Eugen Sandow
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Eugen Sandow born Friederich Wilhelm Mueller (Königsberg, Germany, now Kaliningrad, Russia, April 2, 1867 – October 14, 1925) was a pioneering bodybuilder of the Victorian era and is often referred to as the "Father of Modern Bodybuilding".
Sandow had been a great avid admirer of Greek and Roman statues of gladiators and mythical heroes when his father took him to Italy as a boy. By the time he was 19, he was already performing strongman stunts in side shows. The legendary Florenz Ziegfeld saw the young strongman and hired him for his carnival show. He soon found that the audience was far more fascinated by Sandow's bulging muscles than by the amount of weight he was lifting, so Ziegfeld had Sandow perform poses which he dubbed "muscle display performances"... and the legendary strongman added these displays in addition to performing his feats of strength with barbells. He also added chain-around-the-chest breaking and other colorful displays to Sandow's routine. Sandow quickly became a sensation and Ziegfeld's first star.
Sandow's resemblance to the physiques found on classic Greek and Roman sculpture was no accident. He actually measured the marble artworks in museums and helped to develop "The Grecian Ideal" as a formula for the "perfect physique". He built his physique to those exact proportions. Because of this, he is considered to be the "Father of Modern Bodybuilding", having been one of the first athletes to intentionally develop his musculature to pre-determined dimensions.
Sandow performed all over Europe, and went to America to perform at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He could be seen in a black velvet-lined box with his body covered in white powder to appear even more like a marble statue come to life. His popularity grew, due his cultured appearance, high intelligence, and well-mannered disposition. He also dressed very well and had a charming European accent, coupled with deep blue eyes and hearty laugh. He wrote several books on bodybuilding, nutrition and encouraged a "healthy" lifestyle as being as important as having a sound mind.
He was married to Blanche Brooks Sandow and had two daughters. He was constantly in the company of other women who actually paid money to feel his flexed muscles back stage after his stage performances. He also had a close relationship to a male musician and composer he hired to accompany him during his shows. The man was Martinus Sieveking, a handsome pupil of Sandow who he featured in his book Sandow's System of Physical Training. The degree of their relationship has never been determined, but they lived together in New York for a time. It is clear Blanche was jealous of his relationships.
Lithograph - 1894
Library of Congress Collection
Sandow authored five books: Sandow's System of Physical Training, Strength and How To Obtain It, Body-Building, Strength and Health, and Life is Movement. He was also an erudite businessman. He owned a mail-order physical instruction and exercise equipment business and was the inventor of a unique spring-loaded dumbbell and a weighted rubber band resistance training system. His fame was instrumental in popularising home training equipment. He also produced Sandow Cigars, Sandow's Health & Strength Cocoa and Sandow, a magazine devoted to physical culture. He opened a Physical Culture Studio in London, one of the first health clubs to contrast starkly with the 'sweaty' gymnasiums that had already existed, and made exercise fashionable for all classes. Once having conquered Europe, he set out to conquer the world with his ideas of health for all through bodybuilding.
Sandow organized the first ever bodybuilding contest on September 14, 1901 called the "Great Competition" and held in the Royal Albert Hall, London, UK. Judged by himself, Sir Charles Lawes, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the contest was a huge success and was a sell-out with hundreds of fans turned away.
He was befriended by the likes of King George V of the United Kingdom, Thomas Edison and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He was portrayed by the actor Nat Pendleton in the film The Great Ziegfeld (1936).
At the time of his death in 1925, a "cover story" was released that Sandow died prematurely at age 58 of a stroke shortly after pushing his car out of the mud. The actual cause of death was more likely the painful complications from syphilis. He was buried in an unmarked grave at the request of his wife, Blanche (who never divorced him) at Putney Vale Cemetery near London. In 2002, a black marble marker was added by an admirer living nearby.
As recognition of his contribution to the sport of bodybuilding, a bronze statue of Sandow sculpted by Frederick Pomeroy has been presented to the Mr. Olympia winner since 1977. This statue is simply known as "The Sandow". A biography Sandow the Magnificent - Eugen Sandow and the Beginnings of Bodybuilding was written by David L. Chapman in 1994.
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[edit] References
- Chapman, David, "Eugen Sandow and the Birth of Bodybuilding", Hardgainer (May 1993)
- Chapman, David, Sandow the Magnificent: Eugen Sandow and the Beginnings of Bodybuilding (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1994)
[edit] Trivia
A wrestling columnist at the World Wrestling Insanity website uses the name "Eugene Sandow." It is unclear whether this is the columnist's real name.
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