Let's Go To The Mr. America Contest
by Peary Rader
THOSE of us privileged to see the Mr. America Contest of 1955 at the Masonic Auditorium in Cleveland, June 4th and 5th realized that we were seeing one of the toughest competitions ever held in America because the top ten or twelve men were men of marvelous physique. Everyone of them would have been a credit to the "Mr. America" title. Our great regret was that each one of them could not share in the title, for we, personally thought there was but little to choose between them physically.
Forty-seven men were entered in this contest and all of them participated in the Mr. America and the sub-divisions. But let us begin a bit farther back. Your Editor and his wife arrived in Cleveland the afternoon of the 3rd of June after spending a week in Chicago attending the International convention of Rotary. We checked in at the Hollenden Hotel where most of the lifters and physique men were staying, and soon found ourselves meeting old friends and making new ones. As always in the past, we usually remained up until the wee small hours of the morning talking about weightlifters, bodybuilders and kindred subjects. The next day at 12 noon the members of the National AAU Weightlifting Committee and contest officials met at the Auditorium for a discussion of the Mr America contest. It was agreed that we must either change the title of the Mr. America contest to something like "America's Best Built Man" or make the requirements for a Mr. America winner more inclusive of other qualities so that he would be truly representative of Ideal American Manhood the title indicates. It was decided that the A.A.U. would gradually adopt suggestions made by your editor at the National A.A.U. convention last year regarding many features of the Mr.America event.
Since little preparation had been made for the changeover this year the operation of the system was undoubtedly rather crude. As yet no system has been worked out by which the judges can be guided. It was decided that this year we should start giving consideration to character insofar as it is possible to judge it on such short acquaintance for a Mr. America should be a man of good character. I will have much more to say about this in a future article in which I will detail the recommendations made to the A.A.U. and further suggestions for the functioning of the system. We also decided that personality, education and athletic ability should be considered. Another factor of major importance was pre-judging, which was instituted in a rather informal way this year.
As soon as the A.A.U. session was over the Mr. America contestants were told to get into their posing trunks for the pre-judging session. This was held on the stage of the theatre. The judges sat at a table and each contestant was called before them and was asked questions about his past, birth place and date, past athletic activities, education, and his plans for the future, as well as his present occupation. Before this the judges had mixed with the contestants, getting acquainted with them and looking them over. All this was done under normal lighting. Altogether this probably took about two hours. No voting was done at this time though we will probably do this voting in future contests at this time for it gives more time for the judges to do an accurate job than is allowed during the hurry of a public presentation. Even though the judges may have decided on their men, it still has to be worked out on a point system and this takes time and shouldn't be done at the show itself.
The first evening was given over to the selection of the Sub-divisions. This was a most difficult task. In the "Best Arms" division we had some very Close selections. Van Fleteren has some terrific arms of great size, fine shape and good definition. Schafer has some wonderful arms, and the arms of Art Harris are very outstanding, with most amazing definition. It almost seems this man may have more definition than George Paine. The arms of Seipke are very good as are those of Ross, Silipini, Nelson, Bohaty, Lacy and several others. The outstanding size, shape and muscularity of the arms of Harris finally won this title for him. Art is an Army physical training instructor. He weighed 136 when he was 18, but now weighs around 190. He is a good all round athlete. Art is only 21 so will improve a lot more. I expected him to place much higher in the Mr. America contest.
We had a lot of wonderful chests in the contest and it is very hard to choose between any of them except one and this one was Tony Silipini of Rochester. He probably has the finest chest of any Best Chest winner in any Mr. America contest. It is large, has ideal shape and is ideally developed. Photos will show you what we mean. Tony is a draftsman, 23 years old, and plans to go into lifting. He weighed 205 but usually weighs 245.
Don Van Fleteren, who tied with Seipke, is a big man with huge measurements, fine definition, and one of the finest backs I've ever seen. He is very impressive. He started training at 17 and weighed 155. He now weighs about 220, with an arm of about 18½, 50 chest, 26 thigh and 33 waist. He likes lifting and totals well over 900 and probably could become a top lifter of the world if he trained seriously. He has won many physique titles and was 4th in Mr. America in New York City.
Vic Seipke won the best abdominals and looked better than we have ever seen him before. We don't see how he can fail to win a title one of these days, a Mr. America title, that is. Just fresh from his victory in winning the Jr. Mr. America title, he tied for third place with his fellow townsman Don Van Fleteren. Vic is 23 and likes competitive lifting. Football is one of his favorite sports at which he played halfback. He is in the Detroit Fire Department.
Raymond N. Schaefer Jr. won second place and Most Muscular. This fellow has a terrific physique with large measurements, good shape and fine definition. He is only 22 and has won the "Mr. Heart of America" title. His upper thighs are a little too full on the inside for his lower thigh, and he should not develop his pectorals any more. A little more shaping up and he will be hard for anyone to beat in a physique contest. He has been training for 9 years and is a boiler maker by trade. Incidentally, we have gotten ahead of ourselves a bit, for the Most Muscular man was selected the second night.
The best back winner and best legs winner, Ronald Lacy was new to most of us. Rather short, very bulky, good definition and a very well proportioned physique. He has been training five years, likes lifting and has made a 750 total. He is 5' 8½" tall and weighs 185. He reminds us a little bit of Jack Dellinger. Strange as it may seem, though he won best legs, he tells us he has never done any leg specialization. He always had naturally good legs and his general training program brought them up without any special work. He was fortunate to win the best back for there were some men there with really terrific back development. For that matter there were some very good legs there, so you can judge that he was pretty good.
This concluded the first night's physique contest and everyone left after greeting friends and gathering as usual, in little groups discussing events. Finally the stage manager and building superintendents had to almost drag everyone out by the feet so they could close up, and so the fans left in groups for something to eat and to talk things over into the wee small hours of the morning. We met a famous old timer that evening, namely Ottley Coulter, who used to be a famous strong man about 30 years ago. Also had dinner with the champion girl lifter, Edith Roeder, and her husband. The following evening did not require so much time and the lifting was run off in a short while. As stated before, however, I believe a mistake was made in not doing the voting in the afternoon, which could very well have been done, for considerable time was consumed in voting and counting the points for each man, while the audience and contestants alike had to wait with nothing to do.
The first problem was that the judges had to be located at the side of the stage so that the contestant had to pose to the audience and then to the judges. The lighting was much better than on the previous evening and this helped a lot.
All the men were brought on the stage and there were so many that this had to be done in two groups. Then they were again brought on to pose individually. They were allowed about 30 seconds for this posing. Then the judges selected the 10 best men for finalists -- at least they tried to, but there were so many good men that they finally ended up with 12 men. These men were as follows: Don Van Fleteren, Ronald Lacy, Gene Bohaty, Ray Schafer, Dennis Nelson, Harry Johnson, Steve Klisanin, Art Harris, Vic Seipke, Mickey Hargitay, Jerry Ross, Ed Garza and Tony Silipini. These men appeared to be in the best shape of their life and all looked terrific. Every one of them was good enough to be a Mr. America. In fact many of the others who were eliminated were just about as good and it was a very unpleasant task to have to select just 12 "best" men.
We have told you something about most of these fellows, but a few words about the others may be interesting. Dennis Nelson was probably the tallest man in the contest, being 6'4" and weighing 230 Ibs. He is a TV repairman, was born in New York City but is now living in California, is married and has one child. He is a very handsome man, very well proportioned, and if he had a little more bulk and a little more definition he would be hard to beat.
Most of you know all about Gene Bohaty. He has been competing for a long time, and last year placed second with his wonderful physique. I thought he would place higher this year, for he looked good. Gene is well educated, is a chemical engineer and has written some books on cosmology, strictly scientific works. He is 36 years old and is a very good lifter, having won several lifting titles, and usually makes around an 850 total. Gene has won many physique titles including the Jr. Mr. America.
Harry Johnson, who always looks very good, though not as bulky as some of the boys, has great definition and fine proportions. He is well liked by everyone. He is 26 years old and a college graduate, was a fine athlete in college and started training in 1941. He is about 5'8" tall and weighs 180. Harry is married and has three nice little girls. He won the Jr. Mr. America title last year and has won many other physique titles.
Most of you know all about Mickey Hargitay. He has been trying to win a title for many years, and immediately after this show he went to England, where he won the amateur Mr. Universe title. He is a building contractor by trade, but has recently been appearing as leading man with the Mae West Show. He came from Budapest, Hungary a few years ago. He was Middle Europe Speed Skating Champion over there. He also played soccer football, at the time weighing 170, but he now weighs 218 at a height of 6'1½". We will have a story on MicKey soon. Incidentally Mickey finished high school in the USA, and speaks four languages.
Jerry Ross, who recently won the Mr. California title among many others, is a finely built young fellow who works in the movies, and has ambitions towards a movie career. He also is a lifter and has made some fine lifts such as 230 press and snatch and near 300 clean and jerk. Many expected Jerry to win but he is young and has quite a few years ahead of him.
Ed Garza from Detroit, who ,has won several physique titles, looked better this year than ever before. Ed is a very bulky fellow with wide shoulders and a huge chest and very fine legs. He has a fine, broad back. He does not have the definition that some of the others have, but has a very shapely physique. He looks rugged and powerful. Some of these days he will start winning.
That gives you a brief lineup of the men from whom the judges had to pick one man whom they thought would best represent Ideal American manhood and wear the crown of Mr. America. One of the judges told me that he felt it was an almost impossible task to pick a winner in that group.
A winner was finally chosen, however, in the person of Steve Klisanin. Second place was won by Raymond Schafer, who also won Most Muscular, which was voted on at the same time. Third place was a tie, with Vic Seipke and Don Van Fleteren sharing the honors. There was some talk of the judges voting the tie off on these two men, but so far as I know this was not done. and I don't believe it should be. If the men tied they should share the honor. This gave fourth place to Harry Johnson and fifth to Mickey Hargitay, while 6th went to Jerry Ross and 7th to Art Harris. Gene Bohaty was 8th and Lacy 9th. Silipini was 10th, Nelson 11th and Garza 12th. Incidentally, there was just a little over 6 points difference between the 3rd place men and the 12th place man so you can see how close the contest was.
Here is how the sub-divisions went: Best Arms: Art Harris, first; Don Van Fleteren second and Ray Schaefer third. Best Legs: Ron Lacy, Ed Garza and Steve Klisanin in that order. Best Back: Lacy. Schaefer and Harris. Best Abdominals: Seipke, Johnson and Ross. Best Chest: Silipini, Schaefer and Lacy.
