The busy life and difficult afterlife of the good giant Edouard Beaupré (11 photos)

Height is a fairly important indicator of recognition and success in any society. Especially for men. But there is a limit to everything, and sometimes being too much turns into a curse.





Edouard Beaupre was born on January 9, 1881 in the tiny Saskatchewan parish of Willow Bunch in Canada. Willow Bunch translates as “willow bouquet.” And the small parish, where the first child was baptized after its founding, became famous precisely thanks to its famous son.



The eldest of 20 children, Edward was the only one of his brothers and sisters who was distinguished by abnormal dimensions. Although he was born with ideal proportions, by the age of 17 Edward was over 2.13 meters tall. And the guy, it seems, did not plan to stop there.

At the same time, rapid and uncontrolled growth caused excruciating pain. But, according to contemporaries, Edward was a calm, balanced person and had a wonderfully gentle character, despite his terrifying appearance.





In his youth, the boy was known as an excellent horseman and dreamed of the life of a cowboy. But after his face was disfigured by a horse's hoof, he abandoned his dreams and began to live in reality - he began to participate in exhibitions to support his family. Under the direction of showman Andre Gaudry, Edouard Beaupré traveled all over Canada and, eventually, most of the United States.



Unlike many giants, who were often frail and sickly, Edward was strong and possessed incredible strength. Instead of simply parading himself as an anomalous miracle of nature, the giant Edouard Beaupré promoted himself as a strongman without equal. Ironically, the former rider's signature trick was lifting a horse onto his shoulders, a feat that stunned spectators and fellow strongmen.

On March 25, 1901, in Montreal, Edward fought Louis Cyr, a man who is still often called the strongest in history. The fight was very short. The sire won easily. But by this point, Beaupre was stricken with tuberculosis, exhausted from life on the road, and exhausted by his own body, which refused to stop growing.



On July 3, 1904, while on tour with Barnum and Bailey's circus, Beaupre collapsed after a performance in St. Louis. As a result of extensive pulmonary hemorrhage, the giant died at the age of 23. Shortly before his death, he asked for a glass of water, announced that he was dying, and lamented how sad it was to die so young and so far from his dear parents.



At the time of his death, Edouard Beaupré's height was 2 meters 53 centimeters. Dr. R.B.H. Gradwohl performed an autopsy at the St. Louis Fairgrounds Hospital and discovered that the likely cause of Edouard's enormous height was a pituitary tumor.

The corpse was then sent to a local undertaker to be embalmed and prepared for burial. The remains were supposed to be returned to Willow Bunch by William Burke, the circus manager, but he refused due to shipping costs. Instead, Burke convinced the Beaupre family to bury Edward with honors in St. Louis - to save everyone the expense. The family agreed and believed the funeral had taken place. But instead, Burke simply left town, leaving the body unclaimed and the undertaker unpaid.



In an attempt to recoup its expenses, the funeral home decided to display Edward's body in a store window on Broadway.



The authorities demanded that the remains be removed. The gigantic corpse was sold to some enterprising citizen and subsequently returned to Quebec, where it was exhibited in the museum lobby.

The body caused such a large influx of visitors that the authorities demanded that the outrage be stopped and removed.



Finally, in the 1970s, Ovil Lesperance, nephew of Edouard Beaupré, began petitioning the University of Montreal to transfer the remains to the descendants of the Willow Bouquet giant. In 1989, the university agreed to cremate the remains. Finally, on July 7, 1990, Edouard Beaupré was buried with honors at home at the feet of a life-size monument, which his fellow countrymen dedicated to his fortitude and fortitude.



For 85 years, the giant from the Willow Bouquet wandered the earth, finding no rest. He had finally returned home, reunited with the family he loved so much.