Stories - Your favorite stories re pros / legends

[619Rules]

Kevin-

Your right about Barry Clothier. He moved out to Venice from New Jersey-hooked up with Ed Connors (along with Jon Loyd) and they opened the very second Gold's Gym-810 Valencia Street in San Francisco. He was a pretty good BBer-.

The third Gold's Gym licensee was actually San Diego/Pacific Beach-but it was the first Gold's that was not owned by Ed, Tim or Grymko.

One of the weirdest things that ever happened to me in San Diego was at a local gas station on El Cajon Blvd in North Park (around 88,89). I am pumping gas and this lady-about 45-50 looks over at me and said "you have great calves-do you workout (my Calvies are 20+)?" I said "yes I do-do you"?  She said no but my ex husband does. I said "Oh yeah, who is your ex husband?"....OK.......get ready for this one....she says..."Bill Pearl"....holy batsh*t-you have to be kidding me. But she used to be married to Bill Pearl, and of course Bill trained at Stern's Gym in North Park when he won most of his shows. Stern's is still in the same location, and has much of the same equipment from when Pearl trained there. That was pretty wild though. Stern's would most certainly qualify as a dungeon.

I think your right about BBing in the 60's and 70's being great years-before my time unfortunately. BBing began for me in 1979 when I joined Clancy Ross's Mr. America Club. The late 70's/80's are as close as I ever got to the golden years.

Kevin Hall was not the guy that dated Diana Dennis-I can't recall that guys name right off the top of my head. Diana Dennis lived in San Diego for a number of years-and she was the Cher of BBing. Always had some kid about 20 years old as a boyfriend-she was in her 40's then. Hey-more power to her-but I never found her attractive.
She stayed in contest shape year round though-and used lots of anabolics.

Those Wally Boyko shows were more of a fitness weekend-similar to what the Arnold S. Classic is today-they had  bunch of things that went on, with exhibits and booths and all sorts of things.

As for Rick Stephenson-he won the Cal-but he tried to compete as a heavyweight in the Nationals and USA-and he does not have the size to be a decent heavyweight. Ed Connors did buy Gold's Gym Pacific Beach, and that is a long and sorry story about what happened. Too long for this thread-but I will tell you right now Rick did not have $1 to invest in that gym-so one of the other investors lent Rick 10 grand to buy in-and Rick really pulled some dirty underhanded BS (burned the guy who lent him the 10 grand bigtime)-but that is another story that I can't go into here. Today Rick has a net worth of about 5 million dollars from that gym he bought into with 10 grand of borrowed money. If you ever see big Jim Quinn ask him what he thinks of Rick and that gym( Ed gave Jim some of the shares in that gym)-then get the hell out of ear shot range...lol.......

Gold's Gym Santa Monica was at 1452 2nd street-is that building still there? Lisa Lyon lived in the other half of that building according to former Gold's Gym owner Ken S.......BTW did Ken ever sue Arnold for defamation about Gold's? I had read that somewhere and wondered if that was true.

[Kevin]

Rule, I know nothing about that Arnold / Sprague situation but last week I took a tour around Santa Monica and Venice and took some digital photos of all the bodybuilding places that I could recall and all that have not been torn down yet,

That series of digital photos include the original Golds, the Santa Monica 2nd Avenue Gold's, the present Gold's on Hampton, the Guido sign, the German's, World Gym original location and last location which is now a gymnast center, Zucky's, Weider's first Cal office where Draper worked shipping out Weider supps to various parts of the world, etc.

I am not on my own computer and have no idea how to get photos into this Mac so they will have to wait till I hook back up n my own. I'll do my best explain each photo so you will all get a good idea of it's significance with this bodybuilding game.

Today I drove by the building were I think Gironda's gym was located but the area has changed significantly, so I am not sure. Was the address on the 11300 block of Ventura Avenue? Does anyone have the pricise address of Vince's old gym. I'd like to shoot a photo of how that spot looks today and add it to this collection.

I saw Dianna Dennis lately (year and a half ago?) and she is looking fine and still active with guest posing stints.

[Dan-O]

Kevin Lawrence was the name of Diana Dennis's boyfriend.  They also competed in mixed-pairs competition together, back when that was in vogue.

[619Rules]

Dan-O comes trough-yes...Kevin Lawrence-

Diana Dennis and Kevin were an item and competed in mixed pairs. Made a good couple too. Diana did a lot of guest posing in the San Diego area-her and Troy Zuchalotto seemed to be the guest posers at just about every other show for a long time.

Where is Diana Dennis at today? She is long gone from San Diego.

That series of digital photos include the original Golds, the Santa Monica 2nd Avenue Gold's, the present Gold's on Hampton, the Guido sign, the German's, World Gym original location and last location which is now a gymnast center, Zucky's, Weider's first Cal office where Draper worked shipping out Weider supps to various parts of the world, etc.

I saw Dianna Dennis lately (year and a half ago?) and she is looking fine and still active with guest posing stints.

I have been by the Orginal World Gym location (2210 Main Street S.M.), and the one in Venice (location #2)-how could Arnold lease that building to a  kiddie gymnastic studio?? The guy that runs that kiddie gymnastic's school had the World Gym neon sign (I guess Joe Gold left it when they moved) and sold it on EBAY for 99 dollars.

The original Gold's Gym location at 1006 Pacific is super cool because you can still see the outline of the old Gold's sign from the 60's and mid 70's, before Ken turned it into his house (Thanks Ironage).

Please post the pics ASAP.

What is at the Zucky's location?

[Kevin]

Thanks,  Dan-O, for setting the facts straight on Kevin and the photo too.

I last saw Diana living in Las Vegas about two years ago. I'll attempt to find the casual photos we took at some contest we went to as spectators. She looked great. To the best of my knowledge, she is still in Casino-Town.

Zucky's is still Zucky's in the same location (5th and Santa Monica?) but it is a shadow of its former self. All the windows are boarded up and the paint is peeling and the ZUCKY'S sign is falling apart .... and I'll send ya those photos as soon as I can but I don't know how to do it on this machine so it will take a bit of time. I am surprised that place closed down as it belonged to an old, established Jewish family and was always the best place to eat in Santa Monica and beyond. Their pastrami sandwich was four inches high and the chicken soup contained half a chicken.

I am presently looking at the photos and I do have 2210 Main St on one of them, so I guessed correctly and got the right photo of World's Gym, but it appears that they did an extensive modification of the building.

And I got a great shot of the original Gold's with the faded sign. I think that Ken turned it into his living room when he redid it and also removed the windows from the front. The front door is still there but the rest is plastered over.

Also have photos of the Firehouse and Rose Cafe and plan to shoot more within that area today or tomarrow. Hopefully, I'll get to Santa Monica and shoot the original Muscle Beach locations too.

There used to be an Ice Cream Store across from Rose Cafe that served a hundred flavors. You remember that place, Rules?

[knny187]

As for Rick Stephenson-he won the Cal-but he tried to compete as a heavyweight in the Nationals and USA-and he does not have the size to be a decent heavyweight. Ed Connors did buy Gold's Gym Pacific Beach, and that is a long and sorry story about what happened. Too long for this thread-but I will tell you right now Rick did not have $1 to invest in that gym-so one of the other investors lent Rick 10 grand to buy in-and Rick really pulled some dirty underhanded BS (burned the guy who lent him the 10 grand bigtime)-but that is another story that I can't go into here. Today Rick has a net worth of about 5 million dollars from that gym he bought into with 10 grand of borrowed money. If you ever see big Jim Quinn ask him what he thinks of Rick and that gym( Ed gave Jim some of the shares in that gym)-then get the hell out of ear shot range...lol.......

I understand from sources that Rick owns the entire building of the gym.

Where the location of that gym is & the size of the property.....thats a chunk of change right there.

[619Rules]

I understand from sources that Rick owns the entire building of the gym.

Where the location of that gym is & the size of the property.....thats a chunk of change right there.

The current location was a former Toyota dealership. The building is really a piece of sh*t-no windows-limited parking, hard to get in and out of from the main beach area-but it is an improvement over the old location.

The old Gold's Gym Pacific Beach is now** a car dealership***, but the car dealership demolished 2 freestanding buildings at the old location and now it is a huge car lot. If they could move back to the original building they would be set.

As for the current building-like I said it really sucks in my opinion. Rick bought the building using a small business administration loan (only 10% down) in 1992 for 850K. It was a bank repossessed property (REO), and the bank folded and the federal government ended up owning it. It was vacant for over 2 years when the gym bought it. On paper the building today might be worth 3-4million-on paper.  That is what the building was bought for in 1988 (4 million) by the Toyota dealership (in a real estate bubble).

The real estate bubble in California is going to bust sometime within the next 12-24 months and when it does you will see a 50% decline in commercial property and a 25-33% decline in residential property.

I would say that Gold's Gym Pacific Beach/San Diego (now World Gym) is the most profitable gym in California (maybe the entire US) outside of Venice Gold's. It was the only hard core gym in San Diego for a long time (besides Stern's-which is small) and it had a great location. All the pro's would stop in to train when they were on vacation. In the beginning it had a great set of guys working and running the place. I was glad to call it home for a number of years. The funniest part is the original owner was a gay guy named Paul Edney-and it was a dump-he was sitting on a gold mine and just did not know how to run a gym-to the point the gym was going to close/fold until Ed bought it.

Now, like I said, it has created a multi millionaire.

[knny187]

The current location was a former Toyota dealership. The building is really a piece of sh*t-no windows-limited parking, hard to get in and out of from the main beach area-but it is an improvement over the old location.

The old Gold's Gym Pacific Beach is now** a car dealership***, but the car dealership demolished 2 freestanding buildings at the old location and now it is a huge car lot. If they could move back to the original building they would be set.

As for the current building-like I said it really sucks in my opinion. Rick bought the building using a small business administration loan (only 10% down) in 1992 for 850K. It was a bank repossessed property (REO), and the bank folded and the federal government ended up owning it. It was vacant for over 2 years when the gym bought it. On paper the building today might be worth 3-4million-on paper.  That is what the building was bought for in 1988 (4 million) by the Toyota dealership (in a real estate bubble).

The real estate bubble in California is going to bust sometime within the next 12-24 months and when it does you will see a 50% decline in commercial property and a 25-33% decline in residential property.

I would say that Gold's Gym Pacific Beach/San Diego (now World Gym) is the most profitable gym in California (maybe the entire US) outside of Venice Gold's. It was the only hard core gym in San Diego for a long time (besides Stern's-which is small) and it had a great location. All the pro's would stop in to train when they were on vacation. In the beginning it had a great set of guys working and running the place. I was glad to call it home for a number of years. The funniest part is the original owner was a gay guy named Paul Edney-and it was a dump-he was sitting on a gold mine and just did not know how to run a gym-to the point the gym was going to close/fold until Ed bought it.

Now, like I said, it has created a multi millionaire.

I trained there for a number of years in the later 90's.

I used to go either very early in the morning or later in the evening & I never would go there during the main working hours because of the poor parking.

I like alot of the older equipment that was in there but lets just say.....Rick was not one to spend a lot of money to upgrade something unless it can be fixed a million times.

The atmosphere was good....but as I left....I started to see many "soccer moms" attending & sitting on the equipment.

Maybe things have changed....it's been about 4 years.

[Kevin]

Just got back from a full day on a walking tour between Santa Monica Pier and Venice Beach and back with a side excursion through Santa Monica's Third Street Mall. Also took a couple more shots of the the old Gold's on 2nd.

More people now walk past that old location within 15 minutes than a full week of pedestrians in the 60's/70's. The streets were jammed back and even though it was a warm and sunny day, the beach was relatively quiet except for the usual madhouse down Venice Beach way.

Took another serious of photo which I plan to post as soon as I work them in Photoshop and add some commentary.

l have to kick myself in the ass because I met three real oldtimers sitting on a bench on the precise spot of the original Muscle Beach and one of them pulled out his scrapbook full of photographs taken in the 40's and 50's.

Turned out that these three guys were part of the original bunch of guys who were doing handstands and gymnastics on the beach when thousands of spectators showed up to watch them.

Must have been aboout 300 original photos of Muscle Beach in that scrapbook, none of which I have ever seen including a bunch of pictures of Steve Reeves when he was real young hanging on the beach with his friends.

We started talking about Pudgy Stockton but that is when the video cameras arrived apparently to do some story on these three old timers. They were waiting for the arrival of Armand Tanny but they were so wrapped up in shotting the video that I had to excuse myself and leave because I did not want to interrupt the video production.

I ahve a couple of photos of these three original Muscle Beach oldtimers sitting on that bench looking at the scrapbook. Each picture had the names of the people who were in the photographs neatly printed at the bottom and I was surprised that I had not heard of most of them ...... Reeves and Tanny were the exceptions.

I have now come to the conclusion that the gymnasts were just as important (or possibly even more important) than the bodybuilders in making that place so popular.

I did ask the reasons why the City of Santa Monica closed Muscle Beach down and was told that the reason is was closed once and for all was because a couple of the bodybuilders raped a young girl (he didn't say "under the pier" but I had heard that story and the "under the pier" part many years ago) and so they closed it down. (Good reason, I guess!)

Ran across Roland Kickinger and had a brief talk. He looks good and is working at becoming a Star. Great guy, so I hope it happens.

Met a kid from Mexico who won his class (light wt I believe) at an NPC contest held in Culver City last March. Good potential for a smaller bodybuilder.

The Pit in Venice was just about empty of bodybuilders except for this tall, lanky kid who had unreal potential. Looks like he was puymping up to take off and meet the ladies on the beach. (Reminds me of the good old days!)

Good walk, good time and glad to have meet those old timers but I wish we could have talked longer, but they were ready for their closeups, so I departed and let them do their thing.

Does the name Caldwell remind anyone of a gymnast/bodybuilder now in his 70's who was a Muscle Beacher in its hayday!?

[619Rules]

Kevin-

That is so cool that you met the old timers and they were doing a video shoot of the original Muscle Beach. You may not know this but Public Broadcasting System (PBS) did a major segment on the old Muscle Beach (probably just like the video shoot you say today), and they interviewed everyone who was still alive. It is real interesting. I have a printed version somewhere-I think it is called Old Gold-or something like that. I will post a link when I find it.

Back in the 30's and 40's it was all gymnastics-well probably 90%-and a few people brought old weight plates, but it was really about tumbling and balancing feats-like building those pyramids-Effierman doing the one handed clean and jerk with 145# while playing a trumpet. The weight benches and the lifting equipment was added little by little as Muscle Beach became more popular. It is really too bad that the City closed it down and tore everything out in 59.

The statutory rape charge is pretty much what did it I think. That is the story everyone gives as to why the place got the boot. The City Council tried to make the Muscle Beach folks out as a bunch of deviants. Total BS. The two bodybuilders that had the statutory rape charges leveled against them had the charges thrown out as I recall. I will look into that and post. I will also get the info in the PBS Muscle Beach segment. Fantastic stuff. You know most of those folks are up there in age and when they die there will be NO first hand knowledge the REAL Muscle Beach. Harold Zinkin died just within the last 6 months and he was one of the originals.

All I can say is I wish I was there with you today to talk with the old timers. I am going to PM you-if you can  will you email me all the pics you took? I am really interested to see what you have. I have been by many of the places recently (within the last year) like the original World Gym-and your right-it is hard to recognize because of the remodel they did. But what you have, and the info on this thread is a serious part of Bodybuilding history that would be lost if people didn't pass it along.

I have to figure out how to save this thread!

[619Rules]

Found a link for the California Gold PBS segment on the original Muscle Beach. This is a cool video-with interviews of all the old timers. If your into the original Muscle Beach-buy this video.

http://www.calgold.com/calgold/Default.asp?Series=1000&Show=103

Here is another link that is pretty cool also.

http://ronjones.org/Health&Fitness/FitnessHistory/MuscleBeach/

[l.spencer]

hi everyone just want to say that this post is the best ever, i wish i only paid the same attention of history when i was at school  :)peace

[Steve93]

Found a link for the California Gold PBS segment on the original Muscle Beach. This is a cool video-with interviews of all the old timers. If your into the original Muscle Beach-buy this video.

http://www.calgold.com/calgold/Default.asp?Series=1000&Show=103

Here is another link that is pretty cool also.

http://ronjones.org/Health&Fitness/FitnessHistory/MuscleBeach/

This video is on the P2P networks...

[Kevin]

Thanks for all this information, folks! It is appreciated!

Someone asked me who I thought was the best BB of all time so let me give my extended and personal opinion and raise a few feathers here.

I can't think of any bodybuilder I've ever wanted to meet  that I haven't. And that includes the likes of Reeves and Terpak and Eifferman and so many others throughout the years. Yea, and Arnold too. Many times.

Someone who knows me well swears that I have met over 90% of the greats since the early 50's. Now that's saying a lot, but it's probably true.

And in all that time I've only met a handful that really impressed me enough to walk away with a cranium full of praise and memories.

So if I gotta pick the BEST ...... In my opinion that BEST without a doubt has to be Lee Priest.

I met Lee at a contest (he was guest poser) one day after the Olympia or the Universe or some other major IFBB contest and was totally shocked!

This must have been about ten years ago when he had bright yellow hair and the thickest muscle on any body I had ever seen. Body height made no difference and from where I sat (right in front) there was no place on his frame where he could have added a bit of muscle. It was all there - thick and solid.

Without a doubt, Lee was the best I've ever seen.

On on that same stage was Buchanan from GB who was also damn impressive but no where as impressive as Lee that day.

So who was the most over-rated in my opinion? I'll go out on a limb here and say that Arnold was the most over-rated BB I've ever seen. He was good, no doubt, but no where near as good as people think he was in his prime.

I think Arnold's charisma carried him a long way and it still does.

Biggest disappointment ....... I've traveled the world and met lots of people and I always encourage anyone I see who has the unlimited potential to be great in this game. And believe me, there are a few guys out there who could set new standards.

But they usually end up by stating, ........ "I would love to be a top bodybuilder and I know I have the potential, but I don't want to take all those steroids!"

And that's a major disappointment.

[Max_Rep]

hi everyone just want to say that this post is the best ever, i wish i only paid the same attention of history when i was at school  :)peace

Welcome l.spencer. And it just keeps getting better thanks to everyone who has been contributing to this thread.

[Kevin]

Max, the more interesting parts are the "bad" parts which we are considering to post without disclosing real names.

And when I say "BAD", I mean real bad.

ANd it does not necessarily involve any pros or anyone that any of you folks might even know.

But, then again, it could; so we are checking it out to see if we can work it some way so it will be honest and factual without hurting any single individual - dead or alive.

But it does include murder and jails and skulldugery, and thievery and mayhem just to name the brighter aspects on this side of the bodybuilding street.

Checken it out so, stand by to stand by. Or just stand by to relax in the event that we are advised not to proceed.

[Max_Rep]

Max, the more interesting parts are the "bad" parts which we are considering to post without disclosing real names.

And when I say "BAD", I mean real bad.

ANd it does not necessarily involve any pros or anyone that any of you folks might even know.

But, then again, it could; so we are checking it out to see if we can work it some way so it will be honest and factual without hurting any single individual - dead or alive.

But it does include murder and jails and skulldugery, and thievery and mayhem just to name the brighter aspects on this side of the bodybuilding street.

Checken it out so, stand by to stand by. Or just stand by to relax in the event that we are advised not to proceed.

I think that's called a cliffhanger Kevin. Not fair! 

[Kevin]

Ya, Max, timeing out to find a rope!

[Kevin]

I got a friend. His name is Steve. He's been around for a while and knows all about powerlifting, olympic lifting, and bodybuilding. He competes in all three events and he does each well.

Some national champions in either event have been helped by Steve. He is one of those kind of guys who can spot a weakness and give suggestions on how to change it immediately with phenominal results.

"Turn your toes inward. Lift your chin. Add this to your diet."

Simple advice with dramatic results and many national champs will confirm what I am telling you about Steve.

Steve's a genius but he's also a crazy man too! Maybe a better term is that he is "fanatical" when it comes to training for any sport.

Here's a story about Steve and Tetsuo Willi.

Tets was a bantam weight powerlifter who was exceptionally strong for his size, but he had a serious problem.

Tets would get extremely nervous before any powerlifting contest he entered. And that "nervousness" would never go away until the day after the trophies were awarded.

SO this was a problem that Steve was doing his best to figure out how to remedy.

And it was his biggest failure!

"You're all right, Tets! You're just a little nervous and that's OK. Use that nervousness to help you get that weight off the ground!"

So Tets went on stage in front of an audiance of 1,200 to "get that weight off the ground", his first deadlift of the evening.

Don't ask me how much weight it was cause I don't remember but Tets was very strong for a man his size and it was a significant amount by any standards.

So Tets took his position on the platform and was evidently very nervous.

He grabbed the bar and began to stand erect but it was exceptionally heavy even for Tets and he was very nervous.

As the bar slowly reached above his knees, Tets could no longer disguise his nervousness and he regurgitated like a firehose hitting most of the spectators in the front row and the official directly to his front.

And it wasn't a small, burping kind of regurgitation either. It was a full blown, put out the four alarm fire type of regu rgitation.

But he swallowed his pride and stayed with the weight and completed the lift while the people in the back rows went crazy and those in front ........ well they left to go get cleaned off.

Tets left the stage with a good lift and much embarrassment and Steve was there to wipe his face and encourage him to break his personal record on his next attempt.

"Forget about throwing up, Tets! That's part of what this is all about!"

And Tets, still nervous, felt a little better and was determined to lift even heavier on his next call out.

And when Tets came out for his second attempt the first row was completely empty and the house was going crazy in his support.

And Tets took his position and started lifting. But he was still very nervous and the same thing happened, but this time if was a much bigger "force" and those in the second row who thought they were beyond the range of Tets, really weren't and hence they suffered the consequence.

And so did that very same judge immediately to his direct front.

But Tets made the lift and set a new personal record.

And on third attempt, most of the front was in the back and the head judge stood smartly on the side.

And the house went even more crazy offering their complete and total support for Tets, the nervous bantam who was putting on one hell of a show.

And he made it and won the state championships and eventually went on to bigger and better awards.

But the first three rows were always vacant from that day on.

This is a true story that Steve told me last nite. I was there but I don't recall it as vividly as he described it. I must have been way in the back.

[Max_Rep]

Ya, Max, timeing out to find a rope!

Even Joe is hanging around waiting for you to tell that big one!

[619Rules]

OK-I have researched what happened to Muscle Beach-the real Muscle Beach and why it disappeared.

I have a couple of books on Muscle Beach-but the only one I can currently find is “Remembering Muscle Beach” by Harold Zinkin, the first Mr. California and inventor of the Universal Weight Machine. This summary is from pages 115-116.

In the late 50’s hordes of people were flocking to Muscle beach every single weekend and it was creating a mess from all the cars and creating major parking problems. The Santa Monica City Council wanted to make a parking lot out of the area. The local merchants (Ocean Park Pier business owners) did not like the free entertainment the acrobats provided and the Surf Rider Hotel (now Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel) did not think their guests liked the large and unruly crowds that gathered.

In December 1958, five of the local Muscle Beach weightlifters were accused of statutory rape with two underage girls at their apartment a couple of blocks from Muscle Beach. The five were arrested, but all charges were dropped. The Santa Monica City Council closed Muscle Beach though, until a full investigation was conducted. For the next three months, January 1959 through March 1959, the future of Muscle Beach was reviewed by the City Council, with the City Council wanting to keep it closed because of “perverts and narcissistic parasites”, while the supporters pointed to all the athletes that came from Muscle Beach and the national reputation it had given Santa Monica. The Santa Monica City Council then said that the $10,000 per year it cost to maintain Muscle Beach was too much. In December 1958, right after the statutory rape arrests, the police went in and tore out all the weight lifting platforms and the acrobat and tumbling equipment.

In March 1959 the City Council voted to stop using the name Muscle Beach, weight lifting events were dropped, no public acrobats or public performing would be allowed without a permit. The old Muscle Beach area was replaced with children’s playground equipment with some limited gymnastic equipment and renamed “Beach Park 4”. But no more handstands, push-ups or any other acrobat activity.

That was the end of Muscle Beach; it never regained the momentum it had after that.

After that, in 1959, Joe Gold started a Muscle Beach Weightlifting Gym, that gym eventually became Gold’s Gym………and…………well…….……you all know the rest.

[Max_Rep]

Polititions!

[crownshep]

Just got my copy of West Coast Bodybuilding Scene today,and just from flicking through it,this picture caught my eye.

[Kevin]

Interesting stuff, Rules! Did they ever mention the names of the culprets? And do you know if somerthing additional happened under the pier that also gave the city council some concerns?

Here's a trivia question: Does anyone recall the "Purser Hotel"?

I knew George Eifferman well, Crown, but not well enough to ask him to play the trumpet when we got together for some occasion. I think he might have givien that up a while back or Mae West would have had him doing that act on her tour in the 50's.

Was anyone at the Santa Monica Auditorium when Bert Goodrich escorted Mae West on stage to present the overall trophy to Dave Johns? Ken Sprague promoted  that contest and did one hell of a job making it the best show possible.

I think that was the same year he had the parade with the boybuilders and the elephants. No one has or ever will promote another bodybuilding contest like that one.

[619Rules]

All I can say is that George Eiferman carried more muscle on his frame, in his day, than anyone else. He is thick, had a great chest and actually was one of the few guys from that era that had legs (Steve Reeves and Clancy Ross were two others that had legs and calvies!)

Believe it or not I sort of resemble the guy in looks and build.