An interesting photo

[lili]

If you look at the wax figures, Paul's is not much taller than Ringo's. John & George's are about the same height.
I found that VERY interesting, to say the least ;D

[plastic paul]

But they're all very similar heights.

[bluemeanie]

They all lied about their height in my opinion.
I'd say George was about 5ft 10
John was 5ft 9
Paul was 5ft 8
Ringo was 5ft 7 if that!

[DarkHorse]

bluemeanie said:

They all lied about their height in my opinion.
I'd say George was about 5ft 10
John was 5ft 9
Paul was 5ft 8
Ringo was 5ft 7 if that!

Paul was the tallest, then George, then John(by not much) and Ringo, who was several inches shorter than the other three.

[beatlies]

I think George was the tallest, a liitle bit taller than John, who was probably around 5'10"; then Paul, who was much shorter, maybe by about two inches or more, then Ringo.

[lili]

They all lied about their height in my opinion.
I'd say George was about 5ft 10
John was 5ft 9
Paul was 5ft 8
Ringo was 5ft 7 if that!

Blue Meanie, you have it right on the nosie. You are the 1st person I have met to date who has seen things exactly the same way that I do !

I think George was the tallest, a liitle bit taller than John, who was probably around 5'10"; then Paul, who was much shorter, maybe by about two inches or more, then Ringo.

Close, Beatlies. George was 5ft.10 in., & John was 5ft. 9 in. tall.

P.P., look at the difference in height between the John mannequin & the Ringo one. I'd say that John is at least 2 inches taller.
The boys often wore heels, which made it hard to determine their true heights.

[plastic paul]

Ok lili, fair enough you can't tell from that photo.

The order of height may be correct but I reckon George was near enough 6ft.

[DarkHorse]

beatlies said:

I think George was the tallest, a liitle bit taller than John, who was probably around 5'10"; then Paul, who was much shorter, maybe by about two inches or more, then Ringo.

Watch A Hard Day's Night, Help & the Beatles' Ed Sullivan performances. I've watched these over and over and over plus viewed hundreds of pics. Paul was the tallest, a good 1/2 inch taller than George. George looked the same height as John, but maybe 1/4 inch taller. Paul was at least a 1/2 inch taller than John(see them stand next to each other in the Day Tripper video). But Paul, George and John were generally the same height.



Are you guys going on the assumption that Paul wore lifts in his shoes?

[-Wings-]

I agree with DarkHorse. Paul was slightly taller than the others, but not as tall as Bill appeared to be at times.

Another interesting note about those wax dummies is that while the George and John dummies look like the ones in the Sgt. Pepper photo shoot, the Paul and Ringo ones are quite clearly different. The standard explanation is that they used the real wax dummies for Sgt. Pepper, but no... new ones were made for Paul and Ringo that had them look sad and mournful.

[lili]

As has been stated previously by others, Paul was not much taller than Ritchie WITH FLATS ON, WITH SIMILAR SHOES ON, OR BAREFOOT.
Paul seemed to have had a bit of a complex about his height. Ritchie's height didn't seem to bother him one whit. In fact, he seemed to be quite comfortable with himself. Paul, on the other hand...
Paul either wore lifts in his shoes, or had shoes specially made to give him up to an extra 3 inches in height. If he's starting at 5 ft 8 in, he could wind up at 5 ft. 11 in. Now, if John is 5ft. 9 in. & he's not as nuts about appearing taller as Paul was, Paul could come out looking a little taller.
Why not, eh ?
I have photos to back this up of course. Photos that show their feet & how Paul was not the taller of the two. In fact, I have a photo of Paul standing next to Ritchie shoulder to shoulder. You can see that they're wearing similar shoes.
Paul looks to be no more than an inch taller than Ritchie, comparing top of head, shoulders, hips, knees & feet.
I'm no expert in any of this, but I do consider that photo to be my Rosetta stone concerning Paul's true height. If he was about an inch taller than Rithie & Ritchie was approximately 5 ft. 7 in. tall, that puts Paul at 5 ft. 8 in.
I just found some photos, including the one that I just mentioned. Here goes:






And that Rosetta stone of photos:

[DarkHorse]

lili said:

As has been stated previously by others, Paul was not much taller than Ritchie WITH FLATS ON, WITH SIMILAR SHOES ON, OR BAREFOOT.
Paul seemed to have had a bit of a complex about his height. Ritchie's height didn't seem to bother him one whit. In fact, he seemed to be quite comfortable with himself. Paul, on the other hand...
Paul either wore lifts in his shoes, or had shoes specially made to give him up to an extra 3 inches in height.

Where are you getting this information from?

I have photos to back this up of course. Photos that show their feet & how Paul was not the taller of the two.

That's ridiculous. Please provide those pics. I bet I can find 50 more than show Paul was taller than Ringo by 3 inches, easily.

In fact, I have a photo of Paul standing next to Ritchie shoulder to shoulder. You can see that they're wearing similar shoes.

Yes and Paul still looks taller. Because of the camera angle he looks 1-2 inches taller but there are many more pics that show him 3 inches taller than Ringo as I stated above.


If Paul wore 3 inch lifts or even 2 inch lifts in his shoes, then how do you explain this pic of him wearing flat shoes, "dock" shoes I think they are called. It would be awfully hard to put 3 inch lifts or even one inch lifts in these shoes without it being totally obvious. And yes the height is the same, slightly taller than George:



I know it's hard to see all of his shoe in this pic but I've seen this set of pictures and you can see the flat shoes clearly. It would be nearly impossible to put lifts in shoes without his heels popping out of his shoes!

[LOVELYRITA]

Some of the pics appear that some were not standing up straight, and were not positioned exactly side by side, but at different angles.

The one pic Ringo appears taller, but he has a hat and he's closer to the camera, so he does appear a bit taller.

[lili]

I don't want to argue with you Darkhorse. I have photos of Paul, where you can see that he is standing on tippy toes to appear taller. Why would he do that if he WAS taller. Also, I have a photo of Paul from when they were in Miami. He's barefoot & standing on the sidewalk. John & George are standing half on & 1/2 off the step. This photo was taken with people on the street. A young girl has a look on her face like she's surprised that Paul is trying to fool people about his height.
I still think that photo of Paul & Ringo side by side shows his true height.
I have my own theory about those white boat shoes. I do believe that he had a lift in them. I'm trying to find closeups of the backs of them. I do have a few that seem to suggest that his foot is riding very high in the shoe. In other words, you can see more of the back of his foot, as if it's sitting on top oif something.
Again, this is just a theory. I'm still looking for sufficient evidence before I'll start posting those photos. I don't have time to look for the photos of Paul on tippy toe, or the one of him on the sidewalk at this time. I'll see if I have time later on today.

[DarkHorse]

lili said:

I don't want to argue with you Darkhorse. I have photos of Paul, where you can see that he is standing on tippy toes to appear taller. Why would he do that if he WAS taller. Also, I have a photo of Paul from when they were in Miami. He's barefoot & standing on the sidewalk. John & George are standing half on & 1/2 off the step. This photo was taken with people on the street. A young girl has a look on her face like she's surprised that Paul is trying to fool people about his height.
I still think that photo of Paul & Ringo side by side shows his true height.
I have my own theory about those white boat shoes. I do believe that he had a lift in them. I'm trying to find closeups of the backs of them. I do have a few that seem to suggest that his foot is riding very high in the shoe. In other words, you can see more of the back of his foot, as if it's sitting on top oif something.
Again, this is just a theory. I'm still looking for sufficient evidence before I'll start posting those photos. I don't have time to look for the photos of Paul on tippy toe, or the one of him on the sidewalk at this time. I'll see if I have time later on today.

I prefer not to argue also. It's just that I am surprised that someone would believe this. The people on this board usually have a basis for backing up their theories and it is based on some type of research...something they verified on their own. I am gathering you were told that this is true? That Paul wore lifts in his shoes? I am pretty sure I know the source. Did you believe it right away or did you research it and come up with the conclusions on your own?

[lili]

I have a few sources. I noticed his behaviour & took it from there. I researched to see if there were any shoeshops in England that made special shoes. I was surprised to find out that there were shoemakers who would make shoes with lifts built in BEFORE 1960.
I really was shocked by that. Paul had more than enough money to afford them, that's for sure. Imagine what having specially made shoes & boots would do for a person's self esteem. Especially if they were unhappy about being short. I have to go & find that information again, so that I can post it here.
I'm glad that we can be civil about this. After all it's just a difference of opinion.

Here are some more photos that I found. I know someone who has alot of vintage material. She's looking through it to see if she can add new photos to this debate





In the two following photos, Paul is pushing up with either his feet or one foot, to make himself taller :

Another interesting note about those wax dummies is that while the George and John dummies look like the ones in the Sgt. Pepper photo shoot, the Paul and Ringo ones are quite clearly different. The standard explanation is that they used the real wax dummies for Sgt. Pepper, but no... new ones were made for Paul and Ringo that had them look sad and mournful.

I missed this before, Wings. That is really strange alright.

[beatlies]

I noticed the originals/ Sgt. Pepper cover difference in the Ringo and Paul wax figures when the photo above was first posted, and I also noticed the clothes and arm/hand positions of all of them are different from the originals/ cover. The posturing of John's hand on George's shoulder is shifted to Paul's hand on RIngo's shoulder.

[plastic paul]

Just as an aside, I wish to say that in a lot of pictures where they are wearing their cuban heels, they clearly have the same heel height and i'm sure shoes like that are very difficult to put risers in.

For a long time I've seen that last photo that lili posted as evidence that Paul wore risers, fair enough but I have just two problems; a) notice his left foot is lower down than his right, thus he needs to be on tiptoes, this in turn would make his heel rise and come out of his shoe, leaving a shadow in black and white which makes the shoe appear to have risers; b) the photo is irrelevant due to the fact that we have no benchmark to measure him against.

What i, George, John and Ringo wore risers from time to time because they felt insecure, but Paul thought (to quote popeye!) "I am's what I am's"?

[DarkHorse]

lili, hmmm...

Okay, Paul looks a good 3 inches taller than Ringo in this one. Not sure what this pic is supposed to prove.




Ringo is close to the camera in this one on the left and Paul is leaning in. It's too far away to judge. If we are gonna use this pic then why not point out that George looks 3 inches taller than John? It's because he is close to the camera, that's why. The same reason why Ringo looks the same height as Paul. Don't know why you posted the pic on the right.




Paul's heels look grounded to me. Look at the angle of the floor. You can tell it's steep by looking at John's shoes. Regarding the boat pic on the right, what are you trying to prove in this one?

[eyesbleed]

For what it's worth, I'll put up a couple more height pics.

[DarkHorse]

What about this pic? Do you think Paul wore lifts in the water?

[lili]

Of course not. However, you can't really tell by the photos of them in the water. I grew up on the beach. Once you go into the water, there are all kinds of dips & stuff. The bottom is very uneven. I have photos from that same shoot where Paul looks shorter than the others. Unfortunately for both of our viewpoints, none of the photos are valid height representations.

[lili]

Eyesbleed, thanks for jumping in with that. In the 1st photo that you posted, you can see that Paul's shoes look different than the others. The arch of his foot is much more pronounced. I wish we had someone who knows about this kind of thing. Someone who has either used lifts or knows someone who has.
I really think that we need to research this more, since it seems to be an area of contention.
In the second photo that you posted, George & Ringo both are bending their knees, and John is leaning into Paul.
What I am finding out, as I find more & more photos concerning this subject, is that the boys all seemed to have been in on it. My guess is that they all knew that Paul wanted to appear taller. After awhile, it became either a game or almost a reflex action to help Paul appear taller in the photo. Here are a few more that I found. As I stated previously, I have someone that I know looking through her vintage material to see if she can find more photos that we haven't seen yet.
As it stands, a few of the photos that I have been posting have come from her.
Here goes:






The last photo is a height comparison that BP did quite awhile ago. Who knows if it's even still posted on TKIN

I find the previous photo very interesting. John is jumping over George & Paul is jumping over Ritchie. I really don't think that it's a coincidence that they are being paired up like that, over & over again. I think it's because John & George were close in height, and Paul and Ritchie were close in height. It just seems like a logical conclusion to me.

This photo is a little tricky. It looks like Paul might be pushing up on his toes again, to appear taller. John is leaning backwards, which invalidates him as a comparison. George is leaning in towards Paul. Even with this, he still seems taller than him:



Here's the photo that I described earlier in the thread:

I have a photo of Paul from when they were in Miami. He's barefoot & standing on the sidewalk. John & George are standing half on & 1/2 off the step. This photo was taken with people on the street. A young girl has a look on her face like she's surprised that Paul is trying to fool people about his height.

If nothing else, that man was a character Those boys must've really loved Paul, to go through all of this just to make him feel better about himself ! Here's a photo that I found fairly recently that shows how the boys loved to tease him about his height:

Ringo has his arm around Paul's shoulder. He's leaning away from Paul, but it's kind of obvious that he's not THAT much shorter than him.

This is one of a series of photos:

I believe that it's from when they shot AHDN. Look at the boys' pants. The bottom of Paul's pantlegs are much higher than John's or George's. I'm fairly certain that the suits that those boys wore were made by a fine tailor. What tailor is going to have a client leave with pants that are too short
I believe that Paul is wearing boots with lifts built into them. He must've been wearing shoes with a smaller heel, when he had that suit made.
Also, look at how much higher Paul's knees are than John's & George's. What could cause that to happen, considering the fact that all three have their feet flat on the ground ? Could it have been something in his shoes that would result in his knees being higher than the others ?
Like I stated earlier in this post, we need to find someone who has either worn lifts or knows someone who has.

[mal]

lili I think you are 100%right. Paul wasn't the tallest. Gorge was the tallest. lili you have posted some very clear pictures to show this.

Mal

[lenmac]

I am new to this,so if you have seen them before sorry:

John looks bigger than Paul all around.


Paul looks shorter than John here I think

[lili]

Thank you, lenmac. I have to agree that Paul does look shorter than John in those photos.