in children. However, once they are adults, they often do not exhibit growth in their height. Instead, this condition causes just their hands, feet, and face to keep growing. This is known as acromegaly.
References
- Her IMDb Page
- Find a Grave Memorial
- A history of record-breaking giants 100 years after the tallest man ever was born | Guinness World Records
