NEVER AND ROYALTY, I found your comments regarding “old timers’ stories from the early days of bodybuilding” to be of interest and I want to add a few comments of my own which may pertain a bit and hopefully be of interest.
First of all …. You have got to realize that until recently there was only one overall winner in a sanctioned bodybuilding contest.
SO that means that one of the contenders was HAPPY with he judges’ decision while all the other contenders were "disgrunteled".
Most of these unhappy contenders accepted the judges' decision and simply made plans to improve and do better next time.
But others made unsubstantiated claims such as, “It was political!” or “He/she is a ‘friend’ of the judging panel!”.
I have never heard a winner complain but many of those who placed lower than they desired complained loudly and in vast numbers.
Some of those who don’t do well are easy ‘marks’ for competitive sanctioning bodies whose promoters added fuel to the fire by making questionable accusations in agreement with the unhappy group.
So some of the stuff you hear and often read about on boards such as this are lies or or embellished departures from the facts.
And stories that ‘bury Caesar but do not praise him ‘ seem to be of much greater interest to the general public than the truth.
SO … expect to hear a lot of unsubstantiated bullshit when it comes time to discuss the facts behind competitive building and its history since the early 1900’s.
I was there and deeply involved for the majority of that time frame and bullshit seems to have become a major ‘player’ among those who "know NOT of what they speak!”
And most of those 'know-nots' are just plain haters or simply jealous a little bit or enjoy hearing 'twisted' stories about others and repeating them to others with no fear of reprisal.
And the majority of these gossip innuendos are simply bullshit while others are simply embellishments of the truth.
Getting off topic so I'll end this now,
