Anna Lynn Benson - (Born: Dec. 19, 1949 – Died: Nov. 23, 2009)
Blessed with intelligence and creativity, Anna developed her interests in fitness and history into many prestigious, noteworthy accomplishments. Always an ardent exerciser, Anna taught swimming lessons as a teenager to many of Columbia's children. In 1979, she founded the very successful and popular exercise studio, The Body Firm, in Charleston and Columbia. For more than 20 years, she created award-winning exercise techniques and trained numerous instructors in instructional performance. Beginning in 1986, Anna collaborated with her former husband, filmmaker Mark Henriksen, and her sister, Cynthia Benson, to create a best-selling library of exercise videos entitled The Firm. This ground-breaking series generated ongoing business with media giants such as Time- Life, BMG and Broadway Books; world-wide sales of The Firm have exceeded 100 million copies since the release of the first video. Anna also addressed specific needs of older exercisers with her later videos FitPrime and Fitness Favorites. In addition to the generation of instructors who continue to build on her legacy of achievement in exercise science, Anna also leaves behind countless exercise enthusiasts who continue to use and enjoy her informative, entertaining works.
Eugen Sandow - (Born: April 2, 1867 – Died: Oct. 14, 1925)
Eugen was a German bodybuilder and showman from Prussia. Born in Königsberg, Sandow became interested in bodybuilding at the age of ten during a visit to Italy. After a spell in the circus, Sandow studied under strongman Ludwig Durlacher in the late 1880s. On Durlacher's recommendation, he began entering Strongman competitions. In 1901 he organized what is believed to be the world's first major bodybuilding competition set in London's Royal Albert Hall.
Eugen opened the first of his Institutes of Physical Culture, where he taught methods of exercise, dietary habits and weight training. His ideas on physical fitness were novel at the time and had a tremendous impact. In 1898 he also founded a monthly periodical, Sandow's Magazine of Physical Culture that was dedicated to all aspects of physical culture. This was accompanied by a series of books published between 1897 and 1904.
He also worked hard at improving exercise equipment, and had invented various devices such as rubber strands for stretching and spring-grip dumbbells to exercise the wrists.
Sandow married Blanche Brooks in 1894. They had two daughters, Helen and Lorraine. His early death was certified as due to aortic aneurysm.
Abbye "Pudgy" Stockton - (Born: Aug. 11, 1917 – Died: June 26, 2006)
Abbye was an American professional strongwoman and forerunner of present-day female bodybuilders, who became famous through her involvement with Muscle Beach in the 1940s. She acquired the nickname "Pudgy" as a child, and the name stuck, even though she weighed approximately 115 pounds at a height of 5'2". From 1944 to 1954, Stockton wrote a regular column on women's training, "Barbells," in Strength & Health magazine.
Abbye helped organize the first Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) sanctioned weightlifting competition for women, which was held in 1947. In the late 1940s, Abbye and her husband Les established one of the earliest “women only” health clubs in the United States on Sunset Boulevard. Physique contests for women were virtually non-existent in the 1940s, and Abbye held only one such title during her career – she was named "Miss Physical Culture Venus" in 1948. She received the Steve Reeves International Society Pioneer Award in 1998 and was inducted into the IFBB (International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation) Hall of Fame in 2000. Abbye and husband Les had a daughter. Abbye died on June 26, 2006, at the age of 88 from complications due to Alzheimer's.
Lionel Strongfort (aka Max Unger) (Born: Nov. 23, 1878 – Died Nov. 27, 1967)
Lionel was a German bodybuilder, wrestler and author of the correspondence physical exercise course, known as the “Strongfort System of Physical Culture” or Strongfortism. Lionel was born in Berlin and worked as a clockmakers apprentice. A turning point in the life of the young, sixteen-year-old was a meeting with German strongman Louis Attila. He immediately noticed the potential of the young man and encouraged him to attend his trainings. After a year Strongfort achieved a phenomenal form (at the age of seventeen, with one hand he lifted over his head a weight of 130 pounds). In addition to lifting weights, he also practiced boxing, wrestling and other sports. He also adopted the stage nickname Lionel Strongfort and began his own series of shows in vaudeville and circus productions around the world. He also posed for sculptors and photographers. He established the Max Unger Health and Strength Institute in New York City around 1915, and later the Strongfort Institute in New Jersey. He launched a mail-order health training system that continued into the 1930s.
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