30.03.2010, 22:02
Richard Haynes
"Clarence Whistler"
"Clarence Whistler was born on a farm near Delphi, Carroll county, Indiana, January 12, 1856 and moved to West Virginia when he was three years old, residing there until 1874. He then with his parents moved to and located on a farm in the western part of Iowa, remaining there until 1878, where he sought and found employment in a foundry at Omaha, Nebraska. It was here that he first acquired a public notoriety. One of his first feats of stregth was standing astride of an iron shaft weighing 1,350 pounds and then picking it up with his hands and carrying it 30 feet before dropping it. About this time he began his wrestling career. It was 1879. Whistler was a distant relative of the great artist, James McNeil Whistler and descended from American colonial stock. He had tried farming, mining and keeping a store but "wrastlin" was the only that pleased him. "Let me wrastle and I'm happy".
Everybody seemed anxious to accommodate him. He "wratled" and "wrastled" until he had been flung from one end of the mat to the other. He began to feel that he had not been properly treated until he was brutally bashed out. From purely a scientific point of view, Whistler was not a great wrestler. He knew little about the game. He relied on principally his great strength and agility. He was 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighed between 175 and 185 pounds. His chest, 40 inches. Thigh 24 inches. Biceps 15 inches, forearm 13 inches. He ranked with Sandow and Louis Cyr in feats of strength and was much like George Hackenschmidt or Bruno Sammartino in latter years as a wrestler who used strength and power. Among his remarkable feats of strength are the following: He can go through the manual of arms according to tactics with a bar of iron eight feet long and weighing 140 pounds; can lift 500 pounds off the ground by means of a jaw strap; can place the back of his head on one chair, his heels on another, forming a "bridge" and hold 2,000 pounds oh his breast. His most famous matches were against William Muldoon. Muldoon was the only wrestler who just about matched Whistler in strength, or was at least strong enough so Whistler couldn't overpower him. His other most noted matches were against Joe Acton, Edwin Bibby, and Tom Cannon.The wrestling style was Greco-Roman for the most part but in his matches with Joe Acton and Tom Cannon the from catch-as-catch-can was used.
Whistler went to Australia in 1885. He not only wrestled, but took over the role Muldoon created in the play as you like it. He performed this in company with Maurice Barrymore, father of the famous theatrical family. In October of 1885 he contracted pneumonia which led to uremic poising. There is as far as live been able to trace, no exact date when Whistler died, but it was late October, 1885 in Melbourne."
"Clarence Whistler"
"Clarence Whistler was born on a farm near Delphi, Carroll county, Indiana, January 12, 1856 and moved to West Virginia when he was three years old, residing there until 1874. He then with his parents moved to and located on a farm in the western part of Iowa, remaining there until 1878, where he sought and found employment in a foundry at Omaha, Nebraska. It was here that he first acquired a public notoriety. One of his first feats of stregth was standing astride of an iron shaft weighing 1,350 pounds and then picking it up with his hands and carrying it 30 feet before dropping it. About this time he began his wrestling career. It was 1879. Whistler was a distant relative of the great artist, James McNeil Whistler and descended from American colonial stock. He had tried farming, mining and keeping a store but "wrastlin" was the only that pleased him. "Let me wrastle and I'm happy".
Everybody seemed anxious to accommodate him. He "wratled" and "wrastled" until he had been flung from one end of the mat to the other. He began to feel that he had not been properly treated until he was brutally bashed out. From purely a scientific point of view, Whistler was not a great wrestler. He knew little about the game. He relied on principally his great strength and agility. He was 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighed between 175 and 185 pounds. His chest, 40 inches. Thigh 24 inches. Biceps 15 inches, forearm 13 inches. He ranked with Sandow and Louis Cyr in feats of strength and was much like George Hackenschmidt or Bruno Sammartino in latter years as a wrestler who used strength and power. Among his remarkable feats of strength are the following: He can go through the manual of arms according to tactics with a bar of iron eight feet long and weighing 140 pounds; can lift 500 pounds off the ground by means of a jaw strap; can place the back of his head on one chair, his heels on another, forming a "bridge" and hold 2,000 pounds oh his breast. His most famous matches were against William Muldoon. Muldoon was the only wrestler who just about matched Whistler in strength, or was at least strong enough so Whistler couldn't overpower him. His other most noted matches were against Joe Acton, Edwin Bibby, and Tom Cannon.The wrestling style was Greco-Roman for the most part but in his matches with Joe Acton and Tom Cannon the from catch-as-catch-can was used.
Whistler went to Australia in 1885. He not only wrestled, but took over the role Muldoon created in the play as you like it. He performed this in company with Maurice Barrymore, father of the famous theatrical family. In October of 1885 he contracted pneumonia which led to uremic poising. There is as far as live been able to trace, no exact date when Whistler died, but it was late October, 1885 in Melbourne."