The Sad, Strange, True Story Of Sandy Allen, The Tallest Woman In The World

A mundane coincidence turns into a mild obsession with the uniquely tragic life of a 7'7" Indiana woman who died a folk hero.

In 1976, in Shelbyville, Ind., a city of about 20,000 southeast of Indianapolis, a film premiere was held. The picture was Fellini's Casanova. A highly conceptual Italian art house flick about sexual deviance was not what this audience was used to; the house, nonetheless, was packed. A local was in it, a 21-year-old everyone knew about but whom few knew well. She now sat nervously waiting for it to start, concerned about what her neighbors were going to think of it, of her.

"For his giant work, he even imported a giantess from America," one news article about the picture had read, a find that had ended director Federico Fellini's, "worldwide search for an amazon."

She was credited: "Sandra E. Allen – Giantess."

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