Siegmund Breitbart: Chain Biter

Siegmund Breitbart: Chain Biter Siegmund Breitbart was a strongman of many unusual talents... Like many of the oldtime strongmen, he performed feats such as bending steel bars, nail driving, supporting feats etc etc but one type of strength that he was simply in a class by himself was the strength of his jaw. He could pull cars or wagons with his teeth but even more amazing was that he could bite clean through steel chain links. Yes, real steel, real chains, one of which is pictured on the right. This feat is almost to incredible to be true. Amazingly enough, the Mighty Atom was able to accomplish this feat as well.

The Actual Chain that Breitbart bit through

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The Mighty Atom - Chain Biting

The Mighty Atom - Chain Biting

Among the Mighty Atom's incredible feats was the ability to bite steel chains and nails clean in half. The results are shown in the inset. Amazingly, The Atom was not the only strongman who could perform this feat Siegmund Breitbart could do it as well.

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Arthur Saxon's Incredible Plank Feat

Arthur Saxon's Incredible Plank Feat
If you needed further proof that Arthur Saxon was one of the strongest men who ever lived, behold the following:

Arthur and the other members of the Saxon Trio used to perform several supporting feats in their act and for these feats, they employed a large, heavy wooden plank.

Unbeknownst to many, they also used this plank as a training tool to develop grip strength, each taking turns lifting it in various ways between their shows. While the other brothers did their best to deadlift it, Arthur Saxon could actually snatch the plank overhead with ease, something no one else could duplicate and a feat which humbled noted Strongman Siegmund Breitbart who visited the Trio at the Bush Circus in 1922 Berlin, Germany.

Kurt Saxon considered this to be Arthur Saxon's greatest strength feat... pretty impressive condsidering some of Arthur's other record achievements.

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Siegmund Breitbart vs. The Iron Girder

Siegmund Breitbart vs. The Iron Girder
Siegmind Breitbart was a great Oldtime Strongman with a number of incredible strength feats in his repertoire. He was best known as a Steel Bender and a Nail Driver but here's one you probably haven't seen:

Here's Siegmund Breitbart bending a 32-foot Iron Girder over his head. There's 12 people on each side. - YOW! This picture was taken October 29th, 1923 in Cleveland, Ohio.

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Steel Scrolling

A Classic Oldtime Strength Feat: Steel Scrolling
Steel Scrolling, also called "coiling," is a classic Oldtime Stength Feat that involves bending long steel bars by hand into artistic shapes.

The list of great oldtime steel scrollers is actually quite extensive: Siegmund "Iron King" Breitbart, Alexander "The Amazing Samson" Zass, Indian Strongman Monotosh Roy, and, of course, Joe "The Mighty Atom" Greenstein.

This lost art is still kept alive by several modern strongmen such as Slim The Hammerman, Dennis Rogers and Erik Vining.

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The Hand Bent Horse Shoe

Siegmund Breitbart

Many of the Oldtime Strongmen were strong enough to bend their own horseshoes by hand. On the left you'll see see a piece of square stock hand-bent by the famous Oldtime Strongman Siegmund Breitbart. Notice that it has bent on the edge, not the side, which is how you can tell this piece of steel has legitimately been bent by hand.

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Siegmund Breitbart: The Iron King

Siegmund Breitbart

In the early part of the 20th Century, Siegmund Breitbart was one of the most well-nown strongmen the world had ever seen and stories of his great strength graced newspapers all across the country. He bent steel bars, drove nails with his hands, supported automobiles, twisted horse shoes, pulled wagons with his teeth and even bit through chains! Breitbart was from a family of blacksmiths and was known professionally as "The Iron King" -- like many strongmen of the period, he also had his own mail-order training course. He would probably have ended up a household name had he not tragically passed away from blood poisoning at the age of 42.

The movie "Invincible," (2001) directed by Werner Herzog, was loosely based on his life.

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