Yosselle “Joe” Greenstein—more commonly known as the Mighty Atom—was often called the “smallest strongman in the universe.” His 70+-year career was built on brawn and huckster charm, in which he combined astounding strength with clever showmanship.

Born 3 months premature to a poor family in Suvlak, Poland in 1893, Greenstein’s early life offered little indication of his future career as a world-famous sideshow strongman. At the age of 14, he contracted tuberculosis and was given a bleak diagnosis, but he astounded his doctors by making a full recovery. Thereafter, Greenstein adopted a physical and spiritual dedication to fortifying his body, and much like Theodore Roosevelt, embraced the “strenuous life.” He ran away to join the circus and spent a year and half apprenticing under a circus strongman, Champion Volanko, from whom Greenstein learned diet and exercise rituals that helped him to transform his frail body into a 5’4” powerhouse. During his career he was known for biting iron nails in half, twisting steel spikes and horseshoes with his bare hands, breaking chains by expanding his chest, pulling cars with his teeth, and holding taxiing airplanes to the ground with chains attached to his hair. Greenstein performed these astounding acts well into his 80s, attracting thousands to see him perform at Madison Square Garden just months before his death! Greenstein attributed his remarkable strength to clean living, a nutritious diet and vigorous physical exercise. But his career relied as much on his strength as on his celebrity and charisma. He demonstrated these skills as a carnival barker and salesman, marketing a line of personal care products that included “natural” soap, liniment, hair tonic, and Pep-o-lax, an herbal “regulator” to be used for “temporary constipation” and promoting vigor. Greenstein sold these products beginning in the 1940s or even earlier, through the 1970s. Working out of the back of his 1937 Ford truck at farmers markets in the greater New York area, he enticed customers with his strongman stunts and, after bending 60-penny nails and horseshoes before their eyes, explained that they too could enjoy such strength and vitality into old age by using his products.