The Strongest Men on Earth by Graeme Kent

Author:Graeme Kent [Graeme Kent]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781849544894
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
Published: 2012-06-16T04:00:00+00:00

Gathering converts to his cause all over North America, Sandow soon found many men determined to imitate his success. One man of particular annoyance was a competitor who went by the name of Sandowe. His real name was Irving Montgomery, although in some contemporary law court accounts which littered his career he appears as Montgomery Irving. He was naturally big and strong, and hailed from Birmingham in the UK, drifting into the strongman business when Sampson and his partner Cyclops visited the area with their act. The impressive-looking Irving had accepted Cyclops’s challenge from the stage for a wrestling match. To deter potential opponents and gain a psychological advantage over them, it was announced before the exhibition that no champion professional grappler would take Cyclops on unless the latter agreed to omit certain lethal holds and throws from his repertoire. Actually the coin-breaker was not nearly as rugged as he appeared. When Irving materialised with his challenge, both Sampson and Cyclops were worried. They were considerably relieved when, as he was getting changed backstage for the bout, Irving intimated casually that for a trifling consideration of a £5 note he would throw the bout to Cyclops.

As it happened, when they entered the ring Cyclops discovered, somewhat to his surprise, that he could defeat the Birmingham strongman without resorting to bribery. Nevertheless, Irving’s pragmatic approach to victory and defeat had impressed Cyclops. When he and Sampson subsequently parted company he invited Irving to join him in a new professional pairing and accompany him on a tour to the United States.

In order to boost Irving’s reputation before they left the UK, in 1895 Cyclops arranged a public trial of strength between his new partner and his former one. Irving met Sampson at the Grand Theatre of Varieties, Liverpool. Sampson defied Irving to duplicate a series of feats. As the younger man looked on with growing trepidation, Charles Sampson lifted a barbell from the floor to his chest, then overhead, back to his shoulders and then to the floor. He then bent a series of iron bars out of shape by smashing them against his arms. Finally the man from Alsace-Lorraine stood on a chair with his feet strapped to the seat, bent over, picked up a heavy dumbbell from the stage and lifted it overhead. Irving tried in vain to duplicate the feats but left the stage admitting failure.

Soon after, Irving and Cyclops were on the other side of the Atlantic, with Irving adopting the professional nomenclature of Sandowe, hoping to use this alias to pick up theatrical bookings in more remote areas of the country. It did not work. Soon Irving was being referred to scornfully in newspapers as ‘the false Sandow’. The New York Dramatic Mirror of 5 March 1894 wrote: ‘Sandow has not only a rival but a fraudulent imitator in a person calling himself “Sandowe” who recently appeared at the Buckingham Theatre in Louisville.’

Nevertheless, the spiky and notoriously litigious Eugen Sandow could not allow this passing off to proceed unchallenged.

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