Primo Carnera

[Roark]

Primo Carnera was born and died in Sequals,

Italy. Oct 26, 1906 - June 29, 1967. He was a

boxer and wrestler, whose height is variously

reported but must have been about 6'5" or so,

and his weight ranged from 260 to 300+ lbs,

the heavier during his wrestling days. You may

remember him from HERCULES UNCHAINED, the

Steve Reeves movie.

Thomas Inch casually mentions Primo and wonders

if he would have been able to lift the Inch 172, and

says that on those few occasions when Inch and

Carnera were in each other's company, the bell

was never at hand. This is interesting because

Carnera being born this day 1906, would have been

age 25 when Inch retired the bell in 1931, so when

did they meet? Perhaps later when Inch un-retired the

bell during WW II.

Ray Can Cleef measured Carnera and reported in

Strength & Health May 1947 that his larger wrist

was 8.9 and his larger forearm was 15.1. His biceps

were 17.2, hardly noteworthy for someone so tall.

His wrist/forearm ratio was not spectacular either,

but in fairness to him he hardly claimed to be a

sterling weight trainee.

The real question, and RVC does not mention this,

is the hand length, which we learn elsewhere was

9 x 5, so it is not to be ruled out that Carnera could

have deadlifted the bell.

Indeed, if we want to know who could likely have

lifted it, all we need do is study the list of those who

never attempted it: Apollon, Marx, See, Pedley, Cyr,

Vansart, and Batta. They would have had a primo

chance.

[Guest StoicGrip]

I have read that Carnera was at one time a strongman in a circus,and that as part of his act would lift overhead a heavy man from the audience . I have also seen him in a movie set in London in the early fifties in which he played a wrestler . You can see that his hands and fingers were ernormous . He looked like he had acromegalia.

[Guest woody36]

The best pic of his hand is in a photo with Jimmy Durante in the photo gallery.

http://www.carnera.org/

[BarBender]

Here is another photo that sharply contrasts his hand size with that of a woman. http://www.carnera.org/images/primo9.jpg

[Guest StoicGrip]

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