Esprit De Corps: a History of North American Bodybuilding James Woycke Western University, [email protected]
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Western University Scholarship@Western History eBook Collection eBook Collections 2016 Esprit de Corps: A History of North American Bodybuilding James Woycke Western University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/historybooks Part of the Social History Commons Recommended Citation Woycke, James, "Esprit de Corps: A History of North American Bodybuilding" (2016). History eBook Collection. 2. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/historybooks/2 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the eBook Collections at Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in History eBook Collection by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Esprit de Corps A History of North American Bodybuilding James Woycke Copyright c 2016 Esprit de Corps i Foreword Years ago, while researching another topic, Jim Woycke met body- builder photographer Tony Lanza who recounted many first-hand ac- counts of the early years of bodybuilding. Looking for more informa- tion, Jim discovered that, apart from some biographies of bodybuilders, there was little material on the sport, and less about Montreal brothers Ben and Joe Weider, founders of modern bodybuilding. Consequently, Jim resolved to write a comprehensive history. He researched the topic exhaustively in Canadian and American archives and libraries, and conducted several interviews. He met with Ben Weider in Montreal, who allowed him to read and photocopy all Weider magazines dating from 1940, and to quote from, and reprint photographs. Jim is the only researcher in the field to have read French language sources, uncovering Adrien Gagnon’s role in bodybuilding, especially his bitter rivalry with the Weiders. Jim died in 2010 after a long illness. He was a University of Toronto graduate (Ph. D History 1984), and a member of the Department of History, The University of Western Ontario. He wrote two books: Birth Control in Germany: 1871-1933 (Routledge, 1988), and Au Naturel: The History of Nudism in Canada (Federation of Canadian Naturists, 2003), and edited and wrote a forward to John Irvin Cooper’s, James McGill of Montreal: Citizen of the Atlantic World (Borealis, 2003). A draft of “Esprit de Corps” was completed in the summer of 2006 before the onset of Jim’s debilitating illness. I recovered Jim’s manuscript from his papers, and, later, commissioned sport historian Dr. Craig Greenham, University of Windsor to help prepare it for publication. My thanks to Craig and to Felipe Vicencio-Heap for formatting the book. The Faculty of Social Science and the Faculty of Health Sci- ences, The University of Western Ontario provided financial support for final stages of this project. Rod Millard Professor Emeritus (History) The University of Western Ontario April 2016 James Woycke Book Synopsis The first comprehensive history of bodybuilding in North America, Es- prit de Corps reveals how bodybuilding emerged from weightlifting as a popular sport. Inspired by 19th century strongmen Eugene Sandow and Louis Cyr, the muscles-by-mail icon Charles Atlas, as well as the musclemen movies of Steve Reeves in the mid 20th century, bodybuild- ing soon eclipsed weightlifting in popularity. Montreal brothers Ben and Joe Weider’s leadership was central to this evolution. From his par- ent’s modest Montreal home in 1940, teenage weightlifter Joe Weider launched his publishing and business empire, staging physique con- tests, and eventually founding the world’s premier bodybuilding organi- zation, the International Federation of Bodybuilders (1947). While Ben ran Canadian operations, fending off competitor Adrien Gagnon’s na- tionalist and racist attacks, Joe expanded the business into the United States encountering rival Bob Hoffman’s angry opposition, anti-Semitism, even allegations that Joe promoted homosexuality. A bitter feud re- sulted. Joe’s protégé, Arnold Schwarzenegger, revitalized the sport in the 70s and beyond, making it respectable and acceptable. In 1998, The International Olympic Committee recognized the sport officially. The use of performance enhancing drugs and a continuing debate over the ideal body type challenge bodybuilders today. Contents Foreword i Book Synopsis ii Chaper One Inspiration 1 Chaper Two Organization 27 Chaper Three Innovation 53 Chaper Four Confrontation 81 Chaper Five Transformation 109 Endnotes 139 James Woycke Chaper One Inspiration Modern bodybuilding owes its inspiration to new found social accep- tance of the muscled body. Throughout the nineteenth-century, strong men, mostly, and women won respect for their feats of strength, yet little admiration for their physiques. By the end of the 1800s, how- ever, performers legitimized strength in the eyes of the public when they moved from the carnival sideshow to Vaudeville music halls. Some of the star performers not only performed feats of strength but taught ordi- nary men and women how they, too, could become strong and healthy. With promoters like Eugen Sandow, Earle Liederman and Charles At- las, bodybuilding was born. With the foundation laid, Hollywood spread the image of physical perfection to millions of aspiring Tarzans and Her- cules. Sandow the Magnificent While many men and boys admired, respected, and briefly envied the strength of the old-time rotund, barrel-chested strongmen, very few wanted to look like them. That all changed with the arrival of Sandow "the Magnificent."Sandow combined the trim, fit, muscular physique of twentieth-century bodybuilding with the professional showmanship of the turn of the century to create a body, an image, and a performance that thrilled thousands of people in Europe and North America. In a word, "Sandow was beautiful."1 James Woycke Friedrich Wilhelm Mueller was born in Königsberg, East Prussia, on April 2, 1867. He grew up around the gymnastic tradition of Turnvater Jahn, but owed his real inspiration to the circus its spectacular feats. His parents dreamed he would attend medical school but their son preferred the stage and center ring. Mueller escaped his parents de- mands when he ran away to join the circus. With it, he travelled Europe and became further enchanted by the Greco-Roman statuary he saw in the Mediterranean countries. Mueller chose this classic physique as his model. Around 1887, Mueller teamed up with German Ludwig Durlacher, aka Professor Louis Attila, one of Europe’s first competent physical trainers. In 1887 Attila operated a gym in Brussels (then a center of physical culture in Europe), and that is where Mueller met and studied with him. When Mueller showed promise, Attila sent him on local exhibition tours to hone his posing and performance style.2 Most of the contemporary stage acts appeared in London sooner or later. Charles Sampson and the Polish strongman, "Cyclops," (Franz Bienkowski) were a hit in the British capital at the time, known for is- suing challenges to the audience which always went unanswered, at least until November 2, 1889. Attila and Sandow (Mueller adopted his mother’s maiden name for his stage persona, with Eugen borrowed from eugenics, the latest medical rage in the age of Social Darwinism) planted themselves in the audience and at the right moment rose to ac- cept the challenge. Sandow handily bested the braggarts which broke up their act and drove Cyclops to Canada where he tried the same stunt on Louis Cyr, with the same result.3 Sandow soon became the talk of the town, and audiences flocked to his performances, which combined impressive feats of strength with a professional stage show. For the first time the body of the strongman was just as important as his strength. As the New York World wrote at the time, "Sandow, posing in various statuesque attitudes, is not only inspiring because of his enormous strength, but absolutely beautiful as a work of art as well."4 In 1893 Sandow travelled to Chicago for the Columbian Exposition. The muscled phenom starred at the Trocadero Theater under the tute- lage of Florenz Ziegfeld, a Broadway impressario, who had discovered Esprit de Corps 3 Sandow in New York and brought him west to spruce up his own stage shows. Sandow did muscle posing, muscle control, and strength feats before retiring to his dressing room with an entourage of women from the audience who were invited to feel and admire his bare muscles (in 1896 Edison made a short film of Sandow so that everyone could share the "feeling" vicariously.) After dazzling Chicago, Sandow em- barked on a nationwide tour before returning to England. A Canadian who witnessed Sandow’s act in the 1890s remembered it vividly half a century later. His final feat certainly captivated the audience. Here was none of the old prosaic strongman stuff. It was showman- ship at its best. "A Greek God returned to Earth" as one re- porter expressed it in his newspaper. Now no doubt some contemporary man of Sandow could outdo him in feats of strength, but to the man on the street, who had seen the Sandow show, Sandow was the "ultima Thule" in man power.5 Back in Britain, Sandow entered a new phase of his career and em- braced new economic opportunities. While continuing to tour, he began teaching bodybuilding through books, including the lavishly illustrated Sandow’s System of Physical Training and by publishing Sandow’s Mag- azine of Physical Culture. He developed a mail-order course and sold a range training equipment through the mail. The strongman also opened several "Institutes of Physical Culture" to train pupils (including Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes) in the Sandow method. He used the Boer War (1899-1902) to preach the need for better health among Britons in order to ensure the vitality of the Empire.6 Sandow organized the first bodybuilding contest in 1901, the Septem- ber 1901 Great Competition at the Royal Albert Hall, advertised as "grandest and most comprehensive that had ever been mounted." Scarcely a decade after his arrival in London, "Sandow had done the seemingly impossible.