Iron History

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03/06/2002 Entry: "Iron History Mar 8-16, 2002"

A Personal Word: Iron History is not intended to be encyclopedic in scope; it is presented with the hope that the reader will be stimulated to pursue other studies in regard to some of the topics presented. I intend to whet the appetite, not present a Viking feast. On some of these topics my files contain enough information for books to be written; on other topics, such as Val Njord (see below) very little info is on hand.

Starting this week, and on an occasional basis, I will be adding references to where some of the major series of articles have been presented in the bodybuilding/lifting magazines. This will be located at the bottom of the column. For collectors or for those wanting to read extensively, this may prove helpful.

All suggestions are welcome.

Mar 8, 1867 George Zottman born. The man after whom the Zottman curl is named, and though several variations have appeared through the years under the guise of this exercise, the manner in which Zottman zeroed in on it was in general terms: Using a dumbbell in each hand with the arms hanging in front of the thighs, begin a curl with the right hand with the dumbbell describing an arc with the near end of the dumbbell almost grazing the abs and pec as it nears the right shoulder. At the shoulder turn the wrist so that as the descending half of the circle continues, a reverse curl is being performed as the bell goes away from the right side of your torso and continues to the starting point. BUT. When the bell reached the shoulder, then begin the left hand curl inward grazing the abs and pec on its ascent. Both arms 180 degrees out of phase with each other- as one hand is at a shoulder, the other is at a thigh. Zottman curls are impossible to perform while seated, or on an incline bench. A useful tip if using adjustable dumbells is to butt the plates all the way to the end of the bar that will be grazing the torso, thus allowing the bell to remain close to the body and preventing a forwarding of the hand away from the body which would bring the shoulder into more involvement.

There were those who preferred to reverse this process, but by beginning with a reverse curl toward the shoulder, the amount of weight is limited, whereas if the palms up curl begins the exercise, when the reverse curl comes into play, it will of course be a negative movement and will therefore allow more weight to be handled.

Zottman was known for his grip strength and at age 50 in 1917 could pinch grip two 50 pound plates together. These were described as 2" thick, but the text is unclear if this means each plate was 2" thick or the total width was 2". George died in 1942 at age 75.

Mar 8, 1921 Donne Hale born. Donne wrote the Bits of Brawn column for Ironman from Feb 1964 thru Sep 1966, and he ran the SANDY SURF hotel in Florida at which Weider would occasionally stay in Miami. Donne also published his own Florida Weight Man and so far as I know there were eleven issues of this newsletter, which began in 1966 and a blurb in Strength & Health relayed the offer that for a five cent postage stamp a sample copy would be sent to you. The good old days. So far as I know Donne is doing okay.

Mar 8, 1960 Lee Labrada born. His pro debut was a victory at the Jun 14, 1986 Night of Champions in NYC. He also won the Grand Prix in Athens, Nottingham, and Barcelona that year, and three more in 1989:Brustor, DeHaag, and Helsinki. His final win was the 1992 IFBB Pro World Cup, and he retired following a 5th placing at the 1995 Arnold Classic.

Mar 8, 1968 Arnold Schwarzenegger is interviewed by Christopher Ward for the London Daily Mirror.

Mar 9, 1916 Terry Robinson born. At 5'6" Terry competed in Class A in the Mr. NYC contest, placing 3rd in 1939, and second in 1940 and 1941 before winning it in 1942. In the AAU Mr. America he was 5th in 1940 and 6th the following year.

Mar 9, 1966 Fitness model Amy Lynn born, and was profiled in Muscular Development magazine in Feb 1995.

Mar 10, 1887 Donald Dinnie and his wife tended to an ill James Fleming in Melbourne.

Mar 10, 1902 George Lurich "�'body-curl' with one hand a kettlebell weighing 154.3 pounds while kneeling on the floor on one knee and with the opposite foot flat on the floor." This was in Prague on this date when he also made his two arm jerk record of 344 pounds (no mention of cleaning it).

Mar 10, 1992 In the lobby of a hotel I saw Bill Reynolds in 1992 and started to walk over to introduce myself, but at the same moment he rose and began walking the other way, and his walk was the walk of a man aged 105, it was obvious that he did not feel well, so I did not approach him. A week later on March 10, he had not been in to work at Weider headquarters and had not called in, so a couple of employees went to check on him and found him dead.

Bill was a prolific writer and had instant judging ability- he could watch the men file on stage and know who had won- not because the event was fixed, but because what would take most of us a few minutes to figure out, he knew at once.

Mar 11, 1884 Kurt Saxon, younger brother to Arthur and Hermann was born. Kurt had debuted with Ringling Brother Circus in Madison Square Garden in 1909. He died on Sep 8, 1952 [not Sep 5] and his gravestone photo shows this date, see Strength & Health magazine Jul 1958.

Kurt was brutally strong, and on his 50th birthday had, using the little finger only of each hand, overheaded an 88 lb kettlebell in each hand.

Mar 11, 1896 Hans Beck won the European heavyweight weightlifting championship- there was only one weight class. To win, Beck performed the following: Two Hands Press for 27 reps with 154.5 lbs., and some other lifts. As Gaudreau notes "It must not be imagined that a 'press' as performed by most of the old-time strongmen was a strict military press. It was more like a 'push'. The French were stricter in their performance of this and other lifts".

Mar 11, 1950 A dinner was held honoring weightlifter John Davis in NYC.

Mar 11, 1989 One of the judges at the 2002 Arnold Classic bodybuilding contest was Rich Gaspari, who on Mar 11, 1989, had won the inaugural version of this event.

Mar 12, 1910 The date a challenge was issued to Arthur Saxon from Josef Steinbach through the person of Tromp van Diggelen. Eight lifts were involved, with the bent press among them. Kurt explained to Leo Gaudreau how easily van Diggelin's stake money of $5000 would have entered the bank account of Arthur Saxon. Further, Kurt had never heard of van Diggelin, and asserted that Steinbach and the Saxons were friends and had been so for years, and that the Saxons were in America at the time the challenge was issued, but later socialized with Steinbach circa 1912, and one gets the sense that Steinbach was not aware that such a challenge had been issued.

Mar 12, 1927 Keith Stephen born. Coverman for Ironman mag Feb 1952. After being released from the the U.S. Navy, Keith trained at Leo Stern's gym, and won the 1951 Mr. San Diego, after failing to place is his first contest, the Mr. California. He also placed 5th in the AAU Mr. America for 1951.

Mar 13, 1903 Harry L. Good born. Died Jul 22, 1998. Harry, along with Bill and Harvey were known as the Good Brothers. Harry began writing for Strength & Health in March 1933 thru Jan 1937. They had a fillable, huge, dumbbell for hip/harness lifting which often was filled to about a ton. This is the bell now on display in Adamstown, Pennsylvania at a spring water company.

Mar 13, 1908 Arthur Saxon's accident at the Cirque Royale in Brussels, Belgium. He was performing the support called Broadlands on Four Legs in which a car with, in this case, nine wrestlers sitting in it were on a bridge on stage as Arthur was helping support the approximately two tons of weight. A mishap caused the apparatus to collapse and the resultant injuries kept Arthur from performing for almost a year.

Kurt Saxon recounted the event in Strength & Health magazine Sep 1949: "We first attempted this novel supporting feat in 1908 with the Hengler's Circus in London, England. It proved to be a remarkable drawing card. The original bridge was shorter, but we eventually worked up to a bridge 69 feet long. The bridge was supported in different ways, with one man at each end and later with heavier weights and both men side by side in the middle of the circus arena. First a bicycle with rider crossed, then a horse with rider, and finally a heavy motor car with up to ten passengers. Because the crossing vehicles were in motion the shifting weight caused terrific strain on the supporters and made the act most dangerous for the performers."

From London where this debuted, they took the feature to Brussels where on Friday the 13th of March the mishap happened. Kurt and Arthur were the supporters when the mishap took place. Kurt suffered some broken bones but "We were young and adventurous in those days and despite many minor accidents we continued to include it and other hazardous feats in our act. Strongmanism was our business and we were not satisfied to be anything but the very best."

Mar 13, 1948 I have sometimes thought that an interesting article to research would be "The Buildings of Bodybuilding"- meaning the buildings where physique contests have been staged repeatedly. Off the cuff, I would think that the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles would have to be among the most frequently used venues. Just a guess. But on this date four contests were staged at the Shrine. Pudgy and Les Stockton performed their handbalancing act which they had perfected on the sands of Muscle Beach, and the three contests were:

Mr. Western America which was won by Jack Delinger (though his name was presented as Dillinger), followed by George Eiferman and Bill Melby.

The Mr. USA was taken by Clancy Ross with Steve Reeves in second and Alan Stephan in third, followed by Eric Pedersen. This USA contest was a professional event with the prize being $1,000 and a screen test for the movie SAMSON & DELILAH. This brings us to the third contest, as a sub-section, almost:

Mr. Samson, which was won by Clancy Ross

The fourth contest was Miss USA and was won by Val Njord, who was a beautiful red- headed woman who later posed for cheesecake photos and made appearances on some muscle magazine covers. In spite of many efforts, I have been unable to determine whatever happened to Val. Apparently (according to Muscle Power Aug 1949), she was also known by the name Ann Cole.

Val posed for some jungle girl photos for Esquire, and made the covers of LAFF, PICTURE SHOW, and DETECTIVE STORY.

In YOUR PHYSIQUE magazine she wrote a column entitled "Advice to the Male" The final reference I have seen about her was in Health & Strength Feb 21, 1952 where Fallon wrote the rhetorical piece "So, You Want a Figure Like Val's?"

If any readers have a lead for me to find whatever happened to Val Njord, I would be very grateful for the help. What appeared to be a promising career seems to have stopped very suddenly. But having exhausted all my usual sources, I am hoping one of you can supply some info. Please?

Mar 13, 1983 Court Saldo, Monte Saldo's son, died at age 72. Court wrote an occasional column for Health & Strength magazine from 1955 thru 1967 (at least, perhaps longer, my records are incomplete due to missing magazines).

Mar 14, 1865 Paul Pons born. I believe he was world wrestling champion in 1904 and 1910- perhaps some readers can correct this if wrong. And although he had been entangled in many wrestling holds in his day, he died in one foot of water while entangled in a fishing net!

It was Pons who suggested that the weight of the Apollon's barbell be changed, so that instead of the 200 lbs that Apollon had requested be placed in his shot/sand loadable bell, Pons said to Batta that instead of fooling with the sand and weighing of it, let's just place the solid spheres onto the bar! The bar had a diameter of 2.5" and when the globes were empty weighed about 143 pounds and was thus heavy enough with the thick bar, to prevent many strongmen from bringing it to the shoulders.

But Apollon's wife had incorrectly told him that the Rasso Trio would be in the audience to challenge him that day. In fact they were present out of respect. Anyway, Apollon when challenged would scare mathematicians with the amounts he could lift. When the solid spheres were in place on the 2.5" bar, the whole weighed 341 lbs! Batta and Pons on this day in 1892 had decided to be ready to flee if Apollon became angry at them. Not to worry. Apollon grabbed the bell thinking it weighed about 141 lbs less than it in fact did weigh and "Grasping the bar with both hands, he cleaned it in a flash�" then rammed it overhead, transferred the bell to his right hand, stood only on his left leg while raising his right leg off the floor. So on stage at the Varieties Theatre that afternoon Apollon cleaned and jerked 25 lbs less than the Apollon wheels but on a bar more than �" thicker than the axle of the wheels, and it was an effort that in no way could be described as all-out or total or his limit.

So to those who say Apollon could not lift the wheels, please write your fiction in some other field, or explain why my explanation is not valid.

Mar 14, 1893 Henry 'Milo' Steinborn born. Died Feb 9, 1989. Strength & Health magazine in Jul 1954 avers that Milo brought the squat lift to America after WWI. A version of the lift, called the Steinborn lift or the Steinborn squat, refers to performing a squat by oneself- no power rack, no squat stands, simply take the barbell, up end one end of it then lean under it as it is lowered onto the back, perform squats, then reverse the process so that the bell is again on the floor. His 1924 record of 552.5 lbs done in this manner appears to be the extant record so far as I know. Ironman Oct 1950 gives the explanation for how to self-load the barbell onto the back for his Steinborn squats. Steinborn was based in Tampa, Florida and was a wrestler and a wrestling promoter, and had his own gym at 2371 Orange Street in Orlando, Florida.

Though I suspect he gave up the Steinborn squat as his years accumulated, he nonetheless could squat at age 70 with over 400 lbs.

Milo was a prisoner of war during WWI and using logs as resistance in his squats in The camp he gained considerable strength. One wonders about the nutritional aspects of such camps.

His wrestling career comprised more than 300 bouts. It is said that his watch was inscribed with "H. Milo Steinborn, 3-14-93. Expected departure, 1989."

It was Steinborn who brought to America a Berg Hantel (barbell) upon which (it is claimed) the York barbell was fashioned..

Steinborn told Bob Schmidt that he had the ability to regurgitate pieces of food for further chewing�and then there is the story of bending a lengthy I-beam by placing it on his shoulder and having several men hang from it�that story may require some mental regurgitation�

Mar 14, 1967 Fitness diva Kiana Tom born.

Mar 14, 1974 Gene Dubuque died. He had wrestled as Magnificent Maurice, and was profiled in Ironman magazine in Sep 1968. Dubuque placed second in the tall class at the 1946 AAU Mr. NYC, then the next year won that title. In 1948 he switched to the IFBB version of the Mr. NYC and did not place. Then in 1949 he did not make it into the top eight placings for the IFBB Mr. No. America.

Mar 14, 1997 Tony Baillargeon died. Tony, with his brothers were featured in Iron Game History (U of Texas) in Jan 2000 when David Chapman translated HOMAGE AUX CELEBRES FRERES BAILLARGEON. IGH is an excellent publication, though so infrequently published (four issues in the past two years) that some subscribers become frustrated awaiting the irregular release of another issue. It is a worthy publication in need of a regular publication schedule. In Jan 2000 a photo of all six Baillargeon brothers is included: Adrien, Paul, Lionel, Jean, Charles, and Antonio.

Mar 14, 2000 The TV premiere of "Son of the Beach" starring former competitive bodybuilder Roland Kickinger. Who, since forsaking bodybuilding has been reduced to hanging around those Hollywood sets with bikini-clad women. Hate to say I told you so, Roland�

INCH 101: Part 5 The BAWLA (British Amateur Weight-Lifters' Association) honored Inch on this date. The story is told in Health & Strength magazine Mar 9, 1912:

"We, the members of the British Amateur Weight-Lifters' Association, desire to place on record our sincere appreciation to the great services you have rendered to the cause of Physical Culture in general, and especially to Weight-lifting.

"Unflagging in your energy, enterprising in making use of every opportunity, resourceful in emergency, and undisturbed amid the vicissitudes which are a part of the work you have undertaken and carry through with such remarkable success, you have never spared yourself in promoting Physial Culture by such means as have, from time to time, presented themselves.

"In the early days, when Weight-lifting was looked upon with suspicion, if not with actual disapproval, you clearly saw its possibilities an an effective means to a worthy end, and took a foremost part in pioneering and popularising it.

"From its inception you have taken a deep and generous interest in the progress of our Association, its rapid growth and increasing influence being largely due to the public- spirited manner in which you have supported it.

"If our Association achieves its objects- that of raising Weight-lifting from a state of chaos into a place well-regulated and honourable conducted sports, its success will be due, in no small measure, to your continual help, your many acts of generosity, and the kindly and sportsmanlike spirit which has conceived them.

"We feel quite unable adequately to express our gratitude, and must content ourselves by saying that there is no Physical Culturist, and especially none who enters into its most strenuous form- that of Weight-lifting- but is under a heavy debt to you for your conspicuous services, which have been, at once, signal, sustained, and effective." It was signed by E. Stewart Smith, Harold B. Nunn, Charles Coster, W.D. Ford, Ben Gray, Frederick G. Horton, Walter House, Frederick Mogford. Thomas Edward Pevier, Charles F. Savory, E.J. Wollaston, A.B. Gunnel.

Roark References #1: Here is a list of the Kings of Strength series that David P. Willoughby ran in Ironman magazine from May 1957 thru June 1963. The # indicates the description that DPW gave to the chapter. You will notice that these numbers are not in chronological order.

May 1956 p 25 #1 From earliest times to present day
Jul 1956 p 24 #2 Middle ages to early modern
Sep 1956 p 36 #3 Thomas Topham
Nov 1956 p 34 #4 Early American strongmen
Jan 1957 p 28 #5 Early American strongmen 1873-1891
Mar 1957 p 30 #6 Donald Dinnie and other British strongmen
May 1957 p 28 #7 Early German & Austrian strongmen
Jul 1957 p 34 #7 Early Viennese strongmen
Nov 1957 p 32 #8 Early European strongmen, Italians 1840-1896
Jan 1958 p 28 #8 Italian & French strongmen
Mar 1958 p 28 #9 Apollon, emperor of athletes
May 1958 p 22 #9 When Apollon became angry
Jul 1958 p 32 #10 Continental strongmen of the 1890s
Sep 1958 p 28 #11 Sampson & Cyclops: coin breakers
Nov 1958 p 34 #11 The Rasso Trio
Jan 1959 p 26 #12 The coming of Eugen Sandow
Mar 1959 p 22 #12 How good was Sandow?
May 1959 p 30 #13 When WL was first organized in Germany & Austria 1891-1906
Jul 1959 p 23 #13 Early German & Austrian strongmen
Oct 1959 p 26 #14 Strongmen who tried to dethrone Sandow
Jan 1960 p 26 #14 Some early American strongmen
Feb 1960 p 24 #11 Famous American strongmen of the 1880s
Apr 1960 p 28 #11 Famous American strongmen of the 1880s
Dec 1960 p 24 #16 Louis Cyr, daddy of'em all
Jan 1961 p 30 #16 Louis Cyr, daddy of'em all
Mar 1961 p 26 #17 Some mighty French-Canadians
May 1961 p 30 #17 Famous old time French-Canadians
Jul 1961 p 28 #18 First weightlifting championships of 1898
Jan 1962 p 22 #18 George Hackenschmidt, the strong man
Mar 1962 p 30 #19 George Lurich, Russian world champion 1900
Jun 1962 p 26 #19 Famous early Russian strongmen
Oct 1962 p 26 #20 Famous old time French strongmen
Dec 1962 p 28 #20 Famous old time French strongmen
Feb 1963 p 26 #21 Champion Continental athletes of the early 1900s
Apr 1963 p 24 #21 Strongmen of the early 1900s
Jun 1963 p 32 #22 Early European professional strongmen
[chapter 15 was never published. DPW referred to the series as 'incomplete'. But the
above list reflects every installment that Ironman presented]