Friday, May 30, 2025

The Amazing Mac Batchelor - Willis Read (1948)

 



More on Mac Batchelor here: 








Note from Peary Rader: 

You have read of the prowess of Ian "Mac" Batchelor in the past but now you are about to get some of the inside stories from Willis Read, one of Mac's closest friends who probably knows as much about his as anyone. These two fellows are always together at all the big shows on the West coast. Mac presides at the bar at the Ivy House which is just a short distance from Reed's studio. It is also just across the street from R.K.O. studios in Hollywood. 

In wrist wrestling between 1931 and 1956, Mac pulled and beat an estimated 4,000 different opponents without suffering a single loss. 

Here is a letter he wrote to George Jowett: 











Mfirst meeting with Mac Batchelor was in the year 1937 at Vans Cocktail Lounge where he was employed as a  bartender in downtown Los Angeles.

Vans was a place where everyone of any importance, doctors, lawyers, policemen and all persons regardless of vocation went to have a drink and talk to Mac. He was always the center of attraction because of his magnetic personality. People liked to talk to him about sports, and he was only too happy to converse with them on their favorite one, he being a versatile athlete himself, he could relate some of his experiences at athletics while in school and out. 

He had an assortment of odd weights behind his bar at this particular time. There were heavy block weights which he did holdouts with and would rotate the wrists at the same time, which incidentally will stump a lot of athletes. Also, he had an assortment of big, tall bottles. The bottles were large at the bottom and tapered all the way to the top. Now, the trick was to grasp the bottle at the top and gradually work the fingers down the bottle without the use of the other hand. To make a long story short, he was the only one who could perform the trick because of his unusual finger and hand strength.    

Many persons tried, but none could get any further than halfway down the bottle. Mac has successfully performed this trick with a bottle filled with lead. These bottles are two and one half feet high.

Several years later he took over another cocktail lounge in West L.A. which went by the name of "Nine Old Men. So the place got the name "Mac's Nine Old Men." as he was manager of it at this time. It seems wherever he went the crowd was sure to follow. Every night there were so many people that they were practically walking on top of one another. 

Athletes galore, weightlifters, bodybuilders, football players, boxers, wrestlers, and any other type of athlete you could mention. Imagine this crowd, and if Mac arm wrestled one, he must have arm wrestled 25 fellows a night. I know for a fact that he arm wrestled every man on the Los Angeles Bulldog professional football team and beat them. The toughest being a lefthanded fellow by the name of Jack Summers. 


These fellows were all  big guys who weighed from 225 to 275 and up, and they had large measurements to go with their weight. 


Still later, Mac went to work at the Melrose Cavern where he has been ever since. Here athletes [and other drinkers] from all over the country visit him. He entertains them with his great finger and hand strength by bending beer caps the hard way, between the thumb and index finger. One day a fellow tried to play a trick on Mac. He asked him to bend a beer cap. This fellow produced his own beer cap and after a long struggle Mac finally managed to bend it. After careful observation of the beer cap, Mac noticed that a dime had been inserted between the cork and metal of the cap. But after this little incident Mac was very happy because it was the first dime he had ever bent. 



Here at the Melrose Cavern again he has met all comers in arm wrestling and today is still the champion. 

I well remember one day he arm wrestled a big Russian fellow whom he beat of course. This person resented being beat and tried to cause Mac trouble first by challenging him in fighting. Mac, being the nice person that he is, tried to reason with this fellow by saying to him that his job at the Melrose Cavern was that of a bartender. But, he did add that if he wished to put the gloves on with him the time and place could be arranged. The fellow was still not content so he again challenged Mac, this time on finger wrestling or finger twisting. By this time Mac's patience was exhausted. The bout began. The result was that the Russian fellow got a broken finger out of it, broken in two places. He fainted automatically and passed out of the picture. 

I mentioned earlier that Mac was a very versatile athlete. At the age of 12 he swam a mile through choppy waters. Later he was life guard at Monterey bay for two seasons. He never has been defeated as an oarsman in racing rowboats. When outboard motors made their first appearance in the early 1920's, he beat the single cylinder model over a two mile course while at the oars of a 15-foot flat bottom rowboat. 

He competed in all track and field events while in school with the exception of the pole vault. Mac said good naturedly that he guessed the pole was too light to support his weight.

Mac was in constant competition in the 100 yard dash. His time was 10 seconds flat, in the 220 it was 22 seconds, and in the 440, 51 seconds. He also ran cross county relays. Tom Baer, a close friend of Mac and his roommate while in school, told me he used to be in competition with him. He said that Mac was unusually fast. 

Tom told me a story about himself and Mac which to me is very funny. He said while in grammar school their teacher offered to give them a pie if they won the relay against the opposing team. It seems that Mac had the last position and Tom had the second to last. Mac couldn't wait for him to finish his part of the race. He ran over the line and caught hold of Tom's hand and ran him all the way up to his position. Tom told me that it was all he could do to keep his feet on the ground because of Mac's terrific speed. It seems that the opposing team was awfully mad, but I understand that Mac and Tom got their pie anyway. 

Tom Baer, by the way, was a fighter. He fought Freddie Steele for the World's Middleweight title a number of years back. Tom used weights in his conditioning for fights along with road work and sparring sessions. 

Mac is still a very fast man despite his bodyweight of 325 pounds. He has made an offer to race any man in the world over 250 pounds and up. The race is to be 100, 220, or 440 yards. 

He is the only man I know that can do handstand press-ups at his tremendous bodyweight. He also played on a point-a-minute pro basketball team as a center for a season while up in San Francisco a number of years ago. He was champion wrestler three years in succession for the Olympic Club in San Francisco. His teacher was the famed Ad Santell who was one of the greatest wrestlers of all time.     


Mac's curl of 220 pounds on a barbell, 500 lb. squat, 400 supine press, 275 military press (heels together), and a 700 deadlift rank him as one of the great strongmen of all time. I think he is Cry, Swoboda and Apollon all wrapped into one. He has their gigantic strength and size, but he is more fleet of foot, if I may stick my neck out. 

His measurements are , with fluctuations: 

Bicep, 20-21 inches
Forearm, 16-16.5
Wrist, 8.5-9
Chest normal, 54
Waist, 44
Thighs, 31
Calves, 20
Neck, 21.  

Other than measuring himself his hobbies are woodcarving, and spading or digging the ground. 

Mac can be seen shortly in an RKO Pathe motion picture titled, Mr. Young From Africa, in which he plays the part of a strongman. 


Enjoy Your Lifting! 







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