Italian Strongman Archives - www.oldtimestrongman.com

Nino’s Cannon

Posted on Thursday, February 28th, 2019 by John Wood

We’ve covered Nino before (here, here, and here. One thing is for sure, Nino always made things interesting. Here he is just about to backlift a 1150 kg cannon!

The Incredible Arms of Clevio Massimo

Posted on Thursday, May 24th, 2018 by John Wood

It was said that Clevio Massimo’s family was descended from great Roman athletes of antiquity. That certainly isn’t too difficult to believe, Tony was one of the most muscular men who ever lived and excelled at a number of great feats. He could support a piano and player in the Tomb of Hercules position, bend spikes and tear phone books. Massimo was also a great Hand Balancer and wrestler — he only weighed 190 pounds but you would never think it looking at his pictures.

Louis Sciorato – The Italian Giant

Posted on Saturday, February 17th, 2018 by John Wood

Louis Sciorato, billed at “The Italian Giant” was a fixture on the west coast vaudeville circuits in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. Sciorato bent and scrolled steel and performed the human link feat between two airplanes. He had a standing offer of $1000 (about $15,000 in today’s money adjusted for inflation) for anyone who could duplicate his feats and even had a blacksmith on call just to verify everything was on the level.

Felice Napoli

Posted on Wednesday, January 3rd, 2018 by John Wood

One of the earliest of the Oldtime Strongmen, Felice Napoli of Italy was performing incredible feats of strength in Wallshlager’s Circus in the 1850’s. Napoli dressed as the mythical Hercules as he performed and certainly lived up to it: Napoli’s act consisted of his having a cannon shot off while held on his shoulders, bending iron bars, lifting heavy weights while hanging upside down from a trapeze, The Tomb of Hercules, and performing feats while hanging on a vertically suspended rope, a type of feat known as “The Spanish Web’. Plus, he had an excellent goatee.

Romulus

Posted on Monday, April 17th, 2017 by John Wood

The stage name of the Italian Strongman Cosimo Molino was “Romulus,” of course, he had a partner “Remus,” their names a call back to the mythical founders of Rome. Romulus stood 5’3″ and weighed only 167 pounds and it was said that he has a 25 inch thigh. At one time, Romulus was easily one of the strongest men of all time, not pound-for-pound, but all time as in 1892, he performed a single-arm push of a 109 lb. dumbbell for 22 repetitions! He performed many other impressive feats with heavy dumbbells. Romulus was a student of professor Attila.

Nino The Carousel

Posted on Monday, December 26th, 2016 by John Wood

The Italian strongman “Nino” figured out very early on that making a lift impressive went far beyond mere poundage, “what” was lifted was a big part of it too, and he had a flair for making his feats remarkable productions. Here’s a perfect example: Nino as the fulcrum in a carousel consisting of two motor cars. This was the early 1900’s so those cars had to weigh a few thousand pounds apiece, and to boot each was also filled with an additional four people. — I’d certainly pay to see that.

The Great Orlando

Posted on Thursday, February 12th, 2015 by John Wood

The Great Orlando was another excellent steel bending strongman from Florence, Italy. Unsurprisingly, a steady diet of long bar steel scrolling led to some big strong hands and a knotty pair of forearms.

Nino’s Lift

Posted on Saturday, December 20th, 2014 by John Wood

Nino, the Italian strongman, favored heavy and impressive supporting feats in his act. In the lift pictured above, Nino supported 500kg in the crooks of his arms consisting of a “human dumbbell” filled with six people. Quite impressive!

Primo Carnera

Posted on Friday, February 21st, 2014 by John Wood

Heavyweight champ Primo Carnera was a “strong man” as well as a strongman. Here’s “The Preem” doing a ‘Muscle Out’ of a pretty good size kid. I’d say that’s a hundred pounds at least. Strong shoulders obviously come in pretty handy in the ring.

Tullio Camillotti

Posted on Wednesday, November 27th, 2013 by John Wood

Tullio Camillotti was an early Italian, weightlifter, strongman and wrestler who won Italy’s first Olympic medal in weightlifting. At the 1906 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, Camillotti took home the Silver medal in the “One-Hand Lifting” contest. (Heinrich Schneidereit won Bronze while Josef Grafl won Gold.)