Born in 1887, William A. Pullum grew up in Camberwell, a poor neighborhood of south London. He was a slim, sickly boy, suffering from tuberculosis and a host of other ailments. As part of his therapy, he took up weight lifting, and soon he was starring in strength exhibitions across Britain . In 1911 he joined the British Amateur Weight Lifting Association, and during the next five years, broke 200 weightlifting records. He was most famous for his "Plan Feat," in which he lifted 14 men with his arms and leg -- 2000 pounds -- all the more remarkable because he was a featherweight, weighing about 120 pounds
.
As the president of the Camberwell Weight Lifting Club in England, Pullum trained many future weight lifting greats.
But he did more than train. He offered a full range of photos of his most buffed pupils, naked except for their shoes and loincloths or skimpy posing straps, under the series "Pullum's Popular Pupils"
C. F. Attenborough became a 1924 Olympic champion.
William Beattie was known as "The Scottish Apollo." Mostly by Pullum.
And A. A. Verge was "The British Hercules." Hercules is more powerful than Apollo, right?
The postcards were immensely popular for amateur weight lifters to use as inspiration.
And for gay men. During the 1920s and 1930s, every gay man had a stash of muscleman postcards, used for erotic appreciation, but also for identifying each other.
"Would you like to see my postcard collection?" was a standard pickup line. You would display some ordinary postcards, then throw in some musclemen and decide, from his reaction, whether to make a move.
And gay men.
