When I stayed at Ray Mentzer's place in 1991 (he owed me since he and Kathy stayed at my place in Sydney for at least 3 months a few years previously) he drove me to a few places. It took me two days to figure out I needed my own car. Ray spoke to the guy at the desk at Gold's Venice and I got a free membership card for my two week stay in LA. I remember when I first came to Gold's in 1968 in October that Joe let me train for free then, too. All he wanted to know was how long I would be there. I offered to do chores around the gym but he said it was okay.
The next year, 1969, I got married to Roz and guess where I wanted to go for my honeymoon? LA! I went to train at Golds and Joe took Roz to the Beach while I trained. I remember watching Joe play beach volleyball and since I loved most sports asked if I could join in. Nope, they had their group and that was that. While I was there I heard from Seymour Koenig that Joe wanted to sell the gym for $50,000. I was interested and joked with Joe that I would buy it if he financed me. Ah, what a bargain that would have been. However, I was no entrepreneur so who knows what would have happened to that name. I would have let Joe have the name back if he wanted to buy his gym back.
Anyway I visited Golds in 1980 but without Joe there it didn't seem like the same place. The next visit was in 1991. I saw big Paul Dillette and thought he was a giant. He weighed about 290 then and had the widest shoulders I have ever seen. I think everyone felt he didn't have to pose and should have been Mr Olympia anyway. I introduced myself and was surprised to find out he was from Canada. I got him to pose for a few photos outside and I have one with the two of us in it. I wanted to post it with the caption, "Guess which one won Mr Canada?" Paul was disqualified in the Mr Canada but in my day there were no tests of any kind. Several days later I introduced Ray to Paul. Ray tells it like it is and declared that Paul's physique was ugly. I guess it was all those veins. Paul dwarfed Ray and Ray weighed about 260 then. Ray said I knew more people there than he did and I had been there for only 2 weeks while he had been there for 10 years. He introduced me to big Lou but I wasn't charged anything to shake his hand!. I saw Lou in 2000 and asked where Ray was. He said he hasn't seen him since the last time we met. I told him he still looked good and that made him smile.
While I was there in 91 I noticed this big muscular woman who had arms almost as big as mine. She really impressed me and I thought she either thought I was some ugly ass or she was a bit interested in me. I love the way those LA women aren't afraid of eye contact. Anyway, I noticed her several times during my daily visits to the gym. I thought to myself that I had better not approach her because for all I knew she might be a bloke! When you have been around beaches as long as I have you tend to be a bit more cautious. On my last day at the gym I showed a few people the photos I took of Paul. Achem Albrecht sp? was there training and also weighing about 290 pounds. So I walk up to Achem and show him my photos. The superlady is nearby so I say, "Hey, they say you gals look like fellas but this is what real men look like." She came over to have a look and introduced herself. I cursed myself because I knew her from the magazines. She had dark hair now and used to be a blond. I think she moved from there but she had a business giving nutrition advice.