Today every gym is crowded with guys with 60-inch chests and 20-inch biceps, but 130 years ago, they were rare. Poor nutrition, poor hygiene, and a lack of understanding of kinesiology limited the average man's ability to build muscle.
Those few who developed muscular physiques found themselves in demand in carnivals and circuses as 'strong men," celebrated for their raw strength rather than for their size and symmetry.
But they certainly provided an erotic thrill. Contemporary accounts often praise their masculine beauty.
The most famous of the strongmen was Apollon (the Greek god Apollo), born as Louis Uni (1862-1928), who joined the circus at the age of 14 and eventually became a headliner, appearing in music halls throughout Europe. His act involved such feats as bending the iron bars of a cage, lifting 300-pound train wheels over his head, and holding two cars back with chains.
Donald Dinnie (1837-1916) appeared in 11,000 sports competitions, including 16 Scottish Highland Games, where he excelled in wrestling, hurdling, cable-throwing, and hammer-throwing. He became the equivalent of a millionaire through his exhibitions in the United States and Europe, where he was advertised as "The Strong Man of the Age." In an early advertising tie-in, his likeness was put on bottles of Iron Brew, a soft drink aimed at athletes.
Interestingly, he was 6'1" with a 48 inch chest and 15 inch biceps.
At my peak condition, I had a 51 inch chest and 17 inch biceps, and I was nowhere near "The Strong Man of the Age." Not even "The Strong Man of the Hollywood Spa.
Edward Aston was a boxer, wrestler, and finally a competitive weight-lifter. In 1910, he won the World Middle-Weight-Lifting Championship, and in 1911 he was named Britain's Strongest Man with such feats as a clean and jerk of 282 pounds
Not bad for someone who weighted 160 pounds. Schwarzenegger, who weighed 235 pounds, just managed a 298 pound clean-and-jerk.
He wrote an early weight-training manual,
Modern Weight Lifting; and How to Gain Strength.
Sig Klein (1902-1987) grew up in Cleveland, in the early days of physical culture. He performed feats of strength on stage and in competitions, and in 1927 was named the world's greatest athlete by
Le Culture Physique magazine. He was featured in
Ripley's Believe It or Not 10 times.
Later he moved to New York and Attila Studio, which trained athletes, bodybuilders, stuntmen, and actors, among them Zero Mostel, Montgomery Clift, Ben Gazzara, David Carradine, Joel Grey, and Karl Malden.
I don't know who this guy is, but he has quite a physique, and he has quite substantial beneath-the-belt gifts.
Thomas Inch (1881-1963), "Britain's Strongest Man," is known for lifting the "Thomas Inch Dumbbell." It was specially designed, weighing 172 pounds (the heaviest dumbbells you can get today weigh about 80 pounds).
See also:
Circus World
Strongmen seem to be a cyclical act at the circus. Not irredeemably politically incorrect like the freak shows, human zoos, or now animal acts, but not always attracting audiences, and having to compete with new media.
ReplyDeleteNew media have several advantages. First, for better or worse, no other acts are present. (Though strongmen were never the main attraction in the way animal tamers and acrobats were.) But your audience can watch you through the internet. Secondly, you can tailor your act to your audience, having nudity in adults-only acts while forgoing it when children could be watching. (Use different social media for both.)
But even before the internet, strongmen had to compete with physique photography, bodybuilding competitions, and Hercules and Maciste movies (and Conan and his clones later on).
Interesting note about nutrition and hygiene, it was very rural/urban in the US. This was the same time as private firefighters, though, so no surprise but cities were hotbeds of disease.
I think the circus strongman acts were moribund before the Hercules/Maciste movies of the 1960s, and probably even before the physique magazines. They seem more a turn of the century attraction.
DeleteI see it as more cyclical, but over time, the medium changes. But muscle acts always are about the sex appeal.
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