Muscle Beach History - by Stuntmovie

[stuntmovie]

Somewhere in those Steve Reeves photos there is a photo of Steve and my good friend TIMMY LEONG.

A very polite and humble guy.

[stuntmovie]

Timmy was an old time builder who was a part of the Muscle Beach day.

And I think it might be appropriate if we gave him some recognition here ....

This article was printed in one of Honolulu's newspapers shortly after he passed away.
________________________ _____________________
1927-2010

Timmy Leong, a pioneer for Hawai'i in the sport of bodybuilding and retired owner of Timmy's Gym, died May 16.

He was 83.

"He was a real nice guy, always smiling, always trying to be helpful. (He) made friends with everybody," said three-time Olympian Tommy Kono, who visited Leong the day before he passed.

Although best known for being the owner of his gym, Leong was one of the best bodybuilders Hawai'i ever produced.

And he did it the old school way — hard work.

Admittedly underweight as a youth, Leong did not participate in sports while at McKinley High School.

Despite not having anyone to guide or train him, Leong molded himself into a bodybuilding champion, using magazine articles as references.

Leong said in a 1973 Advertiser story, "When I strive for something, I keep working at it until I reach it."

By 1953, Kono said, Leong had won all the physique titles in Hawai'i. He competed in the 1953 Mr. America contest in Indianapolis, where he placed seventh and won the best back award.

Kono accompanied Leong on the trip and what he remembers most about it was that "it took us almost three days to get from Hawai'i to Indianapolis."

Kono said it took nine hours on a propellor airplane to fly from Honolulu to San Francisco. Then they had to take a four-passenger Cessna plane to go from Alameda to Indianapolis.

"We flew out OK, but communication was not good and you can't fly too high," Kono said.

Because of a threat of a tornado, "we got stuck in Wyoming," he said. "We went from Laredo to Cheyenne to catch a commercial flight, flew to Chicago.

"We might have gotten there as fast if we took the train."

Kono said Leong returned and opened a gym to teach his trade and groom future physique winners.

Leong also competed in the Mr. USA contest in 1958, finishing fourth.

"Timmy was the first to bring wellness and health and fitness to Hawai'i before anyone else was talking wellness," said Darryl Lee, Leong's nephew.

"He epitomized that by how he lived. He lived the talk. He was a pioneer for Hawai'i. He touched a lot of lives. He spread wellness way before his time."

Leong is survived by a sister, Audrey N.L. Lee, and numerous nieces and nephews.

Services will be Friday at Diamond Head Mortuary Chapel with visitation from 9:30 a.m., followed by services at 11:15 and burial to follow around 12:45 p.m.

Leong at first requested a private service, but the family decided to go public.

"He really belongs to the public," said Sharoh Mooe, his niece. "The public was his true home. The public was his family. He had aloha for everybody. He lived for the people."

"REST in PEACE, Tommy!

Aloha and mahalo from me  .... Your old friend "Stunt".

[The Scott]

Always great to see Steve Reeves mentioned. Steve was promoting his Power Walking just before he died of cancer of the lymph.

Interesting in that within this video the narrator states (or so it sounds) that Steve died of a  blood clot that "worked its way to his brain" after a "minor surgical procedure".

Tremendous physique and an inspiration to many young men so many, many years ago.  Myself included.

[stuntmovie]

SCOTT, Shortly after Steve passed away George Eifferman was in the hospital and we were asked to not mention anything about Steve's death because he himself was not well and that sort of news would not help his recovery.

Not positive about this but I think steve was found dead on the bathroom floor. There's an accurate report on his passing somewhere on the net.

I  first met Steve when I was a very young kid and ran into him  on rare occasions during my lifetime, but i had the opportunity to work with him for a week or so a few years before he passed away.

One of Steve's relations was a member of this board a few years ago and may still be. Maybe she can add a few comments regarding the one individual whom I consider to be the real pioneer of bodybuilding.

[Powerlift66]

And then I drove down to the M-L-O 'factory'.

Stunt, Do you mean the MLO who sold/sells protein? I used to buy big jugs of their stuff for very little money, back in 1991 or so. (A local vitamin store basically used to give the stuff away). I was in Rite-Aid yesterday, and noticed they are still selling it?

[stuntmovie]

POWER, Short answer is "YES", but stick around for the longer answer which will follow after we get rid of this company ...... or at least shoot them!

[stuntmovie]

POWER< SOrry for the delay on getting back to this MLO subject ....

To te best of my memory this goes back to the 1970 era  when MLO (Mus - L - On) was owned and operated by Millard Williamson and located in a small warehouse  in the Hayward area of Northern California.

I managed to drop by one afternoon and  helped a good friend transfer the product into the original cardboard container (with a metal top if I recall correctly).

I think the product retailed for about $6 back then but I think most of the L.A. guys were still Rheo H. Plair 'fans',.

That was over 40 years ago so I have no idea if Milalrd still owns the company or if he is even still alive and kicn'n.

It might be interesting to write about the original suppliments and their founders, but I'd need a lot of help with my memory banks.

[Mr. MB]

I could purchase MLO in the cardboard cylinder and metal top/bottom from my neighborhood healthfood store in Glendale, Ca. (L.A.). I had to go to Gironda's Gym for Blair. Then he was almost always out of stock.

[stuntmovie]

MB, These two photos were taken back in your Muscle Beach days. 

Look hard! You may be in the background possibly.

Both shots include Doug Strohl (the first real bodybuilder I met while visiting Santa Monica) and the other individual is Millard Williamson whom to the best of my knowledge was  the original founder of MLO which in the 70's was called Mus-L-On ... (or it could hav e been vice-versa).

Larry Scott was apparently a spokesperson of a sort for Rheo H. Blair whose protein was the 'protein of choice' back then.

I think Blair's  was the first milk and egg protein, but I could be mistaken, but it was very popular and difficult to find while I was stationed at Pendleton.

I do recall driving up to Los Angeles in an attempt to meet Mr. Blair and somehow ended up in what I recall to be an old shack by the side of a laker within the city and  only had the opportunity to meet a couple of  individuals my own age who were employees.

I think I paid something like $6 for a large 'can' of Mr. Blair's popular product.

Anyone have any idea what ever happened to Mr Blair?

A few years later someone came up with the idea of manufacturing  liver protein. You could clear out an auditorium merely by opening that can.

("CAN" means "cardboard container" back in them good  old days. And sometimes just a paper bag.)

It smelt like a year's supply of dirty sweat socks.

I don't think that 'liver product" was in much of a  demand after a year or so.

One last comment regarding 'sups' back then.....

In the 60's I was in Nam and ordered a bottle of something that would make you gain weight. It was a Weider product  and took forever to arrive, but once I opened it and took a 'gulp' it reminded me of GERITOL .... and today I'm sure that it was some bogus stuff with of couple of shots of Geritol to make it at least taste official.

Thanks for the memory kick, MB!

[Mr. MB]

I'm not in any of those pics. Do you remember a protein powder that came in a small brown paper bag, folded over at the top, with a label stapled thru it?

I tried that liver ONE TIME. Tossed the rest in the trash. I did take the desicated liver and brewers yeast tablets. Talk about pfarts….good grief!!

[stuntmovie]

MB. I did likewise concerning the Liver powder, the liver tabs, and the brewer's yeast and I also farted up a storm!

Do you recall the gelitin days? I forgot the real reason why it was recommended and consumed frequently  but it made your finger-nails and hair (the stuff on the top of your head) grow like weeds.

It was supposedly helpful for muscle growth also,

And I have a feeling you can recall the frequent use of a spoonful of apple cider vinegar with the wise recommendation that you swallow it before it came in contact with your teeth.

The claim was that the vinegar removed enamal from your 'tooths'. ( I had an Italian coach.)

I mentioned this before but Health Food Stores were non-existent back then unless some 'crack-pot' risked his reputation by opening a shop that offered and sold crack-pot remedies for every ailment/maladjustment known to man and more that were yet to be discovered because spme crack-pot devised a cure for it.

Athletes who had any degree of brain-ivity (there were a few) would enter that den of thieves and make intelligent purchases such as WHEAT GERM OIL and terrible tasting YOGURT (no such thing as flavored yogurt in them good old days and some electrical apparatus that would shock your muscles into growth. (Got one of those in the attic someplace!)

Now-a-days we got GNC and Whole Foods, etc.  ... so nothing really has changed except for the fact that we got a larger variety of 'health food stuff' to spend our hard earned money on.

I waz stupid once, but now I are smart.

I hope you're doing likewise!

[Mr. MB]

There was a 'Health Food Bar' at the bottom of the steps going up to Goodrich's gym. There were about 8 stools at the bar. They specialized in protein drinks and sandwiches. A dish of sour Greek yogurt covered with real maple syrup and a scoop of wheat germ was the starter. A typical protein drink would be orange juice, scoop of vanilla ice-cream, handfull of strawberries, 1/2 banana, 2 scoops of Hoffmans protein, one raw egg, 2 packs of Knox gelatin, crushed ice and blend. Sandwich would be whole wheat, tuna salad, and alfalfa sprouts. Yes this was 1955. They also had fresh juices and their 50/50 carrot/coconut was their best seller.

[stuntmovie]

MB, I don't recall ever going to the Goodrich Gym but I had the honor of meeting him while he escorted Mae Weat when she delivered the overall Mr America trophy to Dave Johns when he won the Mr A title (or was that the NPC National Championship title??).

I always was a Mae west fan and was disappointed that W.C. Fields did not escort her personally but he was most likely in some bar  knocking smal kidsl in the nose .. or maybe he was dead at the time.. I forget!

But that meeting was a very short Hello/Goodbye type pf occurance.

Come to think of it, he did say something like, "Get out of our way kid!" so maybe it  really was W.C. made up to look like Bert.

Stranger things have happened in La-La Land!

[stuntmovie]

MB, I forgot to add this .....

The health food "salad-drink" you mentioned in your post was something that you'd never find on any menu in Northern California.

Instead, we had Hot Dog on a Stick and a 35 cent Chicken Pot Pie.

Some of the 'Northerners" thought that you people in the southern part of the state were completely insane, but I  considered you 'southerners' to be way ahead of the time when it came to training in a gym,  eating nutritious 'stuff' , and spending half a day or more on the beach lifting other people over-head.

The only place in the city of San francisco that served something I'd call nutritious was a small cafe on Powell Street by Market Street and the only nutritious thing on the menu was cottage cheese with pineapple and a strawberry on the top.

And some kind of nutritional salt that you could sprinkle on the top if you were so inclined.

Now it's pretty common ..... but back then it was a rare-ity.

The only thing bodybuilding related up north was Steve Reeves ... but the likes of Eifferman, and Ross and Dilinger and Lallanne were soon to follow.

I'm overlooking a few ... butyou get the idea. The Bay Area was way behind the south when it came to anything body building related.

[Mr. MB]

In the 50s the outdoor Farmers Market in Los Angeles next door to Gilmore Field (Hollywood Stars baseball team) had three health related vendors. A fresh juice bar where you could order a scoop of protein powder blended in. A do it yourself nut butter store. Mine was a chunky blend of peanuts, a handfull of spanish peanuts, handfull of macadamia nuts, dates and raisins. Then there was a real 'vitamin' store. They had all the stuff from the Bodybuilding magazines including the magazines. I would buy my MLO or Hoffmans, des liver, brewers yeast, toasted wheat germ, some sort of a oneaday and the newest rage…vitamin E there.

[funk51]

POWER< SOrry for the delay on getting back to this MLO subject ....

To te best of my memory this goes back to the 1970 era  when MLO (Mus - L - On) was owned and operated by Millard Williamson and located in a small warehouse  in the Hayward area of Northern California.

I managed to drop by one afternoon and  helped a good friend transfer the product into the original cardboard container (with a metal top if I recall correctly).

I think the product retailed for about $6 back then but I think most of the L.A. guys were still Rheo H. Plair 'fans',.

That was over 40 years ago so I have no idea if Milalrd still owns the company or if he is even still alive and kicn'n.

It might be interesting to write about the original suppliments and their founders, but I'd need a lot of help with my memory banks.

millard williamson mr. shoulders. wasn't he the one who got joe gold into bodybuilding?

[stuntmovie]

FUNK, I am not aware if Millard got Joe involved in bodybuilding but I think JOe was involved in the gym business when Millard was still a kid.

I could be wrong though.

Here's something that may be of interest to Bodybuilding Historians but I can't find anyone old enough who will remember this and establish it as a fact.

Back in the late 1950's I drove down to LA to visit some family members who were involved in the movie making business and ended up in Santa Monica with a short visit to Muscle Beach.

Parking was seldom a problem back then so I pulled into a vacant parking space which was located in what is presently the Sand Castle Apartments .... and while I was locking up the 1941 Ford Sedan, I noticed an open door leading into a small room with a lot of heavy duty gym equipment.

There was no one there so I took a short look around and realized that all the equipment was home-made and not the typical wobilly crap that was available on the open market.

Many years later I met Joe Gold himself and had a short conversation while he was welding some gym equipment  for his relatively new Gold's Gm in Venice but ....
 I didn't put two and two together until many years later ....

Most old timers have gone to the Big Gym in the Sky so I can't confirm this but I believe Joe's first gym was located in a that small room off the parking lot of what is now called the Sand Castle Apartments.

This very expensive apartment building was once a dump and had the 'distinction' of being less than 100 yards from the original Muscle Beach area so it was an ideal location when the fog rolled in.

I think that this was Joe's first Gold's Gym location.

MB, Any thoughts on this?

[stuntmovie]

MB, the only Farmer's Market I knew about was the one adjacent to the huge CBS TV Studios which we still visit just about every trip to LA.

But nothing that you have mentioned in your Farmer's Market post was available in the Northern California Bay Area area as far as I can recall.

SoCal was way ahead of its time when it came to health related products and gyms and sunny weather.

[Joe Roark]

Stunt, Joe had a 1951 gym in New Orleans before the one in California.

[funk51]

FUNK, I am not aware if Millard got Joe involved in bodybuilding but I think JOe was involved in the gym business when Millard was still a kid.

I could be wrong though.

Here's something that may be of interest to Bodybuilding Historians but I can't find anyone old enough who will remember this and establish it as a fact.

Back in the late 1950's I drove down to LA to visit some family members who were involved in the movie making business and ended up in Santa Monica with a short visit to Muscle Beach.

Parking was seldom a problem back then so I pulled into a vacant parking space which was located in what is presently the Sand Castle Apartments .... and while I was locking up the 1941 Ford Sedan, I noticed an open door leading into a small room with a lot of heavy duty gym equipment.

There was no one there so I took a short look around and realized that all the equipment was home-made and not the typical wobilly crap that was available on the open market.

Many years later I met Joe Gold himself and had a short conversation while he was welding some gym equipment  for his relatively new Gold's Gm in Venice but ....
 I didn't put two and two together until many years later ....

Most old timers have gone to the Big Gym in the Sky so I can't confirm this but I believe Joe's first gym was located in a that small room off the parking lot of what is now called the Sand Castle Apartments.

This very expensive apartment building was once a dump and had the 'distinction' of being less than 100 yards from the original Muscle Beach area so it was an ideal location when the fog rolled in.

I think that this was Joe's first Gold's Gym location.

MB, Any thoughts on this?

maybe it was ed corney who millard got started, i'm not sure how the story goes.

[stuntmovie]

JOE, Thanks ... I was unaware of that. Is more info on that subject available anyplace on the net?

FUNK, I'll check that out and get back to you with the details.

One very interesting bodybuilding history story concerns how and why Peter G. came to the west coast of the USA (Southern California to be specific) and eventually formed a partnership to purchase Gold's Gym from Ken Sprague.

Gotta get a from of approval first.

But maybe this story has already been told on the internet.

(Help, Joe! "Has it been told before?")

If so ... I could only offer corrections if any mistakes have been made.

[Mr. MB]

Honestly never heard of Joe Gold until the 70s in a magazine. I hung around the MB beach stage on weekends until 1954. Someone told me that these guys trained at the Goodrich Gym in Hollywood. Only 10 min. by bus from my house to Hollywood Blvd. I dropped by on a summer weekday. I met Bert, lied about my age and gave him 15 bucks. I was wearing jeans, wife beater and tennis shoes. Bert called over Steve Reeves, introduced us (my jaw dropped) and asked him to show me around and set me up with a program. I trained there until about 1958 when I joined a mostly black gym near the USC campus. I had coke bottle thick glasses which kept me out of sports except for wrestling. My Steve Reeves training weight gain from a 120 pound geek to a 185 pound ripped heavyweight placed me second in the City finals. All this while I never laid eyes again on MB stage until I stepped on it (the Venice version) in 1986 and won the show. I was battling drugs and alcohol during that long absence from the beach and stayed in the nearby downtown L.A. gyms when sober. I was never a part of the "Bodybuilding scene", keeping to myself. That all changed with my sobriety in 1980 and meeting the Pearl brothers. Then I wrote, competed, traveled the country and trained others.

And yes, the Farmers Market near CBS studios.

[Joe Roark]

Stunt, I have no other info on Gold's Gym in New Orleans- that info from June 1983 FLEX.

Regarding what else has appeared on the Internet about it, I do not know. I seldom search the Internet- am buried in my manuscript these days.

[stuntmovie]

JOE,  Why don't you place a link to your fine website here. I think some GetBiggers would be interested.

For you younger GetBiggers who have not been involved within the olden days of bodybuilding, here's a photo of the main contenders (the usual suspects) who were the real pioneers in the game.

There are many others but this is a decent shot of the main contenders who got competitive bodybuilding on its feet.

DOn't name each of them just yet, but let know if you can ID each and everyone of them. Let's see how many GetBiggers know anything about BB history.

I'd like to do a short post on each of them from their beginning to the present when I get the time, but Joe may already have done this.

[stuntmovie]

MB, Thanks for your latest post. Interesting stuff. DId you ever manage to visit Zuver's while you were living in the So Cal area?

FUNK, I just spoke with one of Ed Corny's old training partners and to the best of his recall, Ed was in the US COast Guard for 8 to 10 years and once he got out he joined Bob's (Peralta) Gym in Fremont, California around the age of 30 or 31.

He's thinking that that was around 1965 and recalls that Ed won his first BB contest (Mr. Fremont) in 1967.

He can recall that date pretty accurately because he won the same title in 1968 and was Ed's training partner. (Guess his name and you get a golden ticket!)

He'll be talking to Ed this weekend and will inquire but he is pretty sure that no one other than Ed, himself, got him interested in bodybuilding.

He also stated that there is a lot of Ed Corny history on the net, so I'll be looking that up when I get a few spare moments.

I, myself, first met Ed the month that he won his IFBB Pro Card and can recall having lunch with Ed at the GERMAN's (a great bodybuilder's restaurant in Venice Beach) years ago when he decided to let the world know that his competitive days were over and he was gonna retire.