The Very First Bodybuilder in the Very First Bodybuilder Posing Video

[BD Bodybuilder]

Eugen Sandow was a late 1800s European circus "strongman" introduced to the US by Florenz Ziegfeld, who observed that his audience seemed more impressed by his musculature than his feats of strength, and encouraged Sandow to make that his focus. Sandow did so, becoming the first professional bodybuilder, sponsoring the first bodybuilding competition, and in fact coining the term "body-building". Here is a colorized version of his first posing video, which was actually a Kinetoscope film produced by Edison Studios in 1894:

 

[Bigtex]

Eugen Sandow was a late 1800s European circus "strongman" introduced to the US by Florenz Ziegfeld, who observed that his audience seemed more impressed by his musculature than his feats of strength, and encouraged Sandow to make that his focus. Sandow did so, becoming the first professional bodybuilder, sponsoring the first bodybuilding competition, and in fact coining the term "body-building". Here is a colorized version of his first posing video, which was actually a Kinetoscope film produced by Edison Studios in 1894:

Equally as impressive is the use of Kinetoscope to capture these images in 1894. Impressive technology making a color video out of this.

 

[IronInsanity]

Very cool stuff.