Author Topic: Joe Weider and the champs of the 50's  (Read 10325 times)

Pet shop boys

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Joe Weider and the champs of the 50's
« on: December 30, 2010, 12:28:28 PM »
Here's a historic Pic of the top BBers in the early 1950's,(courtesy of LEGENDS of MM) my question is :  WTF is Joe (first from left to right) doing in this pic?

He wasnt near as muscular or won any local show(If he ever competed) to be there? all of this champs had some good years of heavy trainning on them so was the master Blaster really training any of them at the time (I hope NOT) plus the shoulders pads on his suit to make him look "Bulkier"!  who is he fooling really??  whats the story behind it ?





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The Showstoppa

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Re: Joe Weider and the champs of the 50's
« Reply #1 on: December 30, 2010, 12:30:37 PM »
Here's a historic Pic of the top BBers in the early 1950's,(courtesy of LEGENDS of MM) my question is :  WTF is Joe (first from left to right) doing in this pic?

He wasnt near as muscular or won any local show(If he ever competed) to be there? all of this champs had some good years of heavy trainning on them so was the master Blaster really training any of them at the time (I hope NOT) plus the shoulders pads on his suit to make him look more Bulkier!  who is he fooling really??  whats the story behind it ?





WOOOOSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!!



Hey, I'm just happy to see them dressed nicely instead of clown pants, fanny packs and basketball jerseys.

Pet shop boys

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Re: Joe Weider and the champs of the 50's
« Reply #2 on: December 30, 2010, 12:33:27 PM »

Hey, I'm just happy to see them dressed nicely instead of clown pants, fanny packs and basketball jerseys.

Dont even go there 90 % of girls would look at this guys as the ideal "strong male type",  today 90 % would look at Heat,cutler,Dexter etc as  chemical clowns.



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The Showstoppa

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Re: Joe Weider and the champs of the 50's
« Reply #3 on: December 30, 2010, 12:34:56 PM »
Dont even go there 90 % of girls would look at this guys as the ideal "strong male type",  today 90 % would look at Heat,cutler,Dexter etc as  chemical clowns.



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And they would be 100% correct..... ;D

MAXX

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Re: Joe Weider and the champs of the 50's
« Reply #4 on: December 30, 2010, 12:39:23 PM »
Steve Reeves looking handsome as always (no homo)

Pet shop boys

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Re: Joe Weider and the champs of the 50's
« Reply #5 on: December 30, 2010, 12:50:53 PM »
Steve Reeves looking handsome as always (no homo)

Yes but lets go back to the question at hand.



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Master Blaster

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Re: Joe Weider and the champs of the 50's
« Reply #6 on: December 30, 2010, 12:58:45 PM »
Yes but lets go back to the question at hand.



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What question?

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Pet shop boys

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Re: Joe Weider and the champs of the 50's
« Reply #7 on: December 30, 2010, 01:00:24 PM »
WTF is Joe Weider doing in this pic?



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funk51

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Re: Joe Weider and the champs of the 50's
« Reply #8 on: December 30, 2010, 01:07:47 PM »
Here's a historic Pic of the top BBers in the early 1950's,(courtesy of LEGENDS of MM) my question is :  WTF is Joe (first from left to right) doing in this pic?

He wasnt near as muscular or won any local show(If he ever competed) to be there? all of this champs had some good years of heavy trainning on them so was the master Blaster really training any of them at the time (I hope NOT) plus the shoulders pads on his suit to make him look "Bulkier"!  who is he fooling really??  whats the story behind it ?





WOOOOSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!!
he's trying to steal all the aau talent of the time from bob hoffman.
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jpm101

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Re: Joe Weider and the champs of the 50's
« Reply #9 on: December 30, 2010, 07:40:25 PM »
Weider is promoting his product and wants it to look as if  he trained or influenced these guy's. Old PR move. The products are his muscle building courses (one each for arms, chest, shoulders, legs, etc), mags and supplements. Weider was promoting Clancey Ross (the guy standing behind Weider) as the king of all BB'ers in the 50's. Don't believe that Reeves signed with Weider at that time. The Weider boys started their mags when they were in their late teens, in Canada. The guy standing, in the middle, was Bruce Page, who died at a pretty young age from a heart attack. Next to him is Alan Stephan ( wrong spelling) and George Efilman (spelled  wrong).

I'm thinking that Stuntman must be 80, or more, according to his stories so would be a better source for some of this 50's stuff. I have seen some of the old muscle building Weider courses, most in bulletin form. Actually not bad, the way they were put together and the information (true or not) in them.  His BB'ing course included a full chart of the exercises that could be put up on a wall. A friend of my uncles let me borrow a few when I was just starting out to do some serious training. This was in 88 & 89 when I was 16. Also got to read a lot of old IronMan mag's, when there were almost pocket size. Priceless information in a lot of them.
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funk51

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Re: Joe Weider and the champs of the 50's
« Reply #10 on: December 31, 2010, 01:10:57 PM »
Weider is promoting his product and wants it to look as if  he trained or influenced these guy's. Old PR move. The products are his muscle building courses (one each for arms, chest, shoulders, legs, etc), mags and supplements. Weider was promoting Clancey Ross (the guy standing behind Weider) as the king of all BB'ers in the 50's. Don't believe that Reeves signed with Weider at that time. The Weider boys started their mags when they were in their late teens, in Canada. The guy standing, in the middle, was Bruce Page, who died at a pretty young age from a heart attack. Next to him is Alan Stephan ( wrong spelling) and George Efilman (spelled  wrong).

I'm thinking that Stuntman must be 80, or more, according to his stories so would be a better source for some of this 50's stuff. I have seen some of the old muscle building Weider courses, most in bulletin form. Actually not bad, the way they were put together and the information (true or not) in them.  His BB'ing course included a full chart of the exercises that could be put up on a wall. A friend of my uncles let me borrow a few when I was just starting out to do some serious training. This was in 88 & 89 when I was 16. Also got to read a lot of old IronMan mag's, when there were almost pocket size. Priceless information in a lot of them.
pretty good call jpm but i think the one guy in the middle is floyd page not bruce who was a writer for ironman and other mags of the time.
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stuntmovie

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Re: Joe Weider and the champs of the 50's
« Reply #11 on: December 31, 2010, 09:37:31 PM »
Not quite that ancient just yet, JPM, but thanks for the plug anyway.

I've never seen that photo before but I did know Steve around that time period and will offer more comments after these holiday celebrations are over.

Does anyone have information about when, where, and why the photo was taken?


funk51

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Re: Joe Weider and the champs of the 50's
« Reply #12 on: January 01, 2011, 01:35:26 PM »
not sure but would guess between 1948 and 1949 possibly at a mr usa contest.4 out of the five guys were in the 1949 and 1948 contests.
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stuntmovie

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Re: Joe Weider and the champs of the 50's
« Reply #13 on: January 02, 2011, 04:05:29 PM »
Good observation, Funk. I'm trying to get more info about that photo from one of the persons who's in that photo.

I'll post details when and if I get them.

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Re: Joe Weider and the champs of the 50's
« Reply #14 on: January 03, 2011, 03:43:23 AM »
WTF is Joe Weider doing in this pic?


If I had to guess, I would say "sitting" ?

Joe Roark

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Re: Joe Weider and the champs of the 50's
« Reply #15 on: January 03, 2011, 05:42:13 AM »
Good observation, Funk. I'm trying to get more info about that photo from one of the persons who's in that photo.

I'll post details when and if I get them.

Isn't Joe the only one still living?

jpm101

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Re: Joe Weider and the champs of the 50's
« Reply #16 on: January 03, 2011, 09:14:00 AM »
Funk51: Your probably right about Floyd, rather than Bruce, as the name. Remember reading some old training articles in the original  IronMan by someone by that name. And of course most of the mag's articles were written by Peary Rader.

Another very good writer, in IronMan, was Bob Greene. Who worked/hung around the Valley and Ventura gym's. Top BB'ing training articles if I remember correctly. Always a new slant on things.

Stuntman: From my ethnic culture older people are given due respect, so not dissing your age or anything like that. Just that a lot of stuff you tell about is 50-60 years ago. So if you were in your early 20's than, you would be pushing 80 today.

By the way, did you ever hear of a BB'er named Ed Fury? That was his actor/movie name I believe. Use to almost live at, and on, Muscle Beach back in the old day's. rather strange dude I have been told.
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stuntmovie

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Re: Joe Weider and the champs of the 50's
« Reply #17 on: January 03, 2011, 11:05:23 AM »
No disrespect taken,  JPM.

Ed Fury was Ed Holvochik and was in a few 20th Century Fox WWII movies that I saw as a kid plus a good number of other  worthwhile movie and TV roles that he never got credit for.

He also was some kind of a lounge entertainer on the West Coast, but I have no idea of what he actually did.

Here's some of his IMDB trivia -

Blond and beefy Fury was one of a number of bodybuilder and physique model types who followed muscleman Steve Reeves out to Italy in the early 60s and won campy notice playing Herculean characters in those campy Italian sand-and-spear epics. His acting career didn't last much beyond that. Born: Edmund Holovchik - June 6, 1928 in USAIn

In more detail ...

Ed Fury

Born Edmund Holovchik in June 1928 (some sources cite 1934 as Fury's date of birth), Ed Fury matured into a very athletic teenager. While he wrestled in school and lifted weights, he didn't work toward the gargantuan build as did some of his contemporaries, such as Steve Reeves and Reg Park. Rather, his athletic and acting abilities were used more to portray strength. His impressive physique made him a natural contender for the Mr. Muscle Beach title in 1951 and 1953, coming in third and second, respectively.

Fury's early career consisted of modeling for various physique studios in the 1950s, such as the Athletic Model Guild (AMG) and Bruce of LA. In addition, Fury made several home movie loops distributed by Apollo and AMG as 16mm and 8mm films in the 1950s. Fury also graced the covers of a number of physique culture magazines in the 1950s and 1960s. A six-foot tall natural blond, Fury began acting on the legitimate stage before entering films.

Among other vehicles, he appeared on Broadway in the show Fanny. He can also be spotted in a number of early to mid 1950s big-budget films, including Athena (1954; with Steve Reeves), Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954; with Victor Mature), and Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953) Into the latter part of the 1950s, Fury found larger roles in such films as the campy Wild Women of Wongo (1958). He also worked in television in the 1950s, appearing as a guest star during the last season of the 1950s TV comedy My Little Margie with Gale Storm and Charlie Farrell.

stuntmovie

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Re: Joe Weider and the champs of the 50's
« Reply #18 on: January 03, 2011, 11:14:18 AM »
JOE R. ... I think you are correct,but I trying to get more info.

jpm101

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Re: Joe Weider and the champs of the 50's
« Reply #19 on: January 03, 2011, 01:18:37 PM »
Actually Stuntman, just wondering if you had ever met or known Ed Fury. Some wild stories floating around about him in the past.Pretty well known around the beach. A German friend of my unk's use to call him Ed Hollowhead.  As you confirmed (through IMDB, no doubt) Holvochik was his real name. Think he got most of his work through SEG, rather than SAG though.

Or if you had know Bob Greene?. Malcolm Brenner was another impressive BB'er in the mid 50's also. Think he was the one who did 100 reps with 200lbs in the overhead press. And in one of the Mr America contest held out on the west coast, he placed fairly well. A friend of the unk's helped Brenner move to LA (near Melrose) after his mother died.

Maybe Joe or Funk51 knows a lot about these guy's?
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stuntmovie

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Re: Joe Weider and the champs of the 50's
« Reply #20 on: January 03, 2011, 06:40:01 PM »
JPM, Nope! I don't recall ever meeting ED, but on many occasions we'd sneak into the 20th Century lot and have lunch with the SAG/SEG people and he could have been present.

A few years later my best 'movie' friends were Hollywood's top stunt people and by then we'd get personal invites inside the movie making business by some of the top people in that business.

I did meet some damn important people and less important greats who appeared in front of that camera as extras and stars, but I never did run across Ed H.

Back then some of the stunt guys would be asked to settle studio problems and sometimes family problems that were causing shit for the stars and executives. I've told some of those stories earlier.

Joe Roark

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Re: Joe Weider and the champs of the 50's
« Reply #21 on: January 04, 2011, 06:34:57 PM »
JOE R. ... I think you are correct,but I trying to get more info.

Stunt, I have found dates of passing for all but, of course, Joe.

stuntmovie

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Re: Joe Weider and the champs of the 50's
« Reply #22 on: January 04, 2011, 08:41:52 PM »
Thanks, Joe. Can you post them here?

I  had hoped that more than just one would still be among the living.