Sandow: The Strong Man
About Sandow: The Strong Man
Eugen Sandow, in a loincloth, stands against a black ground in the Black Maria and moves through a series of muscle poses. The frame cuts him off above the knees.
Cast & crew
More about Sandow: The Strong Man
W. K. L. Dickson and William Heise directed. Heise photographed it. Sandow posed on 6 March 1894, the day he came to the Edison laboratory with the management of Koster & Bial's, where he was appearing. Edison copyrighted it on 18 May 1894 as Souvenir Strip of the Edison Kinetoscope. Raff & Gammon distributed the strip. Silent Era lists 39 feet. Early kinetograph negatives were run at about 48 frames a second. Charles Musser records that Sandow asked $250 unless he could meet Edison. Dickson also made a still of Edison feeling Sandow's arm.
Themes
Background
Koster & Bial's was showing Sandow in New York in March 1894. The kinetoscope films of that spring, including this one, were made to stock the machines Raff & Gammon were about to place in parlors.
Making
Dickson set Sandow against the Black Maria's black backdrop so the poses would read in a kinetoscope peephole.
Look
William Heise framed Sandow from just above the knees against a black background and let him change poses in place.
Preservation
A print survives at the Library of Congress. Silent Era lists the strip at 39 feet. Public domain in the United States.
Notes
- Also titled Sandow, the Modern Hercules and Souvenir Strip of the Edison Kinetoscope.
- Sandow's birth name was Friedrich Müller.
- The Library of Congress holds a 35mm reference positive from the Gordon Hendricks collection, FEC 8117.
- The film is a posing routine, not a lift or a contest.
- Public domain in the United States.
Scenes
- Sandow, in a loincloth, turns from one flexed pose to the next in the Black Maria.
