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| THE STRONGEST MAN IN THE WORLD? REALLY? by Dave Goode |
My 2nd favorite giant ape movie , after the original
King Kong of course, is MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1948). A fun flick to be
sure. But my favorite scene is when the giant gorilla, as part of a
nightclub act, has a tug-of-war with ten professional strongmen/wrestlers. The strongmen, all dressed in leopard skins and Roman
sandals, perform feats of strength before they compete with the
gorilla, who appears to be twice the size of an average gorilla. But
there is no mention of Joe's abnormal size. Still a
normal 5' 8", 450 lb. gorilla is about as strong as 12 men.
In order
the strongmen were Sammy Stein who breaks a chain. "Killer" Karl Davis
bends a crowbar. Rasputin, the Mad Russian breaks a pair of manacles. "Bomber" Kulky lifts a heavy barbell with
one hand. Sam Menacker tears a telephone book in half. Mac Batchelor
bends a railroad spike. "Wee" Willie Davis bends a steel rod. Man
Mountain Dean bends a horseshoe. The Swedish Angel breaks a 4x4 over
his head. And the former heavyweight boxing champion
of the world Primo Carnera snaps metal bands on his arms by flexing his
biceps. Sadly no one breaks a chain through chest expansion.
All of these feats of strength had been performed in carnivals and
circuses by professional strongmen who billed themselves as the "Strongest Man In The World". When Sam Menacker tears the phone book in
half it reminds me of an episode of The Adventures
of Superman. In The Girl Who Hired Superman (Season 4 Episode 7)
Superman is performing at a dinner party for charity. At one point he
tears a phone book in half. One of the guests is unimpressed remarking
that he has seen other strongmen perform the same
trick. Superman then takes the two halves , puts them together and
tears them in half. The guest then says he has never seen anyone do this
before because it's impossible. Another guest tells him the Man of
Steel just did it. But he says he doesn't care. It's
still impossible. Which brings up something I've pondered for years.
How do professional strongmen in a comic book universe bill themselves
as the Strongest Man In The World? Especially when the world they live
in might have someone who can literally "change
the course of mighty rivers" among the populace. Or even someone who
just has the proportionate strength of a spider?
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