Sorry, Bono, You're Not the World's Biggest Rocker

Bono's trophy case includes 22 Grammys, Time magazine "Man of the Year" honors and a slew of humanitarian awards, but he can't call himself the World's Biggest Rocker.

That honor goes to Dan and Carolyn Sanazaro's 42-foot, 1-inch behemoth -- "the Route 66 Rocker" in Cuba, Mo. -- which is about to celebrate its first birthday, after receiving Guinness certification last April Fool's Day.

Why blow $22,000 on a 27,000-lb. roadside attraction? For one good reason: It's good business.

If Kevin Costner movies have taught us one thing, it's this, "If you build it, they will come." … And they do -- to Sanazaro's Fanning Outpost General Store.

"You certainly don't make money selling gas these days," says Dan. "You've got to be creative."

"People come in and say, 'Why did you build the rocking chair?' And I ask them why they came here, and they say, 'To see the rocking chair!' So there, you have it."

Living Big in Size-Matters America

Needless to say, in size-matters America, there's stiff competition for the world's biggest chair -- and it's not just because we've got to accommodate a lot of huge, North American butts. Bragging rights (and souvenir revenue) are involved.

In 1905, the town of Gardner, Mass. erected a 12-foot Mission chair. Then, Thomasville, N.C. -- the so-called "Furniture and Hosiery Capital of the World" -- battled back with its own 13.5-foot beauty.

Gardner upped the ante in 1928, and again in 1935, with bigger chairs, and even while Thomasville was working to supply troops for WWII, it returned fire with a chair that future president Lyndon B. Johnson would grace with his derriere.

And, so, the war has raged on, as documented so deliciously by Roadside America.

Today, Anniston, Ala.'s 31-foot office chair (with a spiral staircase to the rump-resting perch) remains one of the country's most popular.

Bono has one thing on Missouri's giant rocker. He's still rocking. The Sanazaros have to keep cement chocks under the giant curved rockers, which stretch 31.5 feet long.

"We don't want kids to get squished when a strong wind blows," he says, "so we take precautions."

Related:
• New World Records Photo Gallery
• Holly-Weird: Celebrity Reality Check
• Roadside America on Big Chairs
• Weird Photo Extravaganza

Photo © Dave Hogan/Getty Images

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