AbomahMme. Abomah was an international celebrity known as the Amazon Giantess and the African Giantess. In the early 1900’s, she traveled all over the world as the tallest woman in the world. She was billed as being 7'4" / 7'6? tall.
Her real name may have been Ella Grigsby. A newspaper advertisement also calls her “Ella Abomah.” While still in her teens, Abomah went to work for Elihu and Harriet Williams. It is speculated that since Grigsby was the name of her parents’ slaveholder, she was reluctant to use it, and so adopted her employer’s last name. However, in many sources, she’s known simply as “Abomah.”
Abomah claimed none of her other siblings were unusually large and she had been contacted by various vaudeville and circus promoters to sign a contract and tour as a giantess, but always refused. However, while working as a cook in her native South Carolina, she agreed to be hired by Frank C. Bostock for a tour of the British Isles in 1896.
In her own words Mme. Abomah says “I was born near Cross Hill in Laurens county. None of my sisters or brothers are unusually large. For years every time a show man saw me he would want me to sign a contract, but I never could make up my mind to leave Columbia. Finally in the fall of 1896 while I was cooking for a prominent family in Columbia, Manager F.C. Bostock got me to sign up for a tour.” (1915)
Bostock renamed her Mme. Abomah (Abomey being the then-capital of Dahomey, now known as Benin), and presented her as an African warrior princess. She was billed as a Dahomey Amazon; one of the real life female bodyguards who protected the ruler.
It’s said that Abomah and her manager took her act to Europe because racism in Europe was not as pronounced as in the United States and audiences there would be more receptive to a very tall, strong, beautiful Black woman. Over the course of her 30 year career Abomah was to tour not only Britain but most of continental Europe, Australia and New Zealand, South America, and Cuba.
According to her bio pamphlet, which she sold at her shows, Abomah appeared in 1900 in Liverpool with Reynold’s Waxworks and Exhibition; 1901 & 1902 at the Alhambra, Blackpool; 1903 with Reynold’s and later touring Australia; seasons 1904 – 08, touring New Zealand; 1909, South American tour; 1910- 11, European tour; 1912- 13, Reynold’s Waxworks; 1914, touring English variety halls; 1917 Dreamland at Coney Island and Cuba; 1918 with Barnum and Bailey. In 1920 she was at Dreamland and the World’s Museum and in 1921 again at the World’s Museum in Philadelphia when it was announced that she was going to sail for Paris for a three months engagement.
In New Zealand, Abomah had a very expensive and extensive wardrobe. She also had an attendant, which invoked a sense of royalty.
Britain declared war on Germany in August 1914. Abomah cancelled her tours and returned to the United States in March of 1915 narrowly avoiding the attacks on London by German Zeppelins in April. She worked for Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey and at Coney Island. Her career continued into the 1920’s, and then apparently she disappears from history.
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