Yossele (Joseph) Greenstein – ‘The Mighty Atom’
The Mighty Atom: The story of a Jewish strongman
By Steve Zeff
It is very rare that one comes across the story of a man who was a true living legend. Usually there is so much hype and unsubstantiated ‘facts’ around the person portrayed that anybody with a modicum of common-sense can debunk them with a minimum of google detecting.
The story of Yossele (Joseph) Greenstein has defied my efforts to debunk it. Perhaps you will be more successful.
He was born in Suvalk, Poland, in July 1892 with such severe birth defects that he wasn’t expected to live and it certainly would have amazed the three attending doctors to learn that this two-month premature, 3.5 pound scrap of humanity would one day be crowned the world’s strongest man and feature in both Ripley’s Believe It or Not and the Guinness Book of Records.
True to legendary status, Joseph joined the Issakof Brothers circus where, under the tutelage of Champion Volanko, he became the circus strong man. He then began a wrestling career and was dubbed Kid Greenstein, probably due to his youth and height (he was only 5ft4). In 1911 at the age of 18 he married Leah who was 15 at the time. They remained married until her death in 1974 aged 78 in New York.
Due to rising antisemitism he was forced to leave Europe for America where he made his way as a dockhand and later on worked on an oilfield in Texas.
In 1914, while in Galveston, Texas, a man became obsessed with Leah and decided to remove her husband from the picture. He shot Joseph from a distance of 10m with a .32 calibre pistol. The bullet struck him in the forehead but failed to penetrate his skull.
According to the account of the story (which I researched) in the Houston Post-dated 0ct 12 1914, the shot was reported as being accidental and he was taken to St. Joseph’s infirmary to be treated for slight loss of blood and shock. According to the report the “bullet was found just under the skin and had flattened out.”
In September 1928 he was in the news again when, under the new title The Mighty Atom, he proved his prodigious strength by pitting himself against an aircraft in a tug of war contest. The Buffalo Evening Times of Sept 29 1928 ran an article entitled “Mighty Atom – Super strong man pits brawn against plane. Wins.”
The Mighty Atom Poster
It depicted how he tied his hair to a harness attached to a plane at the Buffalo Airport where “before a large crowd of stunned witnesses, this human dynamo held his ground when the pilot increased the plane speed from 800 rpm for an approximate speed of 30 miles per hour to a speed of 1,600 rpm for a speed of 60 miles per hour.”
While there is surely a logical explanation for this and, like all these kinds of attractions there must have been a bit of smoke and mirrors to it, his next feat was totally unscripted.
He became a lecturer on health and philosophy and soon formed a band of followers willing to listen to his lectures and purchase his various elixirs.
In 1936, some rowdy longshoremen interrupted a lecture that one of The Mighty Atom’s associates was giving. When Joseph intervened a brawl ensued between him and six of them.
The New York newspapers ran a lead article entitled “Little giant knocks out 6.” The story read, “He weighs but 148 pounds, and is only 5’4 1/2” tall. No wonder writers have termed The Mighty Atom as “The World’s Biggest Little Man.”
However, for me the meat and potatoes of this legend’s life occurred in February 1939.
Apparently 22,000 American Nazi supporters attended a German Bund Rally in Madison Square Gardens, under police guard. (Footage of this rally still exists.) It was followed by a parade through New York’s Yorkville district on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. It was there that Joseph who was attending a business meeting in the German section of Yorkville spotted a sign on a second storey balcony of a building where a meeting of the Nazi American Bund was being held. The sign read “NO DOGS OR JEWS ALLOWED!”
He went across the street to a paint store, where with a three-dollar deposit, he rented an 18- foot ladder. He then purchased A Hank Greenberg Louisville slugger and returned with both to the building. He tore the sign off the façade of the building but was spotted by the Bund members inside who streamed out of the building. In the ensuing battle he managed to hospitalise eighteen of them while only sustaining a black eye.
In the aftermath Joseph was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and causing mass mayhem. In the dock stood the defendant aged 47, standing 5ft 4 and sporting a black eye. On the plaintiffs’ side were more than a dozen men with plaster casts and multiple bruises and contusions. The incredulous judge asked if all the participants were in attendance, convinced that one man could not have done all this by himself. The arresting officer answered that at least six other plaintiffs were unable to attend the proceedings due to the severity of their injuries. The judge asked Joseph for his version of the fight to which he cheerily answered “It wasn’t a fight, your honour, it was a pleasure. I scored a home run with every hit.”
When it emerged that he was set upon by the mob, the case against him was dismissed as an act of self-defence.
During World War Two, he got involved in raising funds for the US bond drive, by performing the following stunts: Lying on a bed of nails supporting a fourteen-man Dixieland band on his chest; breaking up three chains by expanding his chest; removing a car tire from its rim without the aid of tools; bending steel bars, spikes and horse shoes with his bare hands; and driving spikes into wooden planks with his palm. (This last stunt can still be seen on YouTube.)
For his efforts and patriotism he was awarded a citation by Fiorella La Guardia, then Mayor of New York.
Author Ed Spielman went to interview Joseph in order to write a book about his life (titled The Mighty Atom: The life and times of Joseph L Greenstein. Spielman shared his own eyewitness testimony after watching Joseph perform in 1977:
“Then the old man appeared and walked up past the ring apron. His white hair flowed down to his shoulders; his brown leather tunic bore a gold Star of David. He looked like a living Maccabee. He was a short man, only 5 feet 4 inches, but broad; in his strongman’s costume he was a miniature Samson.
The Mighty Atom
“The crowd watched in silence as he bent horseshoes with his bare hands and bars of steel across the bridge of his nose, exploded chains with the expansion of his chest, and drove spikes through planks with metal-covered wood with nothing more than the power of his palm. Then the crowd came to its feet, and with good reason. This man was eighty-two years old. A half century after my grandfather had first seen him; I sat ringside, watching the strongman. I could hardly believe that Joseph “The Mighty Atom” Greenstein was still alive. As if deposited by a time machine, he stood in the center ring of Madison Square Garden and seemed to transcend age and time.”
During one of his interviews with Joseph, Spielman helped him sort out the various peklekh (Yiddish: ‘bundles’) of his life as Joseph was moving into one of his daughter’s houses. There among the beaded bag that had once belonged to his beloved Leah, the ancient Hebrew books and assorted oddments, they came across an ageing .32 Smith & Wesson that had belonged to one of his adversaries.
Joseph Greenstein passed away on October 8 1977 at the age of 85. He was survived by ten children.
Rabbi Kalman Packouz records that The Mighty Atom was not just brawn; he had a powerful intellect and a wicked sense of humour. He recalls that when his friend Bob Grover became engaged to The Mighty Atom’s granddaughter he went to meet Joseph. Right before his eyes, Joseph bent a horseshoe into a pretzel shape, gave it to Bob and said “I know you’ll be good to her.”
I for one would have loved to have met The Mighty Atom and shaken his hand. Well, maybe not too hard.
The Mighty Atom Philosophy
Steve Zeff was born in Johannesburg South Africa and moved to Israel. He runs an international business from Raanana with offices also based in the UK and South Africa. Steve is passionate about cycling.
[The opinions, facts and any media content are presented solely by the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Jewish Media Agency.]
