Muscle Beach History - by Stuntmovie

[wes]

Unnecessary, guy.

X 100000000000000

I`ll be nice and keep my comments inside my head. 

[funk51]

MB,  You gotta thank FUNK and I'll take this oppertunity to thank him and the other picture and story posters also.

I gotta agree with your comments about the younger generation, but when I was a part of that younger generation, I think I felt likewise.

In fact there  is only one cousin in my family who has any interest in our family geneology.
She got as far  back as about 400years ago and discovered tha she was related to that original English FISH and CHIPS fast food chain that was so popular years ago  which is another name I have forgotten.

But one interesting 'geneoloical' "Way Back" (Sorry, Mr. Peabody!) story is often told at family reunions whiich I think I have mentioned earlier ...  Most of my family members are heavy drinkers so this story usually ends up with what some of us  saner ones call the annual family Indian War Dance

It was either  my great or great-great  or great-great-great grandmother that had a Pow- Wow with a Cherokee in a Tee-Pee on her way out west.

But that ancient Pow Wow did not qualify me to receive some of the US Government wam-pum that others of my tribe receive each and every new moon.

So that was about the extent of my previous lifetime interest and I think most young'uns feel somewhat similar. That old saying, "Young and dumb and full of .....!" will never change no matter how many generation follow this present one.

Oh yea, some others (or maybe it was just one) came to the US fron England via Austrailia ... Definitely some of Europe's  best criminals if those traits continue down through the generations.

And ... I've known Bill for a good number of years now, but only met Harry once and at one time was a good friiend of Solo ElFenzy. (You probably met solo  or Rob Johnson or Bouvier if you trained with Bill in Pasadena. Good people - all! Jail-time or not!)

One thing about Bill, once he meets you  ... he never forgets your name. And the last I heard, he's still training every morning before the sun comes up,.

And Larry Scott... I still think he's one of the best bodybuilders I've ever met... He and Nubret are among the best of all time as far as my thoughts go.

Larry is the only bodybuilder who put on a seminar that held my total and complete interest. I'll tell you how he did it if there is any interest.

Thanks for kick'en my memory brain cells, MD  ... the few that still remain.

arthur treacher's fish and chips.?

[stuntmovie]

FUNK, I just called our family geneologist and found out it was Haddon Salt ... once very famous for H. Salt's Fish and Chips. we think the first IS store location was in Tiburon, California across the bay from San Francisco.

Thanks for ask'en!

[stuntmovie]

Sorry about having a difficult time to write anymore about the past, the present, and the future of Muscle Beach (both Santa Monica and Venice area) so I want ot tell you that I saw Lone Survivor yesterday and enjoyed it immensely.

I've had the priviledge of working with a few Seals and it's always been a great honor and something I'll always be very proud of.

I do recall one very dark evening when we were cruising off the California coastline ... I happened ot be on deck and saw a number of Seal Team members being tossed or jumping overboard as the ship continued heading in the opposite direction.

I couold see the lights of Oceanside in the far distance and I only assumed that that is where they were headed for.

I'd be lieing if I told you ho far those shoreline lights actually were, but I'm a great swimmer and would never think of swimming that distance. And I was told that no Seal Team member could go ashore until the entire team walked ashore as one unit.

The movie was great but I wish it had spent 30 minutes or so taking the movie audience through the rigors of BUD/Seal training before they were sent overseas

Here's some basic info if you think you're tough enough to give  it a try .....

The training curriculum begins at the Naval Special Warfare Preparatory School (NSW Prep) in Great Lakes, Illinois.
 
The two-month training period begins with a Physical Screening Test. The goal: Improve the candidates' physical readiness for the rigorous activity they will face at Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S).
 
The NSW Prep ends with a modified Physical Screening Test (PST). The test is a 1000-meter swim, push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups and a four-mile run.
 
The minimum standards for this expanded test are as follows:
 
 1000-meter swim - with fins (22 minutes or under)
 Push-ups: at least 70 (Two-minute time limit)
 Pull-ups: at least 10 (Two-minute time limit)
 Curl-ups a.k.a. Sit-ups: at least 60 (Two-minute time limit)
 Four-mile run - with shoes + pants (31 minutes or under)
 
Candidates who don't pass the longer, more intense test are removed from training and reclassified to other jobs in the Navy.

The above is just to get your foot in the door ...... but once you get inside .... they do everything they can physically and mentally to
tear you down and give up and quit.

You can quit when you want to but there is a procedure fro doing so.

Any SEALS on this Board?

Thanks to the cast and crew of Lone Survivor for making a damn fine movie about the USN Seals and what they go through to wear that name and ...... Well ... See the movie.

And stay through the ending credits to see the actual SEAL Team members who were involved.

God bless them all!!!


 

[The Scott]

Good stuff, Stunt!

Many years ago I had a friend that was a SEAL and later became a paramedic when he got out.  I can't even swim...

[Mr. MB]

I met my first "pre" SEAL in the mid 50s at Bert Goodrich Gym in Hollywood. The SEALs were not created under that name until 1962. They had other classifications such as UDTs, Underwater Demolition Team. The man I knew was a UDT. He trained at Goodrich along the side of Steve Reeves, Bill Smith and Larry Scott despite his terrible war injuries. Sneaking into some gawd awful No. Korean harbor to plant explosives a coral filled boobie trap went off behind him. Once he took his shirt off and he had mangled pink popcorn flesh in the outer outline of scooba tanks on his back.

Special thoughts and blessings to our SEALs.

We will see this movie. Saw the author interviewed on FOX.

[jpm101]

I've mentioned this before, but I've met a few SEAL's over the years. Their west coast training area is on Coronado Island (San Diego). I grew up near a Marine base, by Oceanside, so have come into contact with many navy/marine personal. Met ex & active SEALs mostly through friends in social situations  (bars & restaurant..and parties). Some through training.

Biggest surprise, when first meeting a SEAL team Member, was that a few were in their early 40's. Late 20's to mid 30's seem the average age. Guess experience can make up for age sometimes. Some try keeping that old fighting edge by working out. A very few are into Tri Athletes events. Hundreds of Tri Athletes around San Diego and North County.

If going to some bars around Coronado, where duty and retired SEALS hangout , might suggest McP's, Danny's & Little CLub. One in Imperial Beach, think it's called the Plank or something like that. Also Point Loma offers many good bars, but SEAL's tend to stay among their own or some select civilians. EX-SEAL members look just like anyone else;long hair, buzzes, beards, short, fat, etc. Active members have a distinct look, hard to put into words.

[stuntmovie]

SCOTT, M B, and JPM , Thanks for your USN SeAL comments.

ANd while we're at it I gotta offer lots of praise to  the 101st Airborne who took a major risk to fly in and get us out of a very bad situation during a Vietnam tour.

That in itself is a very long story but the 101st was the only unit ready, willing, and able  to pull us out when we were about to get over-run by a sizeable force of 'bad guys'.

As a result of that rescue operation I was responsible for hosting a party as a show of appreciation and in their honor.

It ended hours  later when a battle erupted a few miles nort

And that's when the fun began with enough stuff happening to fill a book or make a damn fine movie.

Will write more about it if this Muscle Beach Topic fails to 'function'.

[The Ugly]

SCOTT, M B, and JPM , Thanks for your USN SeAL comments.

ANd while we're at it I gotta offer lots of praise to  the 101st Airborne who took a major risk to fly in and get us out of a very bad situation during a Vietnam tour.

That in itself is a very long story but the 101st was the only unit ready, willing, and able  to pull us out when we were about to get over-run by a sizeable force of 'bad guys'.

As a result of that rescue operation I was responsible for hosting a party as a show of appreciation and in their honor.

It ended hours  later when a battle erupted a few miles nort

And that's when the fun began with enough stuff happening to fill a book or make a damn fine movie.

Will write more about it if this Muscle Beach Topic fails to 'function'.

Much respect for serving, Stunt, I didn't know. Please, more Nam stories whenever.

[The Ugly]

We will see this movie. Saw the author interviewed on FOX.

Marcus Luttrell, one intense dude.

[The Scott]

With the lovely Debbie Reynolds from the film, "Athena".

[stuntmovie]

SCOTT, If I recall right, Steve is eating part of the orchid that the leading character had just given her, but I don't think orchid eating (or  something equivelant) caught on among the hard core body builders until a few years later.

ATHENA was released in 1954 and supplements of any type or in any form were just about non-existent back then.

The few shelves in what eventually evolved into what is now known as a 'health food store' were mainly stocked with 'stuff' which catered to the gereatric set to releive constipation and/or settle upset stomachs

But you could also purchase the 'necessities' such as wheat germ oil, very bad tasting cottage cheese, plain yogurt, and small protein wafers that tasted somewhat like wet grass and dry hay with a hint of alfalfa - the original product of Gypsy Boots who could throw a football a mile and a half (not  quite  ....  but almost).

A 'doctor' by the name of Paul Bragg had numerous 'remedies' and bottles of stuff on the shelf but it wasn't until a few years later that products from Hoffman and Weider and just a handful of others came on the scene and built the supplement industry into what we see today.

Those individuals and companies who endured over the years eventually made many millions in the process even though some of what was on those shelves, and in those bottles, and in those cans was of little nutrition value.

Many referred to those ealry day 'pioneers' as the Snake Oil Salesmen of the modern world.

Back then no one would ever believe what the future held for two 'things' that we presently  take for granted  .... the success of the supplement industry and today's workforce now known as the Personal Trainers brigade.

SCOTT, Every few months DEBBIE REYNOLDS does a one or two night show in the very small theater located in the South Point Hotel Casino in Las Vegas.

She is still a great entertainer and her act recalls the history of her MGM movie career with stills and movie clips in the background.

It's worth a ticket if you are an old musical movie fan.

[Mr. MB]

Gypsy was a fun guy. I use to have lunch with him from time to time in Pasadena at a little healthfood store with a lunch counter. Down on his luck at the time my WO partner Harry Pearl ran the lunch counter.

For those who never heard of Gypsy the attached will bring you up to date. Also while the Raiders were in L.A. Gypsy ran up and down the field leading impromtu cheers.

[The Scott]

Stunt, I am a big fan of musicals with my favorites being such classics as Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Oklahoma! and Brigadoon.  I've found that musicals based upon a "book" seem to be the most engaging.

I have not been to Vegas in ten or so years...I need to go see Miss Reynolds show.  I also would like to take in a Barry Manilow concert and perhaps Bette Midler as well.  I have no talent but appreciate those who do and display it with class.  Missed seeing Sinatra in San Diego in the 80s but was fortunate enough to attend a concert by another personal favorite, Johnny Mathis.

[funk51]

  a couple more screenshots from athena. and on the subject of health foods and the like did the mighty atom ever make his way to your neck of the woods. he travelled with carnivals and did his strongman act and sold  special soap and other elixirs? he is little guy in bottom pic.

[The Scott]

Reeves and Ross.

[stuntmovie]

SCOTT, FUNK, WES, MB, UGLT, JMB, and all other contributors to this thread ... Your help is requested.

Back in the late 1950's or  early 1960's, I joined AMERICAN HEALTH STUDIOS which was a new gym in the San Francisco Bay Area that was either owned or managed (or possibly both) by some of the old time bodybuilders back then.

My memory seems to recall that Steve Reeves was involved in some capacity (that story told earlier) but that business only remained in business for a very short time.

Does anyone have any information regarding American Health Studios, who was behind it, how long it stayed in business, etc., etc.?

Thanks!

[funk51]

from all my readings on reeves he only owned a gym in miami florida for a short time, and was doing PR for american health studios in 1957 when he was first contracted for the  first hercules film.

[funk51]

this is just a guess but could it have been one of the other big names of the day, clancy ross, jack delinger, or george eiferman?

[stuntmovie]

FUNK, Regarding the owners, I think you are precise;ly correct but a friend of Steve's just sent me a link to more info on that subject with regards to Reeves and AHSn ... which I have yet to have a chance to read, but plan to do so late this  afternoon.

But as I said in an earlier post .... Steve did show up at one of the AHS guyn on Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco and watched me do some heavy benching at a bodywt of about 180 lbs.

I forget the amount of wt I was benching back then but it was enough to impress him and others.

More to follow after I read the link I just received.

[stuntmovie]

FUNK, How did you make such an accurate guess?

But I don't recall if George Eifferman was involved back then.

[funk51]

FUNK, How did you make such an accurate guess?

But I don't recall if George Eifferman was involved back then.

i just figured the main guys in the area and who usually showed up in pics with reeves, or had a connection to ed yarick's gym.

[wes]

SCOTT, FUNK, WES, MB, UGLT, JMB, and all other contributors to this thread ... Your help is requested.

Back in the late 1950's or  early 1960's, I joined AMERICAN HEALTH STUDIOS which was a new gym in the San Francisco Bay Area that was either owned or managed (or possibly both) by some of the old time bodybuilders back then.

My memory seems to recall that Steve Reeves was involved in some capacity (that story told earlier) but that business only remained in business for a very short time.

Does anyone have any information regarding American Health Studios, who was behind it, how long it stayed in business, etc., etc.?

Thanks!

Sorry stunt,I`m clueless.

Great thread by the way! 

[stuntmovie]

OK, WES!! I'll do some inverti-ma-ga-tions and see what I can come up with, but most of the characters and the  UN-usual suspects have long departed into happier hunting grounds or 'haunting-grounds' in some cases.

I think I told my Jack Dellinger story a while back but for you guys not born at that time ... here it goes again ..

I was once asked to help set up a large gym chain and since I know just about everyone on this here planet, I set out to accomplish this mission in the cheapest way posssible.

My first stop was a foundry in the WATTS area (Bell Foundry which may still be there) .

Bell Foundry made olympic plates and olympic bars which no Olympic Lifter ever lifted because the 45's would actually weigh anywhere from 38 to 48 pounds. ANd those plates were the most 'accurate' of them all.

ANn the bars appeared to bend in the middle.

So anyone attempting to  press a 135 pound bent bar overhead usually ended up leaning or falling to one side or another, thereby simply refusing to take a second attempt at a higher weight.

But this new gym didn't give a damn because the price per pound was unbeatable by the likes of York and all those others I've long forgotten.

So I'd purchase a a ton or so of those plates which most likely only weighed 1,700 pounds and get them shipped off toe  this half assed gym that is no longer in existence, but those weights are still in various gyms throughout the world.

ANd then I'd head in a northerly direction towards Oakland, California to buy a couple of those Universal type sets that would offer about 6 to 8 'stations' ,.... except they were not of the same quality as the real Universal gear and therefore were a hell of a lot cheaper.

And the 'boss' was none other than Jack Dillinger with a full leg cast on his leg (where else would it be?) sitting on a bar-stool taking my order while telling me how his leg got broke.

It took him a while to explain but the short version is that  he fell off a bar stool in a bar that sold alcohol ... the story of which he himself thought was pretty funny.

And as far as I can recall, that was the extent of that meeting except for the usual banter of who's alive and still lifting heavy things.

And then I drove down to the M-L-O 'factory'.

How any of youse guys or gals ever used Muscle-On?    (WES / MB , Name the originator or founder of that company!)   I'd not be surprised if FUNK came up with it.

Sorry about this uninteresting bit of history but once a name is mentioned on this board that I had the 'honor'  of associating with (even if it was only for a minute or two or simply an attempt to cause some harm (very rare) for some very stupid reason), I sorta gotta mention it with the hope that someone will learn something that could be important one day .... such as checking both ends of the olympic set before attempting a world record clean and jerk.

Those plates are still out there somewhere!

WES! FUNK is doing a damn good job coming up with some decent answers.

He are smart!

[stuntmovie]

JPM, You mentioned CORONADO.

Is that Mexican restaurant right over the bridge still a USMC hangout?

Back in my day we'd stop in there on our way back to Pendleton after a day in Tiajuana and have a few too many top shelf Margaritas which they were very famous for.

Back then 'DON'T DRINK WHILE DRIVING' was not too famous and I often wonder how we managed to get through the front gate without knocking the guard shack over.

I can recall watching the world's most sickening car wreck movies which we had to sit through for a couple of hours before the liberty bell sounded allowing us off base to do our best to stay out of trouble

That was the extent of the 'Don't drink while driving' campaign back then.

So most good Marines would get hit while crossing heavy traffic while the light was red instead of while sitting behind a steering wheel.

I've seen that happen more than once.

We had a lot of good times on Coronado. .... Drinking as well as driving and other sociable activities.