MAN'S TOWERING HEIGHT PROMOTES CIRCUS HYPE

Aurangzeb Khan, who for two years was billed by himself and Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus as the world's tallest man at 8 feet, may not stretch the tape measure to a full 8 feet.

But he is still tall.

Khan was in Cape Girardeau Monday in advance of the Sterling & Reid Bros. 3-Ring Circus, which will be at the Show Me Center Wednesday for two performances.

The towering Pakistani, who worked as a cab driver, bouncer, security guard and pro wrestler before finding his calling in the circus, was a performer with Ringling Bros. before joining Sterling and Reid. Regardless of whether he is 8 feet or 7-feet 9- or 10-inches tall doesn't really matter: He could still be the world's tallest man.

The Guinness Book of World Records -- whose publisher says some attempts have been made to measure Khan -- lists Radhouane Charbib of Tunisia, who is 7-feet-8.9 inches tall, as the current world's tallest man.

Khan, who was in town talking about the Sterling & Reid Circus, urged people to attend the circus, which will feature performances at 4:30 and 7:30.

"We have some great acts," said Khan, "We have elephants, lions and rare white tigers, Russian dancing bears, acrobats and aerialists from all over the world."

Khan said he was still growing when he turned 21. Now, at 38, he isn't sure if he has finished growing He weighs 380 pounds.

"I hope so," he said. "I think I'm tall enough."

Khan, who can dunk a basketball without jumping, was measured once since he came to the United States. At that time the tape stretched past the 7-foot-9 mark.

He has to duck going through doorways.

Being tall doesn't run in the Khan family. Khan's two brothers are around the 6-foot mark.

Khan came to the United States in the early 1980s in search of what he called "opportunities." He had dreams of playing basketball earlier in his life. "I hoped to attend college and play basketball," he said. He had played basketball for the Pakistani national basketball team.

But once in the United States it he took a variety of jobs to support himself and his family back in Pakistan.

He was driving a taxi in Miami when Ringling Bros. found him and signed him to a two-year contract. In the circus he was billed as the world's tallest man and appeared in a special act with a midget who stretched the tape to 33 inches. The midget was billed by Ringling Bros. as the world's smallest man.

After the two-year contract with Ringling Bros., Khan worked a few more months with the circus before joining Sterling and Reid as a promoter for the circus, serving as an advance man.

Khan says he misses performing with the circus but enjoys the role of promoting it, talking with people and being around youngsters.

Some youngsters have kicked him in the leg. "They wanted to know if I was real or wearing stilts," he said.

Sterling and Reid doesn't book its promoter as the world's tallest man but agrees "he is big."

Khan travels with his wife, Erum Zeb, who is 5 feet 8 inches tall.

"We drive everywhere," said Khan, who makes his home in Miami. He has a special van with large accelerator and brake pedals because he wears a size 20 shoe.

Khan is not the first big man to visit Cape Girardeau. During the 1930s Robert Pershing Wadlow, known as the Alton, Ill., Giant, visited the city three times as a guest of local shoe stores.

Wadlow, who wore a size 37 shoe, did promotional work for shoe stores. Wadlow, who was 8-feet- 11.1-inches tall when he died, visited the city in 1932, 1936 and 1939.

Wadlow died at age 22. At the time of his death, doctors said he was still growing. They predicted that had he lived he would have passed the 9-foot mark.

When Wadlow first visited Cape Girardeau, however, he was not nearly the man he would someday become. On his first visit, in 1932, the newspaper accounts said he was "a mere boy of 7 feet 3 inches."

Four years later when Wadlow was a freshman at Shurtleff College in his hometown of Alton, he visited Cape Girardeau again, this time as the guest of the Gately store at 313 Broadway. In the four years since his previous visit, he had grown to 8 feet 4 inches and weighed 390 pounds.

His final visit came on March 21, 1939, barely a year before his death. Wadlow, who was 21 at the time, had become a goodwill ambassador for the International Shoe Co. in 1937 and was touring the country as a representative of the company. He came to Cape Girardeau the final time as guest of the Gaylor Shoe Store at 104 N. Main.

During his final visit, Wadlow stood on the back of a flatbed truck surrounded by crowds of people, mostly children. He was accompanied by his father, who told the crowd the history of Wadlow's growth and something of his habits as the world's tallest man. Wadlow, who had reached the height of 8 feet 11 inches at the time, stretched out his long legs and gave the crowd a view of his size 37 shoe.

When he was in Cape Girardeau, adjustments had to be made. He slept at the Hotel Marquette where he had to sleep on two full-sized beds because one bed was only large enough for him to sit on.

Wadlow died July 15, 1940.