Milo the Muscular Giant

In January 1894, The Empire in Newport held a twice-nightly event featuring Milo the Muscular Giant.

Unfortunately I can’t find any images of Milo but during a South Wales Argus interview the people he mentioned, and the images I could find of them, gives you an idea of the type of strongman that was touring theatres in the late 19th and early 20th centuries — that is the classic image of a man in a leotard holding a bar with big circular balls on each end!

Interview with Milo

During the time that Milo was playing at the Empire, the South Wales Argus had an interview with the weightlifter.

Having heard of the extraordinary strength of Milo, who is this week filling an engagement at the Empire, I called down at this popular place of amusement for a chat with this young giant. There have been men of all ages, from Samson to Sandow, remarkable for their great strength. Strength is not a gift possessed by everyone, some people are naturally strong, others gain it by work and practice. As regards strength in ordinary men, we generally find that the bigger the man the stronger he is. It is evident that with men of equal strength, in proportion to their size, the biggest ought to be the strongest, and it is worthy of note that most men remarkable for their extraordinary strength, were of great size. Bodily strength does not depend on the size of the body, or of the muscles, but also on the solidity of the bones, and the conformation of the muscles and their harmonious development.

I heard of Milo's great strength — he is able to push up a 250lb dumb-bell, with one arm, above his head, and lift two horses with Lifeguardsmen on a platform weighing 400lb; I naturally expected to find a man above the ordinary size — of Louis Cyr's build — instead of which I found Milo to be only 5ft 7in in height, weighing 12 stone, but with an extraordinary amount of muscle in all parts of his body, especially his shoulders.

Louis Cyr was a Canadian strongman of the late 19th and early 20 centuries who apparently could lift 500lbs with one finger and backlift 4,337lbs.

"I presume Milo is not your cognomen," I said, "but your nomme de guerre." — "That is so," he replied. "I took the name after Milo of Crete, the most wonderful athlete of all ages."

Milo did not inherit his great strength, for his father was a jockey, and his mother quite an ordinary woman from the country. Milo is an Italian, born in Milan in 1870, so that he is now about 24 years of age. He was always fond of trying his strength, and six years ago, when he was 18 years of age, he met Sandow in Milan, and had a wrestling contest with him, which lasted twenty-five minutes. Sandow was unable to throw him, but this was not so much on account of Milo's strength as because of his agility and trickiness as a wrestler.

Eugene Sandow was a German bodybuilder and showman in the 19th and 20th centuries.

After seeing Sandow, Milo thought he would to be as strong as the young German Hercules, and set to work to develop his muscles. Shortly after this, Milo joined a circus in Paris as an acrobat; and in 1890 he went to London, and called to see the professional trainer, Attila, who brought out Santos. In Attila’s rooms he saw one of Professor Dowd’s health exercisers lying on the floor. Attila said that not knowing how to fix the machine, it had never been used, Milo said he should like to try it, and Attila gave it him. Having being apprenticed to a mechanical engineer in his early days, Mill had no difficulty in fixing the apparatus, and getting to work with it. He found after a little while that his muscles were getting considerably increased, and by working regularly every day, at the end of three months he was able to accomplish feats of weight-lifting that he could not do before, and since then he has used the exerciser regularly. An examination of Milo in his dressing room showed him to be perfectly developed. The muscles on his shoulders and back are wonderful, as are also the abdominal muscles, which are as hard as those in other parts of his body.

How He Eats and Trains

During the interview, Milo describes his diet and exercise regime.

With reference to his diet, Milo eats comparatively little meat, his principal food being bread, fruit, and vegetables. He is not a total abstained, but never drinks to excess. He has never smoked and is a strong believer in keeping the body in temperance and chastity.

I asked him to show me this exerciser of Dowd’s, by means of which he had been able to accomplish so much. He said he did not carry it with him, on account of the weights and pulleys, but he has invented an exerciser of his own, by means of which he was able to do precisely the same exercises as he could with Dowd’s exerciser. It consisted of two stout pieces of India rubber, about 3/4in. in circumference, and about 18in. in length, with a thimble at each end — one end of each piece of rubber was attached to a handle, the other was fastened to a hook in a piece of board about 15 inches long and 6 inches wide, which was placed on the floor. Milo stood on this, and with a handle in each hand showed me how the muscles of the back were developed, and on turning his back to the apparatus the abdominal muscles were worked. For the expansion of the chest the rubber was detached from the hooks on the board and fastened to the handles and a capital chest expander was formed.

A Demonstration

We then went on to the stage. Milo first performed with 150lb bar-bell, which he put up and down with comparative ease, lay on his back and got up holding the bar in his hands. He juggled with an iron ball, with a handle attached weighing 80lb. He did the straight arm balance on two pedestals, holding 150lb in his teeth, put up the 250lb dumb-bell with one hand and lifted two horses and LIfe Guardsmen on a platform weighing 400lb.

Also Playing that Week

Also playing were Miss Alice Leamer, a vocalist and dancer, Hyde and Elton, comedians, the Sisters Leslie, F.V. St. Clair, a 'topical songster and reciter', Lawrence Barclay, a vocal comedian, Florence Smithers who performed a 'pleasant farce' entitled 'Hard Lines' and a performing elephant called 'Gipsy' which will go through various feats nightly with 'elephantine grace'. — Source, Western Mail, Monday 15th January, 1894 (subscription required)

Unfortunately I couldn’t find anything related to Gipsy although there was a mention of an elephant called Gypsy in a US circus killed in 1902 after killing a four people on four occasions over her ‘career’.