In the beginning

[Deadpool]

 was Lisa Lyons.  Now, there was Pudgy Stockton before her

 and others before that but I'm starting say in 1979.   Lisa got press, got photography, and interestingly enough was high on coke alot according to her in a later interview in Rolling Stone.

Lisa liked two quotes

The daughter of a lioness is also a lioness

and, in a plaque above her bed, had:

This is my body which I am offering you as a gift of myself.


(to be continued with Rachal McLish and Kike Elloma)

[Deadpool]

Lisa had a book published, Lady Lisa Lyon (no S if you are trying to google the book)
with photographs by the famous photographer Robert Mapplethorn.

She opened up people to looking at shocking, female bodybuilders...hard to believe now, isn't it?

[Deadpool]

a breif pause here before we hit on "the Dish" McLish.  I'd like to mention Cammie Lusko, whom I believe was in the Guniess book of world records for being able to lift MORE than her bodyweight with one arm:

[Deadpool]

Ms. Olympia numero uno

[Deadpool]

Rachael was in Aces, Iron eagles 3, was in Pumping Iron the women.  I was a fan of hers until I heard her open her mouth in PI 2, then I didn't care for her.  No denying she got press and good press at that.

[Deadpool]

Ms Olympia number two, 1981, was and still is a popular singer in her own country

[Deadpool]

Ms. Olympia number three, was a synchronized swimmer in college

[Deadpool]

our next Ms O. was in track and field first.  You have seen her on ESPN, and on the big screen with Mr Van Damme.  I believe at one point her quad measurement was bigger than her waist! 

[Deadpool]

like I said, there was Pudgy Stockton before Lisa and Company

[az]

cool thread med!

[Richard2004]

Hello....

For anyone interested in the REAL TRUE HISTORY (a.k.a. "In the Beginning") of female bodybuilding and female strongwomen/strength-athletes (which PRECEDES the likes of Lisa Lyons, Rachel, etc., etc., by several DECADES), then I refer you to the following references...

-VHS videotape: Women and Weights: An Illustrated History
-The book: Physical Culture and the Body Beautiful: Purposeful Exercise in the Lives of American Women

both prepared/written by Jan Todd, Ph.D., who is an instructor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education at the University of Texas at Austin, TX.

Of course, anyone who knows the first thing about female powerlifters/strength-athletes knows that Jan Todd has truly "paid-her-dues" in the iron-game by setting several powerlifting records in the 1980's (at the time, both Sports Illustrated and the Guiness Book of World Records acclaimed Jan as the "strongest woman in the world") while varying her bodyweight from approx. 160 lbs. up to 230 lbs. and then back down again to approx. 145 SHAPELY lbs. (where she could still deadlift over 450 lbs.!), and all of this was accomplished DRUG-FREE (as she was drug-tested several times).

And, as we all know, any girl/woman who weight-trains to improve their appearance/strength/health is, by definition, a "bodybuilder"!

Thus, female bodybuilders are NOT just those women who compete in BB contests...which actually have been going on since the 1940's, AT LEAST...why, actually the great physical culture pioneer, Bernarr McFadden, had female "body-beautiful" contests for "athletic women" in the early 1900's (uhhh...many of the women who competed in these body beautiful contests, approx. 100 years ago, also weight-trained!).

So guys, "get-up-to-speed" on the REAL, rich, history of female bodybuilding, strongwomen, and strength athletes, in the face of extreme media prejudice and general public ignorance/criticism...talk about PIONEERS!!

[Richard2004]

To get more educated on the rich, fascinating, history of female physical culture and bodybuilding in the U.S., which pre-dates the likes of Lisa and Rachel by some 70-80 years, go to the URL...

http://www.bernarrmacfadden.com/macfadden4.html

Of course, women have been strength-training and BB with weights in the U.S. since the 18th century.  There were several female BB contests in the U.S. in the 1940's and 1950's, usually on the West Coast, with Ed and Alice Yarrick, along with Abbye and Les Stockton, as promoters.  A lot of these contests took place on the fabled original "Muscle Beach", until it was shutdown in 1959.

The late 70's-early 80's FBB era of Lisa, Rachel, etc., is just the era in FBB where the general public and the main-media FINALLY, after decades (and even centuries) of indifference, ignorance, and ridicule, finally accepted the "look" of women with weight-trained figures and the very apparent fact that weight-training would not make a woman "look like a man"! 

And, then along came the steroid/"she-he" FBB look of the late 80's-early 90's. 

 

[Richard2004]

When the general public's/media's interest began to increase the popularity of FBB in the early-mid 80's, KAY BAXTER was one of the pioneers/role-models of the art/sport...the pic. below shows why...

[BuffGoddess]

Great physique, thanks for sharing that.

[Richard2004]

Mention has been made of the GREAT Abbye "Pudgy" Stockton who was really the first widely recognized female bodybuilder in the US. 

Abbye's rise to fame/popularity was done  mainly through Bob Hoffman's Strength and Health magazine in the 1940's and 1950's...

Below are some pics., an article, and a link to a URL with another excellent article on Abbye...



Born August 11, 1917
Santa Monica, California, USA


In the 1940s, the hand-balancing maneuvers of Abbye “Pudgy” Stockton at Santa Monica’s Muscle Beach (along with her husband Les) led to her writing Strength & Health magazine’s “Barbelles” column, a monthly instructional piece for the few females then involved with weight training.

The nickname “Pudgy” came about because of some excess bodyweight in her teenage days. The moniker stuck even though, with the aid of Les, she shed and then reshaped those pounds to become the Princess of Muscle Beach.

Stockton was among the few all-arounders of the distaff side of the sport: she lifted, performed acrobatics on Muscle Beach, toured America spreading the fitness message, ran gyms with her husband, and wrote extensively trying to convert women to the wonders of weight training.

The latter was a revolutionary concept in those long-ago decades, when gyms were divided into male and female sections, and prevailing medical wisdom suggested women not lift anything heavier than a cup of afternoon tea.

Though she won a major prize of $1,000 in a 1947 contest sponsored by physique pioneer Bernarr Macfadden, her heyday preceded women’s physique contests. Although she is too humble to admit it, she holds major claim to the title “First Lady of Iron”.



The following URL is a link to a more in-depth article on Abbye...

www.aafla.org/SportsLibrary/IGH/IGH0201/IGH0201c.pdf 

 
   

 

 



 

 
   

 

 

[Richard2004]

More pics. of KAY BAXTER in the prime of her magnificent womanhood...





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