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Top: New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection (Librar y of Congress). Bottom: Scherl / SZ Photo.
ly favored Breitbart as the genuine article, dismissing variety shows in Providence, Buffalo, Toronto, Cleveland,
Hanussen as a jealous interloper.
Chicago, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C..
The clashes grew in intensity. Finally, on February 4, The Cleveland News raved that he was “more interesting
1923, Hanussen published a four-part challenge to Herr
than the Eifel Tower.” In New York during the Christmas
Breitbart in Vienna’s main newspaper, Der Tag. Declar- season, he performed before 85,000 spectators at the Hiping Breitbart’s iron-biting a “public disgrace,” he offered podrome, then the “largest playhouse in the world,” smashto deposit 10 million kronen in the public charity account ing all previous attendance records. In February 1924 he
of the Mariahilf Bank if Breitbart could use his teeth to set out on a second tour, playing in 12 more U.S. cities,
sever an iron chain of Hanussen’s choosing. Hanussen with return engagements in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Chiwould add another 10 million if Queen
cago, and Cleveland, where his promoters
Martha Farra failed to withstand Breitbilled him as “the Superman of the Ages.”
bart’s bed of nails with an anvil placed on
In Detroit, Dr. Morris Fishbein of the
her chest. And yet another million kronen
American Medical Association was horriwould be bequeathed if the “weak maidfied to read that the strongman was advoen” could not safely lie under Breitbart’s
cating a dietary regimen of raw vegetables
stone board, or if Hanussen could not
and warning Americans that ingesting so
find 20 non-athletes able to deform the
much milk and meat was endangering
strongman’s steel bars and flat-iron sheets.
their health. Accusing Breitbart of “antiBreitbart, who at the time was enhancAmericanism,” Fishbein filed a flurry of
ing his image by having reporters observe
protests to the Bureau of Citizenship and
the filming of his motion picture, The Iron
Immigration which were filed away in
King, refused to take up the challenge.
various Washington, D.C. offices.
Instead, he filed a slander suit against
Meanwhile, back in New York, the
BREITBART BENDING A
METAL BAR ALONGSIDE
Hanussen, who then counter-sued. At
mentalist Erik Jan Hanussen resurfaced
A PEDESTAL DISPLAYING A
the end of the day, Vienna’s criminal
with a new “Queen Martha Farra,” and
STAR OF DAVID, 1924.
court fined Breitbart 250,000 kronen
the Viennese duo was tacked on to the
for a backstage assault on Herr Hanussen, and expelled “Man of Iron’s” Hippodrome program. Breitbart now
Hanussen from Austria for the next 10 years for slander. agreed to take on Hanussen’s challenge.
In Vienna and Prague, The Iron King made the
But an odd thing happened during rehearsals: The
rounds of Zionist fundraisers, trailed by a one-reel par- iron-biter and the mentalist discovered common ground.
ody of the Breitbart-Hanussen rivalry, Schmalbart Ver- Amidst a growing admiration for one another, the vissus Kann’utzen.
ceral antipathy between them practically disappeared.
Then, suddenly, Hanussen inexplicably vanished, and
Coming to America
Breitbart took the depressed “Queen Martha Farra” under
N THE SUMMER OF 1923, AMERICAN his wing. (Later the “Queen of All Will” moved in with
scouts from the B.F. Keith vaudeville circuit invit- a paper box manufacturer in Queens. She spent her final
ed Breitbart and his crew to perform in the U.S. years, from 1924 to 1939, as an entertainer in the Jewish
and Canada. For the once impoverished blacksmith from
continued on page 37
Lodz, performing in jazz-age America, awash in money, signified the ultimate triumph.
Even before the “Jewish Superman” arrived in Manhattan, The New York Times dubbed him the “phenomenon
of the ages.” The Brooklyn Times, New York Telegraph,
and New York Star all ran tantalizing features in their
amusement sections. The American Hebrew referred to
him as “the superman of physical prowess and perfection.”
Breitbart did not disappoint. Critics described his debut
at the Orpheum Theatre in Brooklyn on September 8th,
1923 as “electrifying,” having “raised the house” and
“shattered all records.” Five days later, The New York
Evening World reported proudly that “the world’s leading athlete” had applied for U.S. citizenship and would
soon be “one of our own.”
MOURNERS CARRY SIEGMUND BREITBART’S
In the fall of 1923, Breitbart headlined in B.F. Keith’s
COFFIN, BERLIN, 1925.
reform judaism
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