Nat Pendleton on The Cover of Physical Culture

Posted on Monday, March 1st, 2021 by John Wood
Nat Pendleton was a fantastic college wrestler at Columbia University (team captain and 2x EIWA Champion, 1914-15) who went on to take the Silver medal in Heavyweight class the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. (He was defeated by Robert Roth of Switzerland in a match that many say Pendleton really won.)

After that, Pendleton went to Hollywood and landed many bit parts and minor roles, typically thugs, gangsters, and policemen due to his imposing muscular stature. Pendleton stuck with it in Hollywood and rather amazingly, parlayed this into some fairly substantial roles. Of particular note to those with Iron Game interest, Pendleton portrayed Eugen Sandow in the movie The Great Ziegfeld (1935) and another very Sandow-like strongman character (known as Goliath) in the 1939 Marx Brothers movie “At the Circus.”

Above, Pendleton was featured on the cover and interview in the May, 1940 issue of Bernarr MacFadden’s “Physical Culture” magazine. As you can see, Pendleton didn’t miss many workouts and his condition would certainly still be impressive today.

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Author: John Wood. All contents, including images and text, copyright © 2005-2021 by John Wood and Thunderdome Media Inc. Not to be reproduced without permission. All rights reserved. We will most likely grant permission but please contact us if you would like to repost. IMPORTANT: Equipment and books, courses etc. pictured in blog posts are generally not available for sale unless specifically noted.

Tullio Camillotti

Posted on Wednesday, November 27th, 2013 by John Wood
Tullio Camillotti
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.)

Stan Stanczyk

Posted on Wednesday, July 10th, 2013 by John Wood

Stan Stanczyk

The great Olympic weightlifter Stan Stanczyk was the first man to win three successive World titles in three different weight classes. Lifting for the York Barbell Club, he won five in all. He also won six Senior National titles, a Gold Medal at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, England, a Gold at the 1951 Pan-American Games and a Silver Medal at the 1952 Helsinki Games.

Stanczyk set eight word records during his lifting career. He was also a fairly good bodybuilder, placing very respectably in the few contests he entered.

Rudolf Ismayr

Posted on Friday, April 13th, 2012 by John Wood

Rudolf Ismayr

Rudolf Ismayr, seen here in mid-clean with what looks like to be about 265 pounds, won the Gold Medal at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, California where he totaled 345 kg in the Middleweight class. Four years later, Ismayr was chosen to read the Olympic Oath at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany (at which he took the Silver Medal with a 352.5 kg total.)

Rudolf Ismayr

Posted on Tuesday, March 13th, 2012 by John Wood

Rudolf Ismayr

Rudolf Ismayr, seen here in mid-clean with what looks like to be about 265 pounds, won the Gold Medal at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, California where he totaled 345 kg in the Middleweight class.  Four years later, Ismayr was chosen to read the Olympic Oath at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany (at which he took the Silver Medal with a 352.5 kg total.)

Fred Winters

Posted on Thursday, November 3rd, 2011 by John Wood

Fred Winters

Fred Winters, of the New Westside Athletic Club of New York, won the Silver Medal in the Dumbell Lifting portion of the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri. The competition consisted of nine individual dumbbell lifting events with the tenth event being an original feat of strength of the competitor’s choice.

Above is the result of Section #6 of the contest “Pushing up slowly one dumbbell with one hand from the shoulder to arm’s length above the shoulder” which Mr. Winters won with a lift of 126-1/2 pounds.

Fred was in the lead after the all dumbbell events and for his choice feat he performed six one-arm pushups with 105 extra pounds of weight strapped to his back… An impressive feat, but only good enough for second place.