Originally published at: How the world's only dwarf-giant grew from 4'10" to 7'8" - Boing Boing
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He wore a US size 20 shoe when he was still under 5 feet tall?
I know that mythological-sounding labels like “dwarf” and “giant” are no longer used in medicine or polite society, but if I was going to liken this man’s physiology to that of a fantasy race it would have to be the Hobbits.
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Jeez, it’s like someone gave him a Monkey’s Paw and he wished to grow taller.
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What a sad state of affairs. Poor guy.
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The pain of growing that fast at 21 must’ve been horrifying.
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This is what André the Giant had as well.
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Actually dwarf and dwarfism is still the preferred term for some who have one of the various growth disorders - some prefer the term “little person”. There’s no universally agreed preference. I mean, probably in most cases the polite thing is to refer to them by their name. There’s not a lot of reasons to do otherwise in daily conversation.
In medical parlance, dwarfism is still an accepted term though other more medical-sounding terms exist to delineate subtypes. And gigantism distinguishes growth hormone disorders where excess secretion occurs prior to fusion of bone epiphyses (i.e. when your bones stop growing in length) resulting in extreme height. If the condition develops later, the term is acromegaly - and you don’t get the extreme height but various other signs and symptoms like enlargement of the jaw, thickening of various tissues that can result in nerve/tendon entrapment, enlargement of the hands, etc. I don’t know if anyone still classes someone as a “giant” or “dwarf” based on height alone though.
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Rondo Hatton, too; journalist and horror icon. He looked beautiful; but it is a cruel disease that can fortunately be treated better these days.
Mary Ann Bevon, as well; who put up with public derision in order to feed and house her children 
I hope that the Disney company paid his estate for the rights to use his likeness in The Rocketeer.
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