Was St. Louis responsible for every good thing that’s ever happened? Yesterday, we’d have said no. Then today, we read Charlie Brennan’s new book, Amazing St. Louis, collecting “250 years of great tales and curiosities.” In it, the author claims that, at least tangentially, the Gateway City was responsible for rock ’n’ roll, cocktail parties, Chicago, gas stations, Twitter, kindergarten, skyscrapers, and on and on. It should be required reading for anyone with an inferiority complex. And for every story worth bragging about, there’s one that’s just plain weird.
Darth Vader: James Earl Jones grew up in Michigan but spent the summers of his youth in St. Louis. His first exposure to the theater came at The Muny, where he went to see Naughty Marietta in the 1940s. He went on to become a Broadway star, but he’s probably best known for voicing the legendary movie villain.
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Tall Man: An estimated 107 billion people have lived on this planet, but none (as far as we know) has been taller than Robert Wadlow of Alton, Ill. Born in 1918, he grew to 8 feet, 11 inches and was named a traveling spokesman for International Shoe Company, wowing crowds with his size 37 kicks. As a result of his many health problems, Wadlow’s life was cut short in 1940.
Saddam’s Tummy: In 2009, former U.S. Army nurse Robert Ellis released a memoir, Caring for Victor, about the eight months he spent treating Saddam Hussein, after the deposed dictator’s capture. Ellis grew up in the infamous Pruitt-Igoe housing project, and he once treated Hussein’s stomachache with a local product: Tums.
