? to Joe Roark

[Guest woody36]

Joe, i read an article,in which Edward Aston is supposed to

have discussed is "trick" of breaking an horseshoe,a feat of

which he considered impossible on a brand new horseshoe.

He states, that he did what most other strongmen of the

era did,and that was to get a blacksmith to make a special

shoe,given that Marx was skilled in the trade, do you think

his claims are real?

I ask because of a picture of  one of his broken shoes,

which just looks like an airline fracture,not the result of

a massive amount of twisting back and forth (something

that would be required)in order for the shoe to break.

ps: were his brothers Groucho,chico,harpo,and Zeppo any

good at bending?

[Roark]

While I am not prepared to defend this opinion, because I

haven't studied it, I am aware of Aston's statement about

finding the right blacksmith, and certainly one wonders which

other strongmen he had in mind who followed this practice.

Certainly coin bending was rife with tricks- even to the point of using gloves which contained slotted pieces of metal into

which the coin could be levered.

So it is no stretch to suppose at least some, and Aston seemed to believe most all, strongmen had doctored horse-

shoes.

And certainly it is a questionable belief to suppose that among all the false weights, baked cards, and other tricks to

mislead the audience, horse-shoe benders alone stood honest.

But I simply don't know.

[Guest woody36]

Thanks Joe

[Arne]

In April 6th 1903 John Grün (Marx) broke three horseshoes in 2 minutes and 15 seconds. The horseshoes came directly from a blacksmith and they were very carefully checked (double-checked). They were 100% real stuff. Mr Chapellier was timekeeper and he was using a stopwatch. John Grün broke the first one i 44 seconds, the second one in 23 seconds and the third and the strongest i 68 seconds. Direct after this feat he lift his heavy dumbbells without any problem. No one in the audience were able to lift them from the ground.

One of the witnesses was Desbonnet.

Marx was John Grün's stage-name.

Excuse me for my poor english.

[Sybersnott]

When it came to horseshoe bending and breaking, John Grun Marx was the all-time master.  IMHO (and from what I've read), no one else comes close.

[Arne]

Excuse me! His feat was done April 6th 1905 not April 6th 1903.