Al
"The Giant" Tomaini
Giant's Camp has been
a Hillsborough County landmark for a half century and it's name
didn't just come out of thin air. It was started in Gibsonton
by Al Tomaini and his wife, Jeanie in the early 50's as a hangout
for the show people who gathered in the town each winter. The
"giant" stood 8 feet, 4.5 inches tall in his size 22
shoes and weighed 356 pounds. Jeanie was 2 feet, 6 inches tall,
having been born with a birth defect.
Al Tomaini and Bernice "Jeanie" Smith
married in 1936 and toured for decades as "The World's Strangest
Married Couple" - which is quite a reasonable assertion when
the groom is a giant and the bride is "The World's Only Living
Half-Girl". They worked circuses and carnivals, and for a
time owned and managed their own shows.
Jeanie
was born in Blufton, Indiana, on August 23, 1916, but without
legs. Realizing the money-making potential, her parents started
Jeanie down the sawdust trail while she was still an infant.
During the mid 1930's, Jeanie met her future
husband, Al, born February 25, 1912 in Long Branch, New Jersey,
on one of the shows. While Jeanie had been a trouper almost since
birth and enjoyed the work, Al - at this time about twenty-two
years old and taking medication to retard his growth - was fairly
new to the game and wasn't entirely comfortable with being stared
at. Jeanie sensed Al's loneliness and befriended him, and a romance
soon began to blossom.
By 1949, the Tomaini's had largely left life
on the road behind them, though they would occasionally make special
guest appearances. They lived comfortably with their adopted children
in Gibsonton, Florida, where Al served as both police and fire
chief for many years. Al liked the fishing and the Alafia River
so much that he converted mud flats and old shacks into a modern
trailer camp, put up a restaurant, and created "The Giant's
Fishing Camp."
People
came from all over to see the giant. He also made numerous appearances
around the bay area before stunned audiences who couldn't believe
their eyes. Alongside his wife, they were a sight to behold. He
embraced all the other giants, midgets, pinheads, tattooed men,
bearded ladies and women lugging snakes who made Gibsonton the
carnival capital of America
the place where freaks and show
people live when they aren't on the road.
Unfortunately, the glandular condition that
caused Al's gigantism also doomed him to an early death. Al passed
away at the age of fifty on August 30, 1962. Jeanie outlived her
husband by many decades but died on August 10, 1999 - which was,
remarkably, the fifty-third anniversary of the day she received
her daughter, Judy, and just two weeks shy of her own eighty-third
birthday.
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