How did I not know of this earlier? I had been planning to write about the history of bodybuilding forums this week (watch this space) but events overtook me. Listening to a wrestling podcast this morning (WrestleMe, and it is wonderful), I learned that video footage of a George Hackenschmidt match had been digitized and released online. This is incredible for several reasons. First, video footage of physical culturists in their prime is tough to find. We have 3 small snippets of Sandow from the early 1890s, a video of Al Treloar flexing his muscles and then little snippets and half-snatches of various strongmen and women. This video, of the ‘Russian Lion‘ is several minutes long and shows him in a wrestling match.
Next, we have the contest itself which serves as a reminder that many early physical culturists were also wrestlers. Hackenschmidt (whose full bio can be found here) was probably the most famous example of this but we know that others, including Sandow, also wrestled. The actual split between wrestling and weightlifting came a lot later than many people realise as, indeed, wrestling clubs were often paired with weightlifting or physical culture clubs.
Finally, this gives up hope for even more. Three months ago any material I had on Hack began and ended with still images. What other materials are in an archive somewhere waiting to be rediscovered? Hope springs eternal etc. etc.
Listen, I love this and want you to enjoy it. Here we see the physicality and size of one of physical culture’s most important figures!
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