Tall Clubs International<\/p>\n
How to get involved <\/p>\n
You can learn more about Tall Clubs International here<\/a>, including the original 1938 article<\/a> that sparked the organization.You can find your nearest chapter and contact information here<\/a>. Tall Clubs International also does philanthropic work.<\/p>\n You can learn more about scholarship opportunities for tall students here<\/a>.Tall Clubs International raises money for the Marfan Foundation<\/a>. Marfan syndrome is a genetic connective tissue disorder that club officials say typically comes with tall people. You can learn more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n To get into the L.A. group, men have to be 6 feet 4 inches or taller, and women have to be at least 6 feet. One of the tallest members of the organization is 7 feet 2 inches, and honestly, I couldn\u2019t help but perk up at the opportunity to feel short for once in my life.<\/p>\n At 13, I was still growing at 5 feet 10, towering over almost every kid in my freshman high school class. One of the first questions people still ask me is whether I played volleyball or basketball, and I\u2019ve learned to laugh at the look they get when I say I preferred theater.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople see how tall you are, they expect \u2018Oh, you’re going to be great on the basketball court,\u2019\u201d said Michele Cripps, a 6-foot-1 member of the California Tip Toppers, who joined in 1996. She’s married to William Walter Wiseman II, a fellow member. \u201cWell, I’m sorry, white girls can’t jump sometimes, and I’m one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n Some of the tall club members are generational, encouraged to join by their parents or older relatives, which has started to pose its own problems as the chapters get older.<\/p>\n What\u2019s the big deal anyways?<\/p>\n William Walter Wiseman II and Michele Cripps at the 2026 Tall Clubs International convention in Hollywood.<\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Courtesy Michele Cripps and William Walter Wiseman II<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n The chapters became a way for tall people to trade practical tips, like which stores sold pants that actually covered your ankles or shoes that didn\u2019t need to be specially made. <\/p>\n \u201cI was always being kidded about my pants being too short or my clothes not fitting correctly,\u201d said Wiseman, who’s nearly 6 feet 9 and also wasn\u2019t much of a basketball player. \u201cAnd as I grew as an adult, people are a little bit afraid to approach people that are tall.\u201d<\/p>\n Wiseman has a good sense of humor about his height, cracking jokes that I\u2019ve added to my arsenal when answering \u201chow\u2019s the weather up there?\u201d But he doesn\u2019t gloss over the pain points either \u2014 Wiseman can\u2019t fit into cars or roller coasters, hotel beds are never long enough, and airplanes can be an expensive nightmare.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s not just the socialization of being tall, but it’s also the physicality of it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt’s almost a handicap to be tall.\u201d<\/p>\n Members of the Tall Club of Orange County at the 2026 convention.<\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Courtesy Michele Cripps and William Walter Wiseman II<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n Cripps said she was a skinny kid, but she couldn\u2019t help but feel \u201chuge\u201d growing up a head above everyone else, which hurt her young self-esteem and made dating more difficult.<\/p>\n The clubs gave them both a chance to see eye to eye with a room full of people for the first time, and potentially even find a partner. Wiseman\u2019s parents met in the Dayton Altitudians tall club in Ohio, decades before Wiseman and Cripps met through their own California clubs.<\/p>\n \u201cThe people that married inside the club stayed married,\u201d said Wiseman, who lives in Torrance with Cripps. \u201cThe people that married outside of the club got divorced.\u201d<\/p>\n A Dayton Daily News clipping of William Walter Wiseman II’s father measuring tall teens in the Dayton, Ohio area from November 19, 1958.\u00a0<\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Courtesy William Walter Wiseman II<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n Future of the club in question<\/p>\n But now, the California Tip Toppers is having trouble bringing in new, younger members \u2014 a recruitment crisis that\u2019s essentially dissolved groups in other areas, Wiseman said.<\/p>\n Members of the California Tip Toppers at the 2026 convention.<\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Courtesy Michele Cripps and William Walter Wiseman II<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n \u201cWe’re facing the same challenges like all other clubs,\u201d Cripps and Wiseman said, jumping in to finish each other\u2019s thoughts. \u201cSome of it could be generational. Some of it’s that since COVID, the clubs have not been quite as active as they used to be. Some people [don\u2019t have] homes to open up anymore \u2026 and we’re all getting older.\u201d<\/p>\n The club is at a crossroads: Get new members on board or fade away. The couple seems to have made it a mission to rejuvenate the California Tip Toppers, but Cripps was frank when she said they\u2019re not sure how to get more people involved, whether it’s fresh events or outreach opportunities.<\/p>\n At the end of the day, they\u2019re hoping the club and the community it fosters can help others learn how to \u201cstand tall\u201d and be proud.<\/p>\n The clubs crown a new Miss Tall International at a formal pageant held during the annual convention. The former Miss Tall Clubs International that were at the 2026 convention from left to right: Susan Hopkins, 2019, from the Tall Club of Orange County, Martine Whitford, 1959, from the Los Angeles Higher Ups, Norma Forrest, 1996, from the Tall Club of Toronto and Mary Eleman, 2022, from the Central Arizona Tall Society. <\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Courtesy Michele Cripps and William Walter Wiseman II<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n Members of the Tall Clubs International convention committee.\u00a0 From left to right: Barry Umbs from Milwaukee, William Walter Wiseman II from the California Tip Toppers, Jim Nelson from the Paramount Tall Club-Chicago and Michele Cripps from the California Tip Toppers. <\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Courtesy Michele Cripps and William Walter Wiseman II<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a challenge, but it\u2019s something that was given to us,\u201d Cripps said. \u201cI say as I’ve aged, I should have listened to my mother, I should have stood up tall.\u201d<\/p>\n Moms everywhere, mine included, rejoice.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody wants to be something different than they have,\u201d Cripps continued. \u201cSo, try and embrace what you have. Life is too short, and it goes too quick.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tall? Like over 6 foot tall? There’s a support group for that Makenna Cramer talks to Josie Huang.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":["post-506781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
California Tip Toppers have higher height requirements than some of the other chapters.You can learn more about becoming a \u201cmember-at-large\u201d or starting a new tall club in your town here<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792865171_206_.jpeg\")
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