RIP
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/06/BALO180F0L.DTLSaturday, June 6, 2009
He was a bodybuilding champion and an innovator who helped ordinary men and women chisel their bodies into vibrancy at his San Francisco gym, but Charles Mallon's most recognizable achievement came in a topless black bikini - with va-va-va-voom music booming overhead.
Carol Doda, the woman who started the topless strip-club craze at San Francisco's Condor Club in the mid-1960s, kept her famously busty body toned under the careful guidance of Mr. Mallon throughout most of her stripping career. And when Mr. Mallon died May 27 of congestive heart failure at 81, she said, the world lost "a very nice man and a great trainer."
"Charlie didn't teach me dancing, but he sure showed me how to build up my legs doing squats, and how to keep my pecs in shape," Doda said. "When you do that kind of work (stripping), you really need your biceps - and believe it or not, your butt - in shape. Charlie was great at what he did."
Mr. Mallon was born in Vineland, N.J., and got bitten early by the bodybuilding bug. After winning the "Mr. Buffalo" (N.Y.) bodybuilding title in 1949, he arrived in California to pursue the sun and his interest in what he was by then calling "physical culture," or achieving health through exercise.
In 1951, he opened Charlie Mallon's Physical Culture Studio on Sutter Street in San Francisco, novel at the time for taking in both men and women and infusing the workouts with personal advice on keeping a positive attitude.
His clientele grew fast, and came to include everyone from office workers to Pittsburgh Steelers football star Robert "Rocky" Bleier and Doda.
"Charlie's personality was enough to draw me in, but he also kept me in real good shape," said Marin businesswoman Cynthia Hersey, a client in the 1980s and '90s. "He never kept membership lists. He just remembered everyone by name."
Mr. Mallon also kept up his interest in bodybuilding competitions, winning second place in the 1955 Mr. America contest. An unusually short man - 5 feet, 3 inches - among bodybuilders, he won in the same contest the title of "World's Most Muscular Man" in his height class.
That same year, he married Helen Vegias of Tracy, whom he had met at the gym and affectionately called his "Helen of Troycy." The two remained married for the rest of Mr. Mallon's life.
Mr. Mallon retired in 1995, and devoted much of his time to his two main non-gym interests, relatives said: His Greek Orthodox faith and his unwavering faith in the San Francisco 49ers. With his children pursuing other careers, Mr. Mallon decided to close his gym rather than sell it outside the family.
"Nobody could fill his shoes," said his son, Peter Mallon of San Anselmo. "The gym was really him - people came to see him."
Mr. Mallon is survived by his wife; two sons, Peter, and Phillip Mallon of Sacramento; a niece, Joanne Rogoff of San Luis Obispo; and six grandchildren.
Services were held Monday in San Francisco. Donations in his memory may be made to Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, 999 Brotherhood Way, San Francisco, CA 94132
