Stories - Your favorite stories re pros / legends

[stuntmovie]

This was Zucky's on 5th and Wilshire if I remember correctly. It was Santa Monica's only Kosher Coffee Shop and they served great meals including Pastrami sandwiches and home made chicken soup with a real chicken in it. It was always one of my first stops when I was in Santa Monica. It was another Gold's Gym/World Gym haven.

Some guy named Arnuld was always holding court at one of the tables. This place is part of my bodybuilding history. Sad to see the shape it's in today.

[stuntmovie]

To the best of my knowledge, this was the location of Weider Enterrises' first west coast location. Dave Draper worked here mailing out Weider suppliments while Joe was still doing business out on the east coast.

I believe that Dave was training in the "Dungeon" at this time and made "Don't Make Waves" whilehe was working there.

I tried to find the Dungeon but I'm pretty sure it was located where the big Santa Monica Shopping Mall stands today. Another part of bodybuilding history lost forever.

This location is a few steps down the street from Zucky's.

<Unable to transfer photo at this time due to site unavailability. Will resubmit later today>

[knny187]

good pictures

[stuntmovie]

Thanks, Knny!

Here's a 2nd attempt at sending that Weider first west coast office photo ...........

[stuntmovie]

Here's Guido!

There is an interesting history behind Guido, but I forget it so I'll leave it up to Only to tell us that one.

I'm confused on who was the original artist, but I do recall some story about Pete staying alive as a result of "Guido".

This is actually the Guido Crossing Sign outside of Gold's Gym Venice.

HEY!! If this is boring stuff to the group or if it takes up too much room, let me know and I'll stop posting them. WOuld hate to be a web site HOG!

[stuntmovie]

Back to the beach! This is a present day photo of the old Muscle Beach location. The actual pit was maybe thirty yards  south of the lifeguard headquarters and I don't recall that building being there in the late 50's/early 60's.

The Santa Monica Pier and the old Merry Go Round is right off the photo to the right (north) and the roof tops you see in this photo are the Muscle Beach businesses serving cold beer and various greasy foods. That's be my next photo.

[stuntmovie]

Almost directly opposite the SM Merry Go Round is Dean's Muscle Inn where they serve cold beer and fast foods. The walls are covered with the olden days Muscle Beach photos. An interesting spot to take a break if you're in the area. This is one of the first spots I had a legal beer.

[stuntmovie]

Three of the Muscle Beach originals. They were sitting on this bench looking at a very well preserved scrapbook of personal photos taken at Muscle Beach in the 40's/50's.

That scrapbook would be worth a million dollars if Weider could get his hands on it. It included photos of just about every bodybuilder and gymnast who ever showed up at MB in the glory days.

It clearly showed how important gymnastics was to the popularity of Muscle Beach. Probably more important than bodybuilding itself.

They asked me to wait around to meet Armand Tanny whom I know from many years back but I had to head off to meet another group for dinner and they got busy getting briefed by one young lady who was doing a video on them for a school assignment.

I kick myself in the ass for not getting more detailed information but it was one of those afternoons when everything was happening too damn fast to get the facts.

[stuntmovie]

Santa Monica "Muscle Beach" as it stands today.This is the approximate location but the trees are relatively new. The Purser Hotel was in the vicinity. You'll see that hotel in a lot of the old photos taken in the glory days.

(Been reducing these photos to make them load faster so the quality may be not quite up to par.)

[man from oz]

i'd love to get there one day mate
great stuff keep it coming

[stuntmovie]

Thanks, OZ@

The Firehouse! The number one spot to meet your favorite pro. Most all the guys and gals eventually eat a meal or two here after a Gold's Gym workout.

I stopped for lunch late last month and got stuck for a couple of hours talking story with five of the pros and a couple of unreal up and coming amateurs.

I'd start out the door and someone else would come in dragging me to the table to have a few words or more.

The one natual competitor having lunch with Jay was most impressive and should be making a major name for himself soon. I misplaced his name but I'll contact Jay and ask for it. He was definitely contest ready and most impressive.

In those few hours I caught up with Jay and Chick and Prince and Gunter and a couple of impressive amateurs among others.

The Fire House - Great place to talk story and have a fairly decent meal. Get the Bodybuilder's Special - Chicken with vegetbles.

[stuntmovie]

I should have mentioned that the Firehouse is around the cornor from Gold's.

And right across from the Firehouse is the Rose Cafe where the coffee is pretty good and the crowd is interesting.

Everytime I go there I see a movie star or two but mostly people I recognize from various TV series.

Famous among BB's cause it is right up the street from Gold's.

Here is an interior shot of the Rose Cafe

[stuntmovie]

The PIT at Venice Beach. I don't know if you call it "the pit" any more but in my day it was the PIT.

Back in the old days before the PIT we used to catch an electric open air tram right in front of the Santa Monica Pier and ride it all the way down along the Beachwalk to Venice Beach. I think that cost a dime and it took about ten to fifteen minutes to go one way.

I actually forget why we rode down to Venice Beach because I don't recall there being too much there. Might have been a pier with a dance hall on it where famous big name bands used to play but I'm not too sure that it was still there in the 50/60's.

But I do recall Pacific Ocean Park (POP) on the Pier that was at the midway mark in the approximate location where those big high rise apartments are today. That was a major LA beach attraction that pulled them in like Disneyland but not quite enough to keep them going after a few years trying.

They had the only all wood roller coaster on the west coast that was built on the pier over the ocean and every time I rode it, I felt like I would be swimming back to the beach. It shook like it was gonna collapse. I hear that they eventually had to tear it down.

Back in those days the beachwalk was never really crowded so that electric tram ran every day of the week and tons of old folks lived in those beach front units. There were a good number of Synagogs and all the benches were full of old folks talking foreign languages and enjoying the sun while wrapped in black colored robes of some kind.

It was entirely different than it is today. TOTALLY!

[stuntmovie]

My home for a brief period in the 70's/early 80's. (The blue building with the guy climbing up the side.) It was dirt cheap back then but even the one bedroom that I had is probably into the Stratosphere today.

A friend of mine now lives in a Venice apartment building that shares rooms with six bunkbeds per room. I forgot his share of the monthly rent but it was rediculous.

And they have a waiting list!!!

The Venice area is slowly going through a recovery phase at present. Walk a few blocks past the Pit in a southerly direction and you'll be seeing beachfront homes priced in the millions, some belonging to professional athletes. (Not the bodybuilders of couse! They prefer to work cheap!)

[stuntmovie]

Here is the photo I failed to submit as mentioned above. SOrry bout that...........

Note the optical illusion! The artist/painter did a great job!

[619Rules]

Kevin/Stuntmovie-

These pictures are GOLD baby- GOLD!

Here are some updates to a few questions raised.

1. The 2nd Golds Gym location at 1452 2nd Street Santa Monica was a 15,000 sq/ft building divided in half. Gold's Gym had 7500 and Lisa Lyon rented the other half as a home.

2. The 2nd Street location was home to Gold's Gym from 1977-1982. In 1982 they moved into the 360 Hampton Drive location. That was the first time I was ever in Gold's Gym Venice-1983. Same for World Gym-22 years ago.

3. The original Gold's Gym muscle man, "Guido" was designed by Ric Drasin, who has been on some TV series lately-like "The Sheild"  on the FX network. He had a few original Gold's Gym shirts with Guido, or what most people call "Baldy" on them, that he were selling on EBAY for about-as I recall-500 bucks each. Baldy has since had a make over though, and he looks more like Oscar from the Academy Awards to me now .

4. The 1006 Pacific Avenue location, Gold's Gym #1, is now a home. Ken turned it into his home, and that was the reason why the gym moved to 2nd Street in Santa Monica. Lee Priest posted a while back that the place was listed for sale and it had a price tag of about 500,000 as I recall Lee posting. Lee went in and looked it over. That would be the ULTIMATE-buying the original Gold's Gym as your home. It is amazing that today, after the gym being gone for 28 years, it still has the Gold's Gym sign that can easily be seen. The windows were taken out and plastered over though.

5. The old World Gym location at 2210 Main Street in downtown Santa Monica. I have been by it recently and the bottom used to be parking-about 5-6 spaces (showers were also downstairs next to the parking spaces), but it has been sealed off and turned into office space. It was listed as being for lease when I was there about a year ago. At one time Tony Nowak, who makes all the World Gym, Arnold Classic and Terminator leather jackets had his office located there. Tony was also in "Pumping Iron". Arnold comes into Gold's to train and he goes "Big Tony". And Tony is a huge guy.

6. Is Zucky's still open? It looked pretty beat up!

7. The "Dungeon" gym that Dave Draper trained at, before Gold's Gym opened in 1965, was in the basement of an old hotel that was torn down. It was replaced with a parking lot-and I am sure the the parking lot has been developed by now.

8. Muscle Beach Santa Monica was almost all gymnastics and tumbling up until the late 40's. That is when the bench press platforms and squat platforms were built. They were made out of wood back in those days-not steel. Even in the 1950's there was some serious bench pressing going on at Muscle Beach.

Those pictures are BBing history. You should have hung with the Muscle Beach old timers and waited for Tanny to show up, that would have been the bomb.

Thanks for sharing! Loved it baby!

[stuntmovie]

Thanks for the updates, Rules. Appreciate any kick to the old memory banks.

I knew Lisa but did't know she lived next door. Must have been during one of my many absences. She changed "gym history" for females. What is Lisa doing now?

I knew Ken Sprague when he converted the original gym to his home or entended his house next door into the gym. I never did get that story straight.

I last saw Ken at 2nd Street Gold's when he was shooting photos for his Gold's Gym Training Manual or whatever it was named. He had already sold the gym to Pete and the gang and was living up north with his wife in a very nice home on an island in the Seattle area.

Yes, Zucky's has been all boarded up for a while now. That surprised me because it was such a popular spot for so many years. You could go in there to have a decent meal any time of the day or night and end up talking to some great or another.

I'm posting another photo of it all boarded up. It had a "For Lease" sign on it that last time I looked so maybe someone will resurrect it once again.

Do you recall the days when Joe Nazario worked as a "front door person" in a "new" Santa Monica restaurant on one of the side streets close to Gold's? I'll let you guess the name of the place which is still very popular.

Joe told us to drop by and have a good meal so we did. The tables had white linen tablecloths and candles and a piano player played dinner music. A full sized slab of ribs with all the trimmings (potato and slaw) would run ya about five or six dollars (it might have been even less). And they gave ya little, wet paper napkins at the end of dinner to clean your face and fingers. A very fancy joint back in them days.

I looked for the old location last month but failed to find it unless it was the current Lighthouse Buffet business.

Joe eventually returned to his home back east (Jersey?) and has not been heard from since. Anyone ever hear from Joe or know what the hell he's been up too lately?

Ya, Rules, I initially had a difficult time finding the original World's Gym building due to all the remodeling that has been happening up and down Main Street these past few years, so I took a photo of every building in that area that looked familiar (there are three  others apparently built by the same developer using similar plans) just to make sure I had one correct shot. I wasn't sure until you mentioned the address in an earlier post.

Yes, I believe that the Dungeon is now under the SM Shopping Mall.

OK, here's Zucky's as it was in April 2005. Sad..................

I can recall many many long bodybuilding discussions in that place and most of those discussions were so long that they had to be continued in the parking lot in back just north of the place.

[stuntmovie]

This "Wall" is located on Pacific Ave down from the original Gold's and was commissioned by Pete and his Gold's Gym partners.

I spent a lot of time reading this wall and have a couple of good friends' names on it.

God bless each and every one of them!

And thanks to Pete and the gany and everyone else who had a hand in setting this up.

[stuntmovie]

This is a true short story.

I have a friend who is into all the weight sports .. bodybuilding, powerlifting, and olympic lifting. He excels in all three but is not a professional in any.

But this individual has been known to help many athletes in their efforts to get to the pro level. He is a genius at seeing what is missing and making corrections that establish new "world" records.

I cannot say his name for obvious reasons but if Bill Starr is reading this, he will verify it and add some comments of his own.

This individual used to enjoy building his own gym/strength equipment. All types of far out gym equipment and crazy stuff to test the strength of any muscle in your body.

He was always in a search for iron. He needed the iron to make his stuff;

The city soon found that it was missing street sign poles from various cornors around the town. And "Slow Down", "Speed Bump", "Slippery When Wet" etc sgins were mysteriously disappearing. Anything made of iron was slowly finding its way into this guys possession and turning into training gear.

Then one day the city began missing manhole covers. Ya! Manhole covers! They make good bases for heavy gear or close to impossible to lift barbell plates.

This continued until an accident occured on a busy intersection. No one was hurt but he learned his lesson. From now on manhole covers would remain in place, but any other iron product was open game.

I regret that I never took a photo of his gym but we were discussing this in Venice the other day  and I had to take this picture............. The one that got away!

[Joe Roark]

Kevin & 619Rules,

EXCELLENT!

[Jeff Preston]

Kevin the pictures and recollections are absolute priceless treasures!
Your efforts are much appreciated across the world wide web!!!
As a matter of fact all contributions and contributors to this thread have made it a "classic"...thanks all around!

Some additional background info on the Gold's Gym mascot for you all from Ken Waller,

"You know when I got out there we didn't even have a t-shirt. I went up to the bay area, watched a band one night and there was this bald headed guy that looked like Mr. Clean. I had a friend (Ric Drasin,) and told him what I wanted. We bought a bottle of Mr. Clean I told Ric make him look like that and we'll make a t-shirt out of it. That's how the first little Gold's Gym man got started."

Ken Sprague mentioned that Ric's payment at the time for his artwork was $25 off his gym membership!
I hope Ric made out well on his ebay auctions, that little bald guy has made millions!

Managing Gold's Gym for Ken Sprague was the reason that Waller moved out to California in the first place.
You might enjoy catching up with "Big Red"  http://ironage.us/articles/preston-waller.html

Ken Sprague (he posts often on Ironage.us under the name "OldGoldsGuy") is trying to locate some pics from when he converted Gold's I to his home.  When he does we'll be sure to share them on this thread.
He also shared this bit of info on the interior:
"I also have fond memories of Golds as a home---my youngest son's crib was situated where the squat rack had been located.  My wife and I were married in the living room---the living room covered the north side of the building."

Ken's son went on to become a 4-time All American track and field athlete in the throws by the way.
Obviously there was something magical about that little cyder block building after all! 

[stuntmovie]

KEVIN HERE!

Thanks, Jeff. Thanks,  Absent!

Jeff, thanks for all that info you provided. That's the kind of stuff I hope to get sending these photos out.

I got a slew of old time photos in one of the family attics and promise to do my best to locate them ASAP. Those are the really interesting shots, but they are all 35mm so it may take a while for me to figure out how to get them on here, so don't hold your breath waiting.

I was asked to submit my posts to IronAge, but I just haven't had the extra time I need to do so....... So I hope those guys over there will come here to check this stuff out and correct me whenever necessary. My memory is getting to be like a worn out couch. But there are still some valuable coins beneath those cushions. I just gotta go looking for them.

Here's a picture of Roland I took while trekking from the Pier down to Santa Monica and back.

All those little cafes in the background did not exist in the 50's/60's. Now they are stretched all along the beachwalk throughout Venice.

[crownshep]

Kevin these photos are awesome,the one you posted that you said was the place where you used to live,is that right on the beach front.?The reason i ask is because i came over to the USA in 1990 to train for the British Championships,and trained at Golds and one day took a walk along the beach front and a couple of things stood out for me.The first was a shop that was there where a couple of stunning women were stood in the window,absolutely motionless,pretending to be mannequins.The other was a guy on roller skates,wearing a turban,and playing an electric guitar,who i then saw in a Bridget Fonda movie a couple of years later.Plus also a guy with no arms or legs who was sat on the floor rocking back and forth to music.I always wondered how he got there.Anybody else recognise any of these characters.

[stuntmovie]

I was 15 and lifting weights.

I thought I was a bodybuilder cause I knew Steve Reeves and in the old days every bodybuilder wanted to go to Santa Monica's Muscle Beach.

So I stold a family car and drove down from San Francisco in 1955 (or thereabouts). It was a 1941 (?) four-door ford with the largest back seat area in automotive history. You could actually sit in that back seat and stretch your legs out as far as possible and still not touch the front seat.

And all those car seats were thick and comfortable.

They made cars huge back then but gas was less than twenty-cents a gallon and we usually filled it up with loose coins we would find under that huge back seat.

Well, one day may dad woke up carless.

Me and four of my buddies drove it off to head down south at about 3 o'clock in the morning. We had decided to search for movie stars and see what was up in LA LA Land. We had never been there before.

But I made everyone promise me that I could get some spare time to check out Muscle Beach and they all agreeded as long as it was early in the morning while every one else was still asleep.

So four of us kids arrive in Hollywood looking for some movie stars.

Back then San Francisco kids were fancy dressers and we sort of led the pack with in-fashion Kakki pants and crew neck sweaters (new that year). And we had the necessary flat top haircuts.

Somehow we managed to get a motel room in Hollywood which was the in-place to be in Southern Cal back then.

We got some shut-eye that first nite and the next morning I was up with the roosters asking for directions to Muscle Beach while everyone else snoozed away.

Someone pointed west so I headed in that direction down Santa Monica Blvd. which was way way different way back then. No traffic! No stoplights! No small trendy businesses along the way! Just a clear shot to Santa Monica and a left turn to the beach.

I arrived before 9:00 am and parked my car up on the little rise overlooking Santa Monica Beach. No parking meters! No need to lock the car! No crowd of any kind!

A real short walk and there was Muscle Beach! WOW! Muscle Beach! There was the Purser and there was the pier and this was one hell of a mighty big beach! I'd seen it all in so many magazine pictures, I felt like I had been there many times before.

But it was completely empty and the morning sky was still a fog bound white.

But, what the hell! I'll check it out anyway.

It wasn't much really. Just a small, wooden fenced enclosure with partially rusty equipment inside and some kind of wooden stand off to one end.  All there, all alone on this huge sandy beach with no one on it.

The sounds of the Merry Go Round brightened up the place a bit but not enough to make it too appealing.

And then someone came down that same hill that I had just taken a minute before. A huge guy and definitely a bodybuilder.

Must be coming for an early morning workout.

And to make a long story short .......... it was Doug Strohl.

I got brave enuff to have a brief conversation but I had friends waiting back at the hotel so it was a very bried howdy-doo.

I never did see a photo taken of Doug in the great condition he was in that day. Or maybe my memory gave him more credit than he actually deserved.

But Doug was the first bodybuilder I ever met at Muscle Beach and I've carried that memory to this very day and once in a while Jeff Everson will write "Whatever happened to Doug Strohl?" cause that is what I always ask him whenever we get together.

So I got back to the motel and we started our search for movie stars ..........

We met Eddie FIsher and Jeffry Hunter and Phyllis Thaxter and a very young Marlon Brando in a shitty little bar/food joint called the "Lamplighter" someplace off Hollywood Blvd. We even got served a beer or two. (Must have been our High Fashion cause we were two years shy of 18.)

ANd because we were impressively dressed by the Hollywood standards of those day, we were invited by John Gudel who we met while having dinner at Trader Vics in the Beverly Hilton Hotel to be his personal guests on the Art Linkletter Show followed by an invite to the Bob Crosby SHow ..... Bing's brother.

But we got thrown off the 20th Century Fox Studio lot when we followed a huge truck through the front gate. At least we had seen it for 20 seconds.

Somehow we fell in with the Rich and Famous but I left LA a few days later with only one important memory.

I had visited Muscle Beach early one morning and had met Doug Strohl.

I got hell when I got home, but my dad got me a car I could call my own and we headed back down south quite often after that.

As it is today .....................

[stuntmovie]

Yes, Crown, I do know all those people you have mentioned. Not personally though, but I think I have photos of most of them.

The shop that you mentioned was possiby either one of two shops that used great looking ladies to model their goods. I got a photo of each of those shops and will post them shortly. Turban guy on roller skates has been on Venice beachwalk for many years. I have photos of him someplace too and will post them if I can find them.

The following photo used to be the business location where male and female models w. ould model the clothes that were sold inside the shop. Later on it became a leather jacket shop and now it is nothing at all. There is another shop further north that could possibly be the shop you are referring too. They hire a good looken guy and a beautiful lady to model their wild clothes. The guy is a ripped up bodybuilder (most of the time) so he always models a shirt half unbuttoned. If I recall right, they do stand motionless. Can't find a photo of that shop though.