By Ray Hulm
Wrestling Heritage welcomes memories, further information and corrections.
On the day that I retired from my final job as a lockkeeper I left the following on the wall. …… ” I started work at fifteen years of age. Worked on the river and at sea but I also worked in factories and fields, in the circus and in films. I never achieved much. But I never crossed a picket line. Never judged a fellow worker by their colour or creed Nor sucked up to the bosses for my own ends”….. Pretty much sums it all up.
The Mighty Sandow
Few people today will have heard of Eugen Sandow but during the last two decades of the 19th century, and for many years after, his was literally a household name. He was the most famous of the old time music hall wrestlers and strength athletes and went on to develop his own system of physical training and lay the foundation of, not only modern bodybuilding, but physical education in general.
Rich from the proceeds of all this he could have rested on his laurels, but instead went on to use his fame as a tireless social campaigner. As might be expected, Sandow was keen on the benefits of exercise, but he went far beyond this and campaigned vigorously for the introduction of free school meals, improved housing, health and safety at work,sanitary inspectors and family allowances.
In all of this he was way ahead of his time. His feats of strength have long been surpassed but to my mind today’s sporting heroes, unable in many cases to see beyond a celebrity lifestyle and a colour spread in Hello magazine, they don’t compare to the Mighty Sandow.
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