How does a strong man make a living? For Joe Bonomo (1901-1978), his strength opened doors for several career paths, including work as a stunt man and actor in Hollywood. Thanks to the Victor (Vic) Boff collection at the Stark Center, we can all enjoy a glimpse into Hollywood’s silent era and early “talkies” through the photographs of Bonomo’s career over the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.

Vic Boff (1917-2002) was a strongman, athlete, editor, entrepreneur, author, and historian. Bonomo was good friends with Boff and gifted him two large, framed collages of photographs of himself throughout his career. An image of one of the collages is shown below.

When Boff donated the collages to the Stark Center, librarian Cindy Slater removed the photographs to preserve them. More information about the conservation of these photographs can be found in my previous blog post, “Preserving Legends: The Victor (Vic) Boff Collection.”

Bonomo first got into movies in 1921, when he won the “Modern Apollo” contest at nineteen years old and received a thousand dollars and a ten-week movie contract to star with actress Hope Hampton in the silent film “The Light in the Dark” (1922).  He performed various stunts in the movie for multiple actors, including Lon Chaney. The photograph below is believed to be from this film.

Bonomo got his next big break in 1923 when he signed on for a seven-year contract with Universal to be a stuntman and stock actor. He moved to Hollywood and doubled for Lon Chaney again in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” He served as Chaney’s double in several more movies throughout the years. His next big roles were in serial films like “Beasts of Paradise” (1923), “The Iron Man” (1924), co-starring with Italian actor and stuntman Luciano Albertini, “Wolves of the North” (1924), “The Great Circus Mystery” (1925), and “Perils of the Wild” (1925), a series based on the story of the Swiss Family Robinson.

Most of the photographs of Bonomo are from silent era films that no longer exist. According to the article “Lost Treasures of Silent Film Tallied,” it is estimated that 70 percent of the 11,000 silent films created in America between 1912 and 1929 have been destroyed. A big reason for this is because of the fragility of the nitrate film they were made with, which is highly flammable. Large studios like Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox lost massive amounts of films in fires during the 1930s. Other films were intentionally destroyed by the studios to make room for newer, more popular films. Materials preserved by actors in these movies, like Bonomo, have left us evidence of these otherwise lost artifacts.    

Not all the photographs in this collection had information to identify which movies of Bonomo’s they were from, so organizing and identifying the photographs took some detective work. One source of information was Bonomo’s autobiography, The Strongman, published in 1968. This book featured several of the photographs included in the collages as well as context for the films. Another source was the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Although I was unable to identify films for every photograph, I was able to recognize several different movies including “The College Cowboy” (1924), “The Great Circus Mystery,” “Perils of the Wild,” “The Vanishing Legion” (1931), “The Sea Tiger” (1927), “Wolves of the North,” “Vamping Venus” (1928), and “The Sign of the Cross” (1932).

These photographs have been digitized and are available to view online through The Strongman Project. The Victor (Vic) Boff Collection and publications of Bonomo’s are available to researchers at the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports. You can learn more about the Center’s holdings by visiting www.starkcenter.org.

Sources, in addition to the records themselves:

Bonomo, Joe. The Strongman: The Daredevil Exploits of The Mightiest Man in The Movies. New York: Bonomo Studios Inc., 1968.

“Lost Treasures of Silent Film Tallied.” American History 49, no. 1 (April 1, 2014): 10. https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=e863689c-4a6c-35ee-a4c3-701d9e266a43.