Muscle Beach History - by Stuntmovie

[stuntmovie]

JPM, Thanks again for another interesting post on your part. And I’ll also thank FUNK for his photo cotrsibutions.


I was never familiar withs Rand’s Roundup on Wilshire. Do you know what’s at that same location today?  It sounds like it would have been a USC football team dining spot back then.

And YES! I do know some stuff about MUSCLE HOUSE but I’ve never seen it and just recently discovered its address. I was intending to write about MH and it’s owner in my next post so now I’ll definitely do that with some possible errors within it. (More to come.)

And YES! (once again), I do remember CARROT JUICE and I drank about a ton of that stuff during those early years.  It definitely gave your skin a light yellow or light orange tone and definitely enhanced your tan.

But if I remember correctly, it also gave the whites of your eyes a yellow ‘cast’.

Ask your uncles about the tanning “secret” back then. They most likely knew this ....

Most likely not a secret today but back then there were no ‘tanning agents’ in existence yet and SEA an SKI was still somewhat in the infant stage of its existence, so we would take a bottle of baby oil and mix it with iodine and apply it liberally after opening the pores of your skin with a real hot shower.

And then  you’d ‘pat’ yourself dry so that the  Baby Oil was not evident due to the fact that any sort of oil was not allowed in any contest back then.

And in that initial lineup you’d appear to be ‘oil-less’ but at you gradually hit the mandatories, your sweat glands would open  and the oil would come to the surface enhancing  the muscle while the judging officials and the fans in the audience simply thought you were sweating excessively which was not against  the so-called rules and regulations back then.

That Baby Oil and iodine mixture was most likely one of  the original “SECRETS’ within the bodybuilding world back then.

What did your uncles do at Paramount? I might have known them at one time.

I do recall talking about Marvin Eder back then but I don’t recall if I ever had the opportunity to meet him.

Muscle House next
.

[stuntmovie]

THANKS, JOE!

Taken from WIKIPEDIA ....
Muscle House or Muscle House by the Sea was a famous (in bodybuilding circles) boarding house on the beach. The building was owned by Fleurette Crettaz, aka "Joy" and was located at 1659 Ocean Front Walk, Santa Monica, California. Joy was a fan of bodybuilding and would let bodybuilders stay for minimal rent. The house operated from the 1950s to the 1970s. It was a common waypoint for up and coming bodybuilders such as Steve Reeves, Vince Edwards, Jack Delinger, George Eiferman and Dave Draper.

I'LL BE ADDING A BIT MORE BUT IT MAY NOT BE CORRECT OR FACTUAL

[stuntmovie]

Marvin Eder

[jpm101]

Stunt:

My uncles were truck/chauffeur drivers (included location travel). They were born with a built in Samoan tan, so no problem there. One had a SEG card and was in the cowboy/Indian (oaters), south seas native and jungle categories. Always told that stuntmen had a screw loose (on/off the set) in a good way, guess they had to be. They usually got a lot of good looking babe's. Did you have a SEG card....some stunt people did (women included), or even a SAG card?.  A few BB'ers would try and get extra work, usually shot term work.

Some older BB'ers told me they remember a young Larry Scott, and he was all triceps, always doing dip's, etc. He went over the pass, to Vince's, and started focusing on the biceps...or so the story goes. Think Peanuts West had, or trained at, a garage gym in Culver City with some other extremely strong men. They were doing all kinds of tonnage workouts, pretty advanced for that time. (the Culver City Aud held the old Mr America and other contest there...Culver City, not being that far from Muscle Beach)

Rands Roundup was a little east of Vermont, I believe. USC & UCLA football players were know to dine there. Even some high school players. I know I would have been there, if I was around that time.

Quite a few BB'ers, back in the day (50's-60'-70's....probably now also), would get a job for 6 months, or so, find a reason to get fired and than collect unemployment insurance for another 6 to 9 months. Spending those months working out. Don't know about tuna, but do know that these guy's ate quite a lot of ground chuck (hamburger meat..protein and a high fat content for energy), steak being too expensive. Also drank whole milk with raw eggs. All cheaper back than. Called it bulking up.  A few MILF, and even older women, would "support" some of these younger BB'ers, even back than.

Thanks again Stunt.

[stuntmovie]

Thanks, JPM:

Stepping away from the Muscle Beach locale to talk about some of the guys who frequented it on the weekends when and if they weren’t working at one or more of the major studios.

JPM, Your uncles may have worked with or may have know some of the guys mentioned below.

I was mostly associated with the stunt-performers who worked at Universal  pretty steadily in the time before Universal had the present-day theme park.

Back then those hills on which the park is set was used for major motion picture locations and I think there were a couple of elaborate homes up there in which the studio executives  use to reside.

Some of my good friends would head off to Hollywood after serving 2, 3, or 4 years in the USMC with the hope of finding some work in the movies.

Some were successful, but most were not.

My best MC bud was one of the  successful ones and was one of the originators of Stuntmen’s Association and/or Stunts Unlimited.

When he got to Hollywood he signed up in an acting school and ended up in the same class as Goldie Hawn and they did some improve wok together as a class assignments and each of them promised the other that the one who became successful in the making of motion pictures would help the other by getting him or her a role in the successful actor’s movies.

SO my good friend (Jack) concentrated on his stunt work in THE VIRGINIAN and othere westerns and Goldie became a major TV and movie star.

S0 Jack appeared in a lot of her movies as well as in the  movies of  other top motion picture stars …. due to his dependability and likeabiluty and lack of fear when it came time to shoot dangerous scenes.

Once Jack got his foot in the Hollywood motion picture door, he’d call me and invite me to work on various movies in which he played small or major parts, but I was always playing my own role in some war torn country so I never go that ‘close-up” that was always promised if I ever did show up
My usual job description was the trainer or watcher of the trainer of the horses that you may have seen fall in a decent number of western TV shows and motion pictures..

And I was the dead-guy who took a fall off a motorcycle   ……

Any my head was often used to test ‘break-a-ways” such as bottles and furniture that was often used in just about every motion picture fight scene you ever saw.

HERE COMES THE SOMEWHAT  MUSCLE BEACH/TRAINING RELATED  PART ………

Bill Smith and Woody Strode were very respected and often discussed back then and both of them were serious when it came to training and staying in shape.

Jack Elam was also highly respected but he didn’t appear to lift anything heavier than his own too feet.

My good friend, Jack, died while filming a jump-off-a-cliff- scene for THE SWORD  AND THE SORCEROR.

Long story here but ….. That movie was dedicated to Jack when the final credits rolled.

OK - BACK TO MUSCLE BEACH ….. To the best of my recollection, Larry Scott was a gymnast while he was much younger, so he had the basic foundation to be a good bodybuilder in the early 60’s.

MORE ... COMPUTE IS ACTING UP AGAIN

[funk51]

 

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[stuntmovie]

That Vince Gym photo ..... Don Peters on  the right and JUDY Miller has to be one of the blonds but that was way too long ago and I only met her once.

Thanks for the photos, FUNK.

[dr.chimps]

Rob Tessier sure looks unrecognizable with hair, eh? Just watched Hard Times a couple of weeks ago, too.   

[stuntmovie]

DOC, TESSIER?

[Slik]

Rob Tessier sure looks unrecognizable with hair, eh? Just watched Hard Times a couple of weeks ago, too.   

dam!!! U beat me to it. Funny how he starred in a movie about bare knuckle fighting w Bronson (which rated as one of my all time favs as a kid.) and from the same thread billy smith also starred in a movie with the same subject matter with Clint.

[Slik]

Dam. One of my all time favorite bbs.  Just look at howarth's build there. Vince once told me that don howarth was one of the most genetically gifted individuals that ever graced his gym. Then he went off on a rant about how alchohol n steroids ruined him or something if I remember correctly. And I think I am.

[stuntmovie]

SILK. There's more.

[Slik]

SILK. There's more.

haha. "Silk". I think u have me confuse with that pansy from getgay. Keep the stories coming!

[stuntmovie]

SORRY, SLIK. Spelling error.

[dr.chimps]

DOC, TESSIER?

Robert Tessier. Upthread in Funk's 'badhombres' pic. Was in a bunch of movies. Hard Times with Bronson, The Deep with Nolte, and The Longest Yard with Reynolds off the top of my head. I'm sure there's more. 

[wild willie]

GREAT PIC!!!

[wild willie]

EXCELLENT THREAD!!


MORE STORIES STUNT!!


PLEASE AND THANK YOU.

[funk51]