New Zealand Journal of History, 34, 2 (2000) Caroline Daley

Selling Sandow

MODERNITY AND LEISURE IN EARLY TWENTIETH- CENTURY NEW ZEALAND1

DURING THE SUMMER of 1902-03 newspapers throughout New Zealand informed their readers that '[a]n event of unusual interest' was about to take place:2 international strongman and physical culture advocate, Eugen Sandow, was coming to town. The Sandow Season, as it was commonly referred to in the press, was a huge success. Around New Zealand, theatres were full of admiring audiences who marvelled at Sandow's muscles and gasped at his prodigious feats of strength. Sandow performed as part of a vaudeville show, but was unlike traditional strongmen. Dressed in street clothes he looked much like any other man, much to the disappointment of at least one woman in Wellington, who, seeing him, exclaimed 'Why, he's just a MAN!'3 Undressed, though, he bore little resemblance to the men of Wellington. Thanks to the Sandow System, his theory of systematic physical culture, he had developed all his muscles. Through stage performances around the world, books and magazines, schools of physical culture and a patented brand of exercise equipment, numerous interviews, appearances on film, and the many publicity shots he posed for, Sandow was already earning his reputation as the father of modern bodybuilding.4 Sandow's performances — on and off stage — offer a window into life and leisure in early twentieth-century New Zealand. He arrived in time for the general election and its associated liquor-licensing poll. Two new electorates voted to go dry in 1902, and the debate over prohibition and alcohol abuse remained intense. Concerns over other aspects of the 'quality' of the population were also to the fore. The South African war had pointed to the lack of physical preparedness amongst even the nation's finest young men. High rates of infant mortality in the warm summer months were a continuing worry. The language of 'race suicide' was frequently heard. Given these anxieties about the quantity and quality of the population 'stock', it is not surprising that Sandow found a receptive audience for his message of physical culture. New Zealanders may not have experienced industrialization and urbanization to the same extent as Britons and Americans, but like their overseas counterparts they worried about the impact of technological and other changes on the modern body.5 Sandow's belief that everybody could and should, through judicious exercise, enjoy 'all- round development' offered the assurance many needed.6 But as Sandow himself was aware, to spread his gospel of physical culture he needed an entertaining vehicle. The Sandow Season prepared the ground for the Sandow System, and did so in a thoroughly modern way. Sandow's seven-

241 CAROLINE DALEY week tour offers an example of the intersection of leisure and modernity in early twentieth-century New Zealand. There were many aspects to modern leisure, and Sandow endeavoured to embody all of them. His show and his system of physical culture focused on how to change the body: the future and newness, not the past, was important. The body could become modern if new technology and a scientific approach were taken. Sandow not only provided a patented range of exercise equipment, but also published exercise charts, showing the rational way to use his dumb-bells and chest developers. The approach was modern: minimum input for maximum output. A few minutes a day using a 'Sandow' and any woman or man could have a streamlined, functional, efficient body. Of course, this required purchasing Sandow's equipment, but modern leisure was also about spending and consumerism. New Zealanders consumed Sandow when they bought tickets to his shows, pictures of him, his books and exercise equipment. Sandow employed sophisticated marketing techniques to sell himself and his message.7 If Sandow embodied the modern man, the way New Zealand audiences received him indicates how modern they were too. Locals responded to Sandow much like the crowds in the United States, England and Australia. Some were already devotees of the Sandow System: the Sandow Season allowed them to see the master perform. Others came to enjoy the spectacle. Their acceptance of his semi-naked performance, their willingness to pay to see his body and their sometimes cynical reading of his show all point to how sophisticated audiences had become. Sandow was a leisure commodity; they were his self-conscious consumers. They knew what they were buying and they had fun making the purchase. This article explores the way Eugen Sandow was packaged and sold to the New Zealand public during his only tour here. It begins by examining the ways Sandow's on-stage performances were seen by the public, before looking at his marketing machine and the commercialization of leisure. As Sandow was aware that selling his semi-naked body on stage night after night could be viewed as tawdry, he took steps to shore up his reputation. His quest for respectability forms the third part of this article. Sandow needed to be seen as respectable so that his message of physical culture was heard by those in political power. The Sandow System was his contribution to debates about rational recreation.8 The final section probes Sandow as proselytizer. The Sandow Season paved the way for the Sandow System but they were two aspects of the same phenomenon: modern leisure.

Eugen Sandow and the other members of Mr Harry Rickards' No. 3 Vaudeville Company arrived in Auckland in mid-November 1902. Having just enjoyed a successful tour in Australia, they embarked on seven weeks of performances throughout New Zealand. For the first five nights they played at Auckland's City Hall theatre, and, despite the expensive tickets, large audiences turned out to see Sandow, 'continuously applauded' him throughout his performances, and at the end of the show were left 'amazed' by what they had witnessed.9 The Sandow Season then moved south, stopping for two nights in New Plymouth, a night in Stratford and two days in Wanganui. By the end of the month Sandow

242 SELLING SANDOW was giving his only performance in Palmerston North, followed by a night in Masterton, two nights in Hastings and two in Napier, the town he regarded as 'the prettiest part of New Zealand'.10 From Napier, Sandow's party journeyed down to Wellington by train and performed for over a week in the capital city. Christmas week was spent in Christchurch, and on Christmas Eve the citizens of Ashburton enjoyed the Sandow Season. Come Boxing Day Sandow was back on stage, this time in Timaru, where his troupe performed for two nights. After a brief stay in Oamaru, Sandow took to the stage in Dunedin, where he enjoyed a traditional Scottish hogmanay. After a week in Dunedin he moved further south, first for a night in Gore and then two nights in Invercargill. There the Sandow Season came to a close on 10 January 1903. No matter where it was, the show was basically the same. Modern show business demanded a slick but uniform production. The vaudeville company took up the first half of the performance. Mr and Mrs Sidney Drew performed a one-act play — either 'When Two Hearts are Won' or 'A Model Young Man' — while 'Professor' MacCann, the 'Concertina King', made his concertina 'sing', and sound like anything from a brass band to the noises of a 'hurdy- gurdy'. 'Little Fanny Powers' sang 'child songs', danced and imitated well- known music hall singers, while Mark Anthony — raconteur and society entertainer — performed a 'breezy monologue' and Misses Nita Leete and Ray Jones sang. Short films were also screened, including one of the coronation of King Edward and Queen Alexandra." Although the No. 3 Touring Company was variously described as 'excellent all round'12 and 'first-class',13 it was Sandow the audiences had come to see, and at times their impatience showed.14 In Palmerston North one 'raucous voice' in the pit yelled out 'We want to see Sandow' while the vaudeville performers were on stage." He or she had to wait, though, until after the interval to see 'The Rage Of The Universe' in the flesh.16 By all accounts, he was worth the wait. When the curtains rose for the second half of the show, Sandow was centre- stage, on a revolving pedestal. Dressed in tights, sandals and a leopard skin, he revelled in the limelight. Rather than launch straight into his strongman act, Sandow chose first to flex and pose for his admiring audience. The display caught the eye of many a reporter:

Anyone who saw the magnificent display given by Mr Sandow in the opening part, in which he illustrated his unrivalled muscular development could not but feel a thrill of admiration. The graceful poses into which Sandow falls naturally and easily, bringing into view the great rows of muscles which stand out like coils of cordage, are certainly wonderful. There is no exertion, no straining whatever. Sandow closes his hand lightly and straightway [sic] a mass of muscle tense and firm as steel springs out. He places his hands lightly locked together above his head, and as the pedestal revolves great bands of muscles stand out in bold relief on the broad surface of his back. In the inflation of his chest Mr Sandow seemed to grow into gigantic proportions, so immense was the extension. Though, of course, the feats of strength which followed were little short of marvellous, the display under notice was far and away before them, regarded from the standpoint of an illustration of a perfect strong man.17

Sandow's mode of presentation set the standard for bodybuilders in succeeding years. He used powder, dusted over his body, to accentuate his

243 CAROLINE DALEY muscles and stress the resemblance between his body and classical marble statues.18 On his revolving pedestal he stood 'like a beautifully-chiselled statute of an Olympic giant' and adopted the stance of 'famous figures' from antiquity.19 Sandow first began to pose in this way a decade before his New Zealand tour. It was an attempt to remove himself 'from the iconography of the circus and recast him in the more refined and highbrow visuality of classical art' .20 Through such posing Sandow hoped his performance would be viewed as respectable rather than vulgar. As the pedestal revolved, 'every portion of his magnificently developed body' was brought into view.21 The audience was thus able to see him from multiple perspectives. Sandow became a living sculpture; as sculptors at the time were aware, the position of the observer determined visual perception.22 Just as modernist paintings of the late nineteenth century have been associated with reconfiguring vision, so Sandow offered his audience more than one way of looking at him.23 The drama of the viewing and the allusion to sculpture were heightened by the fact that Sandow did not interrupt his audience's gaze with words: he did not speak on stage. The modern performer relied on his body rather than vaudeville banter to impress his audience, and relied on his audience being able to read his muscles. A new grammar of the body was being written. After this 'splendid specimen of manhood' had shown off his 'corrugated muscles' he made them 'dance to the music of the orchestra',24 music he was reported to have composed himself.25 The classical theme continued in the second part of his performance, when he began his strongman routine. On a stage arranged like a Roman amphitheatre, his numerous attendants dressed like Grecian slaves, Sandow lifted huge iron barbells with apparent ease, tore one, two, and then three packs of cards with his fingers (throwing the pieces of playing cards to the audience for keepsakes),26 and used his attendants as human weights. At one point four of his attendants sat on him while he lay over two trestles, holding a 561b dumb-bell in each hand. He performed a 'Roman column feat', in which, despite being suspended by the legs from a perpendicular pole, his head hanging downwards, he raised a 1561b weight from the ground to a horizontal position. The finale of his show was the 'Tomb of Hercules', when Sandow became a human trestle: 'With his feet and hands as sole support Sandow raises his body, whereon is placed a platform bearing all the available dumb-bell weights. The sight of six [sic] attendants then standing upon his body, and which must have increased the weight to half-a-ton, was enough to send a thrill through the spectators, and the curtain fell, leaving an amazed audience with food for much thought.'27 As one report put it, 'The warm applause showed that there is a healthy admiration in the community for physical strength, and that the old Roman idea of true "virtue" (manliness) is as strong to-day as it was among the ancients from whom Mr. Sandow took his models.'28 Most nights, Sandow performed to a full house. At some shows there was standing room only. While this must have pleased Sandow, it would not have surprised him. Long before he arrived in New Zealand Sandow's body was in the public's eye. At the first screening of movies in New Zealand, a short film of Sandow was on the bill:

244 SELLING SANDOW

An electric knob is touched, and where all was darkness there appears an illumination, and Sandow, 'the strong man,' not a picture, but Sandow in his habit as he lives, displaying every feature of his marvellous muscular power and physical strength, wherein every gesture of this world-famed athlete, every twist and twitch of his almost preternatural muscular fibre is depicted with an almost uncanny life-like verisimilitude. Every expression of his face, the firm compression of his lips when straining to produce some tremendous force, is reproduced with absolute fidelity to nature, just as those things were done, and but a little while ago, by Sandow himself in Mr. Edison's weird, wonderful, and magical theatre in New York.29

Sandow saw the power of film from its earliest days, and made sure he was part of this spectacle. He also recognized the importance of quality studio photographs and used the best photographers available.30 By the time he arrived in New Zealand those who did not already have copies of the picture postcards in which he appeared had had a chance to see a series of photographs he had just had taken in Melbourne. The Auckland Weekly News enticed its readers with a picture of '[t]he most perfect type of muscularly-developed manhood living': Sandow wearing leopard-skin pants, with buttocks and muscles firmly clenched, looking over his right shoulder.3' Two days before he arrived in the country, the New Zealand Graphic had a full-page spread of eight photographs, including one of the cast of his naked body taken for the British Museum.32 While he was in the country other photographs and pictures appeared in the press.33 Publicity shots were also sold at his performances.34 Pre-tour familiarity with Sandow extended beyond such visual representations. In 1898 Sandow began to publish a monthly magazine. Before he arrived in New Zealand several New Zealand-related stories appeared in it.35 The first of these came in an April 1899 story, 'Strong Men of the Church', which featured Bishop Selwyn. Later in the same year, William Pember Reeves contributed an article on 'Native Races from a Physical Standpoint. The Plate 1: One of the photographs taken by the Maoris'.36 Although no sub- Swiss Studios, Melbourne, 1902. Sandow scription figures are available, the toured Australia before his New Zealand visit. magazine clearly had New Graphic, 15 November 1902, p. 1243. Zealand readers, some of whom

245 CAROLINE DALEY contributed articles.37 Many others sent in their photographs, showing the improvements to their bodies, thanks to Sandow's system of systematic exercises.38 Others entered the competitions run through the magazine. In early 1902, the unfortunately named Walter E. Mouldey of Christchurch won a gold medal in Sandow's worldwide competition, for achieving 'the best results of three months' postal instruction' in the Sandow system.39 Still others wrote to Sandow's advice column, asking for assistance.40 One of the New Zealand subscribers and contributors was Fred Hornibrook. In April 1900 Hornibrook inaugurated the teaching of the Sandow System of physical culture in New Zealand. Within six months he had instructed 157 men in Christchurch and held a physical development competition.41 Other Sandow Schools soon followed: J. Guy opened one in Dunedin, Charles Ward provided competition for Hornibrook in Christchurch, and in Wellington a Physical Training School and Gymnasium opened in Ghuznee Street.42 These Sandow Schools or classes were modelled on Sandow's Institute of Physical Culture, opened in London in 189743 At the New Zealand Sandow Schools regular classes were held for men, women and children, following Sandow's exercise programme and using his equipment. Hornibrook, who later married Ettie Rout, the sex-reformer and fellow physical culturist, was the leading proponent of Sandow's system in New Zealand.44 He was a frequent contributor to Sandow's Magazine, held well-publicized classes and competitions in Christchurch, and later was a founder of the New Zealand Physical Culture Association.45 Due to the activities of men like Hornibrook, others could claim that even before Sandow arrived in New Zealand his system had '"caught on" widely in this Colony' and that a 'considerable' number of men and youths exercised under it.46 The visual representations of Sandow in films and studio photographs, and the practical advice offered through his magazine and classes, help explain why newspaper reports claimed that the air was 'full of Sandow' and that Sandow needed no introduction to New Zealanders.47 However, Sandow was not content with this. To ensure large and appreciative audiences, carefully orchestrated press releases about his show always preceded him. Mr Marcus, Rickards' touring manager, would arrive in a town days before Sandow 'to make arrangements' for the company's appearance.48 Marcus distributed publicity material to the town's newspapers and, if possible, arranged for a mayoral reception. Sandow's two-night stint in Wanganui, on Thursday 27 November and Friday 28 November 1902, offers a typical example of Marcus's arrangements. Five days before Sandow arrived in Wanganui, there was already a column in the newspaper headed 'Eugene [sic] Sandow'. It contained the same information found in numerous other promotional columns that appeared in newspapers throughout New Zealand during his tour. Beginning with 'An event of unusual interest will take place on Thursday evening next', it told the readers where and when Sandow would perform, when the box plan for the season would open and where they could buy their tickets. It made sure readers were aware that this was 'the most important and expensive engagement ever made by any Australian manager' (promoter Harry Rickards was Australian), and it described the vaudeville company that would accompany Sandow. But most importantly, the column celebrated Sandow, the 'famous athlete and exponent of physical culture'. It

246 SELLING SANDOW

Plate 2: In the days leading up to his arrival in New Zealand, the Graphic ran a selection of recent Sandow shots under the heading 'How to Become Strong'. This picture is captioned 'A Hercules Indeed!' Graphic, 15 November 1902, p.1243. repeated the endorsement Sandow received from Harvard University's first professor of physical education. Professor Dudley Sargent. Sargent, who was a weightlifter himself, was quoted as saying that Sandow 'is the best developed man that ever lived'.4'J The column also described Sandow's stage performance: 'His act, we are informed, is divided into two distinct parts. The first consisting of an exhibition of muscular development, in which pupils of the Sandow classes will be particularly interested .... The second part consists of an exhibition of power and strength.'50 It seems likely that the entire column was a press release from Sandow's camp. Apart from a few minor alterations, the same column appeared in the Budget and Taranaki Weekly Herald, Palmerston North's Manawatu Daily Times, the Hawke's Bay Herald and the Timaru Herald,51 In the days that followed, and before Sandow arrived in Wanganui, other reports made it into the press. On the Monday, readers of the Wanganui Chronicle were told two other Sandow stories from the publicity machine's repertoire. One had to do with his nationality: 'Sandow was born at Konigsberg, in Eastern Prussia, but is more an Englishman than German, having made England his home since he was eighteen years of age. He married an English lady.'52 The other repeated a story Sandow was fond of reciting: 'His muscular powers were not inherited, for his father and mother were people of ordinary strength, and none of his ancestors, as far as he knows, were unusually strong. He himself

247 CAROLINE DALEY was a very delicate boy, and it was on this account that he was taken to Italy by his parents, where the magnificent physique and heroic proportions displayed in the statues of stone and bronze fired his imagination and excited his wonder. As a result of this visit he was fired to emulate these ancient heroes.'53 The city's other newspaper continued the build-up, this time relying on newspaper reports from Sandow's Australian tour. Citing the Adelaide Register and the Melbourne Argus, Wanganui's citizens were told how 'wonderful' the Sandow Season was.54 The following day the Wanganui Chronicle cited other Australian reports of the show.55 By 26 November, the day before Sandow arrived, two other much-told Sandow stories appeared in the press. One related to 'a funny incident with a tailor in New York' and was circulated in newspapers throughout the country. According to the story, to get back at a tailor who overcharged him, Sandow tried on his bespoke suit, and claimed he could not breathe in it. The tailor, confident in his ability to measure-up for a suit, said he would give the suit to Sandow if he could split it: 'I took a deep breath, and the clothes flew off my back'.56 The tailor had not reckoned on Sandow's impressive chest expansion. Surprisingly, neither of Wanganui's dailies carried another of the standard promotional stories, giving Sandow's measurements. As anyone who read the Manawatu Daily Times during this period knew, Sandow could expand his chest 14 inches, from 48 to 62 inches.57 The second Sandow story promoted that day was an account of Sandow's fight with a lion in America some years previously, when, unsurprisingly, Sandow defeated the beast.58 By the time Sandow came to perform in Wanganui, his audience was very familiar with him. The extent of the build-up to opening night and the careful way the publicity was managed, with subtly different stories fed to each of the city's two newspapers, suggests how slick Sandow and his show were. His commercial success was not due to chance. Throughout New Zealand, Marcus and he played the press for all it was worth, although it cannot be assumed that the newspapers or their readers were unaware of the game. The insertion of 'we are informed' into press reports hints at a degree of self-awareness.59 There are other indications that the New Zealand public was alert to Sandow's hard-sell techniques. As well as buying tickets to his performance, the public was encouraged to buy Sandow's writings on physical culture and his patented brand of exercise equipment. In Wanganui, H.I. Jones and Son advertised that they had a large stock of Sandow Developers and Grip Dumb-Bells for sale, and that while Sandow was in town they were arranging for one of his assistants to 'give an Exhibition in our Window'.60 That is, the assistant would stand in the shop's window during the lunch hour and early evening, as workers made their way home, and perform exercises with the developer and dumb-bells for the pavement audience. Such window dressing was another thoroughly modern aspect of the Sandow show. Department stores were only developing in New Zealand at this time, and the idea of using window displays to sell goods was novel.61 James Young, one of Sandow's pupils, probably gave the display. He certainly did while Sandow was in Christchurch. In the window of W. Strange and Co.'s store, Young performed Sandow exercises twice a day. This free show was advertised in the press, and led to an inordinate amount of congestion in front of Strange's window.62 So many people were standing on the footpath

248 SELLING SANDOW watching Young perform that those who wanted to go past the High Street department store had to walk on the road. The number of cabs drawn up opposite the window blocked the road. When the police arrived, they found it impossible to keep it clear. Young and Thomas Coverdale (one of the proprietors of Strange's) were charged in the Magistrate's Court with impeding the traffic. Young gave testimony that he was employed by Sandow, had travelled the world with him, and that part of his job was to give these exhibitions of Sandow's equipment. He had done this throughout New Zealand without trouble. The 'large and enthusiastic crowd' watching through the window of Jones and Son's in Wanganui had not caused any problems.63 The magistrate, although a fan of the Sandow System of physical culture, was not impressed that the traffic had been impeded. He convicted Young but inflicted no penalty or costs, and the charge against Coverdale was withdrawn.64 Perhaps as a result of this court case, when Young showed the public of Dunedin how to use Sandow's equipment, he performed in the Choral Hall rather than in a shop window.65 The window displays may have sold 'Sandows' all around the country, but even before Sandow left town reports suggested many of the newly purchased sets of dumb-bells and Sandow developers had not enjoyed much use. As 'Erie' wrote, 'many owners have sadly realised that they invested in haste to repent at leisure'.66 Sandow may well have sold New Zealanders the first exercise equipment to gather dust under their beds. Another marketing tool used during the tour was a plaster replica of the cast the British Museum had taken of Sandow's body. This was placed in the window of shops selling Sandow's exercise equipment, a sort of shop mannequin 'showing his wonderful physical and muscular development'. At the Massey- Harris cycle depot in Christchurch it lured customers to the store, where they could buy Sandow developers for 21s. a set, japanned dumb-bells for 12s.6d. a pair and his embrocation (liniment) at 2s.6d. a bottle.67 So impressive was the statue that reports suggested 'it is well worth a visit of inspection'.68 'Priscilla', who wrote the 'Girls' Gossip' column in Wellington's Evening Post, noted that Sandow's 'manly presentment adorns many shop windows in town' and that 'many admiring surreptitious female glances' had been cast at his statue.69 Once again, Sandow's marketing ploy had itself become a spectacle. His very success meant his name was open to abuse. Under the heading 'The Strength of Sandow', newspaper readers were informed that' 'The strength of Sandow amongst men is synonymous with the strength of the Massey-Harris when applied to bicycles.'70 The marketing power of Sandow had been appropriated for an unrelated product. Given Sandow's litigious character — he promised to sue at least one newspaper for libel while he was in New Zealand — it is surprising that he did not seem to have at least threatened to sue Massey- Harris for the misuse of his name.71 Perhaps, though, he had an arrangement with the Massey-Harris company, which stocked his products. These commercial ties helped make Sandow a rich man, something of which the New Zealand tax department became increasingly aware. On 5 December 1902, Sandow received a letter from the deputy commissioner of the Land and Income Tax Department:

249 CAROLINE DALEY

1 have to draw your attention to the fact that under the Land and Income Assessment Act you are liable to pay income tax on income earned by you during the present tour of the colony, and, further, under regulations of the 21 st July last (copy enclosed), it is necessary for you to lodge a deposit for the due amount of tax when assessed. I have, therefore, to call upon you now to lodge the sum of £25. On the completion of the tour a full return of income to be furnished, and the exact assessment made. If the deposit exceeds the actual tax payable, the difference will be refunded, or if the tax is in excess of the deposit, the balance will be collected. Kindly give this matter your attention.72

Sandow did. He made sure the press's attention was drawn to the matter and to his fear that the New Zealand state was trying to 'bleed' him for tax in a way that no other country in which he had toured had done.73 As one report put it: 'Mr Sandow is much annoyed at the demand that has been made upon him, and he seems inclined to resist it.'74 This official interest in Sandow's business was not the sort of attention he desired. He craved official endorsements. One of Marcus's tasks was to try to arrange mayoral welcomes for Sandow when he arrived in a new town. Such receptions were seen as giving Sandow's performance a stamp of respectability. He may have performed semi-nude, but if civic leaders told their constituents that this man 'would be able to give a great deal of valuable information' on how a healthy body led to a healthy mind, as Wellington's mayor, John Aitken, did. then Sandow's stage show was given legitimacy.75 At the same reception. Sir Joseph Ward, representing the government, welcomed Sandow to the colony. Sandow also secured mayoral welcomes in Palmerston North, Dunedin and Invercargill.76

Figure 1: 'The Sandow Craze.' Sandow's quest for respectability met with some humorous responses. In the bottom left-hand corner the member for Wellington notes that his lady-voters consider him 'an object of admiration' now that he is a Sandow devotee, while Premier Seddon is shown in classic 'before and after' images. Graphic, 13 December 1902, p. 1475. SELLING SANDOW

It was harder for Marcus to arrange a mayoral reception than it was to place press releases in the newspapers. When he secured the Wellington welcome, the Graphic noted his success: 'Bravo, Mr Marcus! It is always a capital advt., but most Mayors fight shy of giving it nowadays. Getting so promiscuous, you know.'77 The mayor of Christchurch fought shy, noting that, since Mr Sandow was here 'on a money making tour', it was inappropriate to offer him an official reception.78 He, too, realized the power of such public receptions. The official welcome was one way to assure the public that what Sandow did was respectable. This message was also conveyed in numerous newspaper articles where readers were informed that: 'There is nothing coarse or repulsive in his entertainment. It is said indeed to be all grace and perfection.'79 ATaranaki newspaper reassured its readers that: 'The whole performance was clean and accurate, and wholly free from the slightest offensiveness.'80 Just as classical statuary was above reproach, so was Sandow. In Wanganui the show was described as 'an intellectual physical triumph'. The writer seems to have bought Sandow's line that the mind controlled the body. In Sandow's performance: 'There was nothing repulsive, nothing to shock the sensitive; on the contrary, it was a refined and eloquent exhortation to the physically weak to go and do likewise and so become better and stronger members of the race.'81 This exhortation was directed at women as well as men. Sandow had long encouraged women to follow his system of physical culture. He had devised exercises and exercise equipment specifically for women, and encouraged them to attend his schools and shows. Many women seem to have embraced Sandow if not his exercise regime. He was a pin-up boy for 'matinee girls' and wealthy society women, who swooned when they saw him and showered him with gifts and attention.82 As Sandow's biographer, David Chapman, has noted, 'It was no accident that Sandow's abandonment of the tights and capacious leopard skins coincided with his elevation as a male sex symbol.'83 In the 1890s, when Sandow was performing in the United States, the show's organizer announced that: 'Any woman willing to donate $300 to charity would be allowed to come to the strongman's private dressing room and feel his muscles. Mrs. Potter Palmer and Mrs. George Pullman immediately stood up and made their way backstage. The next day when they reported to their many prominent friends about this pleasant experience, it was obvious that Sandow's reputation was assured.'84 Once Sandow married, in 1894, women were no longer invited to feel his corrugated-iron chest.85 Given that Sandow toured New Zealand with his wife, it would appear that the women of New Zealand missed out on touching his mighty abdominals. Even so, there was a recognition that going to see Sandow might in some way compromise the respectability of women. As one report noted: 'A number of women are wondering whether it is the "correct thing" to go and see him, and some are waiting to see what others will do.'86 Mayoral receptions and newspaper testimony as to the tastefulness of the show seem to have convinced many. If doubt still remained, a self-aware form of delusion could always be employed: 'Aunt informs us she does not at all approve of such exhibitions, but she does dote on the concertina, and has consequently taken a front seat in the circle!'87 Sandow may have posed semi-naked to the delight of the scopophiliacs of New Zealand, but he defended his stage show on the grounds that it allowed

251 CAROLINE DALEY him to preach the gospel of physical culture. This, he claimed, was his true mission. Indeed he insisted in interviews that he was 'playing the part of the showman ... as the best available method of extending a knowledge of his system of obtaining health and strength'.88 In Wellington he claimed not to be very fond of the 'exhibition business' but felt it was the best way to get across his physical culture message.89 Some reporters reiterated this, claiming that Sandow was 'not a showman' but was rather 'an apostle. He is the apostle of the sound mind in the sound body' and his 'mission' in life was to spread his gospel of physical culture.90 Religious language was used to describe Sandow and his beliefs. In Auckland he was referred to as a 'preacher of the gospel of physical culture' and as 'the high-priest of a great religion, the master of a great cult'.91 In Hawke's Bay the audience was said to have 'worshipped for the time at the shrine of one who had done what no other human being had ever accomplished in that building'.92 Down in Christchurch he was the 'apostle of physical development', the 'apostle of the cult of the strong', and 'the apostle of physical culture'.93 The religious language used by and about Sandow was another way his performance was clothed in respectability, even if he wore little on stage. In the canny south the press used religious language too, although the tone was less reverential: 'Strongman Sandow and Co., which also include his Roman retainers, scraped the Dunedin mud (it rained all the season) off their several sandals and departed for the south — Gore and Invercargill — taking with them many good wishes and much good gold. The mighty one preached the gospel of strength to overflowing congregations nightly, and the only regret was that there was not a morning and evening service. The collection for the season amounted to considerably over four figures.'94 The secularization of religious imagery can itself be seen as another aspect of modernity. Sandow could not escape the fact that many saw him primarily as a showman and performer, but he did his utmost to remind the people of New Zealand that there was a serious purpose behind his displays. The Sandow Season may have drawn the crowds on the night, but he saw the Sandow System of physical culture as his legacy. While in New Zealand, he used three main vehicles to preach this message. First, during his visits to the main centres, he held audiences with local medical men and 'prominent citizens'.95 These medical spectacles, referred to as 'expositions', fell into three parts. In the first, Sandow tensed and flexed his muscles and allowed members of the audience 'to feel the various groups of muscles, contracted and relaxed'.96 After this, one of his pupils, often James Young, performed exercises for the assembled men, using Sandow's developer and dumb-bells, while Sandow talked the audience through the correct way to use the equipment. The final part of the exposition was a question and answer session, where Sandow impressed the doctors with his knowledge of anatomy and his devotion to improving the bodies of all citizens.97 According to Sandow, anyone could and should benefit from the Sandow System of physical culture. His aim, he said, was 'to improve the human race generally' ,98 He preached the message to the medics and mayors of the country but also to the general public through newspaper interviews. Around the country

252 SELLING SANDOW he gave lengthy interviews where he explained his philosophy. The essence of his system was that power and control of the mind would lead anyone to be able to control their body and muscles. It was all about will-power: 'It is based on anatomy and depends upon the persistent application of the mind to the particular muscle or set of muscles that are to be cultivated'.99 He had devised exercises for each of the 400 muscles he had identified in the human body and his system of physical culture required that each of these separate muscles be exercised.100 Anyone could benefit from this programme. The seven-stone weakling, women, children, the old and the consumptive, as well as young men and women in the prime of life could buy his equipment and by spending 15 to 20 minutes a day following his exercise programme, the 'human race' would be healthier and fitter. Sandow's words and sentiments were more than tinged with eugenic thought. He is said to have changed his name to Eugen in honour of Francis Galton's 'science' of eugenics.101 In an interview in Timaru, he said: 'What are we doing to-day with regard to the improvement of the human race? We take a consumptive man off the street and mate him with a healthy woman, or vice versa. Of course that is wrong, and no law can prevent it directly. But it can be prevented indirectly by compulsory physical culture all over the world. That is my ambition: that is what I am striving for. When men breed animals to-day they put the best they can find together, and so it should be with the human race."02 The following year he wrote: 'Healthier and more perfect men and women ought to beget children with constitutions free from hereditary taint'.103 Many in New Zealand agreed. Sandow was portrayed as a 'benefactor of the human race', a man who understood the concerns of the age.104 Concerns with decreasing fertility among the most desirable sectors of the New Zealand population were being aired at this time, as were fears that the 'unfit' were multiplying.105 In 1903 a New Zealand-born surgeon and politician, W.A. Chappie, published a eugenic treatise, The Fertility of the Unfit, calling for eugenic sterilization, a sentiment endorsed by a number of leading citizens.106 Like many of the eugenicists in New Zealand, Sandow did not believe in total genetic determinism.107 A large part of the appeal of the Sandow System was that even the weak and infirm could overcome their heredity and become strong, healthy and fit members of the race. Sandow often related stories of how his system had benefited those whom others had given up on. He claimed that by adopting the Sandow System, 'lunatics' incarcerated on Coney Island had been cured.108 Closer to home, Fred Hornibrook's Sandow School in Christchurch was said to have cured dozens of consumptives, while one of Hornibrook's pupils in Timaru, who came to him with 'very weak' lungs was now 'perfectly sound' and one of his best pupils.109 Sandow attributed this improvement to the positive effect his exercises had on the state of the exerciser's blood: 'Many diseases can be cured by physical training of the body, for a healthy state of the blood will not allow the bacillus to live in the body.'110 Alongside his expositions to leading citizens and lengthy interviews with the press, Sandow also conveyed his message by visiting Sandow Schools around the country. When he did so, a member of the press, and sometimes a photographer, accompanied him. He never forgot the importance of publicity.

253 CAROLINE DALEY

Newspaper reports suggest that many New Zealanders attended Sandow classes. When Sandow's act was described in the press, in the build-up to the show, the first part of his performance — when Sandow posed on his pedestal — was often described as being of particular interest to pupils of Sandow classes.111 This may well have been another press release, but there were enough Sandow Schools around New Zealand for there to have been some truth in the statement. As Kenneth Dutton and Ronald Laura have argued, in some ways this changed the meaning of spectatorship at his shows. Many members of the audience were also participants in the performance in the sense that they too did the exercises. Here was their chance to see the master at work.112 In both the North and South Islands Sandow singled out a teacher of his system for particular praise and media attention."3 In the North the honour went to Richard Jarrett, instructor of the Wanganui Sandow School, said to be 'the pioneer school of the North Island'."4 In early 1901 Jarrett had written to Sandow and begun a course of instruction. Within a short period of time he was running Sandow classes and had sent his photograph to Sandow's magazine."5 Sandow inspected Jarrett's schoolboy pupils and had his photograph taken with them.116 He also judged Jarrett's adult pupils in a Men's Development Competition and awarded Fred Atkins a prize for being 'the best developed man'."7 This was a competition based on physique not physical strength, much like the competitions Sandow had introduced into his British schools the previous year."8 Atkins and Jarrett taught physical training within the school system. Earlier in the year, the Wanganui Education Board had run a competition between the Sandow System and the 'free movement system' currently taught in schools. Jarrett coached pupils under the Sandow System of systematic exercises and Atkins under the free movement system, which involved mass exercises with wands, dumb-bells and clubs.119 For 11 weeks the school pupils trained three times a week for no more than 50 minutes a session. Then their necks, chests, upper arms, forearms, waists, thighs and calves were measured to see which team had the 'highest average increase of muscular development'. 'The result was a most decided win for the Sandow System."20 This was exactly the sort of publicity and official recognition Sandow sought.121 Little wonder that he is said to have offered Jarrett a partnership with him in England. Jarrett declined, but went on to open physical culture schools in Bulls, Feilding, Palmerston North, Foxton and Masterton.122 When Sandow arrived in Christchurch he met up with one of his favourite pupils, Fred Hornibrook.123 Hornibrook's work as a Sandow instructor was well known in Christchurch.124 Shortly before Sandow had arrived in the country Hornibrook's Christchurch Sandow School of Physical Culture had held its annual physical development competition. Pupils aged 15 to 45 displayed the benefits of systematic physical culture: 'to every man is given the opportunity of improving himself physically, and eventually assisting to raise the standard of his race'.125 While Sandow was in Christchurch he examined Hornibrook's pupils and was delighted to find one who could expand his chest by seven and a half inches: 'This is the greatest I have met with in Australasia... I shall be glad when I return to find that some pupil of Mr Hornibrook's can beat my measurement'.126

254 SELLING SANDOW

Hornibrook travelled through the South Island with Sandow and was present when Sandow inspected Hornibrook's Timaru Sandow class.127 There 20 young men 'exhibited themselves for examination in a light bathing costume'. 'All the young "Sandows" were introduced to their "father," and after a hearty hand- shake all round, the photographer took a group with the strong man as a centrepiece, Mr Hornibrook being at his side.' Sandow was gratified to hear of one young man who had become an amateur cycling champion after exercising the Sandow way.128 Sandow commented on his delight that so many New Zealanders followed his system voluntarily.129 But part of his mission in New Zealand (as it was at 'Home') was to encourage those in political power to introduce the Sandow System into the school curriculum. The Wanganui experiment was proof to him and his followers that the Sandow System was superior to the current free movement system. On several occasions he castigated the drill programme practised in New Zealand schools. The exercise it offered was, he said, best described as 'recreation'; it was 'pretty', but of little physical help since it did not focus on particular muscles or train the mind to control the body: 'If in your New Zealand schools you paid more attention to the development of physical prowess in the children, better results, mentally speaking, would be obtained, and the human race would be the gainer.'130 Sandow's faith in his system was complete. He advocated it be made compulsory and claimed that if this happened other social problems, such as those surrounding alcohol, would disappear: 'My opinion is that if you had compulsory physical culture in New Zealand you would never have any need of prohibition in this country. Men who study physical culture take care of their bodies, and when they have a drink or two have the will power to say, "No, old man, I have had enough. This stuff does not do me any good if I take any more." I am not a teetotaller myself, but I have the will power to say "No" when I like. By physical culture men have been cured of drunkenness.'131 Given the concerns about the ill effects of alcohol in New Zealand at the time, the promise of self- control without the need for legal prohibition must have been appealing to many. Sandow recognized that people did not have much time to spend exercising, so he provided a routine that took less than half an hour a day. In a society worried about human fatigue and maximized efficiency, Sandow provided modern solutions: scientific exercises, requiring little time, for maximum gain.132 His range of reasonably priced exercise equipment meant people did not have to go to a special Sandow School to enjoy the benefits of the system. One newspaper noted: 'he has given to the weary brain-worker, to the city clerk and shop assistant a simple and effective means of obtaining the healthy body that is necessary as the dwelling-place of a healthy mind', and they could do this in the privacy of their own homes.133 For increasing numbers of New Zealanders, the machine age meant that their bodies had lost some functionality. It became all the more important then, to focus on their wider responsibilities as citizens and to develop their muscles.134 They had an obligation, for the betterment of the human race, to be more than seven-stone weaklings. The Sandow System was the first of many such improvement schemes in early twentieth-century New Zealand. Within a few years, the Plunket Society's

255 CAROLINE DALEY founder, Frederic Truby King, was advocating a physical regime for babies that would ensure they grew into the sort of citizens Sandow envisaged.135 The Eugenics Education Society of New Zealand built on similar ideas of 'racial' betterment.136 After the First World War children's health camps attempted to improve the physical and mental health of the nation.137 All were 'modern' responses to the supposed ills of the age. But unlike these other schemes, Sandow's 'scientific' solution to these problems was sweetened by the spectacle of the Sandow Season. The event of 'unusual interest' paved a way for the bodybuilder to try to be social engineer. Sandow was a proselytizer for his system of physical culture. It was his contribution to late nineteenth-century ideas of rational recreation, the notion that leisure time must be used in an improving way. The Sandow Season allowed the audience an evening of amusement and awe; the Sandow System had a lasting impact, improving the 'race' and creating better citizens. Recreation allowed for re-creation.

By the time Sandow left New Zealand in early 1903, he had earned himself, his manager and his promoter, many thousands of pounds. He had also entertained many thousands of New Zealanders. As the newspapers rightly claimed, Sandow was a household word throughout New Zealand. His was a name that captured the complex interplay of modernity, leisure and consumerism. Through his focus on bodily change, his use of new technology, and his insistence that his system was sc.ientific and efficient, he embodied modern man. He was also the embodiment of commercial spectacle, willing to package and sell himself to the public, crafty enough to use the media for his own ends. The public had paid to see his shows, bought his books, magazines, photographs, and exercise equipment. But Sandow always insisted that there was more to him than a few classical poses on a revolving pedestal, or a couple of feats of strength. He was both entertainer and teacher. He preached the gospel of physical culture, and gained many converts in New Zealand. Sandow may have departed New Zealand's shores but Sandow Schools kept his message alive. A few years after his visit, Sandow donated a gold medal to the winner of the annual open championship at Hornibrook's Christchurch School of Physical Culture.138 In 1911 a New Zealand Physical Culture Association, with annual competitions, was formed.139 The leisure business and the business of leisure were here to stay.

CAROLINE DALEY The University of Auckland

256 SELLING SANDOW

NOTES

1 I would like to thank Joe Zizek and Malcolm MacLean for discussing Sandow with me when I began this project. Joe, Judith Binney and Deborah Montgomerie all made very helpful comments on this paper, and I am grateful to them. 2 Several newspaper reports, announcing Sandow's visit, began with these words: Budget and Taranaki Weekly Herald (B&TWH), 22 November 1902, p.17; Wanganui Herald (WH), 22 November 1902, p.6; Manawatu Daily Times (MDT), 26 November 1902, p.2; Hawke's Bay Herald (HBH), 28 November 1902. p.2; Timaru Herald (TH), 20 December 1902, p.4. 3 Eugen Sandow, Body-Building, or Man in the Making: How to Become Healthy & Strong, London, 1904, p.l 15, emphasis in original. 4 David L. Chapman, Sandow the Magnificent: Eugen Sandow and the Beginnings of Bodybuilding, Urbana and Chicago, 1994; Kenneth R. Dutton and Ronald S. Laura, 'Towards a History of Bodybuilding', Sporting Traditions, 6, 1 (1989), pp.25^U, especially pp.27-28. 5 On nineteenth- and early twentieth-century fears about the body see Michael Anton Budd, The Sculpture Machine: Physical Culture and Body Politics in the Age of Empire, New York, 1997; Anson Rabinbach, The Human Motor: Energy, Fatigue, and the Origins of Modernity, New York, 1990. 6 See Eugen Sandow, The Gospel of Strength According to Sandow: A Series of Talks on the Sandow System of Physical Culture, by its Founder, Melbourne, 1902, especially p.6. 7 For a further discussion of modernity and leisure see Caroline Daley, 'A Gendered Domain: Leisure in Auckland, 1890-1940', in Caroline Daley and Deborah Montgomerie, eds, The Gendered Kiwi, Auckland, 1999, pp.87-111. 8 On rational recreation see Peter Bailey, Leisure and Class in Victorian England: Rational recreation and the contest for control, 1830-1885, London, 1978. 9 Auckland Star (Star), 19 November 1902, p.2; New Zealand Herald (NZH), 19 November 1902, p.6. 10 Sandow, Body-Building, p. 109. 11 Star, 19 November 1902, p.2. See also opening-night accounts of the performance in NZH, 19 November 1902, p.6; Wanganui Chronicle (Chronicle), 28 November 1902, p.5; B&TWH, 29 November 1902, p.22; MDT, 1 December 1902, p.2; Wairarapa Daily Times, 2 December 1902, p.2; HBH, 5 December 1902, p.2; Yeoman, 6 December 1902, p.6; Evening Post (EP), 9 December 1902, p.4; Christchurch Star, 19 December 1902, p.2; Weekly Press (WP), 24 December 1902, p.45; TH, 27 December 1902, p.4; Otago Daily Times (ODT), 31 December 1902. p.6; Evening Star, 31 December 1902, p.4; Southland Daily News, 10 January 1903, p.3. 12 WP, 24 December 1902, p.45. 13 Star, 19 November 1902, p.2. 14 Canterbury Times (CT), 24 December 1902, p.50; ODT, 6 January 1903, p.6. 15 MDT, 1 December 1902, p.2. 16 Star, 17 November 1902, p.8. 17 WP, 24 December 1902, p.45. 18 Chapman noted that he used cosmetics to achieve a reddish hue to his body and powder to rest in the creases, thus making his abdominal muscles more noticeable. Chapman, Sandow the Magnificent, p.79. On the resemblance to statuary claim see Dutton and Laura, 'Towards a History of Bodybuilding', p.33. The contemporary 'rage for "living statuary'" is discussed in Budd, The Sculpture Machine, p.36. 19 EP, 9 December 1902, p.4. 20 Maurizia Boscagli, Eye On The Flesh: Fashions of Masculinity in the Early Twentieth Century, Colorado, 1996, p. 106. 21 Chronicle, 27 November 1902, p.4. 22 Adolf Hildebrand, a sculptor, discussed this in his 1893 work. The Problem of Form in the Visual Arts. See Charles Harrison and Paul Wood with Jason Gaiger, eds, Art in Theory 1815- 1900: An Anthology of Changing Ideas, Oxford, 1998, pp.706-10, especially p.708. 23 See Jonathan Crary. Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century, Cambridge, Mass., 1990. 24 EP, 9 December 1902. p.4. See also Chronicle, 27 November 1902, p.4. 25 CT, 24 December 1902, p.27. On moving his muscles in time to music see Frank W. Lane, 'Sandow: The Strong Man', Saturday Book, Vol. 24, 1964. p. 142. This seems to be an early version

257 CAROLINE DALEY of what is now know as 'posedown': bodybuilders posing to music. See Vaughn Guetner, 'Bodybuilding as Muscular Art: a study in definitions of art', PhD thesis, University of Auckland. 1995, p.9. 26 Sandow had been tearing three packs of cards as part of his show since the late 1890s. Eugen Sandow, Strength and How to Obtain It, London, 1897, p. 153. 27 NZH, 19 November 1902, p.6. See also other reports of opening night performances cited in n.ll. 28 Chronicle, 27 November 1902, p.4, reporting Sandow's performance in New Plymouth. 29 EP, 27 October 1896, p.2. See also CT, 12 November 1896, p.43. The reference to 'straining to produce some tremendous force' contrasts with the later report that Sandow's poses were natural and easy and that there was no exertion or straining in his performance (n. 17). The former refers to him lifting weights; the latter to him posing on the pedestal. 30 Chapman discusses the circulation of photographs of Sandow, including among gay circles, and also Sandow's recognition of the need to have good photographs of himself in circulation. Chapman, Sandow the Magnificent, especially pp.33-34, 64. In these photographs, Sandow posed in the same classical stances he performed on stage. See also Boscagli, Eye On The Flesh, pp. 108- 16. 31 Auckland Weekly News (AWN), 13 November 1902, Supplement p.8. 32 Graphic, 15 November 1902, p.1243. In 1901 Sandow was asked to be the model for the Caucasian race statue for a new exhibit at the British Museum on the major races of the world. Chapman, Sandow the Magnificent, p.l 19. 33 New Zealand Mail, 10 December 1902, p.43; Graphic, 13 December 1902, p.1475; WP, 31 December 1902, p.6. 34 Kenneth R. Dutton, The Perfectible Body: The Western Ideal of Physical Development, London, 1995, p.124. 35 The magazine was first published in July 1898. Initially it was called Physical Culture, then underwent several name changes. For the sake of clarity it is referred to here as Sandow's Magazine. For various reasons it ceased publication in July 1907, although Sandow continued to be active in the physical culture movement after the magazine's demise. See Chapman, Sandow the Magnificent, chs7, 8. 36 Sandow's Magazine, April 1899, pp.256-7; August 1899, pp. 143-50. 37 See Sandow's Magazine, June 1899, pp.413-17; April 1900, pp.364-8; May 1901, pp.371- 2 for articles written by Francis B. Hutchinson, late honorary physician at Wellington Hospital. 38 Early New Zealand photographs include one of the 16 members of the Christchurch Sandow Team (Sandow's Magazine, November 1900, p.368). Charles J. Ward of Wellington, with flexed biceps (Sandow's Magazine, December 1900, p.444), athlete A.T. Norton (Sandow's Magazine, February 1901, p. 112), H. Cutting and W.H. Trengrove, pupils of Fred Hornibrook (Sandow's Magazine, February 1901, pp.122, 124) and one of R.O. Garratt [sic] (Sandow's Magazine, April 1901, p.287). 'Garratt' was Richard Jarrett, instructor of the Wanganui Sandow School, which Sandow visited during his tour. In total, 20 photographs of New Zealanders appeared in the magazine before Sandow's visit. 39 Sandow's Magazine, January 1902, p.54. 40 Sandow's Magazine, February 1902, p.159. 41 Sandow's Magazine, February 1901, pp. 122-A. 42 Hornibrook mentions Guy's school in his article in Sandow's Magazine, February 1901, pp. 122-4. Ward trained T. Cook, whose photograph appeared in Sandow's Magazine, June 1901, p.446. A photograph of Charles Ward and his stand at the Canterbury Jubilee Exhibition appeared in Sandow's Magazine, June 1901, p.447, as did one of his Sydenham Sandow School in Christchurch. Sandow's Magazine, October 1902, p.290. Around this time Ward published a booklet, The Sandow System of Physical Culture in New Zealand. (I am grateful to Terry Ward, Charles Ward's grandson, for forwarding me a copy of this booklet.) On the Wellington School see 'Physical Culture in New Zealand', Sandow's Magazine, December 1900, pp.449-50. 43 On his Institutes, see Chapman, Sandow the Magnificent, especially pp. 101-3; Sandow, Strength and How to Obtain It, ch.6; Sandow, Body-Building, pp.5-6. 44 Rout attended Hornibrook's Christchurch School of Physical Culture. See Jane Tolerton, Ettie: A Life ofEttie Rout, Auckland, 1992, especially, pp.37^11. 45 Hornibrook contributed several articles and photographs to Sandow's Magazine: see October 1900, pp.284—6; November 1900, pp.368-70; February 1901, pp. 122-^1; February 1902, pp. 151-2; May 1902, pp.343-8 and p.387; October 1903, pp.305-6; December 1903, pp.402-5; June 1904.

258 SELLING SANDOW pp.453-7; July 1904, pp.28-31; November 1904, pp.339-42; December 1904, pp.406-7; 25 May 1905, p.535; 14 February 1907, p.203. 46 F.B. Hutchinson, 'Athletics in Relation to National Life', Sandow's Magazine, April 1900, pp.364. A few months later, Hornibrook made the more modest claim that 'there is every reason to expect that, in a short time, his [Sandow's] name will become as household a word as it is at home'. Sandow's Magazine, November 1900, p.369. 47 Reports making such claims are numerous. See, for example: NZH, 18 November 1902, p.7; Graphic, 22 November 1902, p. 1322; Chronicle, 22 November 1902, p.7; WH, 24 November 1902, p.5; Wairarapa Daily Times, 27 November 1902, p.3; Daily Telegraph, 29 November 1902, p.5; HBH, 29 November 1902, p.3; New Zealand Mail, 17 December 1902, p.25; CT, 17 December 1902, p.41; Lyttelton Times (LT), 18December 1902, p.4; Oamaru Mail (OM), 29 December 1902, p.4; ODT, 31 December 1902, p.6; ODT, 1 January 1903, p.6; Southland Times (ST), 10 January 1903, p.2. 48 See, for example, WP, 17 December 1902, p.45; OM, 20 December 1902, p.2. 49 Bob Stothart, 'The Physical Culture Connection', Journal of Physical Education New Zealand, 27. 4, Summer 1994, p.24. 50 WH, 22 November 1902, p.6. The endorsement by Sargent was repeated in other press reports. See, for example, B&TWH, 22 November 1902, p. 17; WH, 24 November 1902, p.5; MDT, 26 November 1902, p.2; Wairarapa Daily Times, 27 November 1902, p.3; HBH, 28 November 1902, p.2; TH, 20 December 1902, p.4; Evening Star, 24 December 1902, p.6. 51 B&TWH, 22 November 1902, p.17; MDT, 26 November 1902, p.2; HBH, 28 November 1902, p.2; TH, 20 December 1902, p.4. 52 Chronicle, 24 November 1902, p.2. This faux-Englishness was claimed in other reports. See Press (Christchurch), 19 December 1902, p.5; OM, 25 December 1902, p.l; ODT, 27 December 1902, p.8; WP, 31 December 1902, p.41; Otago Witness (OW), 7 January 1903, p.27. 53 Chronicle, 24 November 1902, p.2. For other renditions of his childhood weakness and visit to Italy see, for example, Graphic, 15 November 1902, p.1243; New Zealand Mail, 10 December 1902, p.46; Press, 19 December 1902, p.5; LT, 19 December 1902, p.2; CT, 24 December 1902, p.27; OM, 25 December 1902, p.l; ODT, 27 December 1902, p.8; WP, 31 December 1902, p.41; Southland Daily News, 6 January 1903. p.3; ST, 10 January 1903, p.2. For Sandow's accounts see Sandow, Strength and How to Obtain It, p.89; Eugen Sandow, 'My Reminiscences', Strand Magazine, March 1910, pp. 144-5. See also a reprint of a 1901 description of his career, 'Sandow: the Strongest Man on Earth', Theatre Quarterly, X, 39 (1981), p.59. 54 WH, 24 November 1902, p.5. These Australian stories were cited in other New Zealand newspapers. See, for example: Chronicle, 25 November 1902, p.7; MDT, 27 November 1902, p.3; HBH, 29 November 1902, p.3; ST, 5 January 1903, p.2. 55 Chronicle, 25 November 1902, p.7. 56 WH, 26 November 1902, p.5. The tailor story was repeated in other newspapers. See MDT, 28 November 1902, p.2; ODT, 29 December 1902, p.5; ST, 6 January 1903, p.2. 57 MDT, 25 November 1902. p.2. As with the Wanganui stories, this report was part of the build up to Sandow's appearance in the city later that month. It too was headed 'The Sandow Season'. Other reports noting his measurements include: Yeoman, 6 December 1902, p.6; ST, 7 January 1903, p.7. He included his measurements in his own publications; see Sandow, Strength and How to Obtain It, p. 157. 58 Chronicle, 26 November 1902, p.2. The lion story was repeated in other newspaper stories. See: ST, 8 January 1903, p.3. It also led to some controversy in Dunedin after one newspaper published a letter criticizing Sandow's part in the lion fight. See OW, 10 December 1902, p.57; New Zealand Mail, 17 December 1902, p.32 and Sandow's reply, ODT, 30 December 1902, p.6. For a fuller account of the lion story see Chapman, Sandow the Magnificent, pp.85-87 and for Sandow's version see Sandow, Strength and How to Obtain It, ch.9; Sandow, 'My Reminiscences'. pp.150-2. For a 1901 version of the story see 'Sandow: the Strongest Man on Earth', p.61. 59 The phrase 'we are informed', and variants of it, appeared in many items to do with Sandow. See, for example: WH, 22 November 1902, p.6; WH, 24 November 1902, p.5; Wairarapa Daily Times, 27 November 1902, p.3; MDT, 27 November 1902, p.2; HBH, 28 November 1902, p.2; TH, 20 December 1902, p.4; OM, 24 December 1902, p.4. 60 WH, 24 November 1902, p.6. 61 On windows and department stores in inter-war New Zealand see Danielle Sprecher, 'The Right Appearance: Representations of Fashion, Gender, and Modernity in Inter-war New Zealand'. MA thesis, University of Auckland, 1997, pp.20-21.

259 CAROLINE DALEY

62 Press, 22 December 1902, p.l. 63 WH, 28 November 1902, p.6. 64 Press, 24 December 1902, p.4. 65 Evening Star, 6 January 1903, p.4. 66 New Zealand Mail, 17 December 1902, p.25. 67 Press, 18 December 1902, p.6. 68 WP, 17 December 1902, p.45. 69 EP, 13 December 1902, Supplement p.2. 70 EP, 11 December 1902, p.5. 71 He instructed his solicitor to sue the Otago Daily Times Company for libel, in connection with a story in the Otago Witness on 10 December 1902 about his fight with the lion, which alleged he was cruel to the animal. New Zealand Mail, 17 December 1902, p.32. On his litigiousness see Chapman, Sandow the Magnificent, pp.106-7 and 'Sandow: the Strongest Man on Earth', p.61. 72 New Zealand Mail, 24 December 1902, p.46. The report makes it clear that Sandow forwarded the letter to the newspaper. 73 New Zealand Mail, 24 December 1902, p.46. 74 Press, 17 December 1902, p.9. 75 EP, 8 December 1902, p.6. 76 MDT, 25 November 1902, p.2; ODT, 31 December 1902, p.6; Southland Daily News, 9 January 1903, p.2; ST, 10 January 1903, p.2. 77 Graphic, 20 December 1902, p. 1579. 78 Press, 18 December 1902, p.5. 79 HBH, 2 December 1902, p.2. The same words were used in Palmerston North. See MDT, 27 November 1902, p.2. 80 B&TWH, 29 November 1902, p.22. 81 Chronicle, 28 November 1902, p.5. 82 Chapman, Sandow the Magnificent, pp.64, 75. 83 ibid., p.75. 84 ibid., p.60. 85 ibid., p.92. 86 EP, 13 December 1902, Supplement p.2. 87 ibid. 88 TH, 29 December 1902, p.3. A similar claim was reported in the LT, 19 December 1902, p.2 and CT, 24 December 1902, p.27. 89 New Zealand Mail, 10 December 1902, p.46. 90 ibid. 91 Star, 19 November 1902, p.2; AWN, 4 December 1902, p.10. 92 HBH, 5 December 1902, p.2. 93 CT, 17 December 1902, p.41; CT, 24 December 1902, p.27; WP, 31 December 1902, p.41. 94 OW, 14 January 1903, p.60. 95 This was something he had done for several years, in various countries. See Chapman, Sandow the Magnificent, p.78. 96 NZH, 21 November 1902, p.6. 97 For reports of his demonstration in Auckland see NZH, 21 November 1902, p.6. For Wanganui see Chronicle, 29 November 1902, p.7. For Wellington see EP, 9 December 1902, p.4. In Wellington he also gave a lecture at the fire station and one of his pupils took a squad of firemen and policemen through the exercise programme. See EP, 13 December 1902, p.5. For Christchurch see Press, 20 December 1902, p.8. For Dunedin see Evening Star, 2 January 1903, p.7 and ODT, 1 January 1903, p.7. 98 ODT, 30 December 1902, p.2. 99 EP, 10 December 1902, p.4. See also Press, 20 December 1902, p.8; TH, 26 December 1902, p.3. 100 New Zealand Mail, 10 December 1902, p.46; LT, 19 December 1902, p.2. 101 Sandow was born Friedrich Wilhelm Miiller. Sandow is said to be an anglicized version of his mother's maiden name. Sandov. On the link with Galton's eugenic theories and the name Eugen, see Budd, The Sculpture Machine, p. 147, n.34. 102 OW, 7 January 1903, p.27; ODT, 30 December 1902, p.2. 103 Sandow, Body-Building, p.8. 104 LT, 18 December 1902, p.4.

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105 See Philip J. Fleming, 'Eugenics in New Zealand 1900-1940', MA thesis, Massey University, 1981. 106 ibid., p.12. 107 ibid., especially pp.3-4, 9-10. 108 TH, 29 December 1902. p.3. 109 TH, 29 December 1902, p.2; ODT, 30 December 1902, p.2; OW 7 January 1903, p.27. 110 ODT, 30 December 1902, p.2. 111 See B&TWH, 22 November 1902, p. 17; WH, 22 November 1902, p.6; MDT, 26 November 1902, p.2; HBH, 28 November 1902, p.2; Daily Telegraph, 29 November 1902, p.5; CT, 17 December 1902, p.41; TH, 20 December 1902, p.4; OM. 29 December 1902, p.4; Evening Star, 24 December 1902, p.6. 112 Dutton and Laura, 'Towards a History of Bodybuilding', especially pp.36-37. 113 He visited some other Sandow Schools, such as J.P. Guy's Dunedin School. Guy ran classes for 'ladies' twice a week and presented some of his pupils to Sandow for inspection. See ODT, 7 January 1903, pp.1, 5. An Invercargill Physical Culture Club, run under the Sandow System, was also in operation. See Southland Daily News, 12 January 1903, p.2. Aitken, the mayor of Wellington, was also the senior vice-president of the Wellington School of Physical Culture. See EP, 8 December 1902, p.6. 114 Graphic, 27 December 1902, p. 1635. 115 Sandow's Magazine. April 1903, pp.289-90; November 1901, p.392; May 1903, pp.363-4. 116 Graphic, 27 December 1902, p. 1636. 117 WH, 28 November 1902, p.6; Graphic, 27 December 1902, p. 1635. 118 Chapman, Sandow the Magnificent, pp. 129-31. See also Dutton, The Perfectible Body, pp. 128-9. 119 On the free movement system see Robert A. Stothart, The Development of Physical Education in New Zealand, Auckland, 1974, p. 11. 120 Graphic, 27 December 1902, p.1635. 121 On Sandow's desire to get his system introduced into English schools see Southland Times, 10 January 1903, p.2. He wrote at length about introducing the Sandow System into schools in Sandow, Body-Building, ch.xv. 122 Stothart, 'The Physical Culture Connection', p.26. Stothart spells Jarrett's name as Garrett. 123 On the 'favourite pupil' claim see Stothart, 'The Physical Culture Connection', p.25. Hornibrook had been training pupils in the Sandow System since at least 1900. See Chapman, Sandow the Magnificent, p. 147. 124 The Christchurch Press claimed that Hornibrook's endeavours meant that 'in no place in New Zealand has the advent of the apostle of physical culture, Mr Eugen Sandow, been looked forward to more than in Christchurch'. Press, 19 December 1902, p.5. 125 WP, 5 November 1902, p.32. 126 Press, 20 December 1902, p.8. 127 TH, 27 December 1902, p.2. 128 ibid. 129 EP, 8 December 1902, p.6; Press, 24 December 1902, p.3; ODT, 7 January 1903, p.5. 130 ODT, 1 January 1902, p.7; ODT, 30 December 1902, p.2. On the limitations of recreative exercise see Sandow, Body-Building, p.24. 131 OW, 7 January 1903, p.27. 132 On maximizing efficiency as the key to modern society, see Rabinbach, The Human Motor, p.226. 133 LT, 18 December 1902, p.4. 134 On the need to develop muscles despite the machine age see Boscagli, Eye On The Flesh, especially chapter 3 and Rabinbach, The Human Motor, especially pp.224-8. 135 See Erik Olssen, 'Truby King and the Plunket Society. An Analysis of a Prescriptive Ideology', New Zealand Journal of History, 15, 1 (1981), pp.3—23. 136 See Fleming, 'Eugenics in New Zealand', pp. 15-25. 137 See Margaret Tennant, Children's Health, The Nation's Wealth: A History of Children's Health Camps, Wellington, 1994. 138 LT, 31 October 1907, p.7. 139 CT, 14 June 1911, p.56.

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