Famed weightlifter is muscled outBill Howard, a longtime promoter at Venice's Muscle Beach, has been banned from this season's contests. His ouster has roiled the bodybuilding community.
May 15, 2007
Bill Howard says he's no 98-pound weakling sitting on the beach, waiting for a he-man to kick sand in his face.
Joe Wheatley says he's no biceps-bulging bully trying to muscle in on someone else's place in the sun.
That's the short version of the ego flexing taking place between a veteran weightlifting champion and a younger promoter as this year's bodybuilding season approaches at Venice's Muscle Beach.
After more than four decades of staging summertime muscleman contests at the famed tourist attraction, the 73-year-old Howard has been banned from the weightlifting platform that stands beneath Muscle Beach's symbolic oversized concrete barbells.
Los Angeles parks officials advised Howard that the city "has decided to change direction with regard to future bodybuilding events" at the Venice Beach boardwalk.
"You will no longer be asked to narrate the History of Muscle Beach at the show. The Bill Howard Award will no longer be given at the shows. The Medallion Ceremony will be completed by a representative from Recreation and Parks" and not by Howard, parks authorities advised him in writing in mid-March.
Howard was told he could attend the show "as a member of the public" but would no longer be allowed backstage or in participants' or VIP areas.
His sudden ouster has roiled Muscle Beach, where Howard began pumping iron in the 1950s. He is credited with helping revive the beachside bodybuilding scene after lifters were kicked off Santa Monica's original Muscle Beach.
"I've given my entire life to Muscle Beach Venice, and they're kicking me out the door," said Howard, a Costa Mesa resident who still works as a personal trainer. He vows he is not about to go down without a fight.
"I'm in competition shape," he said. "I'm going to be 74 and I'm damned proud of how I look. I live the Muscle Beach philosophy. The sanctions against me are vindictiveness."
Starting in 1963, Howard — without pay — organized and emceed shows at Muscle Beach each Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day.
He saw the beach through its toughest time in the early 1980s, as facilities crumbled and interest faded. Howard recalled that one year, there wasn't any money for trophies, so he asked Arnold Schwarzenegger and Franco Columbo to go home and "get some of their own trophies to donate. They did, and we had a show."
He led a campaign to get Los Angeles officials to designate the weightlifting area "Muscle Beach Venice" and in 1991 helped secure $500,000 in funding to construct a training area and stage.
Howard stepped aside as the shows' promoter and master of ceremonies in 2003 while recovering from throat cancer. That's when Wheatley, 20 years his junior, took over promotional duties.
Since then, Wheatley's backers say, he has expanded the shows' scope, drawing more sponsors and participants. Wheatley created an award in Howard's name to give to the shows' top male and female competitors and oversaw Howard's induction into the Muscle Beach Hall of Fame in 2005.
Wheatley, 52, of Glendale, said that as Venice's Muscle Beach grew, Howard simply wouldn't change with the times.
"I've said over and over that without Bill Howard, we wouldn't be here today," Wheatley said. "But it comes a time for everyone to step aside. The program is bigger than Bill. It's evolved."
But Wheatley also blamed "ego and narcissism" on Howard's part. "We couldn't get the microphone out of his hands," he said. "The last thing he said to the audience was, 'I'm not in this for the money; I'm in this for the sport.' That was a personal attack on me. I do this for a living. Joe Wheatley Productions. I do bring in money."
City officials have sided with Wheatley.
Lydia Ritzman, the city's principal recreation supervisor, who ordered Howard's removal, said there was a personality clash between Howard and Wheatley.
"It got to the point [where] Bill would come in at the 11th hour and undo things Joe had done. These events don't need that kind of drama," Ritzman said.
"Joe asked for some cooperation from Bill. For some reason Bill couldn't do that."
Devotees of Muscle Beach and bodybuilding said they are caught in the middle.
"Without his enthusiasm, it would have died out. Bill did an excellent job," said Gene Mozee, a Culver City powerlifter who has written about the sport and edited bodybuilding magazines.
But Mozee also had praise for Wheatley. "He's really revved up the participation and enthusiasm. True, Joe makes a living at this. But he pays the city a fee and pays his own people to do work."
Schwarzenegger, who in his early days pumped iron in Venice, issued a statement in 2004 from the governor's office praising Howard for his dedication to the bodybuilding community as he was battling cancer. "There is no obstacle you can't overcome," the governor wrote. On Monday, his spokesman said Schwarzenegger was busy in meetings and unavailable to comment on Howard's ouster.
Meanwhile, the Muscle Beach battle is heating up.
Wheatley said Howard threatened to picket the approaching Memorial Day holiday show. The Muscle Beach International Classic is scheduled for May 27-28. Officials want to eventually build a Wall of Fame saluting the greats of Muscle Beach, with Howard likely to be among the first honorees.
But "if he causes a big ruckus on May 28, then that plaque is going to go," Wheatley warned. "He should tread very lightly."
As for Howard, he says he has spent a lifetime of heavy lifting for a sport that has had more than its share of ups and downs. In his view, only dumbbells would bar him now from Muscle Beach.
"It's like telling Babe Ruth he can't go to Yankee Stadium."
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