Sandow

Sandow is a series of three 1894 silent short actuality films directed by William K. L. Dickson for Edison Studios. The films show Sandow flexing his muscles in his underwear. At the time, Eugen Sandow was a star with Florenz Ziegfeld Jr's shows. He was as well known for his appearance as for his feats of strength.

After some experimental films including the "Athlete with Wand" film shot earlier in 1894 at Edison's Black Maria Studios, this film was intended for distribution for paying audiences. Sandow was the first known 'star' to appear in a film. The audiences were likely fascinated by the possibility of viewing details of human movement as much as they were by Sandow's appealing appearance.

As stated, three films were shot for Edison by WKL Dickson, Sandow No. 1, Sandow No. 2, and Sandow No. 3. Later, in 1896, after Dickson had co-founded Biograph Studios, he shot a remake simply titled "Sandow." So, with these films, we have the first movie star and the first set of sequels featuring said star. We also have reboot from a competing studio.

Sandow (1896)

This 38-second Edison short was filmed in the now historic West Orange, NJ and features strong man Eugen Sandow doing the opening to his performance where he shows off his muscles. Apparently this here was the first "performer" to go to the Edison studios and be filmed for a movie and it's clear that the strong man was extremely popular since the studio only had to put his last name as the title. There's certainly nothing here that would make current film fans take notice but for film buffs the simple historic nature of the movie makes it worth watching. Again, we simply see Sandow flexing for a few dozen seconds but it's the history behind it that makes it so fascinating to watch today.

WE'VE RATED THIS a full 10 on the existing scale. This was not because of any compelling writing, direction, cinematography or any other of these topics. What is accomplished here in less than a minute is preserving the imagery of one Prussian born Stage Strongman & Vaudevillian, Frederick Mueller by name. He was to gain World-wide fame and fortune as Eugen Sandow.

IT WAS HIS de-emphasizing the actual Strongman Stunts in favor of the presentation of Physique posing that put him on the theatrical worls's map. He is also credited with giving Florenz Ziegfeld his big break as a theatrical impresario. This story of their collaborative effort as a sideshow attraction at the World Columbian Exposition (World's Fare) in Chicago is told in the film, THE GREAT ZIEGFELD (MGM, 1936). In the movie , Ziegfeld was portrayed by William Powell and Sandow by Nat Pendelton.

BUT THAT WAS fiction and this little tiny, 38 seconds of film has immortalized the real man for us today and for all time. It is the genius or maybr just plain, old-fashioned dumb luck by the filming studio to have done this production.