Sepia Saturday #316: A Tall Tale

You can't miss the tall guy in this week's photo. Head and shoulders above the crowd, he looks about 6'6" or more. 

He'd have something in common with Yao Ming, the famous Chinese basketball player who is 7' 6" and a former member of the Houston Rockets team. Apparently he's retired from basketball now. I wonder if he'll end up as the CEO of some company. After all, taller people are at an advantage in the workplace. Studies have shown that short people are paid less than taller people, with disparities similar in magnitude to the race and gender gaps.

The tall guy looks as if he might be part of the film crew. I wonder if there's an advantage to being a tall assistant in the film business? Many jobs require, or at least favor tall people such as professional sports and fashion modeling. If you aspire to become a captain of industry, height is a definite asset:

"A survey of Fortune 500 CEO height in 2005 revealed that they were on average 6 feet tall, which is approximately 2-3 inches taller than the average American man. Fully 30% of these CEOs were 6 foot 2 inches  tall or more; in comparison only 3.9% of the overall United States population is of this height. Equally significantly, similar surveys have uncovered that less than 3% of CEOs were below 5′7″ in height. Ninety percent of CEOs are of above average height."

Height is not required on the other side of the camera in the movies. Many of the popular male movie stars are short.  Dustin Hoffman, for example, is only 5"2". Danny DeVito is barely 5 feet. He's always been a hero of mine since I read about his determination. When he was getting started in his acting career, he'd go to every audition call, no matter how absurd. For instance, he auditioned to play Hamlet. Obviously because of his unusual appearance he had to be a superb actor to convince directors that he would be right for a particular part or even, at times, that they should re-write the part to accommodate his short stature. 

Danny Devito teaching Hamlet in Renaissance Man 

In my personal experience with tall people, they may be paid more on the job,  but life, in general, offers plenty of challenges. Tall people rarely fit into ordinary chairs...they never know what to do with their feet, which always seem to be in the way. Clothes are hard to find as are shoes. They don't hear as well because their ears are up too high. Beds are too short; economy class airplane seats are torture chambers. They hit their heads on low doorways and beams. Hugs are awkward. They can see the dust and dirt on top of refrigerators or high shelves. Their view of the world is different.

Here's a photo I found while browsing for things to use in this blog. It combines the illusion of being tall with beach attire and joie de vivre. You might want to listen to this You Tube performance while admiring the tall? girls.




And finally, here's a photo of me, an average size human being,  two years ago, checking out one of my brother-in-law's antique cameras. He collects them.

And my brother-in-law with more of his cameras and photographic paraphernalia.

Check out more stories of camera, film, beaches and other memories at Sepia Saturday.