FeedLouis Cyr: Vintage Strongman Or Vintage Bear?
Written by BignFuzzy on August 8, 2008 – 8:47 am -Let’s face it, people are bigger today then they used to be. Try shopping for cool stuff in a vintage clothing store and find anything above an undersized XL and you’ll see what I mean. So imagine how HUGE Louis Cyr (pronounced Seer) must have looked to people back in the 1800s!
Look at those legs! At 5′ 8½”, Louis’ weight apparently varied between 291 lbs and 365 lbs, what a bear! Love the belly too! Is that a leaf he’s wearing? Hmmm, I’ll just watch and wait ’til the fall 
Louis worked as a lumberjack in Canada and eventually immigrated to America where he pursued a career as a professional strongman. Here we see Louis getting ready to resist the pull of two horses. He could do much more though, in 1891 at Sohmer Park in Montreal, he resisted the pull of four draught horses, two each side while groomsmen cracked their whips at the horses to get them to pull harder.
Here’s Louis with his family, his wife weighed all of 100 lbs.
Louis passed on at a very young 49 yrs due to chronic nephritis. This great statue was erected in his honor. Louis Cyr epitomized the look and feel of the old world circus strongman, a look which in some cases seems to have translated to a certain kind of bear that some of us lust after today. Oh yeah!
