Years ago at the Allentown Fair, as one would push through a sea of carney delusion, tucked back by the 4H animals was an island of reality. There, in an old battered truck, an ancient Jewish strongman performed incredible feats of strength, to sell only homemade kosher soap. Standing on a platform on the rear of his truck, flanked by photographs from his performing youth, he would bent horse shoes and bite through nails. Many years earlier, my mother as a little girl in Bethlehem, saw him pull a truck uphill with his hair. Even as an old man, like a reincarnation of Samson, his grey hair was still long.
In the summers of 1964 and 1965, myself and a friend,(Fred Schoenk, retired Allentown art teacher) made and sold printed tee-shirts at the fair. We had the honor to know Joseph Greenstein(The Mighty Atom) and his wife. For those interested, there are various articles on the Mighty Atom and even at least one book. Enjoy the fair!
reprinted annually since 2007
The "old fair" was interesting, the "new fair" not so much. Most folks were dressed to attend and the shoving and pushing was next to non existent. The old fair goers seemed to be much more civilized. We haven't been to the fair in at least 35 years and it just has no interest any more, sorry to say.
ReplyDeleteThe Mighty Atom was always interesting to me as a kid. The dunk tank was rather funny. The rides were pedestrian. Always enjoyed the demo derby.
As a teenager, I helped setup and tear down the rides for some extra pin money... it was an all night job.
You were lucky to get to know him during his time at the Fair.
ReplyDeleteFor most of us, we didn’t realize how powerful he was until much later, after the Fair was over and Mighty Atom had split.
(Sorry, but I couldn’t hold myself back from making an atom joke. He sounds like a cool guy)