The Montague Brothers
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The Montague Brothers
The Montague Brothers was a strongman act of the early twentieth century made up of the three Woollaston brothers, Edwin John Woollaston (1876-1918), Alfred Montague Woollaston ( Monte Saldo), and Frank Harold Woollaston ( Frank Saldo). In the act, the Brothers displayed acts of strength including supporting a heavy motor car complete with passengers and 'The Sculptor's Dream'. Taking its name from the middle name of the act's founder, Alfred Montague Woollaston ( Monte Saldo), 'The Montague Brothers' grew out of the strongman act 'Ronco & Monte' - both of whom had served apprenticeships with famed strongman and bodybuilder Eugen Sandow. On 'Ronco & Monte' breaking up Monte Saldo then teamed up with his younger brother Frank Woollaston, and the new strongman act opened at the Hippodrome in London, followed by a European tour. During the tour the brothers appeared in Amsterdam, Dresden, Hamburg, Saxony, Prague and Paris, at the latter city regularly working out in the gymnasi ...
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Montague Brothers
Monte Saldo (1879 – 23 February 1949) (born as Alfred Montague Woollaston) was an early bodybuilder who later, with his brothers Frank Saldo and Edwin Woollaston, formed the stage act ''The Montague Brothers'', in which they displayed acts of strength including supporting a heavy motor car complete with passengers. With Maxick, he developed the Maxalding system of muscle control. Early years Born in Highgate in London, the son of George Frederick Woollaston (1828–1896), a shoe manufacturer who was medically documented for having 19 inch forearms, Methodist preacher and faith healer, and Adelaide Mary (née Green) (1849–1923), a woman who stood well over 6 feet tall. Saldo was interested in strength athletics as a youth, and in his teens joined the London Weightlifting Club in Regent Street in London. From May 1895 he worked as a booking clerk for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway at their office in Brighton's Grand Hotel. An uncle with connections in the ...
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Strongman (strength Athlete)
In the 19th century, the term strongman referred to an exhibitor of strength or similar circus performers who performed feats of strength. More recently, strength athletics, also known as strongman competitions, have grown in popularity. These competitions are now composed of a variety of events in which competitors have to move the highest weights possible, the winner being the one having the highest tally across all events. Description In the first half of the 20th century, strongmen would perform various feats of strength such as the bent press (not to be confused with the bench press, which did not exist at the time), supporting large amounts of weight held overhead at arm's length, steel bending, chain breaking, etc. They needed to have large amounts of wrist, hand, and tendon strength for these feats, as well as prodigious oblique strength. In the late 20th century the term ''strongman'' evolved to describe one who competes in strength athletics – a more modern e ...
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Monte Saldo
Monte Saldo (1879 – 23 February 1949) (born as Alfred Montague Woollaston) was an early bodybuilder who later, with his brothers Frank Saldo and Edwin Woollaston, formed the stage act ''The Montague Brothers'', in which they displayed acts of strength including supporting a heavy motor car complete with passengers. With Maxick, he developed the Maxalding system of muscle control. Early years Born in Highgate in London, the son of George Frederick Woollaston (1828–1896), a shoe manufacturer who was medically documented for having 19 inch forearms, Methodist preacher and faith healer, and Adelaide Mary (née Green) (1849–1923), a woman who stood well over 6 feet tall. Saldo was interested in strength athletics as a youth, and in his teens joined the London Weightlifting Club in Regent Street in London. From May 1895 he worked as a booking clerk for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway at their office in Brighton's Grand Hotel. An uncle with connections in the ...
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Frank Saldo
Frank Saldo (10 July 1882 – 1 June 1939) (born as Frank Harold Woollaston) was an early bodybuilder, and with his brothers Monte Saldo and Edwin Woollaston was a member of the strongman act ''The Montague Brothers'' in the early twentieth century. Early years Born in Holloway in London, the son of George Frederick Woollaston (1828–1896), a shoe manufacturer, Methodist preacher and faith healer, and Adelaide Mary (née Green) (1849–1923), like his older brother Monte, Frank Saldo developed an interest in Physical Culture at a young age and with his brother travelled in the stage act of Eugen Sandow in the late 1890s. In 1901 he went to the Sorbonne to study Physiology. While in Paris he modelled for a portrait of Icarus for the artist Albert Herter. Returning to London, from 1901 to 1902 he was at the Crystal Palace School of Physical Training in South London where he studied Remedial Exercises. Stage career In 1903 he joined his brothers Monte (Alfred Montague Wooll ...
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Bodybuilder
Bodybuilding is the use of progressive resistance exercise to control and develop one's muscles (muscle building) by muscle hypertrophy for aesthetic purposes. It is distinct from similar activities such as powerlifting because it focuses on physical appearance instead of strength. An individual who engages in this activity is referred to as a bodybuilder. In professional bodybuilding, competitors appear in lineups and perform specified poses (and later individual posing routines) for a panel of judges who rank them based on symmetry, muscularity, size, conditioning, posing, and stage presentation. Bodybuilders prepare for competitions through the elimination of nonessential body fat, enhanced at the last stage by a combination of extracellular dehydration and carbo-loading, to achieve maximum muscular definition and vascularity; they also tan and shave to accentuate the contrast of their skin under the spotlights. Bodybuilding takes a great amount of effort and time to rea ...
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Eugen Sandow
Eugen Sandow (born Friedrich Wilhelm Müller, ; 2 April 1867 – 14 October 1925) was a German bodybuilder and showman from Prussia. Born in Königsberg, Sandow became interested in bodybuilding at the age of ten during a visit to Italy. After a spell in the circus, Sandow studied under strongman Ludwig Durlacher in the late 1880s. On Durlacher's recommendation, he began entering strongman competitions, performing in matches against leading figures in the sport such as Charles Sampson, Frank Bienkowski, and Henry McCann. In 1901 he organised what is believed to be the world's first major bodybuilding competition. Set in London's Royal Albert Hall, Sandow judged the event alongside author Arthur Conan Doyle and athlete/sculptor Charles Lawes-Wittewronge. Early life Sandow was born to a family of Jewish origin in Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad), on 2 April 1867. His father was German, while his mother was of Russian descent. Although his parents were born Jewish, the f ...
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Hippodrome, London
The Hippodrome is a building on the corner of Cranbourn Street and Charing Cross Road in the City of Westminster, London. The name was used for many different theatres and music halls, of which the London Hippodrome is one of only a few survivors. ''wikt:hippodrome, Hippodrome'' is an archaic word referring to places that host horse races and other forms of equestrian entertainment. History Hippodrome The London Hippodrome was opened in 1900. It was designed by Frank Matcham for Moss Empires chaired by Edward Moss (impresario), Edward Moss and built for £250,000 as a hippodrome for circus and variety show, variety performances. The venue gave its first show on 15 January 1900, a music hall revue entitled "Giddy Ostend" with Little Tich. The conductor was Georges Jacobi. Entry to the venue was through a bar, dressed as a ship's saloon. The performance space featured both a proscenium stage and an arena that sank into a 230 ft, 100,000 gallon water tank (about 400 tons, w ...
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Edmond Desbonnet
Edmond Desbonnet (1867–1953) was a French academic and photographer who championed physical culture. He made physical education fashionable in ''Belle Époque The Belle Époque or La Belle Époque (; French for "Beautiful Epoch") is a period of French and European history, usually considered to begin around 1871–1880 and to end with the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Occurring during the era ...'' France through the publication of fitness journals and by opening a chain of exercise clubs. Journals *''La Culture Physique'' *''La Santé par les Sports'' Books *''La Force Physique: traité d’athlétisme'' Paris: Berger Levrault & Cie (1901) *''Les Rois de la Lutte'' (1910) *''Les Rois de la Force'', (1911, ''The Kings of Strength'') External links Early French Culture Physique photography by Professor Edmond Desbonnet & others 1867 births 1953 deaths French academics French photographers People associated with physical culture Belle Époque ...
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London Pavilion
The London Pavilion is a building on the corner of Shaftesbury Avenue and Coventry Street on the north-east side of Piccadilly Circus in London. It is currently a shopping arcade and part of the Trocadero Centre. Early history The first building bearing the name, a music hall formed from roofing the yard of the Black Horse Inn, was built in 1859 for Emil Loibl, and Charles Sonnhammer. A gallery was constructed for the hall but it could not utilize the full width, because one part of the premises was used by Dr. Kahn's "Delectable Museum of Anatomy". In 1885, Shaftesbury Avenue was built through part of the site, and a new London Pavilion Theatre was constructed. This opened on 30 November 1885 with a popular revue. The new theatre was the first 'music hall deluxe', with marble-topped tables for dining in the auditorium. According to Charles Stuart and A. J. Park in ''The Variety Stage'' (1895) the rebuilding signaled a new era of variety theatre:Hitherto the halls had borne un ...
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Darracq And Company London
A Darracq and Company Limited owned a French manufacturer of motor vehicles and aero engines in Suresnes, near Paris. The French enterprise, known at first as A. Darracq et Cie, was founded in 1896 by Alexandre Darracq after he sold his Gladiator Bicycle business. In 1902, it took effect in 1903, he sold his new business to a privately held English company named A Darracq and Company Limited, taking a substantial shareholding and a directorship himself. Alexandre Darracq continued to run the business from Paris but was obliged to retire to the Côte d'Azur in 1913 following years of difficulties that brought Darracq & Co into very hazardous financial circumstances. He had introduced an unproven unorthodox engine in 1911 which proved a complete failure yet he neglected Suresnes' popular conventional products. France then entered the first World War. He died in 1931 but long before that, in 1920, the name of A Darracq & Co 1905 was changed to STD Motors Limited. Then, in 1922, ...
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Saldo Sculptors Dream
Saldo is a surname that may refer to: Surname * Frank Saldo, stage name of Frank Harold Woollaston (1882–1939), an early bodybuilder, brother of Monte Saldo. * Monte Saldo Monte Saldo (1879 – 23 February 1949) (born as Alfred Montague Woollaston) was an early bodybuilder who later, with his brothers Frank Saldo and Edwin Woollaston, formed the stage act ''The Montague Brothers'', in which they displayed acts of ..., stage name of Alfred Montague Woollaston (1879–1949), an early bodybuilder, brother of Frank Saldo. * Volodymyr Saldo (born 1956), a Russian and Ukrainian politician who has served since 26 April 2022 as the head of the collaborationist Kherson military–civilian administration in Russian-occupied Ukraine. {{disambig ...
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William Bankier
William Bankier (10 December 1870 – 4 September 1949) billed as 'Apollo, the Scottish Hercules', was a strongman stage performer who in 1915 and 1919 was also 'King Rat' of the showbusiness charity the Grand Order of Water Rats. Early years Born in Banff in Scotland, the eldest of four sons of William Bankier (1845–1900), a hand loom weaver, and his wife Mary Ann (née Clark) (1844– 1901), as a child he became fascinated by the idea of being a circus performer, and aged 12 he ran away from home and joined a circus as a labourer. Soon after his father discovered his whereabouts and collected him, but a few months later Bankier ran away to sea, joining a ship's crew. After being shipwrecked he found himself in Montreal in Canada where he worked as a farm labourer. Aged 14 he joined Porgie O'Brien's Road Show where one of the acts was a strongman; Bankier studied his act and learned his routine. Strongman career When the road show's original strongman could not perform his ...
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