The strongmen of the turn of the century were massive fellows!

The profession of strongman predates them, of course, stretching back to at least 1000 AD, with the Icelander Orm Stórolfsson. Stórolfsson was said to have walked three steps with the mast of Ormrinn Langi (weight: 1,433 pounds) on his shoulders before breaking his back.

Let’s have a look at some of the turn of the century fellows in no particular order. This post is Safe for Work, thanks to strategically placed fig leaves.

In 1867, Eugen Sandow was born Friedrich Wilhelm Müller in Königsberg (the old Prussian name of modern-day Kaliningrad in Russia) to a German father and a Russian mother. He became interested in bodybuilding when he was a boy of just 10 years. He traveled with the circus and began competing with other strongmen, using the stage name Eugen Sandow.

From there, he was mentored by another strongman, Ludwig Durlacher, aka “Professor Attila.” In 1889, Sandow beat the reigning strongman champion and achieved the fame he had wanted for years. He performed feats with barbells and chains and other spectacular displays of strength. Eventually, the great Florenz Ziegfeld took an interest in Sandow and became one of his stars.

 

He was even featured by Edison Studios in a kinetoscope film in 1894. Here it is, if you’d like to check it out:

Sandow’s impact on bodybuilding was enormous. He wrote books and founded a monthly magazine dedicated to his craft. In 1901, he organized the world’s first major bodybuilding competition, where he acted as a judge with none other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle!

This does not do justice to everything Sandow accomplished, but that would require a much longer post. Sandow died in 1925 at age 58. There is some dispute of the cause of his death, but it was thought to be brought on by single-handedly lifting his car out of a ditch after a road accident two or three years earlier.

Ivan Maximovich Poddubny  was born in 1871 in the Russian Empire. I didn’t research him much, but had to include this wonderful picture of him.

William Bankier was born in 1870 and billed as ‘Apollo, the Scottish Hercules.’  In 1900, Bankier challenged Sandow to a contest in weightlifting and other competitions. Sandow did not accept his challenge and Bankier, infuriated, called him a coward, a charlatan, and a liar!

Ghulam Mohammad Baksh or The Great Gama, was born in 1878 and was a renowned strongman and undefeated wrestling champion of British India. Gama was undefeated in a career spanning more than 52 years, he is considered one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. Gama died in the city of Lahore in Pakistan in 1960.

Gilman Low was known as the Human Hercules. Low first came to be known as a bodybuilder in New York City. Gilman was into diet and dieting. He was a vegetarian and was known to fast for 1-2 weeks at a time. In 1903, Low demonstrated a Million-Pound Lift in front of witnesses at strongman Anthony Barker’s gymnasium. This was accomplished by 1,000 pounds one thousand times as quickly as possible. Low established a world record by reportedly back lifting 1.6 million pounds over a 35-minute period. Low spent his later years in Chattanooga, Tennessee.