Roger Francois

I don't know how this one strayed from my early 20th Century strong man/wrestler file, 

but it ended up among the strays.  The well built gentleman is Roger Francois.

 

Strong Men . . . Again

Today we look at ten strong men (some of whom doubled as wrestlers) from the period of 1885 to 1930.  We start with an unknown who posed for Edwin Townsend in the late 1920s.

 

Flex

I have no information on this photo of an exceptionally built man.

The footwear dates it to the early 20th Century.

 

Unknown by Eisenmann

Charles Eisenmann was a late 19th Century photographer who worked in New York's Bowery district.  He was best known for photographing circus freaks and carnival acts, but fortunately 

for us, he also took the photo of an unknown strong man above in 1885.

 

Eugene Rapin

This photo of Eugene Rapin appeared in the magazine La Culture Physique.

The image was made by Albert Surier about 1904.

 

Unknown

Both the model and the photographer are unknown in this one.

I find the lighting and the pose both impressive.

 

Jaan Jaago

The fellow facing us is yet another great Estonial strong man and wrestler, Jaan Jaago.

The photo is said to have been made in Russia about 1913.

 

Charles Poire

The frilly spangled pants take nothing away from the masculinity 

of Frenchman Charles Poire.  The photo is from around 1895.

 

Hood Ornament

Henry Steinborn would have made a fine hood ornament for someone's Packard.

 

"Supermanity"

Australian Don Athaldo (real name Walter Joseph Lyons, 1894-1965) marketed his bodybuilding system in books and magazines in the 1920s.  While his personal story of being a sickly child who turned into a he-man was rather overused in his era, in Mr. Athaldo's case it was mostly true.  I love the title line in the photo caption above:  Don Athaldo -- Supermanity Personified.

 

Louis Cyr, Canadian Column Carrier

The last strong man of the set, Canadian Louis Cyr, has an expression that says,

"Yup.  That's what I do. I carry columns around."

 

Sent to obedience school

Obedience school is sometimes the best way to deal with difficult pets.  This unknown fellow had the good fortune to be sent to Helga Hottenstotter's Academy of Discipline in Stuttgart where he not only learned self control, but how to tie (and untie) some complicated knots and to work with chains.  It was expensive, but well worth it to his happy owner back in West Hollywood.

 

Warren Lincoln Travis

Performing strong man Warren Lincoln Travis was 45 when this was taken in 1925.

 

Al Berger

May 1941 saw Al Berger make the cover.  Here is a blurb 

I found about him on oldtimestrongman.com.

 

Fig leaf

I sometimes forget that there were some pretty good photos from the early 20th C. involving fig leaves.  As much as we might want to see more, this strong man's muscles are impressive.

I think the script at upper right says "Schulz," perhaps his name.

 

Strongman Day

Our theme for today is early 20th C. strong men.  We start with a pose that appears here and again at the end of the set, plus there's a very similar one midway.  The man is unidentified.

 

Georg Hackenschmidt

We get a tease of frontal nudity in this shot of Georg Hackenschmidt.

 

Makanura

This photo, produced by a Russian studio, shows a rare Asian strong man, a Mr. Makanura.

 

In the style of . . .

This is another of those early 20th C. photos labeled as "in the style of Desbonnet."

 

Pair

This 1913 pair is in a pose similar to the first and last photos in today's set.