Is this the real story of the beginning of BBing?
Sandow Starts It
In its broadest sense, bodybuilding is centuries old. Serious athletes have always done exercises and calisthenics to increase muscle mass and improve muscle tone, with the goal of improving performance.
As a discipline in its own right, though, bodybuilding is relatively young. Its origin is often traced to Eugen Sandow (Friederich Wilhelm Mueller), a strong man who was a featured attraction at the 1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
Sandow began his performance with feats of strength and concluded it by adopting various poses designed to show off his body--the same kinds of poses used during modern bodybuilding competitions.
After the exposition, Sandow toured the vaudeville circuit. In 1899, he went to England and opened his first "Physical Culture Studio" in London. Sandow aggressively marketed physical culture to the middle class, selling products by mail order and publishing his own magazine. Eventually, he had a chain of 20 studios throughout England.
One of his promotions was the first bodybuilding contest, called by Sandow the "Great Competition," held on September 14, 1901. Sandow made it clear that mere bulk would not win the contest; proportion and symmetry of muscular development would be the keys. He was one of the three judges; another was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the physician-author who created Sherlock Holmes.
Staged in the Royal Albert Hall, which had seating for 15,000, the Great Competition not only sold out, it created an immense traffic jam and hundreds of would-be spectators were turned away.
Oddly, it was the last of the Great Competitions. Sandow had evidently got the publicity he sought, so he didn't bother to do it again.
http://www.hickoksports.com/history/bodybuilding.shtml#hist1
