Interesting tidbits -
1) Sold Golds for 44 million.
2) Connors fought for 21 months during the Vietnam War.
3) Got into fitness because he was a tubby kid.
4) His money for Golds came by selling 20th Century Fox stock. He bought the stock after being a fan of Star Wars.
5) Initially they were helped by "Hart to Hart" deciding to film there. They moved equipment, paid them $65,000 to film, left them with a bunch of wood plates to use in photo shoots.
6) Received almost $2 million in free equipment over the years.
7) The Golds Gym colors were inspired by the 3rd Reich and McDonalds.
Connors likes um big. David Dearth was the only small guy he liked and would support.
9) He really like Nick Trigili, Others he likes - Newman, Francois. All had what he considered star power.
10) Also like Brad Rowe, Joel Thomas, Seth Feroce, Jeff Long, Evan Centopani, Brian Yersky, McCarver, Caleb Blanchard.
11) Almost all the money now is made in entry fees for contests and pro dues. That's why you see so many classes. Connors doesn't like it.
12) Weider collected Fredric Remington Bronzes.
13) Loves Euro bodybuilders, but fears they are hurt by not learning English, he name checks Savolainen, and a bunch of central and eastern euros.
14) Flex Lewis will probably be his last house guest.
15) He tried to get Von Moger into the WWF. Claims he helped Daniel Puder, Chris Mordetzky (“The Masterpiece”), Rob Terry, Kurt Angle, Sting, The Ultimate Warrior, and John Cena get into the WWF. Also Billy Smith, Mike O’Hearn, Steve Henneberry, Raye Hollitt, and Scott Milne with Hollywood projects.
16) House guest name check - "I am particularly impressed by the success of my houseguests who helped transform America’s over-the-counter supplement industry: Rich Gaspari of Gaspari Nutrition, Gerard Dente with MuscleMeds/MHP, Chris Cook of Unique drinks, Jeramy Freeman of Freeman Formula, Rich Piana of 5% Nutrition, Dave Palumbo with Species, Sean Greene of Max Muscle, Jeff Long with Like A Pro Supplements, Neal Spruce with Apex and dotFIT, along with Jay Cutler, Ben Pakulski, Flex Lewis, Brad Baker, Dave Enders, and Dan Freeman."
17) Has had 528 Houseguests (Posters note - Big Schmolute on that one Ed).
18) Ed will slide into your DMs - “I didn’t discover Flex Lewis; I just opened the door in 2004 when I met him online and invited him to America, the land of dreams and dreamers. So happy for his success!”
"I had seen a photo of Flex on the cover of a British bodybuilding magazine in the Gold’s Gym “library” and contacted Flex online. Despite all the technology and information available online — or maybe because of it — Flex was skeptical about the invitation to come to America to pursue his dreams. But I was persistent. After three months of back-and-forth messaging, Flex agreed to come over."
19) Thought Grant Henderson looked like a young Steve Reeves. Ed slid into his faxes with this - “Bulawayo, Zimbabwe sounds to me like some sort of jungle paradise. You would seem to be leaving a lot. Venice, CA is not for everyone; but perhaps for you, it could be where you reach your full potential.”
Grant and Paul Demayo would be roomies with Ed.
20) Christian Boeving worked as a bodyguard for Justin Bieber. He was fired for not sneaking Bieber's pet monkey in a foreign country.
21) Gunnar Rasbo drank all Ed's liquor, Gunnar by his account was a drunk. Ed would cook him Crock Pot chicken breasts and soups, but that proved too time consuming, so he just took him, and all his subsequent house guests out for meals.
22) Ed loves to measure - Jeff Long's thighs were 34" and Ed was Rich Piana's official taper. He also liked taping Centopani.
23) Ed tried to talk the WWF into buying Gold's Gym in 1985, instead Vince bought the World Football League.
24) Ed had most of the WBF line up as live in house guests at one point in time.
25) Matt Mendenhall died of a painkiller overdose according to Ed.
26) Gold's Gym wanted it's own wrestling team in the WWF at one point. The stars were going to be Ultimate Warrior and Sting, both stayed with Ed for a while. Sting was a Gold's Gym manager before wrestling. The Steiner brothers were two other wrestlers they tried to interest. By Ed's account they were good fighters too, having watched them beat up a bunch of guys who called wrestling fake.
Ultimate Warrior like raw egg, tuna, and orange juice shakes. The Ultimate Warrior makeup apparently fucked up his face after a while too.
27) Ed would shoot Grymko up sometimes, Ed asked him if he should take it easy, Grymko told him - “There’s only one thing you need to know: I would rather be dead than small.”
28) Jim Quinn story -
"Another time, at a fast-food restaurant, probably a Carl’s Jr. with its charbroiled chicken sandwich, baked potato, and salad (something Gold’s Gym got them to offer for a while in Southern California), an obese father told his very young son, who was infatuated with Jim’s physique, that all that muscle eventually turns to fat. Jimmy — all 285 pounds of him — got up, went over to the table, and said, “Well then, you must have been Mr. Olympia since it looks like your chest is now around your waist. But since you’re not Black, I don’t think so.” (This was during the era when Lee Haney was winning the Mr. O year after year — and indeed, his chest was his best body part.)
If the person were both obese and smoking, then they would get a double whammy from Jim when he would say, “You can’t be both fat and smoke; so, since you can’t drop fifty pounds that quick, then maybe you should put out that cigarette.” "
29) McCarver story -
"In 2012, when I asked pro bodybuilder Dallas McCarver, one of my last visitors, what motivated him to start lifting weights and get big, Dallas said it was to protect himself and his mother from his alcoholic father. After over forty years around bodybuilders, nothing had changed. That answer was all too common."
30) Ed on Synthol -
"I think synthol may be responsible for the death of at least nine former houseguests; Nasser El Sonbaty is perhaps the most well-known. Why they thought twenty-two-inch biceps weren’t big enough and had to inject something in them to get to twenty-three inches is beyond my comprehension, especially when it’s so obvious — and ugly. A lot of the guys suffer from “bigorexia.” They look in a mirror and see a small guy, not what the public sees."
31) Steve Krader and German bodybuilder Markus Mueller were killed because of drug dealing says Connors.
32) Ed sees Depressant type drugs as a big trouble in bodybuilding too.
33) Albrecht and Matarazzo were longtime house guests of Connors.
34) Roland Kicklinger owns a few supplement shops to help his income.
35) Craig Titus and Connors -
"Craig’s last letter from Lompoc, dated February 16, 1999, was full of optimism and hope:
“Dear Ed, Hey bud!! I can’t even sleep because my mind is going a smile a minute. I’m ready to get MASSIVE!! See you in a few days, Craig.”
Craig and I made plans to resurrect his career when he got out. Craig even asked me not to have any other houseguests while he was there so he could concentrate on a new start. But after leaving prison and returning to LA, I saw Craig for all of fifteen minutes before he left for Las Vegas.
Ten years later, in August 2009, I received this letter from Craig, who was now in jail in Nevada for murder:
“I’m hoping you’ll forgive me for being such an awful friend over the years after being released from Lompoc. I’ve had the last four years of my life to truly reflect on my errors in life and the regrets I have to live with. I’m not sure why I didn’t keep my family and friends close to me while I was rebuilding my life back in 1999 but it tears at the depths of my soul in the fact that I was a terribly selfish and self centered person. Ed, for that I am truly sorry. But I will tell you that I did not commit murder or kidnapping.”
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Ed believes Titus was covering for Kelly, but Titus did have a violent streak, with Ed kicking him out of Gold's three different times for fighting. He thinks Craig would've been more violent than to use a Taser. Titus also had a bad rep for fucking anything that moved and would get free memberships for his fuck buddies.
36) Lou Zwick had a bad rep for conning guys into coming to Venice for his Shows, etc... then not paying them according to Connors.
37) Lee Priest was thought about for the part of Bane in "Batman and Robin", but was considered too short next to Uma Thurman. Lee also claimed not to use GH during his time with Ed, and spent around $300 on average for his stacks.
38) Flex Wheeler and Lee didn't like each other, so Lee moved to World Gym.
39) Ed mentions a surprising number of his house guests's families had gay mothers or fathers.
40) Joe Gold left Lee his two dogs.
41) Flex Wheeler was part owner of an duplex building with Ed. Ed tried to help him not be so fast with his money.
42) Ed admits to having a God Complex when trying to help these guys. Ed is also a bit snippy at being seen as a schmoe and the schmoe guest relationship because it mentally hurts the guys.
43) Demayo was hot shot according to Connors - "His training partner died one day after he did. They owed the dealer around $18,000, and he was making an example of them by giving them a lethal batch. I tried to get one of the Boston papers interested in the story since it was essentially murder but had no luck."
44) Ed Connors and the Evils that lurk in Schmodom -
"There was another, darker reason I avoided publicity: My houseguests might be targeted by men and women who could harm them. Granted, given their size, it is hard to imagine that anyone could make them do something they didn’t want to do. There was a time when I shut down my Facebook account because several women were preying on the younger friends they saw on my page. I call one of them the “Black Widow” because she would mate with her prey and effectively kill them — either their careers or cause them to contemplate suicide. Fortunately, I believe none of them went that far, but a couple came close. She would fly the guys to San Francisco, secretly videotape having sex with them, and then try to blackmail them.
As far as I know, she wasn’t after money. She wanted to play with them, to ruin their lives. She destroyed a couple of budding careers. She even messed with Rich Piana when he was in his forties. Somehow she had wormed herself into Rich’s life enough to go with him to Germany to work his 5% Nutrition booth at FIBO, the biggest fitness trade show of its kind, held yearly in Cologne and attended by nearly 200,000 people. When I saw her there, I was shocked but didn’t want to say or do anything. It was only after Rich told me he had tied her up in his hotel room and left her there while he returned to the States that I told him the history my houseguests had with her. With Rich, she had tried to steal a lot of money while working his booth, so it was primarily financial with him, although he was initially drawn to her romantically. She died in a head-on car crash in 2021."
45) 56 of his house guests have died to his knowledge, mostly from vehicle accidents. 3 were murderers, and 2 were murdered.
46) Funny Cutler story -
"Jay was from Massachusetts and had won the local Gold’s Gym Classic bodybuilding contest. He had come out to Venice because the local newspaper had misprinted an ad for air travel, and the airline chose to honor the low fare."
47) He likes Cutler. Thought Jay was a smart kid.
48) Gunther and wife stayed with Connors. Joe Weider tried to sign Gunter for $30,000. Connors got him double that.
49) Gunter had a lot of drive. Sometimes he'd take multiple buses to get to a gig.
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49 tidbits, 50% of the book down.
