Books and Magazine – Iron Game History – February, 1990

William Bankier, who performed under the stage name of “Apollo”, was a capable, professional strongman and the owner, for a time, of what we would call today a health club. In the first chapter of Ideal Physical Culture, he discusses noted strongmen of the past. His descriptions are interesting, and he makes the enlightened and unusual statement that many of the feats he ascribes to the various strongmen may not have really been performed. He explains that he is merely relating to the reader information that he has gathered from reading about these men and talking to people who knew them.