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This frivolous newsreel item celebrates child prodigy John Mann, "the Infant
Hercules of Deepcut", showcasing a succession of 'amazing stunts', from lifting
improbably heavy weights with his teeth to serving as a 'human anvil', balancing
a large rock on his stomach while an older boy beats it with a hammer.
The Sandow referred to in an intertitle ("Sandow please note!") is
Prussian-born Eugen Sandow, considered the father of modern bodybuilding, who
took up residence in Britain in the early 1900s and ran a profitable business
from Holland Park, dispensing tips and advice to legions of admirers. We'll
probably never know what the great man made of his young challenger - Sandow
died aged 58 just a few months after this film was originally shown.
However questionable as news, this story had the kind of obvious popular
appeal the newsreels lapped up, and it's one you might still expect to find in a
local newspaper or on local TV news bulletins.
It's interesting to compare the 'Infant Hercules' with another juvenile
strongman, four-year-old Liverpudlian boxer and wrestler Willie Saunders, filmed
15 years earlier in The Man to Beat Jack Johnson (1910). Like John, Willie is
likened to a giant in his field (Jack Johnson was a world heavyweight champion
of his day). On the back of his cinema debut, Willie enjoyed a brief film
career; John Mann's celebrity seems to have been more
shortlived.
Mark Duguid
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Complete film (1:16)
