I first came across the name "Joan Rhodes" about 11 years ago, when a quirky British fella began masquerading as Rhodes' granddaughter on the alt.amazon-women.admirers Usenet group. "Joan Rhodes" was a stage name - possibly a reference to the Colossus of antiquity - for a British woman whose actual name is Josie Terena. Terena, born in 1920, was just plain freakishly strong, having the ability to perform all sorts of strongman tricks despite being only slightly muscular. As Joan Rhodes, Terena had a succesful show business career performing strength and wrestling feats.
A second noted strongwoman of the period was Relna Brewer. Brewer was a close friend of early female bodybuilder Pudgy Stockton, who passed away last year, and was an accomplished strength athlete in the early days of Muscle Beach. Brewer got her start working in one of the country's first health food stores, operating a juice press for customers including Jack LaLanne.
To the best of my knowledge, both Terena and Brewer (whose married name is McRae) are still living. There are several videos of the two available on YouTube, so I thought I'd share the links:
A very high quality 1940 newsreel short showing a young Terena performing her act.
Here is Brewer (incorrectly identified as Terena!) bending a metal bar on the beach.
Here's another old film of Brewer, bending horseshoes.
...looks to be more usually masquerading as Diana the Valkyrie, as what he/she wrote in the Google Group is almost word-for-word what you'll find in a lot of "Diana the Valkyrie"s website under her stories. It would somewhat shatter a beutiful illusion if it turned-out that Diana was actually just a cranky schmoe, although some of the other contributor's stories would still make up for the disappointment.
Lingster
-
Quirky Brit
|
Super Administrator
|
2007-01-14 14:42:09
Well, I'd hate to shatter your illusions.
cpbell0033944
-
Shattering illusions...
|
Registered
|
2007-01-14 15:20:56
..is often painful for the illusion-holder, but assume you're confirming my suspicions. Surely it's a bit (no, VERY) disrespectful for a random schmoe to impersonate a female grandchild of a strongwoman?
Lingster
-
Disrespectful?
|
Super Administrator
|
2007-01-14 15:56:45
His trans-gender impersonation has always struck me as a bit odd, which is why I describe him as "quirky". However, just because he's a bit off doesn't make him a bad guy.
cpbell0033944
-
Disrespectful? Yes..
|
Registered
|
2007-01-15 10:31:32
...because if any GENUINE living relatives of Josie Terena do learn of this guy, they may well find the idea that he passes himself off as a female member of their family rather upsetting. I for one would be upset if somebody claimed falsely to be a relative ofany of my deceased relations. :x
mineshaft
|
Registered
|
2008-07-14 08:49:46
O.J. Heller shot a lot of photos of Relma Brewer on California's Muscle Beach in the 1940's. We're publishing a few of these in the Muscle Beach feature coming out later this week. In one photo you see Relma tearing a large phone book in half. Judging from this photo she had extremely powerful wrists and forearms. It's really amazing. She always has a nice smile too.
