Rachelle's Reading List, Wednesday February 8th, 2012

The Furniture Self-Deification of David Letterman [VanityFair] I really enjoyed this story on the fact that Letterman is always higher than his guests. I can totally see the guy insisting it be this way too:

Inductive observation: The Late Show host David Letterman appears taller than even the tallest of his guests. Hypothesis: David Letterman’s guest chairs are positioned unusually low to the ground. Corollary hypothesis: David Letterman’s desk chair is disproportionately tall.

[Photo: Tom Hanks, David Letterman]

Exhibit A: June 2011. CelebHeights.com, the World Wide Web’s premier database of public-figure measurements, estimates Letterman’s height to be six foot two. According to that same Web site, actor Tom Hanks is six feet tall. Why, then, does Hanks appear so much shorter than Letterman when seated—especially with the host visibly slouched forward? Exhibit B: November 2009. Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte, and Derek Jeter, all (at the time) New York Yankees, are six feet two, six feet five, and six feet three, respectively. Jeter, sitting directly next to Letterman, appears a full foot or so shorter than the host, despite actually being an inch taller than him.

[Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte, Derek Jeter, David Letterman]

Exhibit C: Historical comparative data. Note the height of Sammy Davis Jr. (five feet three inches), David Letterman (six feet two inches), and Johnny Carson (five feet ten inches) on the set of Carson’s Tonight Show. While seated, Davis Jr., who is shorter than Carson, appears shorter than Carson; Letterman, who is taller than Carson, appears around the same height as Carson. At the time of these guest appearances, we can conclude that Carson’s chairs did not obfuscate the true height differentials between the host and his interlocutors.

[David Letterman, Johnny Carson] [Sammy Davis Jr., Johnny Carson]

Resolved: The new tall chairs do not place Letterman parallel with guests of roughly equal height. Asked if the couches and chairs were raised or lowered depending on people’s heights, The Late Show publicity director Kimberly Izzo-Emmet said, “No, I think they’re fixed.”