Friday, July 22, 2022

The "physical idealist" - Laurence A. Woodford, circa 1928, postcards from the collection of James Gardiner



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I have no idea who Laurence Woodford was, but he looks to have been a British equivalent of Tony Sansone. I've not been able to find any biographical data on him, other than the fact that he published a book on art modeling:

Physical Idealism and the Art of Posing  Hardcover, 110 pages, 3 pages of advertisements, frontispiece and 38 illustrations. With an introduction by Alan P. Mead*. Link House Publications Ltd. 1 January 1938.

"40 full page illustrations of Mr. Woodford's finest poses prove that he himself has reached the peak of perfection." - advertisement on page 105 of Sun Bathing Review, Autumn 1938.


* There is some information about Alan Mead online. Having lost a leg in WWI, he overcame the disability and became a celebrated "strongman" of the era, demonstrating, teaching, and writing on the subject of health and muscular control. Outside of that, having been born into a wealthy and prominent family of judges, he lived most of his life in London as an attorney. 




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6 comments:

  1. VanceManJuly 23, 2022 at 2:33 PM

    While I believe Tony Sansone was a definite one of a kind, Laurence Woodford is a delightful substitute. Thank you for bringing him to my attention.

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  2. AnonymousJuly 29, 2022 at 12:10 PM

    Nice photos. Some of the info seems to be contradictory. The book was published in 1938. If he lost a leg in WWI, either the photos were 20 years old when published or something’s amiss. I would love to see more photos from the book.

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    1. StephiliusJuly 30, 2022 at 11:48 AM

      Yes, sorry for the confusion; the asterisk is easy to miss. The biographical information is for the fellow who wrote the book's introduction, Alan Mead, not the model/author. I couldn't find anything on Woodford, but Mead was quite well known and had such an interesting story. I tried to find illustrations from the book itself, but alas....

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  3. AnonymousJanuary 23, 2023 at 7:10 PM

    Laurence Woodford's fine, aesthetic physique well displayed in these tasteful male nude images. - Rj

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  4. MamlukeFebruary 14, 2023 at 7:23 AM

    I did find this within "My First Quarter Century in the Iron Game" Part Thirteen by Siegmund Klein:
    "The English “Superman” magazine, always trying to arouse interest in physical development, would from time to time conduct posing contests. In the Spring of 1933, it occurred to the editors that they would like to find out who was the most popular physical culturist. In the May 1933 issue the results were published, and as could be expected, two English athletes, Alan P. Mead and Lawrence A. Woodford, won first and second place. They only published the first five winners, and the next three were myself, winning with 1830 votes, Lionel Strongfort with 1450 votes and Tony Sansone with 1440 votes. I do not wish to belittle the first and second winners, for they both have remarkable physiques, and their poses were really exceptionally beautiful."

    and a reference from "Yoga Body" 2010 Mark Singleton - chapter: "Yoga and Physical Culture" that Romesh Balsekar "studied under Laurence A Woodford" in England in the early 1930s

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