Katie (Kate) Brumbach (“Sandwina”) Possibly the best ever known strongwoman, Katie (Kate) Brumbach was born in 1884 in Vienna, Austria (her parents were from Bavaria, Germany) and passed away of cancer on January 21, 1952. She had exceptional physical parameters: 184 cm of height, 85 kg of weight; 44 turn cm of biceps; 20 turn cm of wrists and 67 turn cm of thigh. Her parents, Philippe and Johanna Brumbach acted as a powerful pair in fairs and circuses (the biceps of Johanna measured 40 cm) and they had fourteen children. Kate’s three sisters, Barbara, Marie and Eugenia also possessed great physical strengths and acted in power demonstrations. Yet Kate was the most famous one of the four. Barbara and Marie acted as a duet, with the artistic name of "Braselly". During years, Kate participated in circus spectacles with her family, and the most exciting moment came when her father offered 100 marks to any man in the audience who would capable to defeat his daughter Kate in wrestling. According to the legend, nobody earned the 100 marks. Her husband during 52 years, Max Heymann, was one of those daredevils who accepted the challenge and according to his own words, the following had happened with him: “As I have entered the ring I started thinking that if I earned the 100 marks it would be the most extravagant way to earn money I have ever had. But the only thing I recall is my sudden rotation in the air with the flashing blue sky in my eyes, and then free falling down. Eventually, I found myself on the floor panting and semi-unconscious, while the girl bent down to me and said: "Have I inflicted any damage to you? Then she grabbed me in her arms as a dummy and carried me to her tent."
Occasionally, famous Eugene Sandow, who made the epoch in powerlifting, appeared in a small athletic club in New York and responded to Kate’s challenge to a strength test. Kate started lifting weights increasingly heavier and heavier and Sandow, subsequently, caught the ones she left and lifted them at the same time. Finally, Kate lifted a weight of 300 pounds (136 kg) on the level of her head whereas Sandow was able to lift it just to his chest, with which Kate won the contest. Overpowering Sandow she decided to adopt the artistic name of “Sandwina” (female derivative from “Sandow”). She was capable to lift her husband of 75 kilograms above the head with just one arm. In fact she used him in performances just as a dumbbell. Among her actions were: tossing up iron balls of 14 kilograms which then she caught by the back of the neck; maintaining a carousels of 14 persons on her shoulders; doubling iron bars of 5 centimeters in diameter; resisting the traction of 4 horses... During the 1920s, 1930 and the beginning of the 1940, she worked in the United States. In 1941 season, in the age of 57, Sandwina still worked as powerlifter in the “Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus”. Being 64 year old she still was able to break horseshoes and to double bars of iron with the hands as well as to lift her husband with one hand. Subsequently she and her husband opened a restaurant in New York. Their son, Theodore Sandwina, was a famous heavyweight boxing champion in the 1920s and early 1930s (his parameters were 6'2"/210 Lbs). Teddy’s strength in the ring was hereditary.
Madame Montagna (right). She was born in the city of Bologna, Italy, in 1874. Married another strong person who weighed 115 kilograms. Madame Montagna, in an occasion, bore cannon on her back which weighed 105 kilograms while it was loaded and shot. In 1909, an Algerian newspaper published that Madame Montagna tear and left in half a composed deck of 110 playing cards in five seconds and later halved them again.
Kate Roberts (“Vulcana”) Kate Roberts (left), the famous lightweight strongwoman was born in 1883, of Irish parents. She took the artistic name "Vulcana" when was performing with strength demonstrations in the “English Music Hall”. Although she weighed just 57 kilograms, she lifted 65 kilograms above the head with one hand. When she was young she loved running without rest, climbing to the trees and all those things that girls were not supposed to do. Being a middle school student she surprised her classmates by carrying the school organ. Years later, in the “Music Hall of London”, her specialty was lifting men. Although her power stunts were not especially innovative, being the typical for strongwomen, Vulcana was the first woman who included in her repertoire the unique stunt, so-called "Tomb of Hercules" which had been performed just by few powerful men. This act consisted in supporting a big platform placing on the abdomen of the performer who leans backwards on the floor by the hands and legs. The wonder is that two horses with their attendants stood on that platform and leave it for a few seconds. It is said that once, in Paris, she caught a thief, grabbed him and took him to a police precinct. She convinced women to be in charge of their own physical development. She struggled against the custom of wearing corsets considering this part of women’s equipment to be unnatural that was an instrument of torturing grandmothers of that epoch. There are a lot of legends about her strength and courage.
Maria Loorberg (scenic name Marina Lurs), one of the strongest Russian women in the 1900s -1910s. She was trained by the weightlifting enthusiast A.I. Andrushkevich, who was the first trainer of the famous George Gakkenshmidt. Marina had been training since 1903 and four years later, she started participating in wrestling championships and performed with strength stunts.
Maria was born on April 10, 1881, in Tallinn (Estonia), and passed away on March 30, 1922. Maria had a solid build – weighed 80 kg having the height of 168 cm. In 1903 she became a student of Adolph Andruschkevich, a Russian coach of powerlifting and two years later, in 1905, Maria already appeared in carnivals and circuses of Estonia and other provinces of Russia. Maria was capable to lift two men, weighing 66 kilograms each, with one hand and to move a man suspended with a strap which she held with the teeth. On August 13, 1913 she carried a board in which 13 men were seated just by her teeth.
In her epoch she enjoyed an enormous popularity, and went known as a woman Kalev (Kalev is a national hero of Estonia). And she is still honored in Estonia as a strongwoman and a great wrestler.
http://www.einst.ee/literary/reviews/book_ehin_02.htm Along with her friend, another Estonian female wrestler Annette Busch, Maria had the glorious competition tours began in 1907; they competed all over Tsarist Russia, reaching to Siberia and even to Japan and China. Maria Loorberg was named the best woman athlete of the Russian Empire.
The Russian magazine "Hercules" reported in 1913: "Special attention is attracted by a female power athlete Marina Lurs. She is perfectly built and has massive but gracefully outlined musculature. Lurs performs weight tricks, which would be good for a strong male athlete. She works as a "Hercules" in an old kind circus. Each her trick is perfectly finished each her move expresses strength. However, at the same time, the body of Marina Lurs is not even coarse but it impresses you by its soft plastic lines… Let's put pictures of Marina Lurs on circus placards and let all town ladies see this daughter of Eve who is deservedly proud by her strength and harmony". Odessa's newspapers in 1913 reported with gusto about visit some power lady Marina Lurs already having shocked the European audience. "Her best-known number was lifting a stick where nine men located as roosters on a perch. By the way, she was spinning this weight as well. And shame on those who think she has lost her femininity for their."
Lurs’ the most famous stunts were the following: she carried three people on her back; lying on back she 32 times lifted by legs a bar with two people on it’s tips (with total weight 184 kg) and held in such a position 9 people. On August 27, 1913 she established the record: she planted her arms firmly on the knees and maintained 13 people on her legs. The total weight – 880 kg! (The famous male athlete Arthur Saxon managed to hold 1040 kg on his legs.) Lurs easily joggled with two 32kg dumbbells, pushed up 90kg with two arms, and snatched 48kg by one hand. The audience was dazzled by the act in which Marina was spinning a yoke with “human loads” on its tips.
Loise Armaindo Her real name was Louise Brisbois, she was born in St. Ann, Quebec (Canada). Having 158 cm in height and weighed just 55 kilograms she held up two suspended men for a minute just by her teeth – she performed that on the exhibitions in the Athenaeum Gymnasium in Chicago.
A short time before the end of the XIX century she became the first woman in the world running 20 miles uninterruptedly (with an average speed of 9.5 miles per hour). With a “high wheel" bicycle” (the old bike style with enormous wheels which were utilized in that epoch) she covered 760 miles in the six day ride. In the Reservoir Park in Maryland she broke the record for this type of bicycle that had been owned by a man, Chat Jenkins. It was told that she lifted a weight of 760 pounds (345 kilograms)! If this is true, it would be the record of all the times for the both genders. This is especially unbelievable if consider her own weight. In fact, there are no reliable sources confirming that and it’s quite difficult to believe in such a feat. In 1911 Louise withdrew from all the practices of athletics.
Lillian Leitzel (Her biography has also been used on the site "Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey"). Beautiful strongwoman and acrobat Lillian Leitzel was born in Breslau, Germany on January 2, 1892. She weighed just 43 kg (95 Lbs) with the height 143 cm (4’9”). Leitzel's parents separated when Leitzel was very young and she was raised by her grandparents. Born as Leopoldina Alitza Pelikan, she took her better-known name Lillian Leitzel that means "Little Alice." She received a quality education including advanced training in music, dance and language skills. She was fluent in 5 languages. She studied the arts at conservatories in both Breslau and Berlin and excelled at the piano. Her instructors encouraged her and it was thought that she may one day pursue a career as a concert pianist. Leitzel, however, had very different ideas. In her private time, she constructed a trapeze bar for herself and taught herself the tricks she had seen her mother and aunts accomplished. Leitzel's mother and two aunts performed in an aerial act known as the “Leamy Ladies”. The Leamy Ladies trapeze act was famous throughout Europe. Leitzel begged her mother to let her perform and her visits with her mother eventually lead to her participation in the act.
Leitzel first came to the United States in 1908 as a member of the Leamy Ladies, appearing with the Barnum & Bailey show during the New York engagement that year. They returned in 1911 as a featured act with Barnum & Bailey. At the end of the 1911 season, the Leamy Ladies returned to Europe without Leitzel who remained in the United States working the vaudeville circuit. It was during this time that Leitzel honed and developed her solo Roman rings act which by then included the one-arm plunges for which she is most famous. During the plunges, Leitzel would separate her shoulder and throw her entire body over her shoulder again and again. It was not uncommon for Leitzel to do 100 revolutions during a performance. All the while, audiences would count out loud as Leitzel would flip over and over, "....96....97...98...99...100!" Leitzel's record was an amazing 249 revolutions! Audiences loved her.
In November, 1914, while performing in South Bend, Indiana, a booking agent with Ringling Bros. Circus saw her act and offered her a contract on the spot. The 4 foot 9 inch, 95 pound Leitzel made her solo Big Top debut on April 17, 1915 at the Coliseum in Chicago. Leitzel was a Ring 2 headline performer from the outset where she remained throughout the rest of her life. In 1918, when she was 26, in the gymnasium Merrimann, in Philadelphia, being hung on a bar with a single hand performed 27 tractions with the right hand and 17 tractions with the left, consistent in lifting the head to the height of the bar (surpassing with a great deal the record for women as well as of men). Using two hands she was capable to perform the tractions charging with another person. In 1920 she married a man of circus, Clyde Ingalls, being divorced four years later. A little later she fell in love with the legendary trapeze flyer, Alfredo Codona, who she married in 1928.
Leitzel and Codona were tireless performers, even scheduling engagements during the Circus' winter break. During one of these breaks, on February 13, 1931 Leitzel was performing at Valencia Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Codona at inter Garden in Berlin. Shortly after midnight, Leitzel finished up her Roman rings presentation and ascended into the air to begin her infamous one-arm plunges. On that night, the brass swivel on the rope crystallized and broke. She fell over 20 feet to a hard, concrete floor. She suffered a concussion and spinal injuries in the fall, but doctors were confident she'd recover. Codona rushed to her side. She insisted she was fine and urged Codona to return to Berlin to finish his engagement. She boarded a train with him and the pair headed back to Berlin when she died 2 days later on February 15, 1931.