Tim Solyan

The first human being to eat a Sequoia. Began eating twigs as a small child. By the age of 8, he devoured his first bough. In 1948, fresh out of the Navy, Tim ate his first tree: a Cottonwood. "I found it at the side of the road...it looked to be that it wasn't nobody's property...then I took my first lick...it was damned good."

Nay-sayers argued it was little more than a sapling, but it wasn't long before he silenced his most ardent critics when, as part of a grand opening day celebration for Walgrens supermarket in Chutzpah, Connecticut, Tim, in front of 12,000 incredulous spectators, put away an entire mature Norfolk Pine. This was merely the beginning. In the next year he masticated at a mastadonic rate. First: a Scotch pine, quickly followed by a red cedar and then his first Mighty Douglas Fir. But not everyone was awestruck....

Tim Solyan accomplished his most recent feat in 1978 when he polished off a listless sequoia near Redwood National Forest, in Northern California. He recalls, "It was beginning to droop and the authorities decided it was a threat to the hikers. They could have cut it down, but instead the called me in as they wanted to promote nature. I said yes, because I am all for that, too. I'd never stoop so low as to perform any oddball stunt like just chewing enough of tree so a car can drive through. You have to know when to draw the line..."

A shy, retiring type (" I can eat a conifer but I'm not so good at chewing the fat"), Tim Solyan was a little hesitant when the Show Business Giants, impressed by his fantastic appetites, asked him over to the studio.

"To be honest I didn't know who they were, but my daughter did...they autographed her cast. I played the tambourine on a song they recorded. That night I discovered a musician inside of me I din't know about."

These days Tim Solyan is semi retired, contenting himself with an occasional shrub, but he doesn't rule out a comeback. "They say there's a problem with some vines in the south east of the U.S. They are choking the indigenous flora to death I am told. I ate a sere vetch once, so yes, it could be done..."