Bobby Pandour - David Webster (1984)

 

Wladyslaw Kucharczyk was a name lacking the appeal necessary for posters, programs and press releases so Prof. Attila advised this fledgling professional to change his name to something much more simple and suggested "Bobby Pandour." 

In the old Slavic tongue "Pandour" meant a guard or armed retainer to mobility. It was also specific to the military force of Baron Franz von der Trenck and in 1741 the Pandours were used for suppressing bandits on the Turkish border. Later in Austria they were famed for their courage and very much feared. The young strongman liked the name and the image it conjured up so when Kucharczyk left the Popescu Trio in which he was strongly featured, he took Attila's advice and become Bobby Pandour, a name which he carried until the end of his life. 

While with the Popescu's many thought that he was Rumanian but, in fact, he was born in Warsaw, Poland somewhere between 1876 and 1882. 

Experts believed he had a physique superior to that displayed by Eugen Sandow who was active at the same time . . . 

Pandour was more popular on the European continent than Sandow and some said that this was because Eugen had avoided military service by living mostly in Britain and touring in America and it was in these countries that Sandow became particularly famous. 

When Bobby Pandour quit the Popescu's horizontal bar act in 1900 he was already famous for his muscles and he teamed up with his brother Ludwig . . . 

  

. . . to produce a well planned hand-balancing and dual posing act which rapidly became the talk of weightlifting clubs because they had never seen such a muscular pair of performers. Pandour's act finished with a nice stunt in which he did a hand-balance on two 20' ladders and on a rope suspended from Bobby's neck. Ludwig sat on a bicycle pedaling away merrily. After milking the applause for this excellent stunt, Bobby operated a spring, while still holding the balance, and this released four flags which sprung out and fluttered as a fitting climax to the act. 

Good though such stunts were, it was his posing and physique which put him above other performers of that era and had he possessed a flair for publicity and showmanship like Sandow or had Attila as a manager, he could have been even more successful. 

Like others of his time, he posed in a special cabinet. This consisted of black drapes with his name embroidered over the top. Otto Arco, another Polish strongman, was a friend and admirer of Pandour and wrote of his posing, "Beautiful music especially arranged for each pose floated through the silent atmosphere while he shifted from one pose to another. He powdered his body to a snow white color to get more contrast from his dark draperies and inky stage background that surrounded him and made him appear ghost-like . . . it was a beautiful picture indeed and you could hear the audience utter a sort of sigh after each pose. He really was an awe-inspiring sight to behold under those lights and artistic to the highest degree, and that is why he was such a talk around the continent at that time." 

Of special interest to today's bodybuilders is the fact that he seems to have been the first to popularize the now famous "trap over," most muscular or crab pose, so beloved by enthusiasts of the 1980's. 

Many of his poses were original and very different from the arms folded or "block pose" which every strongman did at that time, and, like Sandow, he incorporated the abdominals into many of his best postures. 

In just four years Bobby Pandour worked his way to the top of the bills earning 20,000 kronen a month when others on the same bill were getting a mere 100 kronen, and he lived in style, often having fashionable ladies on his arms when seen around the towns in which he was appearing. Unfortunately, it is also recorded that he had little time for the ordinary fans who enthused over his physique act. He appeared at top theaters all over the world, including the Apollo Theater in Vienna, and in the best circuses such as the Cirque Metropole in Paris, but his act was less impressive in a big circus ring without a cabinet or special lights. 

Pandour's wonderful physique was built by high repetition free exercises, expander work and only light weights. The dumbbells he carried about with him on his travels weighed only 10 pounds each but he did countless repetitions with these and in situps, press ups, etc. 

Bobby said that he had injured himself lifting heavy weights in a weightlifting club in Hamburg and his lower back trouble after this prevented him handling heavy poundages. He would get a good leg workout each evening by scorning hotel elevators and he would carry his brother piggyback up six flights of stairs. Having built such a physique with very crude training methods, one speculates on what he could have done with his body with even a little more advanced techniques. 

Bobby also dissipated much of his energies with the fair sex. The ladies flocked around him on every possible occasion and  a visitor to his room one morning was surprised to find him surrounded by a bevy of beauties still in their pajamas, as was Pandour. He had a lot going for him as far as the girls were concerned -- good looks, fantastic physique, two big diamond rings on his fingers and another large diamond in his tie pin. 

Throughout his early career Bobby Pandour weighed around 160 pounds and his height was usually quoted at 5'7" but a close friend said he was only 5' 5-1/2". There is general agreement that at his very best his arms were a snug 17". 

In 1907 Bobby Pandour went to America for a tour with Keith's Circus and was billed as the World's best physical specimen. 

Later he went around the States with Ringling Brothers Circus and he liked the country and the people so much he decided to settle there. 

Bobby took unto himself a wife, which was a major mistake for a man like him and he later considered this the tragedy of his life. 

He had a big house in Flatbush, Brooklyn and bought a huge Pierce Arrow limousine. In spite of such status symbols he was far from happy and while performing in Cincinnati, he had an accident on stage that terminated his career. After this he settled permanently in New York where he died in 1920. 

Wladyslaw Kucharczyk had traveled a long way from the ghetto but he left this earth prematurely at around 40 years of age. 

He had not been ill but a close friend said he had lost the will to live and simply faded away . . . 

Enjoy Your Lifting!