I have yet to meet Jonsey, but I have met Bill Smith.
This was back when he was not well known and before he played the part of some bad guy in a TV series (Rich Man, Poor Man
) and then in a major motion picture which I cannot recall.
Not positive but I think I met Bill Smith while he was working at Universal as a stuntman or else he had a part in a TV western. I forget those details but we had mutual friends who also worked at Universal on a regular basis.
Not sure about this either but I seem to recall that he was a friend of Woody Strode's.
I believe he trained at Vince's but I never ran into him there.
OK, here is a "Platz Trains Legs" episode that ocurred sometime in the 70's or early 80's.
I've never been a GURU but I've worked with a good number of amateurs and a few professionals who are still among the living and one time I was helping Ernie Santiago prepare for an NPC national contest that was being held in Santa Monica and needless to say we spent a lot of time the week before at Gold's when Gold's was located in Santa Monica (2nd Street??).
It was leg day for Ernie and it so happened to be leg day for Platz so they decided to train together on and near the squat rack.
I don't recall how many sets and how much weight but it was a grueling workout for the both of them .... and Ernie was the kind of guy who would do whatever it took to train as hard and heavy as Platz ... and to the best of my memory ... he was successful in keeping up with Platz on each and every set.
When it was over, Tom shook Ernie's hand and said thanks for the great workout and Ernie walked over to the nearest wall, placed his back against it, and slid down to the seated position with somewhat of a glassed over gaze in his eyes.
That's when Pete came out of his office and asked him if he was OK, and Ernie's reply was, "Yea, Pete! I'm just waiting for Platz to show up so we can train legs."
And that's when Pete came looking for me to tell me that Ernie was slightly delirious and ready to pass out after a very strainuous leg workout with Tom and it would be best for the both of us to walk or carry Ernie out to the waiting car so that he wouldn't get hit by a passing vehicle ... which was somewhat common back then after a hard training session at Gold's.
So Pete and I got Ernie to his feet and Ernie kept on insisting that he had to train legs with Tom if he ever showed up ... not realizing that he has already trained legs with Tom
so strainuously that it was causing him a temporary bit of 'insanity'.
The next day we had a good talk with Pete and he told Ernie that Ernie's 'temporary bit of insanity' after a very hard workout was not too uncommon and more than a couple of members had walked out of the gym .... and directly into oncoming traffic.
