REEVES, In an earlier post you stated that..."The original Gold's was even better, trust me. Man, I am getting too old."
Do you mean the 'original location' on Pacific Avenue as pictured below?
If so maybe I know ya.....I worked out there a few times and had many a conversation with Joe as he did some welding work in the back.
Second photo shows how it looked back when it was relatively new and the 1st photo is years later when they reopened in 3rd Street in Santa Monica or possibly later when Gold's was relocated to Hampton in Venice and is most likely how it looks at present.
I believe that Ken changed the gym into an extension of his living room once he closed it down and moved lock, stock and barrel to San Monica.
By the way, Ken did not buy Gold's directly from Joe because there was two other guys who bought it from Joe Gold and then Ken Sprague purchased it from them. (Fading memory)
ACH< I'm amost positive that was Charles Glass you saw. He's always there. Good man! You should have talked with him.
Yup, that's the one. I was told the windows were walled up due to someone shooting them out. We may have trained next to one another, who knows? Waller was a pretty cool guy. I bought a XXXL shirt from him and he told me with a big smile, "Good luck growing into it, kid!" Franco was great too. Robbie Robinson was pretty nice to be around and the Mentzers and Viator were from another planet. Arnold was a planet and everything revolved around him, or so it seemed.
These guys, well they were real people. They had a camaraderie in and out of the gym that seems to be gone now. There was schmoism going on back then but they called it"hustling". A few did it and were quite honest about it. Everyone cracked up at a made for T.V. move in the early 80s called "The Hustler of Muscle Beach". The guys I talked with were also honest about steroids.
Joe Gold was a gentlemen and I really enjoyed the few times I spoke with him at his World Gym in later years. I had a friend whose cousin was dating a stuntman and they would get us into Universal Studios for free. I can't recall his name but he was a pretty good guy even though my buddy and I didn't have much interaction with him.
As for the other gym you mentioned, that might be the old "Dungeon" where greats like Draper first trained in the sixties. I'm not certain as I never went there but it does sound like it. Good times gone forever now, except in our minds.
