odds and ends [bodybuilding related.

[funk51]

   JOHN DAVIS  ... ONE OF AMERICA'S GREATEST WEIGHTLIFTERS
John Davis was born in 1921 and raised in the inner-city tenements of Brooklyn, New York.  He became, not only, the first African-American amateur World Weightlifting Champion, but one of the greatest weightlifters of all time. From 1938 to 1953, John went undefeated in international competition, establishing 19 world records and winning 12 national titles.
Named in honor of legendary John Henry, the immortal Steel-driving Man, Davis grew up the hard way. He stated, "As a child, I never knew my father and I didn't finish high school. I was just another black kid in New York City trying to stay out of trouble."
During his youth, Davis spent hundreds of hours at Brooklyn's Tompkins Park play ground, where he honed his skills in gymnastics, handball, and hoisting makeshift barbells constructed of cement blocks and waterpipe. In 1937, bodybuilder Steve Wolsky, invited John to lift with his conventional weight set. Months later, Davis entered his first weightlifting competition and placed third.
At the 1938 World Weightlifting Championships, held in Vienna, Austria, 17-year old John Davis shocked the weightlifting world by winning the light-heavyweight class. Fourteen years later, he won his second Olympic gold medal.
John's exceptional muscular power was evident throughtout his strongman career. Standing five-feet, nine-inches tall,  and weighing around 200 pounds, he was capable of performing a standing back-flip, holding a pair of 50 pound dumbbells. He completed three one-arm chins, from a "dead hang" position, with a 25 pound weight hanging from his waist. Likewise, he is known to have accomplished a 705 pound deadlift and performed eight reps in the deep-squat with 585 pounds.
Davis had small hands, but his remarkable gripping strength enabled him to pinch lift a 75 pound weight plate, only using his thumb and two fingers. Even though he did not train for bodybuilding, he won the "Best Back" subdivision at the 1941 AAU Mr. America contest.
Bob Hoffman, organizer of the event stated, "In my opinion Davis had as good a physique as any of the men competing. If not for the handicap of color, he might have been Mr. America."
Drafted into the U. S. Army in 1942, John served 3.5 years in the Pacific Theatre of Operations, where he contracted a serious case of marlaria. He returned to civilian  life in 1946.
In 1949, after winning his weight class at the World Championships, held in Scheveningen, Netherlands, Davis was challenged to duplicate the lifting feat accomplished by the legendary French lifter, Charles Rigoulot, who in 1930, had officially cleaned-and-jerked the famous 366-pound Apollon railroad wheels, with their 1.93 inch diameter axle. 
Davis was not told that Rigoulot had practiced for months before he conquered the awkward weight. Regardless, John used a "reverse-grip" to clean the Wheels to his upper chest and overhead on his fourth attempt.
At the 1951 Senior Nationals, Davis again established weightlifting histoy by cleaning and jerking 402 pounds on a standard Olympic barbell. In comparison, in 1930, Rigoulot had accomplished the same feat, but used a longer, springier barbell.
Overall, Davis won five world titles and gold medals at the 1948 and 1952 Olympic Games. Had he not been stopped by World War II, he would possibly have captured 15 World Championships. Although he was sponsored by York Barbell Club, most of his training was done in the basement of a neighborhood church in New York City.
At the 1956 Olympic tryouts, in San Jose, California, lifting against the massive Paul Anderson, John had posted his highest career subtotal in the press and snatch. Everyone in the packed auditorium held their breath as he attempted to clean-and-jerk 380 pounds. Unfortunately, while split-cleaning the weight, he tore a ligament in his right knee and was carried off the lifting platform, on a stretcher, to end his 19-year competitive weightlifting career.
In 1979, following 25 years working as a prison guard for the New York City Department of Corrections, Davis retired to Albuquerque, New Mexico, for health reasons. In a sad revelation of his condition, he stated, "My reward for smoking a pack and a-half of cigarettes daily, for the better part of my adult life, is a severe case of emphysema, cancer of the brain, bones, lungs, and pancreas."
John Henry Davis Jr., "The Steel-driving Man," died in 1984 at age 63.

[The Scott]

   JOHN DAVIS  ... ONE OF AMERICA'S GREATEST WEIGHTLIFTERS
John Davis was born in 1921 and raised in the inner-city tenements of Brooklyn, New York.  He became, not only, the first African-American amateur World Weightlifting Champion, but one of the greatest weightlifters of all time. From 1938 to 1953, John went undefeated in international competition, establishing 19 world records and winning 12 national titles.
Named in honor of legendary John Henry, the immortal Steel-driving Man, Davis grew up the hard way. He stated, "As a child, I never knew my father and I didn't finish high school. I was just another black kid in New York City trying to stay out of trouble."
During his youth, Davis spent hundreds of hours at Brooklyn's Tompkins Park play ground, where he honed his skills in gymnastics, handball, and hoisting makeshift barbells constructed of cement blocks and waterpipe. In 1937, bodybuilder Steve Wolsky, invited John to lift with his conventional weight set. Months later, Davis entered his first weightlifting competition and placed third.
At the 1938 World Weightlifting Championships, held in Vienna, Austria, 17-year old John Davis shocked the weightlifting world by winning the light-heavyweight class. Fourteen years later, he won his second Olympic gold medal.
John's exceptional muscular power was evident throughtout his strongman career. Standing five-feet, nine-inches tall,  and weighing around 200 pounds, he was capable of performing a standing back-flip, holding a pair of 50 pound dumbbells. He completed three one-arm chins, from a "dead hang" position, with a 25 pound weight hanging from his waist. Likewise, he is known to have accomplished a 705 pound deadlift and performed eight reps in the deep-squat with 585 pounds.
Davis had small hands, but his remarkable gripping strength enabled him to pinch lift a 75 pound weight plate, only using his thumb and two fingers. Even though he did not train for bodybuilding, he won the "Best Back" subdivision at the 1941 AAU Mr. America contest.
Bob Hoffman, organizer of the event stated, "In my opinion Davis had as good a physique as any of the men competing. If not for the handicap of color, he might have been Mr. America."
Drafted into the U. S. Army in 1942, John served 3.5 years in the Pacific Theatre of Operations, where he contracted a serious case of marlaria. He returned to civilian  life in 1946.
In 1949, after winning his weight class at the World Championships, held in Scheveningen, Netherlands, Davis was challenged to duplicate the lifting feat accomplished by the legendary French lifter, Charles Rigoulot, who in 1930, had officially cleaned-and-jerked the famous 366-pound Apollon railroad wheels, with their 1.93 inch diameter axle. 
Davis was not told that Rigoulot had practiced for months before he conquered the awkward weight. Regardless, John used a "reverse-grip" to clean the Wheels to his upper chest and overhead on his fourth attempt.
At the 1951 Senior Nationals, Davis again established weightlifting histoy by cleaning and jerking 402 pounds on a standard Olympic barbell. In comparison, in 1930, Rigoulot had accomplished the same feat, but used a longer, springier barbell.
Overall, Davis won five world titles and gold medals at the 1948 and 1952 Olympic Games. Had he not been stopped by World War II, he would possibly have captured 15 World Championships. Although he was sponsored by York Barbell Club, most of his training was done in the basement of a neighborhood church in New York City.
At the 1956 Olympic tryouts, in San Jose, California, lifting against the massive Paul Anderson, John had posted his highest career subtotal in the press and snatch. Everyone in the packed auditorium held their breath as he attempted to clean-and-jerk 380 pounds. Unfortunately, while split-cleaning the weight, he tore a ligament in his right knee and was carried off the lifting platform, on a stretcher, to end his 19-year competitive weightlifting career.
In 1979, following 25 years working as a prison guard for the New York City Department of Corrections, Davis retired to Albuquerque, New Mexico, for health reasons. In a sad revelation of his condition, he stated, "My reward for smoking a pack and a-half of cigarettes daily, for the better part of my adult life, is a severe case of emphysema, cancer of the brain, bones, lungs, and pancreas."
John Henry Davis Jr., "The Steel-driving Man," died in 1984 at age 63.

John Davis is one of our Nations All-Time Greats!  Thanks for this article!

[funk51]

   LEO STERN ... BILL PEARL'S MENTOR
Leo Stern was born in 1921, in Gardner,Kansas. At age two, he lost his father to a rural Kansas stock yard accident. This left his mother and fourchildren fending for themselves.
The family moved to San Diego, California, where Leo participted in wrestling, while his attempt to play high school football was limited by his 135-pound bodyweight.
In 1937, at age 18, Leo purchased a 130-pound Milo adjustable barbell and one dumbbell for $10., and began training with a classmate.
In 1939, Stern and a few close friends formed the Hillcrest Barbell Club, with a dozen members. The neighborhood gym closed at the outbreak of World War II.
Leo's physical impressions changed dramatically in 1940, when legendary John Grimek, the AAU Mr. America winner, accompanied by National Weightlifting Champions, Tony Terlazzo and John Terpak, appeared at the San Diego YMCA to conduct an exhibition of weightlifting, hand-balancing and posing. Witnessing Grimek's amazing performance; Stern was "hooked!"
The following year, 1941, Leo captured the Mr. San Diego title and placed in the top five at the first Mr. California contest, won by 19-year old Harold Zinkin.
Inducted into the United States Army Air Corps in 1942, Leo spent 39 months as the physical instructor at a base gym outside Las Vegas, Nevada. Joined by Private Clarence "Clancy" Ross, the two coached thousands of military personnel during the next three-and-a-half years.
With Stern as Clancy's coach and training partner, Ross began his competitive bodybuilding career by winning the 1945 AAU Mr. America contest.
The following year, Leo won the 1946 AAU Mr. California title, placed third at the AAU Mr. America contest and fourth at the Professional Mr. America event.
The same year, Leo established the original Stern's Gym, near San Diego's Hoover High School. He recalled, "I worked 90 hours a week for several months and pocketed a grand total of $50.
A year later, 1947, Stern's Gym was moved to the North Park district of San Diego. The second floor location was situated over a kosher chicken slaughterhouse, and years later, Leo recalled, "The odor from the ground floor slaugterhouse was so bad throughout the summer months pedestrians walked on the opposite side of the street. At 5 p.m. each day, when the rendering truck drove up, members ran to close the gym's front windows.
However, the rent was cheap."
Regardless of the location, Stern's Gym produced many of bodybuilding's modern day champions, including Mr. Universe winners Clancy Ross, Bill Pearl, Earl Clark and Eddie Sylvestre.
Another sample of champions who trained under Stern's watchful eye were, Tyrone Young, Bill Golumbick, Jack Seamon, Leroy Saba, Lud Shusterich, Keith Stephan, Jim Durden and Hugh Cobb.
To promote Stern's Gym in its early days, Leo produced "The Symphony of Strength Variety Show," that featured  gym members, world-class weightlifters, gymnasts, hand-balancers, and champion bodybuilders. The following one-column by 3-inch advertisement appeared in a 1947 Strength & Health magazine:
                            SPECIAL!   
             VARIETY STRENGTH SHOW
On April 5, 1947, at the Hoover Auditorium on El Cajon Blvd, in San Diego, California, Leo Stern will sponsor his great variety strength show. The presentation starts at 8 p.m. and admission is $1.50. The event features strength notables Clarence Ross, Pudgy Stockton, Walter Marcyan, Joe DePietro, Bill Cantrell and Hugh Lyons.
Leo was featured on the cover of the 1950 Strength & Health magazine, with an inside statement crediting him "as one of America's outstanding physique champions and trainers." Because of the article, Bill Pearl set a goal to one day train under Stern's supervision.   
Stationed in San Diego, during the last two years of his Naval enlistment, Bill accomplished his aspiration. He often stated, "If not for Leo Stern, there would be no Bill Pearl the bodybuilder."
For twenty years, Stern's Gym went without heat or air conditioning. "It was so cold in the winter, sometimes guys wore gloves," Leo said, "I put heat in sometime in the 1960s." The 1970s brought large mirrors to Stern's Gym, a fashion made popular in Lille, France, by Professor Edmond Desbonnet in the late 1800s. The 1980s saw the introduction of music to the gym, until the aggravation got too much for Stern. He explained, "I'd be walking down the street  and sombody'd come out on the fire escape and yell at me to change the frigging station!"
Stern's Gym was sold in 1989, to Sherman Brown, a former competitive weightlifter and member of the Detroit Lions football team. Sherman immediately installed large fans for air conditioning and reintroduced music. The gym presently claims to be the oldest privately operated weight-training facility in California.
Stern and Pearl collaborated in numerous financial ventures over their 60-years friendship. They were the first to mass market form-fit T-shirts, produced under a partnership owned by Stern, George Redpath and Suzy Shure. Next, was a line of posing briefs that sold through physique magazines. In early 1960, they authored a series of strenght training booklets, selling in the thousands.
Following their example, Vince Gironda, Reg Park, Larry Scott, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chuck Sipes and Frank Zane produced and marketed similar courses.
One of the highlights of Stern and Pearl's duo world travels occured in 1967, as the houseguest of J.Paul Getty, the world's richest man at the time, in his 16th century, three story castle located in Surrey, England. Leo and Bill found themselves again in England in 1995, being inducted into the Oscar Heidenstam Foundation Hall of Fame.
For over six decades, Leo Stern stood as an icon in the fitness industry. His long-time association with the elite of the bodybuilding/strength world, accompanied with his willingness to assist others in achieving their fitness goals, are but a small part of his legacy. In 2003, he was presented the Graphic Muscle Physical Culture Lifetime Achievement Award, at the NPC World Gym Classic San Diego "Bodybuilding and Figure Championships."
Leo died of natural causes on September 8, 2009, at age 88.

[The Scott]

Leo was a friend and mentor.  He was a good man.

[funk51]

   People Are Weight Training Barefoot. Is There Any Upside?
This strength training practice can fortify your feet, but experts warn that it’s not without risk
 
By Rachel Fairbank

Sept. 9, 2022 NY Times
 
About two years ago, Claire Haeuptle, a physical therapist based in San Diego, was interested in strengthening the muscles and ligaments of her feet. Dr. Haeuptle, who played four years of collegiate basketball, has a history of knee injuries, including five surgeries.

“I’ve always rehabbed my knees but have tended to neglect my feet,” she said.

Dr. Haeuptle decided to take up barefoot weight lifting, a strength training practice that involves lifting weights without shoes, or with very little support for one’s feet.

Scrolling through social media platforms like TikTok, where the hashtag #barefoottraining has been viewed around 1.8 million times, people show off barefoot deadlifts, curls and squats, while making a number of claims about the benefits. The practice, according to its proponents, can strengthen your feet, improve your balance and help you lift more weight. But, as with so many other fitness claims, the benefits come with a number of risks, including injury, if done incorrectly.

 
 
Barefoot weight lifting may have real benefits.
Going barefoot — whether running, strength training or simply walking around — requires the muscles of the feet to work harder. Some experts argue that this is especially true for smaller muscles that aren’t used as much when wearing shoes, such as the abductor hallucis, which spans the arch of your foot and controls the big toe, or the posterior tibialis, which supports the arch.

“When you go without a shoe, these muscles start working more, which ultimately give you a stronger and more adaptable foot,” said Dr. Bruce Moseley, an orthopedic surgeon at Baylor College of Medicine.

Spending more time barefoot may also increase the ability to sense where your feet are in space, as well as how they move. This greater body awareness, known as proprioception, can contribute to better balance by improving the feedback between the brain and the nerves in your ankles and feet. Research focused on barefoot weight training is limited, but it is possible that proprioception can help you maintain stability while lifting, Dr. Moseley said.


It won’t necessarily help you lift more.
Barefoot weight training may encourage increased foot strength, balance and stability, but there’s no clear evidence it can drastically enhance your performance or help you lift more. “It’s all anecdotal,” said Kevin Valenzuela, an assistant professor of biomechanics at California State University Long Beach, who was an author of a recent study exploring the effect of footwear on deadlifting performance.

 
In the study, published in the journal Sports, Dr. Valenzuela and his colleagues looked at the deadlifting performance among barefoot lifters and those wearing shoes. They found no significant difference in performance between the two, although deadlifting with shoes required a little bit more work.
“When you wear any sort of a shoe, you are about an inch higher than you would be if you were barefoot,” said Anna Swisher, a USA Weightlifting coach. “You’ve got an inch more to move the bar.” This extra inch may not make much of a difference for a single lift but can add up over the course of a training cycle.

Heavy lifts require dedicated lifting shoes.
Lifting a percentage of your body weight won’t place too much of a strain on your foot, but when lifting significantly more than you weigh, proper shoes become essential, as this puts a greater load on the foot than it is capable of handling, said Dr. Emily Splichal, a podiatrist and author of the book “Barefoot Strong: Unlock the Secrets to Movement Longevity.” As Dr. Splichal notes, many lifters will do warm-ups and lighter lifts barefoot, and then, as they push higher, put on weight lifting shoes.

Most dedicated weight lifting shoes have hard, dense, incompressible soles. “It’s easier to balance and it’s much more stable,” said Mark Rippetoe, a weight lifting coach and author of the book “Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training.”

Lifting shoes also feature wedged heels that tilt the foot forward, and, in Dr. Swisher’s experience, the stability they provide can you help maintain good form, which is especially critical during weighted squats. “Having that extra lift in the heel helps keep your torso more upright, which helps keep the center of mass of the barbell more in line with your center of mass,” Dr. Swisher said. This reduces the amount of pressure placed on your lower back, which can help prevent injury.

Some shoes, however, are really not appropriate for weight lifting. Mr. Rippetoe often sees people lifting in running shoes, rather than dedicated lifting shoes. “Doing squats in running shoes is like doing squats on a mattress,” said Mr. Rippetoe. “Every rep will be different.” This makes it hard to maintain good form, which can also lead to injury.

Even during lighter lifts, there are risks.
Although barefoot weight lifting can offer benefits, all of the experts, including Dr. Haeuptle, warned there are a number of risks, including the potential for injury, if not done properly.

One major problem with barefoot weight lifting is that “some people don’t have the ankle stability to do it well,” Dr. Valenzuela said. If a person with weak ankles starts weight lifting barefoot, this can lead to the ankles wobbling.

This ankle wobbling can cause the arches of the feet to collapse inward, which gradually leads to the knees and hips collapsing inward as well. “That inward rolling motion is usually not a great thing for the joints and the tissues within the joints,” Dr. Valenzuela said. Over time, this can lead to ankle, knee or hip injuries. “What happens at the ankle affects what happens at the knee, which affects the hip,” Dr. Valenzuela said.

If a you are thinking about taking up barefoot weight lifting, be extra mindful about the stability of your ankles, which might mean doing ankle strengthening exercises before you begin. Until then, it’s best to wear lifting shoes, as they will provide additional ankle support.

Barefoot lifting also comes with a few additional warnings. The first concern is that going barefoot in a gym can spread infectious diseases, such as athlete’s foot or warts. “Athlete’s foot, once it gets in a locker room or training environment, can run rampant,” Dr. Moseley said. If you’re concerned, there are barefoot-style training shoes you can wear.

The other risk is foot injuries. Although shoes won’t do much if you drop a 45-pound weight, they may offer some protection against a lighter weight or a stubbed toe.

To avoid overuse injuries, start gradually.
Lifting too much too soon can lead to overuse injuries, such as stress fractures or heel pain. But starting with a reduced weight and a limited number of barefoot repetitions will “gradually apply the stress to these tissues,” Dr. Moseley said, which lets the tissues of your feet adapt.

If a person starts developing foot pain, or their form suffers, that’s a sign they are lifting too much, too quickly, and should stop.

Dr. Haeuptle started gradually, taking a full year to progress from a few barefoot reps during a workout to doing the majority of her lifts without shoes. Barefoot weight lifting “gives me a better sense of the ground,” she said.

[funk51]

   JOE GOLD ... MUSCLE MENTOR OF VENICE BEACH
Sidney Joseph (Joe) Gold, born March 10, 1922, in Boyle Heights, California, was the son of a Russian Jew in the second hand goods business. He acquired a lifelong affection for a healthy lifestyle at Southern California's Santa Monica beach at an early age. During his pre-teens, his family rented vacation bungalows in the Muscle Beach area for weeks during the summer months.
Joe's interest in strength training was sparked at age 12, when he and his older brother began making gym equipment out of scrap found in their father's junk yard.
At age 14, Joe created the neighborhood Dugout Athletic Club, a makeshift workout gym behind an automotive repair shop, "because we needed a place to workout." From then on, and  for years thereafter, he weight-trained, played beach volleyball, practiced gymnastics, and "hung out at the beach with my buddies."
During World War II, Joe served as machinist in the United States Merchant Marines. He spent six months in a veterans' hospital recovering from injuries sustained by a torpedo explosion, during the 1944 South Pacific Battle of Leyte.
Joe opened Ajax's Gym in New Orleans in 1951, but reportedly "could not handle the Louisiana summers" and returned to Southern California. He became a competitive bodybuilder who appeared as an extra in two epic movies: "The Ten Commandments" and "Around the World in 80 Days."  In 1954, actress Mae West recruited him for her all-male chorus revue, that experienced a three-year run throughout the country.
In 1959, the City of Santa Monica closed the popular, but controversial Muscle Beach outdoor weight-training area. (Bulldozers were sent in late one night to remove the platforms and tumbling facilities, where thousands of spectators ventured on weekends to watch lifters, lift, and tumblers, tumble.)
Spurred by the loss for a place to workout, Joe opened Gold's Gym in nearby Venice Beach, with a capital investment of $30,000. He recalled, "The guys had nowhere to go when Muscle Beach closed and they needed a place to workout. That's how Gold's Gym got its start."
The original Gold's Gym with its unassuming, low-rent district storefront and homemade equipment, attracted an international following, partly because of the fame as the focal point for the documentary film, "Pumping Iron." The small hard-core gym became a second home for the likes of Dave Draper, Frank Zane, Franco Columbu, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lou Ferrigno, Bill Grant, Ken Waller, Kalman Szkalak, Ed Guiliani, Dave DuPre, Pete Grymkowski, Kent Kuehn, Mike and Ray Mentzer, Dennis Tinerino and Zabo Koszewski.
Mike Uretz, Joe Gold's longtime confident and financial partner, stated,
 "Joe set the tone for the gym.. a tough-minded place. The only music was sweating and grunting. Women were banned from joining, though this was remedied once Joe decided women were better members than men.  Women didn't stay all day. Women didn't stink, and women paid on time."
Joe sold the original gym in 1970, later commenting, "There wasn't money in the business back then. And, because I'm a vagabond, I went back to sea."
However, the new owners began to license the gym name into a health club empire of over 500 facilities, in 25 countries, with approximately two-and-one-half million members.
In 1977, Joe opened the first World Gym International in Santa Monica, "because the guys asked me to start another gym." Gold moved to a larger location in 1987, and under the direction of Mike Uretz, World Gym International expanded to approximately 300 health and fitness centers.
Confined to a wheelchair during his declining years, Joe died of congestive heart failure on July 11, 2004, at age 82. Following his death, Arnold Schwarzenegger, then the Governor of California, released this statement:
"Joe looked after me and encouraged me when I first came to America. His dry sense of humor was a daily feature of the gym. He was a trusted friend and father figure and was intrumental in my training during my days as a competitive bodybuilder. Gold's Gym wasn't merely a training facility, it became a home to me. Joe was an inspiration and his death is felt deeply by the intire health and fitness community."
Under the directorship of Mike Uretz, the sale of World Gym International was finalized in 2006, to Planet Fitness, Inc., based in Dover, New Hampshire. Planet Fitness, Inc., with approximately 120 franchises in 23 States (at that time), purchased World Gym International for a reported $11 million.  The property in Marina Del Rey, California, which housed World Gym International corporate offices and health club, sold in April 2006 for more than $5 million.

[funk51]

   JOE AND BEN WEIDER  ...  A RAGS TO RICHES STORY
Joe Weider and his younger brother Ben, were sons of Polish immigrants who spent their adolescdent years in a rough section of Montreal, Canada. As scrawny Jewish kids, they were prime targets for neighborhood bulllies.
With only fourth and seventh grade educations, the brothers, nevertheless, parlayed a $7 investment into a half-billion dollar-a-year empire.
At age 15, and out of school since age 10, Joe stumbled across a discarded Strength & Health magazine. The publication inspired him to scrounge junk yards for automobile flywheels to produce homemade barbells.
At age 17, weighing 165 pounds, he scored a win at the 1939 Montreal Weightlifting Championships.
Joe continued to weight train and invested his life-savings of $7 to produce a 12-page mimeographed newsletter entitled Your Physique. The crude miniature grew into the fitness publication, Mr. America.
Ben, at age 13, quit school to work in resterauants for $2.50 a week. At age 18, he enlisted into the Canadian Army and served three years in Army Intelligence. Upon discharge, he joined his older brother in the publishing business. In 1945, financial considerations determined that Joe would immigrate to the United States, while Ben remained in Canada.
In 1946, Ben organized the first Mr. Canada contest. Years later, he recalled, "Following the competition, I understood the depth of interest people had in strength and bodybuilding. Therefore, Joe and I founded the International Federation of Bodybuilders, (IFBB) which now serves and promotes the sport in over 170 nations,"
Meanwhile, from a small shabby warehouse in Brooklyn, New York, Joe was establishing an empire in the field of publishing. By 1952, the brothers had developed more then 20 magazines with a circulation of approximately 25 million readers. However, in 1953, following a financial setback and a restructuring of the magazine distribution busines, they cut to three titles: Muscle Builder, American Manhood and Mucle Power.
In 1965, Ben organized the first IFBB Mr.Olympia contest with a prize money of $1,000. Applause from the audience, rather than a judging panel declared Larry Scott the winner.
As the Weider empire continued to grow, the brothers increased their position in the publishiing, nutrition and food supplement industries. Joe elevated the readership of Muscle & Fitness magazine to several million per issue, and Weider Nutrition International, Inc., controlled a quarter of that market.
Still, with such growth came a price. In an interview conducted by Dr. Fred Hatfield, he asked Joe, "Is there something you feel you haven't accomplished and would like to?"
Joe replied, "Yeah, enjoy life! If I didn't love the damned sport so much, I'd chuck everything! I want to see things, go to museums and do what makes me happy. I want to exercise six days a week. Now, I struggle to get in three and I rush to do that!"
Ben's love for the sport remained equally as high. During an interview, he stated, "I included into the IFBB constitution the following paragraph: 'There will be no discussions or debates in reguards to political, racial or religious opinions.' "
Ben also retained his deep interest in Napoleon Bonaparte. His book,The Murder of Napoleon, published in 1982, was translated into 39 languages, with sales of more than one million copies. His book, Louis Cyr: The Amazing Canadian, published in 1976, became a collectors item.
In 2003, American Media, Inc., acquired Weider Health and Fitness and its fleet of publications for an estimated $350 million.
Ben Weider, a sports leader, scholar, businessman and philanthropist, died of a sudden heart attack in 2008, at age 85.
Joe Weider, a legendary icon for the benefical effects of exercise, died of natural causes in 2013, at age 93.

[funk51]

   https://www.naturalstrength.com/2011/09/marvelous-max-story-of-maxick-by-ron.html

[6 Reps]

funk, just for you, from 1936…

I had never heard of a “physical culture” hotel.  This one run, as you can see, by the Bernarr Macfadden Foundation.  I suspect there wasn’t a whole lot of bodybuilding going on here, although I suspect fitness and exercise were priorities. 

[funk51]

funk, just for you, from 1936…

I had never heard of a “physical culture” hotel.  This one run, as you can see, by the Bernarr Macfadden Foundation.  I suspect there wasn’t a whole lot of bodybuilding going on here, although I suspect fitness and exercise were priorities.

   https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2018/08/nudity-fasting-eyelid-workouts-original-wellness-guru/                                                       good find,

[funk51]

  STEVE MERJANIAN SAYS WHY SQUAT WHEN YOU CAN INCLINE 500LBS?
Bodybuilding
STEVE MERJANIAN SAYS WHY SQUAT WHEN YOU CAN INCLINE 500LBS? - Chaos and Pain
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Steve Merjanian says why squat when you can incline 500lbs? If the cannibalistic weightlifting community in The Bad Batch isn’t the closest cinematic thing to Valhalla ever, I will eat my goddamned laptop. Die Antwoord, jacked people, and human barbecues going 24/7? Count me the hell in.

In the interest of stemming the tide of disinformation that is so prevalent on the internet today, I decided to highlight yet another mammoth of the past who reminds us that there is a better way than what most of us are doing, and that way is as jacked and strong as humanly possible and enjoying lifting, rather than lean and rigidly locked into some stupid goddamned program. Lest you think I am sitting astride some long-legged horse handing down life lessons and tossing you apples from the tree of knowledge like some dwarfish version of Odin, that’s not the case- I do, however, have a hell of a lot of experience under my belt, and I have a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn’t. If message boards, Instagram, and Reddit are any indication, most you people are wallowing in a pit of despair and don’t even know it, because you’re all drowning in weakness together. I’ll admit, however, that writing shit like this gets me fired the hell up as well, however, so I figure we might as well all get jacked as hell so that when the collapse of Western civilization hits us in a wave of Christian fundamentalism and wild-eyed anarcho-collectivist horseshit, we lot can simply waddle around and rip people in half with our bare hands. And then eat them. And thus, gain whatever paltry power they had and grow even bigger and stronger, living in one gigantic happy cannibalistic weightlifting community like the movie The Bad Batch.

Knowing how the minds of the people who read about training work, writing about four upper body specialists who regarded the squat in the same way most people regard having gypsies in their house unattended back-to-back might have the lot of you thinking I have turned my back on the exercise that brought me to the pinnacle of the 181 class in powerlifting. Rest easy- I’ve hardly stopped squatting, and unless you just want to bulk to mammoth proportions and rock 22-inch arms and unequal lower body development, I don’t advocate dropping it from your program altogether. What I have advocated long and hard, however, is focusing on what you love and hammering it like it’s a five-dollar prostitute right before you head back to the front. Hammer that things like you’re playing Whack-A-Mole on speed, and anyone who has something to say about it can go to hell. There is far too much lifting for the sake of other people going on these days, and too many people are going through the motions of workouts they appear to hate because they want the cache associated with doing a certain program, and too many people approaching lifting like work rather than fun.

The colossuses of the 1950s and 1960s didn’t give a good goddamn what anyone thought about their workouts- they did what they liked, and because they liked it, they were monsters. The guy with what Weider writers would undoubtedly refer to as a “barn door back” pictured above was just one of those people. Steve Merjanian was a training partner of the last upper body specialist I profiled, Chuck Ahrens, and the two of them trained with another 500+lb bencher, Richard Kee, so hard that none of us even seem to lift by comparison. These 300lb beasts stomped around the Bruce Conner gym in Westwood, California handing weights unthinkable in most gyms today on equipment that was as rickety and homemade as it was effective. They didn’t train for any reason other than love for the game- they trained often, and they trained heavy, and they had the physiques and lifts that belied their efforts. They rarely, if ever, entered contests because that’s not what they were about- they were about having a good time, heaving weights around, and throwing up double bis that would melt the underpants off anyone nearby if they didn’t just blow straight off from shock and awe.

What’s this you say? Panties blew off and the man didn’t scamper about in the gym wearing goddamned tights and endlessly blabbering on about Smolov? Well then, he must have done Sheiko? How about neither, and he was content with running a mile in the sand and doing calves for his legs. Every now and again he’d bust a half squat just for shits and giggles, but Steve Merjanian was not about that life- he just loved training heavy and loved being strong. Even at age 44, he was still hitting 405 for a behind the neck press, which is an age and a number so inconceivable to the average message board goer these days I’m sure they’re screaming bullshit at their screen and hyper graphically scribbling “STEROIDS” on the wall in crayon.

Unlike the three preceding 300lb monsters, Merjanian’s success didn’t come overnight. He broke his ass day in and day out for fifteen years, first as a bodybuilder and then a power builder, to build up to the massive poundages he ended up moving at his peak. Perseverance and harder work than a Thai ladyboi at a NAMBLA convention paid off better than George Soros shorting the dollar in an engineered recession, and Marjarian became one of the strongest upper body specialists to ever live. Those two bizarre similes notwithstanding, here are Merjanian’s stats:

Steve Merjanian’s Vital Stats

Born: 29 Jul 1935 (82 years old)

Height: 5’11”

Weight: 280-300lbs

Chest: 59.75″

Neck: 21+”

Waist: 39″

Arms: 20.25″

Forearms: 18.5″

Thighs: 28.5″

Calves: 19.5″

His diet looks like he rode a brontosaurus to work. His training looked like he rode to the gym in a chariot pulled by velociraptors on meth. Every week big Steve maxed on everything he felt like maxing on. Though that thing was almost never the back squat. Merjanian hated squatting, preferring instead to just run a mile a day through the sand four times a week and warm up with a 400-yard beach run before every workout. Although I’ve only got the details of one of his workout styles, Merjanian had two basic routines. One consisted of 10-12 sets of an exercise, the last five of which were singles with roughly 95% 1RM. His other type of routine was 8 sets of 5, as heavier than a Crowbar concert after an all you can eat buffet. The only thing Merjanian did with getting a pump in mind was back- he did lots of sets and lots of reps emphasizing a serious squeeze and brutal stretch to force as much blood into the muscle as possible. Whatever he did, however, it was hardly flexible and never a rigidly structured program- he just went as hard as he felt like and blasted weights like they were some broad’s face in a bukkake film.

Steve Merjanian’s Typical Routine

Monday / Wednesday / Friday

Dumbbell Press – 5×7

Dumbbell Laterals– 5×7

Front Dumbbell Raises– 5×7

Pulley Rowing Motion– 5×7

Dumbbell Curl– 5×7

Dips– 5×7

Lying Triceps Extension– 5×7

60 Degree Incline Press– 10×7 reps, 7×1 using 20 lbs. less than max (Brace yourself for this news- his first warmup was 350 x 10)

Bench Press– 5×7

Tuesday / Thursday / Saturday / Sunday

Calf Raise– 10-15 x10 reps

Pulley Forearm Curl– 10-15×10

Face Pulls– 10-15×10

Standing Triceps Extension– 10-15×10

Running– approximately one mile in the sand

Word is Steve trained legs early on in his lifting career but abandoned them for one reason or another as he got huge. It didn’t seem to negatively impact his lifts. However, and his leg strength was serious despite his disdain for training them. He was known to occasionally jump in on legs out of curiosity and would pull off shit like banging out a set of five easy reps with 315 in the front squat as a goof, or a single with no warmup, and his legs were always strong enough to allow him to hang with the guys who treated the front squat like it was going to reveal the meaning of life to them. In fact, big Steve’s legs were so strong that he would occasionally jump from a standing start onto what had to have been the stoutest ping pong table in the history of the sport to mess with anyone who said, “gigantic white men can’t jump” and to just scare the shit out of unruly teenagers. It was his shoulder, chest, and triceps strength that was the showstopper, though. He’d do cheat lateral raises with the 144lb dumbbells and a standing triceps extension with a ridiculous 275lbs, but both of those paled in comparison to his gargantuan 405lb behind the neck press.

“PRESSES BEHIND THE NECK WERE USUALLY DONE SITTING ON A FLAT BENCH, DUCKING YOUR HEAD UNDER THE BAR AND LIFTING IT CLEAR OF THE RACK ON THE BACK OF YOUR SHOULDERS, PRESSING IT OVERHEAD AND THEN LOWERING IT TO YOUR SHOULDERS AND RETURNING IT TO THE RACK. A MAN WHO COULD DO THREE HUNDRED IN THIS MANNER WAS CONSIDERED STRONG. I RECKON THERE ARE A LOT OF THE GUYS THAT DO (OR CLAIM TO DO) FOUR HUNDRED OR MORE IN THE CURRENT STYLE (OVERHEAD LIFTOFF. BRINGING THE BAR DOWN TO THE TOP OF THE HEAD & PRESSING IT UP) WOULD BE UNABLE TO DO THREE HUNDRED IN THIS MANNER” (NEECE).

The amount of camaraderie the lifters in Muscle Beach, and particularly at Gold’s, enjoyed in that time period would make the Care Bears look like a bunch of backbiting, foam rolling, shit talking, natty powerlifters. By comparison- these dudes not only lifted together, but they formed a sort of informal Guardian’s Angels of jacked dudes to scrap with young ruffians on the beach when they’d get out of hand, and they all participated in goofy shit like tug-of-war competitions on the weekends. And these weren’t nobodies, either- were talking pro baseball players, NFL players, epic strongmen, actors, at least one Olympic silver medalist, and even the vice principal of a local high school (Neece). Given that most “serious” strength gyms these days are populated by people who would be harder to wrangle than wet cats and would assent to heading in the same direction with far more yowling and general disaffection than those cats, the fact that everyone was so willing to chip in and help out in the community should illustrate exactly how tragic the modern era is.

It’s even more poignant when you consider that Gold’s Gym in 1968 boasted three monsters “who were over four hundred on the incline: Steve, myself, and a man named Joe Kanaster, about whom I will tell you later. There were several others in the 375-400 range. There were others who had gone over four hundred in the past but no longer trained there and a couple of others who would hit four hundred or more later” (Neece). Having three guys benching over 400 on the incline in a single gym in a single year is like having three guys in the same gym who own multiple Lambos. Call their hot-ass slut of a girlfriend “Concubine,” or having three chicks in the gym so hot you can’t even look directly at them who shit Froot Loops on demand. It’s like opening your closet and having six masturbating leprechauns jump out, and then telling your friend about it and him saying the same thing happened to him last week. Winning the Powerball three months in a row is less likely, and yet, that was what was happening in Gold’s Venice in 1968.

Looking a little closer, for those of you who are like me and yearning for yesteryear, it wasn’t all blowjobs and cheesecake then either. There was a small fraction of very early powerlifters led by Bill “Peanuts” West who resented the hell out of big Steve’s pressing power and the fact that he gave less craps about powerlifting than most people do about Olympic curling. They employed various schemes to punk Merjanian. In the end like the lifting efforts of channers, they were ultimately fruitless.

“IT IS MY OPINION THAT PEANUTS RESENTED STEVE’ NOT COMPETING IN THE THREE POWERLIFTS AND ONLY OCCASIONALLY TRAINING AT HIS (PEANUTS’) GARAGE. PEANUTS THOUGHT OF HIMSELF AS ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE SPORT. HE WAS VERY ZEALOUS IN HIS EFFORTS TO GET EVERYBODY INVOLVED. IN WHAT HE PROBABLY CONSIDERED TO BE AT LEAST PARTLY HIS CREATION. STEVE, HOWEVER, MARCHED TO HIS OWN DRUMMER AND HAD NO INTEREST IN THE THREE LIFTS. IN ADDITION, HE LIKED TO ENJOY LIFE AND ONLY TRAINED WHEN HE FELT LIKE IT”

“PEANUTS USED TO NEEDLE PAT ABOUT STEVE’S INCLINES. ONE DAY IN 1967 JUST BEFORE HE RETIRED PAT DECIDED TO SETTLE IT ONCE AND FOR ALL. IT WAS AT PEANUT’S GARAGE AND GEORGE FRENN WROTE ABOUT IT IN WEIDER’S MAGAZINE. SOMEONE ALSO TOOK A PICTURE OF PAT INCLINING 515. PEANUTS AND HIS BUNCH TOLD STEVE THAT HE HAD BEEN DETHRONED.

For those among you still freaking the hell out that this is now the third consecutive person about whom I’ve written who was at or over 300lbs. Jacked in ways most people on treat their dicks, and strong as a goddamned ox, yet rarely if ever trained legs, guess what? Hollywood doesn’t care if you squat ass-to-grass. In fact probably prefers half squatters over the “my asshole was itchy, so I back squatted and worked out that itch in the hole on the floor, don’t mind the stain” people because ATG squatters never shut the hell up about depth, and you’ve got to be the most annoying people on the planet with whom to party. Anyway, here’s big Steve’s filmography, proving once more the USAPL/IPF knows nothing about anything and the fact you rub your asshole on the floor when squatting means nothing, because none of those humorless asshats have had a speaking role on the Monkees or in a Jackie Chan movie.

Steve Merjanian Filmography

Abdul alongside Davy Jones in The Monkees, Season 2, Episode 3 (1967)- “Everywhere a Sheik, Sheik”
played The Moroccan alongside Jackie Chan in The Big Brawl (1980)
played Tug the muscle man alongside Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello in Muscle Beach Party
was a stuntman in the first Planet of the Apes
So there you have it- Steve Merjanian in a nutshell. A bloody great big nutshell. So big he should be one of the 8 Natural Wonders of the World, stronger than a couple of oxen cybernetically attached Frankenstein’s Army-style, and chill as hell, though ready to scrap for fun on the weekends. Still training daily at the age of 65, Steve kept with it because “enjoyed training and being strong but he enjoyed life as much or more,” and although he was a goddamned monster, he had a sense of humor about himself and training most people could stand to emulate. In short, Steve Merjanian was the goddamned man, and the lot of us can learn a great deal from following his example.

I haven’t fact checked this video, so I can’t attest to its accuracy, but since I know everyone loves watching videos, here’s an extraordinarily slowly narrated video (Steven Wright sounds like a high school girl on coke compared to whoever narrated this thing) about Steve Merjanian:

“Plenty of rest and relaxation, a mind free of worry, good food and regular training. I agree and feel that although Steve Merjanian does not hold titles or records that others have, a lot can be learned from his approach to training for maximum progress and fulfilling one’s potential” (Shaw).

 

Sources:

Neece, S. Some lesser-known strongmen of the Fifties and Sixties. Iron Game History. 1998 May; 5(1):16-25.

Shaw, Dave. Steve Merjanian. Rpt. in Forgotten Secrets of the Culver City Westside Barbell Club Revealed. By Dave Yarnell. Lexington: Self Published, 2014.

Weaver, Vern. Meet “Powerhouse” Steve Merjanian. The Tight Tan Slacks of Dezso Ban. 21 Oct 2017. Web. 21 May 2018. http://ditillo2.blogspot.com/2017/10/steve-merjanian-vern-weaver-1965.html

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   DAN LURIE .... "SEALTEST DAN, THE MUSCLE MAN"
Dan Lurie was one of of six siblings.  He was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1922.  His father operated a moving business and weight-trained with professional strength athletes Siegmund Breitbart and Warren Lincoln Travis. Still, the family was so poor, neighbors assisted with burial expenses when  his younger sister, Pearl, was burned to death, due to her cousin prankishly placing a lighted match in her coat pocket.
Through the 1940's and 1950's, Dan carved a niche in weightlifting, as pound for pound, one of the world's strongest and most muscular men.
Lurie's first taste of stardom, however, was the result of lifting objects no heavier than a plastic disk, as he won the "New York State Checker Championships." He attended Tilden High School in Brooklyn, where he trained as a boxer, planning to enter the 1939 New York Golden Gloves Boxing Tourrnament, only to be disqualified because of a serious heart murmur.
At age 17, Dan joined the Adonis Athletic Club of Brooklyn. Two years later, he finished last place at the annual Mr. New York City physique contest. He recalled, "This made me work out with even more determination."
In 1942, 1943, and 1944, at a bodyweight of 168 pounds, Lurie was runner-up at the AAU Mr. Amrica contest and captured the Most Muscular award all three years.
Not allowed to compete in the 1945 AAU Mr. America event because he appeared in advertisements for Joe Weider's "Your Physique" magazine, Lurie commented, "Bob Hoffman, owner of York Barbell Company and Strength & Health magazine, controlled the  AAU. He handpicked the winners. John Grimek won the 1940 and 1941 Mr. America contest and he appeared in York Barbell ads. Yet, he was recognized as an amateur.  Why him and not me?"
Lurie partnered with Joe Weider in 1942, to estabish the Dan Lurie Barbell Company. The following year, he established the first of his nine health clubs in the New York area. One facility, an old 50,000 square-foot YMCA building, was equippped with a swimming pool, steam room, and sauna.
Dan insisted that he, rather than the Weider's originated the International Federation of Bodybuilders (IFBB) in opposition to the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU). He said, "The Weider's stole the name from me after the AAU denied me a sanction for the 1946 Mr. East Coast contest.
Throughout the middle 1950's, Lurie appeared on CBS TV's "The Big Top Circus Show" as "Sealtest Dan, the Muscle Man." His strength feats included 1,655 pushups in 90 minutes; 1,225 parallel dips in 90 minutes and he often performed barbell bent-presses with 200 pounds, at a bodyweight of 165 pounds.  Not surprising, his slogan for life remained, "Health is your greatest wealth."
In 1965, Lurie formed the World Bodybuilding Guild (WBBG) to promote local and international physique competitions. For 20 years, his meets drew major physique contestants: Harold Poole, Rick Wayne, Chris Dickerson, Ralph Kroger, Scott Wilson, Don Ross, Boyer Coe, Serge Nubret, Tony Pearson, Lou Ferrigno, Sergio Oliva and others.
That same year, Lurie published the first issue of Muscle Training Illustrated with Reg Park on the cover. In 1971, he was one of the first to feature a cover story on anabolic steroid abuse. Over the following years, he published a series of informative articles written by Dr. Bob Goldman on the dangers and misuse of sport-enhancing drugs.
In 1984, Dan Lurie and President Ronald Reagan, squared off for a supposedly legitimate arm-wrestling match held in the oval office. Lurie explained, " I sent a letter to the White House requesting permission to present President Reagan with a plaque honoring him as the Most Fit President of all Time. The next thing I knew, I was  ushered into the oval office."
"Making the presentation, I jokingly challenged President Reagan to an arm-wrestling contest. His reply was, 'Sure.' We positioned ourselves at his desk and...plunk, he flattens me in about 30 seconds. I screamed for a rematch, only to be put down a second time in about 40 seconds."
A phograph of the historic event appeared on the front page of the New York Times with the caption reading: "Dan Lurie going one-on-one with President Reagan."
In 2010, Lurie was still taking "power walks" for an hour each morning, before his conventional weight-training workout. He remarked, "Now I use light weights and I rest longer between sets. I figure I no longer have a great deal to prove. With little or no regrets, my biggest pride and love in life are my five children, 15 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
"Sealtest Dan, the Muscle Man," died in 2013, at age 90.

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   https://www.chaosandpain.com/blogs/chaos-and-pain%C2%AE/literally-everything-youve-ever-read-about-alphas-is-bullshit

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  https://fitnessvolt.com/tom-platz-olympia-arnold-classic-lost-reputation/

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   RTHUR JONES ... FATHER OF NAUTILUS GYM EQUIPMENT
Arthur Jones, born in 1922, in Morrilton, Arkansas, was perhaps the most all-time controversial entrepreneur of strength training.  Throughout his life, he remained egocentric and opinionated and was, he said, "outraged" by ignorance. His father, mother, grandfather, and great-grandfather were practicing physicians,and his half-sister and half-brother were also medical doctors. He stated in his authorized biography, "Younger Women, Faster Airplanes, Bigger Crocodiles," written by John Szimansky,
          "The reason I never went to medical school, was, I wasn't inclined to work 24 hours, seven days a week. As it turned out, I worked 26 hours, eight days a week."
In 1929, the Jones family moved from the Republic of Panama, to Seminole, Oklahoma, to establish a new medical practice. The following article appeared in the March 4, 1931, Seminole newspaper regarding five-year-old Arthur and his father:
        R. R. "Curley" Turner, a local barber, is held under $1,500 bond on the charge of mayhem. Turner, employed at City Barber Shop, cut the hair of the young son of city surgeon Dr. W. E. Jones. Turner is alleged to have angered the boy and when released from the barber chair, the youngster deliberately kicked Turner. In retaliaton, Turner is asserted to have slapped the child. Later, Dr. Jones appeared at the barber shop and a fight ensued. Following an exchange of blows, the two clinched and Turner reportedly bit off a large portion of Jones' ear and spat it on the sidewalk. The physician's attorney filed charges in Peace Justice James W. Pipkin's court.
Several years later, Arthur had more graphic memories of Seminole, Oklahoma, in the 1930s. He recorded:
          During that time, whores, gunfighters, thieves and general riff-raff of every sort migrated to Seminole. The jail could not hope to hold them, so they were chained like animals to pieces of pipe driven into the ground. Everyone with common sense carried a gun and they were often used. My father owned a double-barrel, ten-gauge shotgun pistol, the Chief of Police had taken from a hoodlum to give to him. In my early teens, the same Chief of Police called me to his office to issue me a permit to carry a concealed weapon. He said, 'I know you have a pistol. I know you need it. and in the likely event you have to use it, it will  be better if it's legal.'
Jones repeatedly maintained that his IQ was beyond measure and on par with the Wright brothers and Dr Albert Einstein. He claimed to have read his father's entire medical library, at least twice, before age 12, and every book in the Seminole Public Library, by age 14. With the desire to conquer the world, Arthur left school in the ninth grade and stated,
           "I should have dropped out in the sixth grade."
On his adventurous road to fame and fortune, Jones learned to fly on ramshackle airfields throughout Oklahoma and matured into a fearless barnstorming pilot. Later, he operated airlines in Latin America, flew planes throughout Africa, and owned and operated an import/export enterprise specializing in capturing and transporting snakes and a variety of reptiles and exotic animals. He claimed he logged over 3,000 flight hours during one three-year period throughout 57 foreign countries.
In 1941, Arthur lied about his age to join the United States Navy. He spent time in Los Angeles, California, in the middle 1940s and trained at Vic Tanny's Gym in Santa Monica, with bodybuilding champions George Eiferman, Armand Tanny, and John Farbotnik.
During the 1960s, Jones doubled as a filmmaker, and claimed to have produced more than 300 television films and motion pictures. His better-known TV series included Professional Hunter, Wild Cargo, Capture, and Call of the Wild. His final production, Operation Elephant, aired on CBS in 1970.
Arthur, with the help of his son Gary, was responsible for the idea, design, and development of Nautilus gym equipment, and recalled,
          "Nautilus exercise machines were an accumulation of years of trial-and-error, with the journey beginning in the late 1940s, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. My friend Percy Cunningham handed me ten dollars to build a piece of equipment for the local YMCA. Each country I spent time in, I tried to improve on the devices I built to work out on."
In 1968, Jones found himself at least $500,000 in debt, following an ill-fated wild animal filming project, which ended in Rhodesia. The Rhodesian government confiscated more than $1.5 million worth of his equipment and belongings, which he was not able to retrieve.
Returning to Slidell, Louisiana, Arthur borrowed $2,500 from his half sister to fund the fabrication of a resistance exercise machine he was attempting to build in the family's one-car garage. Arthur's 16-year-old son, Gary, designed an off-centered cam as part of the prototype, whose purpose was to cause the resistance of the exercise to vary in intensity as the user worked the lever arm of the apparatus throughout it's full range of motion.
Labeled the "Blue Monster," the prototype Nautilus machine was previewed in the lobby of the Culver City California Auditorium during the 1970 AAU "Mr. America" contest. Jones had transported the cumbersome unit in a rental trailer, and arrived in Los Angeles with seven dollars in his pocket and an expired credit card.
From 1974 through 1982, Jones dominated the commercial fitness market and claimed more money was spent on Nautilus machines than on the combined sales of all commercial gym equipment purchased.
By 1984, approximately 4,700 Nautilus Fitness Centers covered the United States. Complete lines of the equipment were the choice in physical rehabilitation centers, professional sports teams training rooms, colleges, high schools, and private facilities, despite the belief of a large majority of weight-training experts that traditional training with free weights produced superior results.
In Lake Helen, Florida, Jones built a $75 million corporate headquarters, which incorporated sound stages, film editing rooms and two homes. His privately held company had an estimated reported annual income of $300 million and was regarded as the largest manufacturer of exercise machines in the world. Physique legends John Grimek, Steve Reeves, Bill Pearl, Sergio Oliva, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Franco Columbu, Boyer Coe, Mike and Ray Mentzer and Casey Visator made their pilgrimage to meet the cantankerous tycoon and to train on Nautilus equipment.
Following the sale of Nautilus Sports/Medical Industries, Inc., Jones founded the Med X Corporation to pursue research and development projects he began in the 1970s. He explained,
          "Dedicating over 20 years of my life and $80 million perfecting the Med X medical technology, in 1991, another line of exercise machines was added to the Med X medical group. These machines were a vast improvement over my original Nautilus line."
Retiring from Med X in 1996, Arthur Jones, the gun toting, third world mercenary who had married five times, chain-smoked his way through life and drank quarts of coffee each day, proudly stated,
          "I've been broke more times than I care to count and I still made the Forbes Fortune list of the 400 richest by the mid-1980s. When I sold Nautilus Sports/Medical Industries in 1986, I owned a large farm located north of Ocala, Florida. The 350 acres of prime real estate housed the largest privately owned airport. including three Boeing 707 airliners and the largest exclusively owned collection of exotic wild animals. My menagerie consisted of 100 African Elephants, 4,000 crocodilians, three albino rhinos and Micky, my 400 pound pet gorilla."
In the late 1990s, Jones was living in a modest home in Deland, Florida, when, And God Laughs, his self-aggrandizing autobiography, was published. He closed an interview by asserting:
           "Within my life, I've accomplished 50 things; any one of which others would give anything to have done once. I've been the length of the Congo, Nile and Amazon. I've captured adult crocodiles and African elephants. I've invented a camera mount so steady you can use it from a helicopter flying in a whirlwind, and the picture will be in focus. I've run a jeep into a tree at 60 miles per hour. I've been bitten by poisonous snakes 24 times, and hundreds of times by non-poisonous snakes. I've survived a couple of plane crashes, that weren't my fault, was chewed up by a lion and a myriad of other cats, was shot six times, axed once and stabbed on occasion. I've killed at least 600 elephants and 73 men and I'm more sorry for the elephants!"
Arthur Allen Jones, died of natural causes on August 28, 2007, at age 85.

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life lessons HTH        1️⃣ Shrink your time horizon
-Be humble. You don’t know it all. Seek out education from those who have done/are doing the “thing” you want to do. Pay them for years of knowledge to compress your learning into a shorter time frame. This brings your goal closer, faster.
2️⃣ Don’t operate in scarcity
-This is the worst mindset to have. There’s always more opportunities, you just don’t see them or you just aren’t doing the work. Change the angle you’re viewing the situation or issue & you’ll find a solution. This is something to work on daily.
3️⃣ No one is coming to save you
-You control your life. Times are hard but they will get better. However, don’t spend years your life “stuck” where you’re at pointing the blame finger. No one is going to magically come change it. You have to take control to change it.

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  Vern Weaver the 1963 AAU Mr. America
Forty contestants entered the 1963 AAU Mr. America contest held at the Zembo Mosque in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Vern Weaver captured the title with 92.5 points out of a possible 100. This was Weaver's fourth attempt to win the elusive crown.
In second place was the legendary African American Harold Poole, who walked off stage when his placing was announced.  However, Poole had the consolation of winning the Most Muscular award.
Craig Whitehead, a medical student, at Tulane Medical  School, placed third.
At a bodyweight of 205-pounds, Weaver represented the York Barbell Club and was a highly qualified Olympic weightlifter in the 198-pound division. At one meet he power-cleaned 370 pounds before jerking the weight overhead.
Weaver won the tall man's division at the 1964 NABBA Amateur Mr. Universe. His final physique competition was at the 1966 NABBA Professional Mr. Universe contest where he placed second in the tall man class.
Little is recorded regarding Vern Weaver from 1966 onward. It is known he took his life in 1993, at age 56.

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  Vern Weaver the 1963 AAU Mr. America
Forty contestants entered the 1963 AAU Mr. America contest held at the Zembo Mosque in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Vern Weaver captured the title with 92.5 points out of a possible 100. This was Weaver's fourth attempt to win the elusive crown.
In second place was the legendary African American Harold Poole, who walked off stage when his placing was announced.  However, Poole had the consolation of winning the Most Muscular award.
Craig Whitehead, a medical student, at Tulane Medical  School, placed third.
At a bodyweight of 205-pounds, Weaver represented the York Barbell Club and was a highly qualified Olympic weightlifter in the 198-pound division. At one meet he power-cleaned 370 pounds before jerking the weight overhead.
Weaver won the tall man's division at the 1964 NABBA Amateur Mr. Universe. His final physique competition was at the 1966 NABBA Professional Mr. Universe contest where he placed second in the tall man class.
Little is recorded regarding Vern Weaver from 1966 onward. It is known he took his life in 1993, at age 56.