Eugen Sandow
Born	Friederich Wilhelm Müller April 2, 1867(1867-04-02) Königsberg, Prussia
Died	October 14, 1925 (aged 58) London
Resting place	Putney Vale Cemetery
Known for	Bodybuilding

Eugen Sandow (April 2, 1867 – October 14, 1925), born Friedrich Wilhelm Müller, was a Prussian pioneering bodybuilder in 19th century and is often referred to as the "Father of Modern Bodybuilding".

[edit] Early life

Sandow was born in Königsberg, Prussia, in 1867, in what is today Kaliningrad, the center of a Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania. He left Prussia in 1885 to avoid military service and in 1889 he made his first appearance on the London stage.^[1]

Florenz Ziegfeld knew that Maurice Grau had Sandow under a contract.^[2] Ziegfeld wanted to display Sandow at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.^[3] Grau wanted $1,000 a week. Ziegfeld could not guarantee $1,000 a week but agreed to paying 10 per cent of the gross receipts.^[2]

Sandow in 1894

Ziegfeld found that the audience was 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 Ziegfeld's first star.

In 1894, Sandow featured in a short film by the Edison Studios.^[4] The film was of only part of the show and features him flexing his muscles rather than performing any feats of physical strength. While the content of the film reflects the audience attention being primarily focused on his appearance it also made use of the unique capacities of the new medium. Film theorists have attributed the appeal being the striking image of a detailed image moving in synchrony, much like the example of the Lumière brothers' Repas de bébé where audiences were reportedly more impressed by the movement of trees swaying in the background than the events taking place in the foreground. In 1894, he appeared in a short Kinetoscope film that was part of the first commercial motion picture exhibition in history.

He created the Institute of Physical Culture, an early gymnasium for body builders in 1897.^{[1] [3]}

He held the first major body-building contest at the Royal Albert Hall on September 14, 1901.^[1] It was called the "Great Competition". It was judged by himself, athlete and sculptor Sir Charles Lawes, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.^[5]

[edit] Death

The Sandow: Lithograph - 1894 from the Library of Congress

He died in London on October 14, 1925 of a stroke, age 58.^[6][7]

He was buried in an unmarked grave in Putney Vale Cemetery at the request of his wife, Blanche. In 2002, a gravestone and black marble plaque was added by Sandow admirer and author Thomas Manly. The inscription (in gold letters) read "Eugen Sandow, 1867-1925 the Father of bodybuilding." In 2008, the grave was bought by Chris Davies, who is Sandow's great-great-grandson.

Manly's items were removed from the grave by Davies, on the anniversary of Eugen Sandow's birth on April 2, 2008. A new one and one half tonne natural pink sandstone is in place. Simply inscribed "SANDOW" in the vertical as in the ancient Greek funerary ornament called a "Stele".

[edit] Legacy

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). Sandow was also a close friend to Martinus Sieveking, featuring him in his book Sandow's System of Physical Training.

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. In 2002 a novel For The Love Of Eugen was published by author Thomas Manly which is a ghost story featuring Sandow as the leading character.

He was also featured in an episode of the Adult Swim smash hit show "The Venture Brothers" titled "ORB", where he was portrayed as the Office of Secret Intelligence-appointed bodyguard of Col. Lloyd Venture, a late 19th century ancestor of The Venture family. In the episode he tells, through a gramophone cylinder, a zeppelin sky battle between Nikola Tesla and his allies, and a mysterious Guild of historical figures (among them Oscar Wilde, Aleister Crowley, and Mark Twain), all protecting a mysterious Orb. Their world is being torn asunder, which leads various members of the Guild (in particular, Fantômas) to suggest activating the Orb, even though its function is ambiguous. Sandow's narrative implies that he was forced to kill Colonel Venture, under OSI orders, upon his decision to activate the Orb; however, in later episode "The Revenge Society" it is revealed that he in fact merely sabotaged the Orb in order to save his beloved employer, and then agreed along with Venture himself to never tell that it was damaged.

[edit] The Grecian Ideal

Sandow models the statue The Dying Gaul, illustrating his Grecian Ideal.

Sandow's resemblance to the physiques found on classical Greek and Roman sculpture was no accident, as he measured the statues in museums and helped to develop "The Grecian Ideal" as a formula for the "perfect physique." Sandow built his physique to the exact proportions of his Grecian Ideal, and is considered the father of modern bodybuilding, as one of the first athletes to intentionally develop his musculature to pre-determined dimensions. In his books Strength and How to Obtain It and Sandow's System of Physical Training, Sandow laid out specific prescriptions of weights and repetitions in order to achieve his ideal proportions.

[edit] Publications

• Sandow's System of Physical Training
• Sandow, Eugen (1897). Strength and How To Obtain It.. http://books.google.com/books?id=B6SUQ2ioaLgC&printsec=frontcover&dq. 
• Body-Building
• Strength and Health
• Life is Movement
• The Construction and Reconstruction of the Human Body
• Sandow's Magazine of Physical Culture

[edit] See also

• List of professional bodybuilders
• Martinus Sieveking
• Strongman (strength athlete)

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• 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] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Eugen Sandow

• EugenSandow.com
• Eugen Sandow & The Golden Age of Iron Men
• Works by or about Eugen Sandow at Internet Archive (scanned books original editions color illustrated)
• Eugen Sandow at the Internet Movie Database
• Eugene Sandow in several famous poses: 1., 2., 3., 4., 5., 6., 7., 8., 9., 10.