Bill Pullman - The Wizard of Weightlifting
by David Gentle
When writing about 'old time' strong men, it is very easy to get carried away with all the accounts of the biggest, heaviest and most colourful characters. The unfortunate fact, however, is that when it comes to nationalities, most of the early 'champs' were not British, yet the funny thing is that many of them probably received a better reception over here than anywhere else on the globe. It is no secret that many strongmen from other countries, through choice spent more time over here than in their homeland. We have of course had our own share of 'greats' and one man in particular, although small in stature, made the impact of a giant on the weight lifting and weight training scene, that man was William Albert Pullum.
It was Wilfred Diamond, one of the greatest British strength historians and personal friend of many of the old strength stars, who first gave Bill Pullum the name of 'The Wizard of Weightlifting' and Bill, or W .A.P. as he was known, certainly lived up to the title. Bill was born on April 8th, 1887 and had a poor start in life, suffering from Tuberculosis at an early age. He was inspired into trying the physical culture way of life after seeing the strength acts at the local halls, including that of the Saxons. Later he was introduced to the mysteries of the weight game by a local lifter called Bill Slade. Because of his lack of height (5'5") and muscular bulk, Pullum decided that the only way to lift championship poundages was to technique and skill coupled with perfect style, and that is exactly what he did, and how he continued to lift for the rest of his life. His lifting was immaculate, a military press was just that - military.
Self educated, he wrote in a very entertaining style several books~ including 'How to Use a Barbell', 'The Amazing Samson (Alexander Zass)" and "How to Make Weightlifting Easy". He also wrote numerous articles on the subject, his most interesting being Random Recollections, recalling personal accounts of old time strength champions. Apart from writing, he was also a great coach, both personal and by mail. His most important post being as our Olympic Weightlifting Coach in 1948. He trained countless top quality lifters including Julian Creus, Mel Barnett, 'Jumping' Jim Halliday and at an earlier period, Britain's greatest heavyweight in his time Ronald Walker.
Ron Walker, born 1907 died 1948, performed some fabulous lifts, being able to do single banded snatches with either hand of more than 200lb. He also made a single handed clean lift to the shoulder with 3251b. In London at the Memorial Hall, 1936, Ron became the first British Olympic lifter in history to break a world record on the Olympic lifts, with a two hands snatch of 297.5Ib. It was a great tragedy to British iron men when Walker died prematurely of cancer on October 25th 1948. Pullum luckily had a longer reign.
W.A. Pullum supports approximately 2,000 pounds in his famous, 'Plan Feat',
three quarters of this weight being held by his legs. From a sketch made
at the Camberwell Palace of Varieties 66 years ago!
To appreciate how good Bill Pullum was, and why the Wizard title was so apt, just consider the following facts. He won 15 championships, 52 gold medals (5 of which Edwad Aston, then Britain's Strongest Man, gave him for outstanding performances) and in 4 years he broke 192 British and World records. He also trained every Amateur British Champion in his time. Although only a small man (weighing 1221b and only 5'5"tall) he did a right hand bent press of 2161b, a right and left hand dumbell swing of 1301b, being eight pounds over his bodyweight, and he was also capable of slow curling, in strict fashion, once again a weight equivalent to his own. Probably his greatest performance was to be able to hold out his own weight in the lift known as the crucifix. Pullum held out laterally, two 60.51b dumbbells at shoulder height (thus representing a cross, or crucifix) in perfect style, whilst only weighing in himself at 120.5Ib. This is even more creditable when you consider that he had long arms. It is interesting to note if you go to the other extreme, that Louis Cyr did 18S.251b in this lift, which although huge poundage for that type of lift (Cyr did 97.251b right hand and 88lb left hand) was about 1301b below Cyr's own weight.
In Pullum's more unorthodox feats, his most famous was the Roman Column. A replica of this feat was presented to Bill in the form of a gold and silver statuette by his admirers. In this stunt, he would support two partners, and a variety of weights totalling 1,800lb, and remember this was by a small man weighing only 122lb.
Many of Bill's ideas were later to greatly influence bodybuilding, as he produced many original movements with the weights, and introduced, as assistance, exercises for improving his weightlifting. The lateral raise lying movement for example, proved a remarkable pectoral developer, ending up as we know, dumbell flying. With experimentation, many hitherto unknown movements were practised with outstanding results. As well as training weightlifters and bodybuilders, W.A.P. specialized in rehabilitation exercises for ex-servicemen suffering from serious war wounds, and some of his most worthwhile and beneficial work was done in this field, with some remarkable results. Later in life, Bill purchased and ran 'Health and Strength' magazine,(1956) and made a good job of what can be an exhausting job, even for a young man. Bill made the magazine as interesting as at any time in it's history. He was then 70 years old, and worked hard for a further four years, until his death in 1960.
Without W.A.P., weight training may never have become as scientifically sound as it is today, thanks to 'The Wizard of Weightlifting' -Bill Pullum.
Bill Pullman - The Wizard of Weightlifting © Copyright by David Gentle All Rights Reserved