SCOTT, You are absolutely correct. I didn't think anyone on this board would ID Bill McArdle correctly.
And good call on Weider who was way too young for most GetBiggers to ID correctly.
They are each deceased now but each played a big part within the world of bodybuilding, especially within the So Cal area.
McArdle was first and passed away way too early.Then Peanuts followed by Scott and then Weider, but Scott and Weider's deaths may be out of order.
The following is 'stuff' that happened many miles from Muscle Beach so it has nothing to do with Muscle Beach, so I'll post this and more that will eventually follow as "Story-Time".
With the proper amount of respect, I'll do my best to mention each of the above individuals.
And I'll start off with McArdle whom I did not really know too well.
Bill was protege of Larry Scott's and Larry was training Bill for one the mid-960's Mr. California Contest. (One of you will recall the year!)
You experts will recognize that this was an AAU sanction event deus to the fact that the used the term "Mr." for its major contests. (A way too long story there!).
So Larry was training Bill for this major California bodybuilding title and Bill was favored and expected to win among the relatively few who knew that such an event even existed back then.
But a few hundred miles north of Los Anglees there was a small gym that event by the name of Moonlight Health Club (or something like that) and one of its members was an unknown bodybuilder by the name of John Corvello.
So John shows up one sunny and smoggy weekend in the Los Angeles downtown area's Embassy Auditorium (a part of the Embassy Hotel which is most likely now demolished) ready, willing, and able to compete in this mid 1960's AAU Bodybuilding Contest with a strong desire to take that AAU Mr California title back home up north a few miles south of the city of San Francisco.
These were the days when bodybuilding contests and bodybuilders and bodybuilding itself were relatively unknown to the vast majority of everyone on this planet .... so this event was only of interest to gym members from Gold's, Pearls, and only a few from Vince's. plus a handful of others from other lesser known joints of sweat and iron in the So Cal area.
And maybe even a couple of guys from Stern's in San Diego.
So most of these muscleheadz knew that Bill was gonna win it but these musleheadz would prove themselves to be mistaken that day because this kid from up north hit that stage and muscleheadz forsaw a battle in the making.
A battle between Bill and John while the other combatants remained silently in the background.
It took a while but the judges finally stood and the whole audience did the same arguing about the final outcome while heading out into the smoggy sunshine which is so popular in the downtown LA area.
And to cut to the chase .... that night John Corvello won the right to take that title back to Northern California a few miles south of Dan Francisco.
And Bill?
Bill appeared to be a gentleman and accepted that second place award.
And Larry shook the hands of both ....
And bodybuulding history continued to grow beyond anyone's expectations.
But Bill never had the opportunity to see how popular it became ....
He passed away shortly after.
Way too young to pass away.
(One down ... three to go.)
