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Getbig Bodybuilding Boards => History - Stories - and Memories => Topic started by: Slik on October 27, 2015, 07:43:39 PM
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Of Howard's gym. Chiropractor too.
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dan howard was an actor also, he can be seen in 4 movies,the biggest one was the eiger sanction[1975] with clint eastwood....he also was a gym owner and i think he franchised gyms also....he might have been an equipment manufacturer too...not 100 percent on that though.
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Dan Howard made most of the equipment for the first world gym even though joe gold got the credit for it.
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there's an article on dan howard in this mag...
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Dan Howard came out to play in the Rose Bowl in the 60's where he met Joe Gold while working out at Gold's Gym. Dan later managed the original Gold's Gym during the filming of the movie "Pumping Iron" on Pacific in Venice California. (After Joe had sold Gold's Gym and gone out to sea.)
Dan later helped Joe Gold build equipment for Joe's original World Gym located at 2210 Main St. in Santa Monica, California. There is a picture on the internet showing Joe and Dan at the side of Joe's shop, that Joe had build next to his house in Venice. (This is were I first met Dan. The picture shows Dan and Joe and in the foreground creating the 45 degree leg press.)
Dan later moved to Orange County, and started Howard's World Gym located in Fountain Valley, California. Dan also built a line of gym equipment behind his gym called "Howard's Gym equipment". Boyer Coe also worked out of Dan's gym and helped with starting up the Body Master line of equipment.
Dan later went on to form one of the Cowboy shooting Assoc., and went by the name "Doc Bones". Dan also liked bench rest shooting, and built his own guns.
Dan was a true craftsman, and was never giving credit for some of the equipment he helped to create. He was a master of metal fabrication, and helped to teach Joe some of the finer points of welding, which Joe later passed on to me. Dan was also skilled in leather work creating saddles for his horses and his wife Linda on their ranch in Riverside California.
Dan and I drove out to Venice in my truck where someone name Bruce who owned several Gold's Gyms back east coast filmed Dan for a documentary on Gold's Gym. He also set a camera man out to Dan's ranch to film him working on a standing preacher bench. I hope someday the documentary will come out, because Dan was a good friend to many, but little is known about him if you look him up online.
I would like to thank all at Getbig for allowing me to share what I know about Dan - Sunday
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Dan Howard came out to play in the Rose Bowl in the 60's where he met Joe Gold while working out at Gold's Gym. Dan later managed the original Gold's Gym during the filming of the movie "Pumping Iron" on Pacific in Venice California. (After Joe had sold Gold's Gym and gone out to sea.)
Dan later helped Joe Gold build equipment for Joe's original World Gym located at 2210 Main St. in Santa Monica, California. There is a picture on the internet showing Joe and Dan at the side of Joe's shop, that Joe had build next to his house in Venice. (This is were I first met Dan. The picture shows Dan and Joe and in the foreground creating the 45 degree leg press.)
Dan later moved to Orange County, and started Howard's World Gym located in Fountain Valley, California. Dan also built a line of gym equipment behind his gym called "Howard's Gym equipment". Boyer Coe also worked out of Dan's gym and helped with starting up the Body Master line of equipment.
Dan later went on to form one of the Cowboy shooting Assoc., and went by the name "Doc Bones". Dan also liked bench rest shooting, and built his own guns.
Dan was a true craftsman, and was never giving credit for some of the equipment he helped to create. He was a master of metal fabrication, and helped to teach Joe some of the finer points of welding, which Joe later passed on to me. Dan was also skilled in leather work creating saddles for his horses and his wife Linda on their ranch in Riverside California.
Dan and I drove out to Venice in my truck where someone name Bruce who owned several Gold's Gyms back east coast filmed Dan for a documentary on Gold's Gym. He also set a camera man out to Dan's ranch to film him working on a standing preacher bench. I hope someday the documentary will come out, because Dan was a good friend to many, but little is known about him if you look him up online.
I would like to thank all at Getbig for allowing me to share what I know about Dan - Sunday
I’ve been preaching about Dan's genius to people for 20 years. The equipment he created was amazing for the time and many well known companies basically lifted the designs for their own lines.
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The first adjustable cams where you could change the resistance on the weights I first saw at Dan's gym in Fountain Valley. Years later they now are on all the major leg extension and leg bicep curl machines.
His first wife Linda once told me about a time when her and Dan went to a bodybuilding contest in Orange County, and a gym equipment company had already copied and was trying to sell a machine that Dan had invented and put on his gym's floor two weeks earlier. She said he started getting upset and they had to leave.
The first 45 degree leg press that I ever saw was at Joe's original World Gym around early the 1980's. Joe and Dan built it on the side of Joe's home. A year later every gym seem to have one.
You are correct that Dan never really got the credit he deserved for much of what he did. Frank Zane I remember had nothing but good things to say about Dan and what he created. He was the one that put the documentary crew in touch with Dan. Joe Gold also spoke very highly of Dan, and let Dan use his shop to build his equipment to start up his gym in Fountain Valley. Joe did it as a "thank you" for Dan helping Joe earlier when he built his first World Gym.
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The first adjustable cams where you could change the resistance on the weights I first saw at Dan's gym in Fountain Valley. Years later they now are on all the major leg extension and leg bicep curl machines.
His first wife Linda once told me about a time when her and Dan went to a bodybuilding contest in Orange County, and a gym equipment company had already copied and was trying to sell a machine that Dan had invented and put on his gym's floor two weeks earlier. She said he started getting upset and they had to leave.
The first 45 degree leg press that I ever saw was at Joe's original World Gym around early the 1980's. Joe and Dan built it on the side of Joe's home. A year later every gym seem to have one.
You are correct that Dan never really got the credit he deserved for much of what he did. Frank Zane I remember had nothing but good things to say about Dan and what he created. He was the one that put the documentary crew in touch with Dan. Joe Gold also spoke very highly of Dan, and let Dan use his shop to build his equipment to start up his gym in Fountain Valley. Joe did it as a "thank you" for Dan helping Joe earlier when he built his first World Gym.
what role did the guy who owned the Santa Monica bodybuilding center play? I think his name was George and he was European.
I know that all the equipment at Santa Monica bodybuilding center had very similar designs to Dan and World Gym and it was painted bright Orange.
I personally started playing around making strength equipment back in Australia in 1991 since my grandfather and Uncle ran a job shop, so I could get them the weld things for me. I worked at a crappy student gym for several years from age 19 and we modified many pieces slightly to improve them. The cable row pulley was too low to the ground so we raised it and people were very happy. We built a new 30 degree incline press bench to replace the old 45 degree one since it hurt people's shoulder joints. We used the old photos of golds gym #1 to design it after the 2” square version that Dan must have built around 1974/5 with the spotters platform off the back.
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The Santa Monica Bodybuilding gym had some great machines, and George had it open for general membership until he decided to close it off and turned it into a private gym. Several top name actors would train there. I believe Tom Cruise was one. (?) It's my understanding that he also closed it off, as he was concerned about people stealing his ideas.
George was a former machinist by trade and Joe Gold told me that George's equipment was first rate. A guy who worked at World's named J.J. would go over from time to time to see George, and agreed George had some great design.
As far as the angle on the 45 degree incline bench goes, Both Dan Joe Gold told me that they felt 37 degrees was perfect.
Dan also created for the original World Gym a low pulley row machine with the lower pulley mounted at 45 degrees with a pull pin to adjust the height of the pulley. The height of the pulley could be change so you could pull more with either your upper or lower back. The height of the handle you used to pull the weight stack would change, but the cable that the handle was attached to remain in the same location. It was a great idea that I have not seem since. I built one based on Dan's design, and have it at my house.
I also have a few pieces of Joe's original equipment that I received from Charlie who lived next door to Joe, as well as some items Joe personnel gave to me. I'm hoping to get them in some museums someday. The Stark Museum in Austin Texas had showed some interest. (Terry Todd's wife Jan oversees it. Should come up if you Goggle it.)
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Dan and Linda Howard at Joe Gold's memorial in 2004.
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Sunday, did you build the vertical leg press at the second World gym? If I recall correctly it was painted blue and had a name plate on it that said Sunday Murray on it. Great piece
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Yes. It was based on the leg press at Joe's first World Gym at 2210 Main St. in Santa Monica. The only difference was I used linear bushing that Joe had received for me from Body Master. Joe had incorporated several designs into the one he built that were novel. Prior to his design, the leg presses that you laid under would have a flat pad you laid on, and the pad you pushed up on with your legs was also flat. It killed your back when you went all the way down to the stop. Joe angled both the top and bottom pads to take the pressure off your back. (10 degrees ?) He also made it so the weights were loaded on the sides, instead of directly overhead. Prior to that the weights were always loaded directly overhead, and it was dangerous when someone was doing super sets. Often they would have their workout partner taking weights on and off while they were directly underneath. (This was prior to Dan and Joe building the 45 degree leg press.) We removed my leg press when the gym was moved from 812 Main St. in Venice (second gym), to the Marina Del Rey gym due to space issues. Around that time I would help Joe and Charlie fix some of the equipment, as Joe's health was not the best at that time. Charlie is also someone who really helped out Joe.
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To give you an idea how far things have progressed, here is a picture Joe had of the leg press from the Vic Tanny gyms of the late 1950's. It's a two sided inverted leg press. Shows how Joe, Dan, and many others progressed the basic designs that had been around for some time. The early 80's into the mid 90's saw a big progression in gym equipment, due to gyms being profitable.
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Do Dan's blueprints still exist?
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Not sure. Dan was good about keeping records, while Joe kept everything in his head. (Making simple drawing on scrape paper that ended up being tossed.) I know years ago when Dan and I went up to Venice and they interviewed him, he produced a drawing for a squat machine idea he had while working for Arthur Jones. I have not seen Dan in some time. He had some health issues and my family lost contact with him.
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thank you for sharing some of your memories Sunday, looking forward to more.
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Not sure. Dan was good about keeping records, while Joe kept everything in his head. (Making simple drawing on scrape paper that ended up being tossed.) I know years ago when Dan and I went up to Venice and they interviewed him, he produced a drawing for a squat machine idea he had while working for Arthur Jones. I have not seen Dan in some time. He had some health issues and my family lost contact with him.
so have you been involved with any of the equipment manufacturers over the years? What has been your profession?
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I just helped out on Sundays up at World Gym, but was never interested, nor did I get into the business side of building equipment. I enjoyed working out and often going to Joe's shop afterwards to lend a hand. Very few people ever got to see the "shop" side of things. To me that was like someone going over to a friend's garage to work on cars. It was a hobby that I enjoyed. Joe enjoyed it as it kept his mind shape. It also took his mind off of the health issues he was facing. It was also a place where he sometimes would share stories about the past, which he also did when old friends would come to see him in the office. Being a "Fly on the Wall" was interesting. The reason I chimed in on this post was to make sure Dan was not forgotten.
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I just helped out on Sundays up at World Gym, but was never interested, nor did I get into the business side of building equipment. I enjoyed working out and often going to Joe's shop afterwards to lend a hand. Very few people ever got to see the "shop" side of things. To me that was like someone going over to a friend's garage to work on cars. It was a hobby that I enjoyed. Joe enjoyed it as it kept his mind shape. It also took his mind off of the health issues he was facing. It was also a place where he sometimes would share stories about the past, which he also did when old friends would come to see him in the office. Being a "Fly on the Wall" was interesting. The reason I chimed in on this post was to make sure Dan was not forgotten.
Yes, Dan always deserved more recognition.
Btw, I just saw a video of them tearing down the 2nd world gym location building in Venice.
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To bad, that was a great gym
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&t=31s the golden years.
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This picture was taken a few months after the first World Gym opened. The chrome Universal machine in the foreground was loaned to Joe by Harold Zinkin until Joe could make more equipment. (They sold a lot of these machines to high school and college gyms.) Joe and Harold were lifelong friends. Harold was the first Mr. California. He was in his 90's when he spoke at Joe's service.
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Here is a picture I took of Joe and Charlie in the shop Joe had in Inglewood. (Picture 2001 ?) Charlie was working for the phone company, and lived next door to Joe. When Joe's health started to decide in the early 80's, he hired Charlie as a helper. Joe would want to do something one way, while Charlie wanted to do things another way. This lead to some interesting conversations. Someone asked Dan Howard if Joe and Charlie were related? Dan asked why? The guy said "I would never talk to anyone that way unless I was related to them." Charlie was a great guy, and helped out a lot of people. He passed away a few years back. Anyone who was around Joe's World Gym at that time would have known Charlie.
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I remember Charlie, always wore blue jeans, a T-shirt and flip-flops to the gym. I also remember a member who would reupholster the benches for Joe, I can’t remember his name, but he taught me how to reupholster the benches and I was able to fix all the equipment at the high school that I was a teacher at, always very thankful for that.
Thank you for the insight on the incline benches that Joe and Dan designed, I always knew they felt better than any other ones I had used, but didn’t know why. Got it now, though the angle was correct.
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His name was Moss. He's the person who said "Sunday is here" when I arrived one Sunday, and Joe latched onto the nickname and it stuck.
There were a lot of people in the gym that outside the gym no one would know, but they were what made the gym so interesting. The Mad Yogie, Blunderfish, Bug Eyed Louie, Vampira, Manny the Boxer, Captain Billy, Bugsy, 911 Chris, etc...all received nicknames back in the early days from Joe. There normally was a good story behind the nicknames they received. I believe Arnold once called Dan Howard "Cowboy", however Joe never gave Dan a nickname. I believe the last nickname Joe give out towards the end of his life (he had stopped giving out nicknames)was some young guy who went up to Joe and asked him for a nickname. I saw him later and asked him what it was. He looked down and said "Moron". I asked him why and he said Joe told him you had to be a moron to ask for a nickname.
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Did Dan and Joe collaborate on the building of the equipment that went in the World gym that Joe owned in Panorama City? This was another great gym, and so easy to get a good workout in.
That gyms equipment seemed almost identical in design to the second World gyms equipment (Venice)
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Found this in my collection of old mags
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Thanks JWB, some of those pieces in the picture look so familiar to the equipment in world gym 1 & 2 and the one in panorama city.
Great stuff thanks for the memories!!
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Thanks JWB, some of those pieces in the picture look so familiar to the equipment in world gym 1 & 2 and the one in panorama city.
Great stuff thanks for the memories!!
yeah I think Dan played a big role in the equipment in all those gyms… supposedly George Turners gym in St Louis had the same equipment also.
Flex Fitness definitely lifted the 45 leg press design as well as the humped leg curl.
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I was one of the first to enroll in May 1979 and it actually was called "Dan Howards World Gym" in the beginning.
There were T-Shirts and shorts with the familiar World Gym Ape Logo selling in the front glass case, of which I bought and wore some.
Kal Szkalak was managing and the first summer it would usually be just Kal and I in the afternoons,after I was out of class, unfortunate for me, since Kal always wanted to use me as added ballast on some movement..
Kal actually had a notebook at the old Gold's, and in it was making sketches and notes of all the equipment, for Dan to duplicate at the Fountain Valley Gym his wife funded..and said he feared Joe would see him and kick him out of the gym for thieving his ideas..
And yes..Boyers equipment did pop up a little later..but it seemed heavily Arthur Jones influenced with cams and no one used it..in the picture of Dan thats Boyers BodyMaster Line in the lower right, gold in color.
Dan would usually be out back in overalls fabricating more pieces..it was a very quiet summer..
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there is an article on howard in the mag pic'd below.
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This was a great thread to read, excellent!!
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Dan Howard was at the 1980 Mr Olympia in Sydney. He had a line of equipment he was promoting. He gave me several large prints of some of his equipment. I told my wife that I could build similar equipment. In 1981 I retired from teaching PE and rented a factory to make gym equipment. Dan favoured 2 X 2 inch steel hollow sections and I made most of my frames the same way. I had previously built a few pieces in a room at my gym in 1975. I acquired a mig welder, radial drill, cut off saw and a lathe and away I went, learning along the way. I never copied any equipment exactly and my policy was I would give away any equipment that was a copy. Quite the challenge designing and fabricating equipment. Early on I started using linear motion bearings for Smith Machines and leg presses. Those bearings solved the friction problem in the Smith Machine. The test was to lift the bar from the side weight holder. Previously, with chains and sprockets, that wasn’t possible. Dan used wheels on his leg press sleds but I never liked them partly for safety issues. Linear bearings delivered an almost frictionless movement.
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Dan’s design for the 45 degree leg press influenced everyone. The vertical leg press was replaced and for good safety reasons. Dan used wheels but I saw an old hack squat in the gym I bought in 1971 that had the wheels flattened on two sides so they merely slid instead of rolling. I figured there had to be a better solution. This is where linear bearings helps. Trouble is they require absolute precision to make sure the guide rods are parallel and on the same plane. I used self-aligning linear bearings that allowed the heaviest loads. Also 1 1/2” chromed, induction hardened shafts. My apparatus allowed two options…laying flat or sitting. The seat was also on linear bearings so could be adjusted. I also installed shock absorbers as I hated users banging the weights.
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Dan Howard was at the 1980 Mr Olympia in Sydney. He had a line of equipment he was promoting. He gave me several large prints of some of his equipment. I told my wife that I could build similar equipment. In 1981 I retired from teaching PE and rented a factory to make gym equipment. Dan favoured 2 X 2 inch steel hollow sections and I made most of my frames the same way. I had previously built a few pieces in a room at my gym in 1975. I acquired a mig welder, radial drill, cut off saw and a lathe and away I went, learning along the way. I never copied any equipment exactly and my policy was I would give away any equipment that was a copy. Quite the challenge designing and fabricating equipment. Early on I started using linear motion bearings for Smith Machines and leg presses. Those bearings solved the friction problem in the Smith Machine. The test was to lift the bar from the side weight holder. Previously, with chains and sprockets, that wasn’t possible. Dan used wheels on his leg press sleds but I never liked them partly for safety issues. Linear bearings delivered an almost frictionless movement.
Having linear bearings on your weight stacks also set your equipment apart from other gyms in Sydney.
That must have cost a fortune though.