I started lifting weights in January 1959, almost 50 years ago. In those days, the Weider business was stationed in Montreal and we saw the current Mr Canada's in the Weider muscle magazines. Joe took the publishing and supplement company to New Jersey and finally ended up in Woodland Hills in Los Angeles. Ben stayed in Montreal to run the IFBB. The pair eventually saw the IFBB dominate professional bodybuilding. They used to compete with Bob Hoffman and his empire at York who controlled the AAU bodybuilding and weightlifting contests. In those days, the Mr America title was second only to Mr Universe in London. When Bob Hoffman died that left no real competition in North America and the IFBB stepped in to take over bodybuilding. Oscar Heidenstamn also passed away and the prestige of the NABBA Universe diminished. Somehow the Mr Olympia became the top contest and that is an interesting phenomenon. It shows what marketing can do. I mean, what contest can be 'higher' than a Mr Universe! Joe conceived a contest that allowed all the top guys to compete. In retrospect, that hasn't been a blessing to the bodybuilders. What happened was that we had a few champions dominate the sport and some won several times while others missed out. Many of these contests were controversial and critics claimed that there was too much politics in the sport. Perhaps it would have been better if we had a new Mr Olympia every year. The Weiders forgot that the AAU had to make a new rule in 1941 to prevent John Grimek from winning the Mr America every year.
Ben was an authority on Napoleon. Now we know why he set the IFBB in Napoleonic fashion. The organization was run like the military. Everyone followed the leader and Ben made sure he was life president. This happened a few decades ago to prevent popular champions like Serge Nubret from being elected to be president. People get appointed to vital positions and many cannot be removed by local chapters of the IFBB. We had a system where so-called regional Vice-presidents were appointed to run the IFBB contests in their areas. Many of the first Vice-presidents were agents for Weider products. How this qualified these men to be IFBB judges is a mystery. I suppose Ben required absolute loyalty in return for rewards to the party faithful. Even the athletes rep is appointed! The main thing is that control must be maintained. What resulted was a closed organization with little flexibility to change.
Ben had a vision to make bodybuilding part of the Olympic Games. He didn't live to see that happen. While he was positioning bodybuilding as a sport he adopted a system of judging contests that resembled other sports. There were rules drawn up to control illegal substances. It all looked good on paper. However, the Olympic movement wasn't buying what Ben presented. That was inevitable when you think about how long Ben and Joe took to be the dominant force in bodybuilding. They literally had to conquer the other organizations. The legacy was that they feared that if they enforced the drug rules then the top guys would be tempted to go elsewhere where testing wasn't implemented. Thus, the sorry state in the sport today. Rules galore but few that are followed to the letter.
It has been said that those who cannot change their philosophy will take their mistakes to their graves. I wonder, now that Ben is gone, what will happen to this once noble sport? Instead of being an amazing thing to have a large, muscular body it is now associated with using banned substances. How on earth did this happen? Well, Ben ruled like Napoleon so the buck stops there. The trouble is that the machine will perpetuate what he established and his system of loyal followers will continue. The IFBB resembles the Catholic Church and not a sporting organization. Instead of having the very best involved we find a system of rewarding lesser individuals who do what they are told. That is clearly not the way to generate excellence. People complain all the time about so many things but nothing much is ever done for the athletes. It really is a disgrace the way the sport is dangerous and unhealthy. The public are not fooled. They know what is going on and there is little respect for the champions. I am not talking about the natural movement which is much better.
Ben didn't like what he saw evolving in women's bodybuilding so made sure that Bev Francis was never Ms Olympia. We saw that in the film, Pumping Iron II, The Women. Ben was there directing the judges to make sure only 'good' things happened in the sport. Rachel McLish won in Las Vegas in 1983 while the vastly superior Bev was placed an incredible 8th! Ben foolishly allowed silicon to be part of the female arsenal and look at the result today. Most people do not care to view the Ms Olympia and that should say a lot. If you don't have the right rules and criteria then it can lead to disaster. That is one legacy that Ben and the IFBB cannot be proud of.
I think it ironical that in his final year Ben was given a state honour in California by Arnold. Ben and Joe rewarded loyal followers all the time. Silver plaques for loyal supporters. Everything was official and sanctioned!
The Weiders were always shrewd businessmen. They don't personally give prize money to winners. Well, the first Mr Olympia, Larry Scott, received a silver plate and $1000. Big deal. The promoters and sponsors now finance the prize money. The promoters even have to pay the IFBB a high fee to put on these shows! The lads from Montreal were successful beyond their dreams and received some $350,000,000 for their magazine empire. If only the champions of the past shared in this windfall. Nope, we saw hapless former King of Bodybuilders pass away recently in a nursing home looking unblessed with resources. How many times did we see Clancy's photos in those magazines? There were many bitter champions who didn't get rich even though they were featured often in the magazines. Ben was part of the business empire.
I give credit for what people do. Ben and Joe were achievers. They did it their way. I doubt we will see their kind again in the Irongame. Does anyone think of Joe as being a Canadian? Well, he hasn't lived in Canada for a very long time. Ben remained French Canadian and stayed in his beloved Montreal. I smile now when I remember how Ben claimed that bodybuilding was good for nation building! The main thing they built was an empire that made them rich.
