A Minute With Max Sick

I’m shocked and disappointed that no punk rocker appropriated the name of German strong man Max Sick (1882-1961). It certainly would live harmoniously alongside Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious, Glenn Danzig, Jello Biafra, et al on a roster of performers. A cousin, perhaps, to Nikki Sixx. Great as the name was all by itself, he merged it into one he thought sounded better “Maxick”, maybe because he was aware that someone touting the virtues of healthy living had better not be named “Sick”.

True to his name, Sick was an ailing specimen throughout his childhood. He couldn’t walk until he was six years old. He was afflicted with dropsy, rickets, and some sort of lung difficulty. When he was ten he began to work out in order to get stronger. He did a short hitch in the army, belonged to a gym, and got hired as an artist’s model. This led to an act in German music halls wherein he would hoist a larger man from the audience over his head without spilling a beer. Since Sick himself was a pretty small (guy 5’4″ tall and under 150 lbs), this was a pretty impressive spectacle. Sick also liked to demonstrate his muscle control, twitching this muscle or that in time to music.

It was Eugene Sandow who brought Sick to England in 1909. Sick worked with Sandow’s protege Monte Saldo of the Montague Brothers to develop the lucrative Maxaldo, or Maxalding system of isometrics and muscle control, which became popular by way of mail order booklets. Meantime, Sick was winning middleweight strong man competitions in English music halls.

Sick spent World War One in lockup rather than return to Germany. He did return later, but left once again once the Nazis took control of the country. He lived for many years in South America. Towards the end of his life he was running a gym and health club in Buenos Aires, still physically active into his late ’70s.

For more on the history of music hall consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous.