The lifter in action in the above photo was Reg Gaffley, 1955 British Empire & Commonwealth Games Champion in his weight division.  Toni Asaro is in the background on the right of the photo.  Ian Morris, from Ireland did strength "feats" or "stunts" and a few years later won a number of British Powerlifting Championship titles.  The next photo shows Ian Morris bending some 6-inch (15cm) nails:

The next photo shows Toni lifting his wife Dolores and his eldest daughter Razania on a bar with special "swing seats" - a lift more difficult than lifting a barbell of equivalent weight - because this is "live weight"!!

It wasn’t long and Toni got me involved in doing commentaries over the microphones that were usually supplied at such events.  It was during this time that the club started giving shows / demos at Shopping centres (or "Malls" as the overseas people would say!!) and events like the Annual Cape (Agricultural) Show at the Goodwood Show Grounds - and even a show one year at the Elgin Apple Festival!!  Again, it was not long after that that I became part of the team doing the demos.

(Shortly after I joined PHTC, through Toni’s efforts I qualified as a WP weightlifting referee and not long after that I also qualified as a South African referee and over the next 19 years judged at a few inter-provincial and national (South African) contest.)

A typical demo would include some warm up exercises and then some Olympic lifts, Power lifts and other exercises used in Bodybuilding.  All the while I would be doing a running commentary in English (and Afrikaans, where required).  For the last 10 minutes of the show, Toni would take over the mike from me and I would then do a couple of "strength feats / stunts" (Afrikaans = "kragtoertjies")

(At one stage (in 1970) we were on the point of going to Rhodesia to give a show on their national TV, but somehow, that fell through.)

As Toni was sometimes involved in these "feats" of mine, he would then hand over the mike to one of the older lifters.  These "feats" always went down very well with the crowds as visually they were very impressive – like the smashing, into pieces, an 88 pound /40 kg cement paving slab on my chest with a 16-pound (7.27 kg) sledge hammer, or, with myself lying on the floor, Toni, then weighing 198 pounds (90 kg) jumping off a bench with his boots onto my stomach, onto the floor, turning around jumping on my stomach and back onto the bench!!!

The next photo (1972) shows Toni smashing the 88 pound /40 kg cement slab on my chest.  From a photographic point of view this is a great photo as the slab has JUST started collapsing downward from the strike by the hammer head!!

(You can see how one of my club-mates (Martin van Niekerk) is shielding my eyes from the cement chips and how he has also put his head forward to avoid these flying chips – and I’m holding my hands over the lower part of my face.)

One of the best series of shows / demos to my mind was when we were included, for 2-3 years, on the programme of events at the annual “Goodwood (Agricultural) Show” at the show-grounds.  Over the 8 (or more??) days of the Show, we usually did 16 performances – two each weekday evening and then 3 on each of the two Saturdays.

It was at one of these performances at the Goodwood Showgrounds that I was injured slightly:  When I was lying on the floor and Toni jumped on my stomach or when he afterwards smashed the paving slab with the sledge hammer, just before the moment of impact, I would do a "crunch", i.e. I would raise the top half of my body ever so slightly and powerfully tense my abdominal (stomach!) muscles so that the impact was met by a "solid wall of rock-hard muscle"!!

On one occasion, Toni jumped without giving me the signl that he was jumping and he landed (all 90 kg - 198 pounds) on my floating ribs!!  Through my clenched teeth I just kind of went "Oooo -aaaaah!!!!" but as quietly as I could as I didn't want the audience to know there was a problem!!   Needless to say I walked around with bruised ribs for several weeks but was still able to do the shows!!!

Over the years that I was part of the demo team, the "membership" varied enormously.  For the first few years after I joined the team it was fairly constant and the main members as per the photos below:  first photo, from the top myself, Toni Asaro, Graham Sandler and Richard Maneveld;  second photo, from the top myself, Toni Asaro, Richard Maneveld and Graham Sandler.

This series of photos was taken in a Studio of a professional photographer in Thibault Square and there is a story behind this whole session!!  (A couple of these photos appeared in the local newspapers the Saturday of the show).

It was 1974 and Toni, as the club owner, was approached by the "Promotions Manager" of an agency that was busy with promotions for the newly opened Mill Street Gardens Shopping Centre.  As this agency was one of these modern, professional ones, the lady wanted some photographs done to advertise our participation in one of the early promotions at the centre.

So, one Saturday morning, we dutifully rocked up at the studio (owned by someone we all knew) and met the lady there.  She didn’t want the "usual" photos associated with weightlifting so there was quite a bit of experimentation.  Now I have to describe the characters of Toni, Richard and Graham.

Toni was born 1922 so was the eldest.  Richard was about 8 years older than I was and Graham was about 5 years younger than I was.  When these three guys got together and when there was a female around, especially one who was fairly attractive (as this promotions lady was) they became almost like little boys!!!

The wise-cracks and jokes flew thick and fast – to me the best word to describe their attitudes at such times is the Afrikaans word "goddeloos".

As you look at the photos I’ve included of this session, you will notice that we were either grinning or laughing – this was not a case of "smile for the camera" but during the whole shooting session we were laughing and joking!!  And then, when Richard had to have this lady sit on his hand so that he could lift her above his head, I thought he was going to drop her the way he was trying not to laugh at the comments being made by Toni and Graham!!!

Here is another of the photos - myself and Toni at the back and Richard and Graham in front.

And another one just for fun!!!

Little did any of us realise that a few years later these shows would be our "ticket" to meeting, and appearing on stage with, an American film star!!!  Click on the "Meet Falconetti" button below for that story!!!

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