Comment on December 16th, 2006.
Once something like that gets into the cultural consciousness, I guess you can't just Julie Andrews it away.
Comment on December 20th, 2006.
Actually, Napoleon was quite tall for that time... he was five foot six.
I dunno, though - five foot seven is fairly small. My dad is that tall, and he refers to himself as a small man... And Hitler was described as small contemporaneously, at least in parts of the British press - I'm pretty sure Orwell described him that way, or quoted someone else doing so.
Comment on December 20th, 2006.
Five-seven is the lowest that Hitler gets listed; it's usually an inch or two taller. His tailor, who knew his physique intimately, said he was taller. And five-seven was average for men at the time. But it may have been on the small side for world leaders, I suppose. (Though he was taller than Mussolini and Franco, as noted.) I venerate Orwell, but did he ever actually meet Hitler?
Comment on December 20th, 2006.
Ethan: Ha. (Can we change places now?)
Comment on January 7th, 2007.
I think the explanation is that it was part of British Blitz mythology or folklore. As a schoolboy, I sang, and religiously (ie half) believed, a verse to the tune of Colonel Bogey:
"Hitler - has only got one ball
Goering - has two but very small
Himmler is very sim'lar
But poor old Goeballs has no balls - at all.
Mocking Hitler's height made a lot of sense when he bestrode the continent of Yurp.
Comment on January 7th, 2007.
Yeah, that makes sense. I think my objections are probably an especially pointless extension of my generally quixotic campaign to get people to think twice about using "short", "little", "small", etc, as pejoratives.
Comments can contain some xhtml. Names and emails are appreciated but not required (emails aren't displayed).