Q 01/05

Eugen Sandow, the 'father of modern bodybuilding', was born in which Prussian city that now belongs to Russia?

A) Tilsit

B) Magdeburg

C) Marienburg

D) Königsberg

Answer · why

D) Königsberg

Königsberg, now Kaliningrad, knew him as Friedrich Wilhelm Müller: he left Prussia at about 18, toured Europe as a circus athlete and re-emerged under...

Q 02/05

Eugen Sandow's first bodybuilding contest, the Great Competition of 1901, was held at which London venue?

A) The Crystal Palace

B) Alexandra Palace

C) The Royal Albert Hall

D) The Olympia exhibition hall

Answer · why

C) The Royal Albert Hall

The Royal Albert Hall filled so completely for Sandow's final that would-be spectators had to be turned away at the doors.

Q 03/05

Which famous author sat on the judging panel of Sandow's 1901 Great Competition?

A) Rudyard Kipling

B) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

C) Sir Henry Rider Haggard

D) Jerome K. Jerome

Answer · why

B) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was no stranger to sport, having played first-class cricket for the MCC, and he shared the judging with Sandow himself and the ...

Q 04/05

Which London museum took a plaster cast of Eugen Sandow's body in 1901 as a perfect specimen of manhood?

A) The Science Museum

B) The Natural History Museum

C) The National Portrait Gallery

D) The Victoria and Albert Museum

Answer · why

B) The Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum showed the cast for just three months before banishing it to the basement; in the 1990s Arnold Schwarzenegger had a copy ma...

Q 05/05

Eugen Sandow's stage career was built with the help of which famous Broadway impresario as manager?

A) P. T. Barnum

B) Florenz Ziegfeld

C) George M. Cohan

D) David Belasco

Answer · why

B) Florenz Ziegfeld

Florenz Ziegfeld saw that crowds cared more about Sandow's muscles than the weights he lifted, so he built the act around poses he billed as 'muscle d...