BY FUNCLUBINNOVATIONS
Eugen Sandow
Bodybuilding developed in the late 19th century, promoted in England by German Eugen Sandow, now called the “Father of Bodybuilding”. … The Oscar-winning 1936 musical film The Great Ziegfeld depicts this beginning of modern bodybuilding, when Sandow began to display his body for carnivals.
Eugen_Sandow_(1867-1925)
Sandow was so successful at flexing and posing his physique that he later created several businesses around his fame, and was among the first to market products branded with his name. He was credited with inventing and selling the first exercise equipment for the masses: machined dumbbells, spring pulleys, and tension bands. Even his image was sold by the thousands in “cabinet cards” and other prints. Sandow was a perfect “Gracilian”, a standard of ideal body proportions close to those of ancient Greek and Roman statues. Men were judged by how closely they matched these proportions.
First large-scale bodybuilding competition
Sandow organized the first bodybuilding contest on September 14, 1901, called the “Great Competition”. It was held at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Judged by Sandow, Sir Charles Lawes, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the contest was a great success and many bodybuilding enthusiasts were turned away due to the overwhelming amount of audience members.The trophy presented to the winner was a gold statue of Sandow sculpted by Frederick Pomeroy. The winner was William L. Murray of Nottingham. The silver Sandow trophy was presented to second-place winner D. Cooper. The bronze Sandow trophy, now the most famous of all, was presented to third-place winner A.C. Smythe. In 1950, this same bronze trophy was presented to Steve Reeves for winning the inaugural NABBA Mr. Universe. It would not resurface again until 1977 when the winner of the IFBB Mr. Olympia contest, Frank Zane, was presented with the bronze trophy, or at least a replica of it. Since then, Mr. Olympia winners have been awarded a replica of the bronze trophy.
On January 16, 1904, the first large-scale bodybuilding competition in America took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The competition was promoted by Bernarr Macfadden, the father of physical culture and publisher of the original bodybuilding magazines such as Health & Strength. The winner was Al Treloar, who was declared “The Most Perfectly Developed Man in the World”.Treloar won a $1,000 cash prize, a substantial sum at that time. Two weeks later, Thomas Edison made a film of Treloar’s posing routine. Edison had also made two films of Sandow a few years before. Those were the first three motion pictures featuring a bodybuilder. In the early 20th century, Macfadden and Charles Atlas continued to promote bodybuilding across the world. Alois P. Swoboda was an early pioneer in America.