Arthur Leslie

Arthur Leslie

Arthur Leslie was just a guy who trained at Sig Klein's Gym in New York City. The reason Leslie began training in the first place is that he became tired of being weak and overweight. At 46 years years old he had never touched a weight before but soon after he began training he began to see tremendous results. In fact his results were so dramatic, Sig Klein featured him in several occasions in his publication Klein's Bell. Here he is with a great Thick-Handled show barbell. Leslie was 59 years of age when this picture was taken.

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Klein's Gym

Klein's Gym

I've shown plenty of shots of the inside of Sig Klein's Gym but here's a rare shot of the outside. Klein's Gym was located at 717 Seventh Avenue and was hard to miss with the huge picture of Sig out front.

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Yet Another Look at Sig Klein's Gym

Sig Klein's Gym

Yes, we have shown it before but Sig Klein's gym never goes out of style.

Here's another shot clearly showing the rich, oak panneling, great collection of oldtime globe barbells and antique weights and the Persian rug on the floor (better take your shoes off before you train at Sig's place!)

This shot was taken before Sig had a shelf built around the perimeter of the gym for his world-famous beer stein collection.

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Sig Klein's Roman Column

A look at Sig Klein using the Roman Column at his famous gym. It was actually Sig's father-in-law Professor Attila who invented the Roman Column. The Roman Column was actually used more as a demonstration of strength than as a means of developing strength. When used for strength feats, the performer would lower his body directly to the ground, pick up a weight and then sit up with it. Eugen Sandow was a master at this strength feat.

Sig Klein's Roman Column

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Elwood Holbrook - Master of the Bent Press

Elwood Holbrook - Master of the Bent Press
Elwood Holbrook took 4th at the 1941 AAU Mr. America Contest AND took home the "Best Arms" award (He had also competed in the afternoon's weightlifting contest where he finished 6th with a 715-pound total in the 165-pound class.)

While Holbrook was a very talented strength athlete and equally good at bodybuilding as well as weightlifting, his real gift was the bent press -- he won the national Bent-Press Championship in a contest held by Sig Klein.

Holbrook was also one of the few men to bent press the famous Rolandow Dumbbell - a feat which he did on his first try and without a warmup.

Here's a shot of a 48-year old Elwood Holbrook bent-pressing 240 pounds -- 75 pounds above his bodyweight. That unique dumbbell belonged to Paul Anderson.

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Another Look At Sig Klein's Gym

Another Look At Sig Klein's Gym
What a place to train! -- Here's another look at Sig Klein's Gym located in Times Square, downtown New York.

The thing that makes a gym truly great is the atmosphere -- and Sig's place had it. You can just tell that many great workouts took place here.

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Sig Klein's Gym

Sig Klein's Gym
You've seen Sig Klein's Gym plenty of times on thsi Blog before, but I guarantee you've never seen it from this angle. This candid shot was actually reflected in a mirror. That's the old master Sig Klein in the middle, teaching someone how to use the gymnastic rings.

To the right, you can just make out Steve Reeves.

Klein's Gym sure had a lot of character, plenty of dark wood and globe dumbbells. Notice the Sandow and Saxon statues and Klein's world famous beer stein collection.

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The Famous Rolandow Dumbbell

The Famous Rolandow Dumbbell
The Rolandow Dumbbell has a very interesting history. It was originally cast by the McLoughlin Iron Foundry in Brooklyn, New York in 1896 at the request of Warren Lincoln Travis who wanted to use it in his act.

The dumbbell was supposed to be 200 lbs. but came out of the mold just over it at 209lbs.

A few years went by and fellow strongman G.W. Rolandow offered to purchase it from Travis, on the condition that Travis deliver the bell himself.

Travis grabbed the bell, hopped on the nearest street car, transfered twice and carried the bell two blocks and up two flights of steps to Rolandow's office.

Rolandow then stated that unless he could lift the dumbbell, there would be no sale. And with that, we walked over to it, hefted it to his shoulder and commenced to bent-press it no less than seven times!

After several decades, Rolandow closed his gym and his famous dumbbell eventually became acquired by Sig Klein who featured it as a challenge weight in his gym.

If someone could succeed in bent-pressing the Rolandow Dumbbell, Klein put their name on an Honor Roll, here's how it looked:

(1) G.W. Rolandow...................1900
(2) John Grimek.........................1934
(3) Bob Hoffman........................1936
(4) Wally Zagurski..................1936
(5) John Davis............................1936
(6) Jack Kent..........................1937
(7) Frank Bates........................1937
(8) Bob Harley.........................1937
(9) Siegmund Klein...................1939
(10) Aurele Velleux..................1939
(11) George Hobby...................1940
(12) Elwood Holbrook...............1941

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The Roman Column

The Roman Column
As mentioned several times on this blog, it was Professor Attila who invented the Roman Column.

Shown here, the Roman Column is an actual column in which the traineee hangs suspended vertially and moves to a horizontal position using the power of his legs and abdominal muscles.

Eugen Sandow used to perform this feat either holding a heavy barbell or a human being.

On the left is the original Roman Column, in one corner of Sig Klein's Time's Square Gym.

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