Joseph Bonomo (December 25, 1901 – March 28, 1978) was a famous American

weightlifter Olympic weightlifting, or Olympic-style weightlifting (officially named Weightlifting), is a sport in which athletes compete in lifting a barbell loaded with weight plates from the ground to overhead, with each athlete trying to successfully lif ...

strongman 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. Thes ...

, film

stunt performer A stunt performer, often called a stuntman or stuntwoman and occasionally stuntperson or stunt-person, is a trained professional who performs daring acts, often as a career. Stunt performers usually appear in films or on television, as opposed ...

, and actor.

Biography

Bonomo was born to Esther and Albert Bonomo,

Sephardic Jew Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefa ...

ish immigrants from Smyrna, Turkey. His mother emigrated to the United States in 1890 or 1893 and his father in 1894; both lived for a time in France before sailing to their respective emigrations. As a child Bonomo built himself into a strongman, winning the "Mr. Modern Apollo" contest of 1921, for which the prizes included a ten-week movie contract. He began as a

stunt double In filmmaking, a double is a person who substitutes FOR another actor such that the person's face is not shown. There are various terms associated with a double based on the specific body part or ability they serve as a double for, such as stunt ...

, soon doubling for

Lon Chaney Leonidas Frank "Lon" Chaney (April 1, 1883 – August 26, 1930) was an American actor. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and affli ...

in ''

The Hunchback of Notre Dame ''The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'' (french: Notre-Dame de Paris, translation=''Our Lady of Paris'', originally titled ''Notre-Dame de Paris. 1482'') is a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. It focuses on the unfortunate story o ...

'' and then playing a variety of roles. He lost the role of

Tarzan Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adv ...

in ''

Tarzan the Mighty ''Tarzan the Mighty'' is a 1928 American action film serial directed by Jack Nelson and Ray Taylor. It was nominally based on the collection ''Jungle Tales of Tarzan'' by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The film is now considered to be lost. Cast * ...

'' when he injured himself before shooting. Bonomo took interest in

dieting Dieting is the practice of eating food in a regulated way to decrease, maintain, or increase body weight, or to prevent and treat diseases such as diabetes and obesity. As weight loss depends on calorie intake, different kinds of calorie-redu ...

and

physical culture Physical culture, also known as Body culture, is a health and strength training movement that originated during the 19th century in Germany, the UK and the US. Origins The physical culture movement in the United States during the 19th century ...

. His 1954 book ''Power Plus Cable Course'' was endorsed by

Bernarr Macfadden Bernarr Macfadden (born Bernard Adolphus McFadden, August 16, 1868 – October 12, 1955) was an American proponent of physical culture, a combination of bodybuilding with nutritional and health theories. He founded the long-running magazine pu ...

. In 1951 he authored ''Calorie Counter and Control Guide'', which sold 17 million copies.Smith, Andrew F. (2017). ''Food in America: The Past, Present, and Future of Food, Farming, and the Family Meal, Volume 1''. ABC-Clio. p. 97.

Selected filmography

Selected publications

*''Bonomo Power Plus System of Physical Development'' (1944) *''How To Relax'' (1943) *''Building Body Power'' (1950) *''Calorie Counter and Control Guide'' (1951) *''Mighty Joe Bonomo's Famous 3-week Speed Course in Super-strength Dynamic Energy, Greater Health'' (1952) *''The Famous Joe Bonomo 'Power-Plus' Cable-Course'' (1954) *''The Scientific & Easy Way to Gain Weight'' (1958) *''The Strongman: Pictorial Autobiography of Joe Bonomo'' (1968)

References

*Bonomo, Joe ''Strongman: A True Life Pictorial Autobiography of the Hercules of the Screen'' Kessinger Publishing, 2007.

External links

Joe Bonomo is my Hero
* 1901 births 1978 deaths Advertising campaigns American bodybuilders American male film actors American male silent film actors American stunt performers American exercise and fitness writers Strength training writers American people of Turkish-Jewish descent American Sephardic Jews Jewish American sportspeople 20th-century American male actors Diet food advocates Male actors from New York City People associated with physical culture People from Coney Island 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American Jews {{US-entertainer-stub