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LIVING & TRAVEL

Richard Stoller
interviewed by Emma Taylor on October 9, 1995

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"Everybody's so Short."

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Richard Stoller is a member of the Tall Club of New York City.

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Tripod: My first question has to be, how tall are you?

RS: Only 6'3", and now I can use the word "only," I never used to use that word. But in the crowd I hang around with now, I'm just barely above the minimum height to join the club ... When I first joined, it was very odd, seeing all these people taller than me, it was kind of a weird sensation. But now I've been in the club for two years, I'm so used to it that when I hang out with my normal-sized friends, everybody's so short.

Tripod: So what are the height restrictions for membership?

RS: For women, it's 5'10" and up, for men it's 6'2" and up.

Tripod: How tall is your tallest member?

RS: Our tallest woman is 6'5", and our tallest man is 7'.

Tripod: Do short people ever try to sneak in?

RS: Well, technically you have to be measured in stocking feet. The Tall Club of New York City is actually part of a greater collection of clubs called Tall Clubs International. There are about 55 clubs in the United States and about another 50 or 60 clubs, mostly in Europe. If you want your club to become a member of TCI, you have to follow their 5'10", 6'2" guidelines. You can only come in at a shorter height if you are married to a member. People come up to us and say, "Can I be tall?" and we say, "Sure, marry someone tall, and we'll give you a card that says you're a member of the Tall Club."

Tripod: How did the notion of a Tall Club develop?

RS: It started in 1939, by some women who wanted to meet tall men. They were very active in the war years ... in fact, the woman who started it all, Kae Sumner, just celebrated her 80th birthday a few months ago. All the Tall Clubs had a brunch on Sunday at exactly the same time -- 2 p.m. in New York, 11 a.m. in California -- all the different clubs along the way had a toast to her.

Tripod: Do a lot of your members have a history of feeling insecure about their height?

RS: No, not really. It's mostly a silly reason for us to get together. One of the most common things we hear is that, "Before I joined the club, I thought I had trouble hearing, now I realize that I don't have trouble hearing, it's just that most of the conversations were taking place in the middle of my chest."

Tripod: To what extent does the club act as a dating service?

RS: It's not really a dating service. The New York club is much more singles-oriented than some of the other clubs, as we've only been around for three years now. Some of the other clubs have been around for several decades, and their members vary in age, anywhere from their twenties into their seventies.

Tripod: What kind of activities does the New York club offer?

RS: We have a lot of charity events, a lot of just fun, going out after work, drinking events. Just any excuse to get together -- last weekend we all went down to Atlantic City.

Tripod: You must create quite a stir when you all go out together.

RS: Oh it's funny! ... We'll have perhaps 30,40 people, and especially if it's a small space, people walk in and look up, and you always hear someone ask, "What is this, a tall persons convention?" And you know, yeh, actually, it is.

Tripod: When did the Tall Club first go onto the Web?

RS: February, and since then, a Tokyo newspaper found out about us, and did a human interest story on us! ... And someone from Croatia was looking at our page once, I don't know why.

Tripod: Are there any similar groups for short people?

RS: We are always asked that. There are groups for what are called the Little People ... once or twice we have tried to contact them, but we never hear back from them. Because what we've got is more of a good thing, most people want to be tall, so the people in our club have more of something people want. But the people who are height-challenged, or whatever you want to call it, they have a real tough time. We only have a tough time getting into a car, or finding clothing.

Tripod: Do you have trouble getting people to take the club seriously?

RS: Most people think it's a joke, they think it's cute. One woman we bumped into said, "I've heard about helping the handicapped, but this is ridiculous."

Tripod: Have you ever been called politically incorrect, for discriminating against the vertically challenged?

RS: [laughs] No.

To find out more about the Tall Club of New York, check out their home page at http://www.panix.com/~rstoller/