PART 1 – EUGEN SANDOW
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Thomas Edison
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Thomas Alva Edison, of Dutch ancestry, was born on February 11, 1847 [died October 18, 1931] in Milan, Ohio, U.S.A. Edison is considered one of the most prolific inventors in history, holding over 1,000 U.S. patents in his name as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France and Germany. Among his most celebrated inventions … the Phonograph, the Electric Light Bulb, the Kinetograph (motion picture camera) and the Kinetoscope (motion picture viewer).[1]
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Eugen Sandow
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Eugen Sandow was born Friederich Wilhelm Müller in Königsberg, Prussia [now Kaliningrad, Russia] on April 2, 1867 [died October 14, 1925]. Sandow, considered the most famous bodybuilder in the early days of the sport, made his living as a sideshow strongman, flexing his muscles in various poses in addition to performing feats of strength.[2]
Eugen Sandow was the first star to perform before Edison’s Kinetograph camera. The film reprises the opening of his stage routine in which, according to the New York Times, he performed "a number of ‘tableaux vivants’ [living pictures] to the accompaniment of slow music and much perspiration, with his mighty muscles standing out in bold relief in the white glare of an electric light." [3]
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Eugen Sandow and Thomas Edison
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Sandow had become a vaudeville star at the Chicago Columbian World Exposition and then settled into a long run as the headline attraction at Koster & Bial’s Music Hall in New York City. His visit to the Edison "Black Maria" studio [in East Orange, New Jersey] was widely covered in the press, as Edison and Sandow met and shook hands: the strongest man in the world meeting the most brilliant inventor of the age. That meeting, combined with the film of Sandow’s performance, was used as a promotional tool by both men: it effectively promoted the strongman’s book "Sandow on Physical Training" that appeared shortly thereafter, and it provided valuable publicity for the commercial debut of Edison’s Kinetoscope, then just five weeks away.[3]
The first of two clips, lasting 42 seconds, was filmed on March 6, 1894 [copyright May 18, 1984]. The filmmakers were William K.L. Dickson and William Heise, both then under the employ of Thomas Edison. It shows Sandow performing one of his "muscle display performances". Watch the first few seconds VERY carefully as Sandow places his arms behind his head and you will see his skill and control in making his biceps "dance".
The original print of this film is at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences in California. There have been three negatives made from it. One is held at the Academy, one was given to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. and the last is held by the "Silent Majority", a film preservation and historic society. It is presented here for your enjoyment 114 years after it was made.
The second clip, lasting 27 seconds, copyrighted June 11, 1903, shows Sandow in one of his "muscle display performances".
The beauty of these two film clips rests in the fact that they are over 100 years old; were captured using the Kinetograph, invented by Thomas Edison; and the star was Eugen Sandow, a bodybuilder whose memory lives on in the Sandow statuette, the most prestigious award in bodybuilding.
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PART 2 – ALBERT TRELOAR AND BEATRICE MARSHALL
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Albert Treloar
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Albert Treloar (A.T.Jennings) was a stage assistant to Eugen Sandow himself. He then went on to produce a stage show featuring his own strongman stunts, and upon winning a 1903 contest, increased in popularity with the public. He performed under the title "Albert, the Perfect Man". He soon wrote a book entitled "Treloar’s Science of Muscular Development." Treloar went on to attend Harvard University, obtaining his degree in Physical Education. While there, he was a championship varsity oarsman and all-around athlete.
The film clip shows about a minute of a bodybuilding show at Stanford White’s magnificent original Madison Square Garden in New York on December 29, 1903 (when it was actually on Madison Square at the site of the current New York Life Building). This film was made by Thomas Edison himself.
In the clip, Treloar wears leopard skin posing trunks (this outfit was seen as that of the mythical hero "Hercules" and was symbolic of great strength). He displays his physique in a smooth and effective fashion to Edison’s camera. Treloar was declared "The Most Perfectly Developed Man in the World" and won the $1,000 cash prize … a remarkable sum of money in those days! This film was made about 2 weeks after that night of bodybuilding performances on January 16, 1904. Some of the poses may seem odd to us today, but the transitions from one movement to the next are flawlessly performed and it is clear Treloar had developed a routine that showed his musculature in angles clearly copied from Greco-Roman sculpture. He would cut a fine figure even by today’s standards. For over 40 years, Treloar was the director of physical education at the famed Los Angeles Athletic Club in California. He trained countless men in bodybuilding during those many years.
Miss Beatrice Marshall, who is seen first on the clip, was declared the winner of the same title in the woman’s category and also received $1,000 for her efforts. She clearly shows that femininity and a sense of innocence was paramount in posing for women back then. Her figure, though rather "Rubenesque" to us today, was considered the height of feminine form in 1903.
The original paper print of this film is in the collection of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
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