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xiphiasLemme tell you about Joe Greenstein, born 1893, died 1977. He showed up in a Cracked.com article yesterday, and he sounded cool enough that I looked at his Wikipedia entry, and then a couple other things.
Okay. So, the interesting parts of the story start around 1907, when he was fourteen, and a sickly kid, living in Poland. He gets beat up by some thugs, because he's a sickly Jewish kid, and they can, while he's at the circus. The circus strongman finds him beat up, cleans him up, and offers to help him out. So Joe runs off to join the circus, and, over the next year and a half, "Champion Volenko" teaches him how to eat right and exercise, and Joe gets stronger and healthier. He goes back to Poland, and becomes a wrestler, and gets married. Then he heads out to the United States to get away from the worsening anti-Semitism.
He becomes friends with Jack Johnson, the heavyweight boxing champion of the world, partially because they were both minorities. Jack tries to teach him how to box, but, it turns out that, although Joe is a good fighter, he doesn't like drawing blood on someone that he doesn't have a beef with. So he goes back to wrestling, but eventually, he finds his true calling with a strongman act in vaudeville. Back to his roots, and all.
Oh.
Did I mention that the guy is 5'4" tall (163 cm)?
So, yeah. Little, tiny guy, circus strongman. He goes under the name "The Mighty Atom."
Yes, there's a superhero connection here -- the original, Golden-Age version of "The Atom" is based on Joe Greenstein. But it gets better.
So, 1939, Joe's, like, 46 now. He's walking through New York, and he sees a sign on a building saying, "No Jews or dogs allowed." This kinda pisses him off.
He asks around, and finds out that the building is the headquarters of the German-American Bund -- the American Nazi Party. That kinda pisses him off more.
So get gets a ladder and a Louisville Slugger. Tears down the sign. And throws it on the twenty or thirty Bund members who've come out of the building. Naturally, they decide to kill him. And, yeah, the police come and break it and arrest the whole mess.
On one side of the courtroom, you've got twenty Bund members, each pounded to crap -- broken noses, arms, legs, whatever. Represented by a lawyer who works for the Bund.
On the other side, you've got Joe.
The judge is kind of baffled by this. He's not sure why there can be TWENTY people on ONE side, and just ONE on the OTHER side. He asks the arresting officer if there weren't more people involved, maybe?
Yes, yes there were, the officer confirms. Six of the Bund members haven't yet left the hospital. But, the officer continues, the Bund guys DID throw the first punch. Joe was just defending himself. The judge asks why the Bund guys would have attacked him, the arresting officer shrugs, and says, well, probably because they're Nazis. The judge thinks about that, figures it makes sense, and dismisses the charges against Joe.
By the way, when I said that he worked as a wrestler? You might want to read that as "grappling-based mixed-martial artist," maybe. He traveled and studied jujitsu as well as other world martial arts forms.
Later in life, after his wife died, and he was an old man, he got into the habit of wandering around the worst neighborhoods of New York late at night. He was an old, balding Jewish man with a grey beard.
And his hobby was beating up muggers. You know, because everyone needs a hobby.
Yeah, the guy was a genuine, for-realz street-level superhero.
Okay. So, the interesting parts of the story start around 1907, when he was fourteen, and a sickly kid, living in Poland. He gets beat up by some thugs, because he's a sickly Jewish kid, and they can, while he's at the circus. The circus strongman finds him beat up, cleans him up, and offers to help him out. So Joe runs off to join the circus, and, over the next year and a half, "Champion Volenko" teaches him how to eat right and exercise, and Joe gets stronger and healthier. He goes back to Poland, and becomes a wrestler, and gets married. Then he heads out to the United States to get away from the worsening anti-Semitism.
He becomes friends with Jack Johnson, the heavyweight boxing champion of the world, partially because they were both minorities. Jack tries to teach him how to box, but, it turns out that, although Joe is a good fighter, he doesn't like drawing blood on someone that he doesn't have a beef with. So he goes back to wrestling, but eventually, he finds his true calling with a strongman act in vaudeville. Back to his roots, and all.
Oh.
Did I mention that the guy is 5'4" tall (163 cm)?
So, yeah. Little, tiny guy, circus strongman. He goes under the name "The Mighty Atom."
Yes, there's a superhero connection here -- the original, Golden-Age version of "The Atom" is based on Joe Greenstein. But it gets better.
So, 1939, Joe's, like, 46 now. He's walking through New York, and he sees a sign on a building saying, "No Jews or dogs allowed." This kinda pisses him off.
He asks around, and finds out that the building is the headquarters of the German-American Bund -- the American Nazi Party. That kinda pisses him off more.
So get gets a ladder and a Louisville Slugger. Tears down the sign. And throws it on the twenty or thirty Bund members who've come out of the building. Naturally, they decide to kill him. And, yeah, the police come and break it and arrest the whole mess.
On one side of the courtroom, you've got twenty Bund members, each pounded to crap -- broken noses, arms, legs, whatever. Represented by a lawyer who works for the Bund.
On the other side, you've got Joe.
The judge is kind of baffled by this. He's not sure why there can be TWENTY people on ONE side, and just ONE on the OTHER side. He asks the arresting officer if there weren't more people involved, maybe?
Yes, yes there were, the officer confirms. Six of the Bund members haven't yet left the hospital. But, the officer continues, the Bund guys DID throw the first punch. Joe was just defending himself. The judge asks why the Bund guys would have attacked him, the arresting officer shrugs, and says, well, probably because they're Nazis. The judge thinks about that, figures it makes sense, and dismisses the charges against Joe.
By the way, when I said that he worked as a wrestler? You might want to read that as "grappling-based mixed-martial artist," maybe. He traveled and studied jujitsu as well as other world martial arts forms.
Later in life, after his wife died, and he was an old man, he got into the habit of wandering around the worst neighborhoods of New York late at night. He was an old, balding Jewish man with a grey beard.
And his hobby was beating up muggers. You know, because everyone needs a hobby.
Yeah, the guy was a genuine, for-realz street-level superhero.
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-20 12:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-20 01:15 am (UTC)SIGNAL BOOST!!
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Date: 2011-12-20 02:02 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-20 02:09 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-20 03:39 am (UTC)BTW, have you ever watched the Ken Burns' documentary on Jack Johnson? It's pretty darn good and fairly informative for those who had never heard of him. (And it's quite possible it mentioned his friend Joe; I'd need to see it again.)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-20 06:07 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-20 09:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-12-20 11:10 pm (UTC)My head hurts
Date: 2011-12-20 04:21 am (UTC)Re: My head hurts
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Date: 2011-12-20 04:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
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