Gold's Gym Venice - A little bit of history

[Cableguy]

Also extremely jealous of you Cableguy! 

Haha, nothing to be jealous of me about Wes...

I was lucky to be around at that time. Being the cable guy, I also met a lot of people on trouble calls. That's how I met Leroy Colbert, Manny Perry, Laura Creavalle and Chris Aceto, Chris Cormier, and Joe and Betty Weider, among others.

I also became friends with John Balik. The Iron Man offices were right down the block from our office on Beach Ave. They later moved right across the street to a bigger location with a big warehouse where they kept their inventory. I used to go over and talk to John and Steve Holman frequently. I just used to walk right in. He used to give me the new issue every month before it hit the news stands. He also reserved 5th row tickets for the Iron Man show. I went to the 90, 91, and 92 shows. John is a really great, down to earth guy. Miss those days!

[Cableguy]

Agree,
pic show me with Lee Priest at Joe Gold's World Gym in 90'

Haha, I remember seeing Lee waddling aroud World Gym at 270 pounds...talk about "off season"...

[Bodybuilder Lex Reeves]

Take it from someone who was there: a lot of these guys on getbig are lying through their teeth about Venice and Santa Monica. No one ever heard of these clowns.

[wes]

Haha, nothing to be jealous of me about Wes...

I was lucky to be around at that time. Being the cable guy, I also met a lot of people on trouble calls. That's how I met Leroy Colbert, Manny Perry, Laura Creavalle and Chris Aceto, Chris Cormier, and Joe and Betty Weider, among others.

I also became friends with John Balik. The Iron Man offices were right down the block from our office on Beach Ave. They later moved right across the street to a bigger location with a big warehouse where they kept their inventory. I used to go over and talk to John and Steve Holman frequently. I just used to walk right in. He used to give me the new issue every month before it hit the news stands. He also reserved 5th row tickets for the Iron Man show. I went to the 90, 91, and 92 shows. John is a really great, down to earth guy. Miss those days!

....and I shouldn`t be jealous ?  LOL 

[jwb]

Take it from someone who was there: a lot of these guys on getbig are lying through their teeth about Venice and Santa Monica. No one ever heard of these clowns.

Are you on the too cool for school committee in Venice?

[stuntmovie]

CABLE, To the best of my knowledge, John is still there and the IronMan crew are a great bunch of guys.

I spent about 9 hours at the place you called the warehouse which is actually the photo studio where Mike shoots most of the indoor cover shots. I introduced Tony Breznik to an old time friend (Gene Mozee)  who set up an appointment with John and Mike to meet Tony the following day and they were impressed and asked Tony if he could return in ten days time which would allow him to be in top condition.

Ten days later we were scheduled to shoot some sunrise shots on the beach directly below the LAX take off runway, but the sun failed to come up for the shoot so we packed it up and drove over to the studio .... and that shoot went on until about 4 PM.

But Tony got the cover shot and great inside photos.

The IronMan crew are a great bunch of people and it was interesting to watch Mike shoot the photos and then see how the magazine is put together.

[doozejooze]

Anybody have any good Bob   Birdsong stories. He was always one of my favorites?

[Howard]

Gold's opened @ 360 Hampton Dr in Feb, 1980... I think. Remember... just the 1st room, old torn up carpet, etc. I think Platz or Belknap or Alzado, or Grymkowski punched a hole in the wall and they expanded after  that.... I think.

Ken Spragues shows were classic. He was certainly part of the Gold's Gym story. I had drinks with Ken, Kent Kuehn and Ken Waller, but I really don't have any memories of the night. Sorry.

I remember Ernie 'bow legged' Santiago. Dude came out of nowhere and won the America. We met a few times, but I don't have any stories. 

T-

I know Ken Sprague Sr quite well. We got him to come out a judge the NPC ga 4 yrs ago. Great guy and tells some funny stuff about how girls on acid would dance naked off the beach right into Golds' when they were training.

[tommywishbone]

Went to a great 1990 Bodybuilding Awards dinner at the Holiday Inn on Pico Blvd (top floor banquet room). Joe & Betty Weider, The Ripper, All Golds Venice owners, Dave Draper, Leroy Colbert, pics coming- I hope. 

[stuntmovie]

DOOZIE, Bob B. invited us to dinner after one of the contests that was held in one of the Disneyland hotels during the Christmas season way back when he was a solid competitor and it was one of those crazy SoCal restaurants where a turkey sandwich on the menu meant half a turkey and a loaf of bread plus all the typical turkey extras.

COACH may recall this place better than myself as it was always full of weight trained folks who liked huge  meals. It was located just a bit south of Disneyland.

We all were invited to a huge party that was thrown in Bob's honor the afternoon before Bob won the IFBB International title down in Tiajuana and it was evident that no one would beat him in that event as he had an unbeatable solid physique.

I seem to recall that CF SMITH at his best was built similar to BOB but I am unaware if they ever competed within the same contest.

[Figo]

Vince is from Canada,but has lived in Australia for years now.

I respect Basile has been there and done that, but can he keep his posts to half a page... Things are mini-novels sometimes

Plus, for us "challenged" folk, maybe simpler stuff, that you don't need a dictionary and the Dalei Lama to help you interpret..

[doozejooze]

Good lookin out Stunt and thanx. If u remember any more please share. Thanks again

[Coach is Back!]

DOOZIE, Bob B. invited us to dinner after one of the contests that was held in one of the Disneyland hotels during the Christmas season way back when he was a solid competitor and it was one of those crazy SoCal restaurants where a turkey sandwich on the menu meant half a turkey and a loaf of bread plus all the typical turkey extras.

COACH may recall this place better than myself as it was always full of weight trained folks who liked huge  meals. It was located just a bit south of Disneyland.

We all were invited to a huge party that was thrown in Bob's honor the afternoon before Bob won the IFBB International title down in Tiajuana and it was evident that no one would beat him in that event as he had an unbeatable solid physique.

I seem to recall that CF SMITH at his best was built similar to BOB but I am unaware if they ever competed within the same contest.

I think you're thinking of Blocks (owned by Dan Block) in Garden Grove.

[stuntmovie]

COACH, I believe you're correct?]]\ Is it still there?
DOOZIE, I knew Bob back then, but only saw him on a few occasions. That time we had dinner at BLOCK's (Thanks. COACH) he was with his wife and young daughter. We had mutual friends so our conversation centered around "How is so and so and what's he doing?"

[Lord of the Roidz]

I know Ken Sprague Sr quite well. We got him to come out a judge the NPC ga 4 yrs ago. Great guy and tells some funny stuff about how girls on acid would dance naked off the beach right into Golds' when they were training.

Did Sprague ever mention his depraved years in the Gay porn industry? That's your idea of a great guy?

[stuntmovie]

ROIDZ, I gotta back up Howard when he mentioned Sprague as being a great guy.

Back in the day when he owned Gold's in Santa Monica he actually was a "great guy" who never mentioned his gay porn past.

I would tend to agree with you if all I knew about Ken was that he was a gay porn star...
but that was overlooked because once you met him you tended to overlook the video work that he had done. He had a pretty dynamic and friendly personality.

It's difficult to explain but I think that most anyone who met him during his Gold Gym days would agree with me entirely.

I guess what I'm trying to say is something like ... "You can respect the man but not his past actions!"

I'll simply add, "He was a great guy who did some un-great things."

The last time I spoke to him he was shooting photos in the gym for a Gold's Gym workout book and was soon to be heading up north to Seattle where he and his wife had purchased a new home on one of the islands up that way.

I assume you realize that he was a member of the NPC COmmittee and removed himself from office once the subject of his video past arose.

He also promoted some of the best bodybuilding contests ever seen.

[Cableguy]

CABLE, To the best of my knowledge, John is still there and the IronMan crew are a great bunch of guys.

I spent about 9 hours at the place you called the warehouse which is actually the photo studio where Mike shoots most of the indoor cover shots. I introduced Tony Breznik to an old time friend (Gene Mozee)  who set up an appointment with John and Mike to meet Tony the following day and they were impressed and asked Tony if he could return in ten days time which would allow him to be in top condition.

Ten days later we were scheduled to shoot some sunrise shots on the beach directly below the LAX take off runway, but the sun failed to come up for the shoot so we packed it up and drove over to the studio .... and that shoot went on until about 4 PM.

But Tony got the cover shot and great inside photos.

The IronMan crew are a great bunch of people and it was interesting to watch Mike shoot the photos and then see how the magazine is put together.

You are correct Stunt, Mike's studio was there I believe. I think I only met Neveaux once briefly, he was never there when I went over to visit. I used to talk to Faith and Leon Bachman frequntly, and Bullshitted with Lonnie a few times. I remember seeing Lonnie at Gold's in '88 (the day I was lucky enough to meet Lee Haney doing a photo shoot 2 days after the Olympia. Strydom was also doing a shoot that day. I was really impressed with Gary until I saw Lee!) and he says to me "Looking pretty thick Joe!" Now I wonder what he meant by that!

Anyway, I don't think Iron Man is in Venice anymore, I believe they moved their location to Oxnard some years ago.

[stuntmovie]

CABLE , I'm not familiar with the neighborhoods in the LA area but less than two years ago when I paid a visit to the IronMan office it was located east of the LA airport off that freeway that starts near Marina Del Rey.

Once again I gotta say that I really enjoyed meeting the IronMan staff. They were more than courtious in every respect.

I honestly hate to be a name dropper once again but I knew Lee and Phyllis (?) way back then and made a couple of comments to Lee regarding how to be more impressive while in the  line-up and a year or so later he thanked me personally by saying that that simple recommendation was a critical factor in his win that year.

Needless to say, that comment made me feel pretty damn good.

[Cableguy]

Hmm, interesting Stunt. I did some research and found an LA Times article talking about them moving from MDR to a much bigger facility in Oxnard in 1993. I guess maybe they moved back?

And cool that Lee thanked you for the advice you gave him. I'm not surprised though. When I met him, I found him to be a genuinely down to earth, humble guy. A class act all the way! Not to mention being blown away by his physique in person. As I've said in the past, much more impressive than in pictures!

[stuntmovie]

CABLE, To the best of my knowledge IronMan is still located at 1701 Ives Ave., Oxnard CA 93033,,, the address to which you have been referring to.

I don't recall IronMan ever being located in Venice though. Or MDR.

Regarding Lee and my recommendation ....

Lee was guest posing at one of our contests and when he was hitting his bicep shots they were 'addressed' to the back of the house (so to speak) so that the officials could only see the lower regions of his arms and not the peak of the biceps (difficult to explain correctly but if you even sat low in the judges position, you have a good idea of what I am trying to describe).

So the next day Lee asked me what one thing he could do to  be more notieable in the forthcoming Olympia (Universe?) contest that would be held within the next couple of months.f

I simply recommended that he twist his arms so that the peaks of his biceps could be more easily seen by the judges who were seated at a lower elevation.

He stated that that advice was enough to get him into the winner's circle.

I really apprecaited it when he said that.

Lee has always been the epitome of a very good person.

[Cableguy]

Iron Man was located Marina Del Rey from 1987 to 1993, at which time they moved to their present location on Ives Ave. in Oxnard. They were originally on the corner of Beach Ave. and Glencoe Ave., down the block from our office. They then moved across the street from us to the bigger facility about a year later.

Very cool Haney story. Definitely must feel good to have played even a small part in Lee's success! And yes, he's the epitome of a good person. When I told him that pictures don't do him justice and that I thought he was much more impressive in person, he was genuinely appreciative and thanked me for the compliment. And then he signed my weight belt! Very cool.

[Figo]

Didn't know about Sprague's past

He has a family though, hasn't he

[jwb]

Didn't know about Sprague's past

He has a family though, hasn't he

Been married more than once and has several children.

[tommywishbone]

Bump for Ganero76

[ESFitness]

Anybody have any good Bob   Birdsong stories. He was always one of my favorites?

well, these days he's a complete mess. can't hold a conversation... his mind is just a complete mess.

he used to be our sign-guy... the guy who holds the sign for the gym out by the side of the road. paid him $8/hr to stand out in 120degree weather 8hrs a day.

now he's about 160lbs with a long greesy ponytail and stocks shelves at a healthfood/gocery store (sorta like a Whole Foods).

dude fell Waaaaay off.