Muscle Beach History - by Stuntmovie

[BIG AL MCKECHNIE]

BTW Big Al. So Harry only served a year? Conviction 1963, pic above happlily in front of gym 1964.

Hi Mr MB (or is it BM ), the court record is for the appeal of the conviction in January 63 so I'm guessing the conviction would have been sometime in 62 as the death occurred in July 61. Still, 2 years seems short. Must have helped that he was a lawman although I can think of more pleasant side lines than performing abortions.   Did you notice that Bill was mentioned in the court notes?

[Mr. MB]

I can't begin to tell you how interesting all this is. As I said I was close to this man for years. He had a Central American wife 20 years his junior and a daughter with her. He was a sweet gentle giant. Yes he was bigger and stronger than Bill. Mixed Yakima Native American and German Harry got mostly German DNA.
Harry taught me several prison exercises. I used them right up till retirement earlier this year.

[jpm101]

Thank you Big Al and for all the time you spent of getting this information.......very interesting stuff. Must have been some plea bargaining going on (usually is) for Harry to be such a short timer. San Quentin is one serious place, probably more so in the 60's, so a year seems a pretty short time. Any way, thanks again.

Funny that Mr MB mentioned prison exercises. The gentleman, who first told me his version of the Pearl story, said that Harry showed him a couple of movements while in the joint also. Said Harry favored the Around The World DB exercise, for all around strength and development movement  (lay on a bench, with two DB's resting on the legs. ..than just bring the DB's out to the side and end up touching them together at a full stretch behind the head..than back to the original position again). And that 400lbs benches were fairly common at San Quentin, at that time.

Stunt:  Have a couple stories about John Trisham, back in the day. Choosing not to tell them might be a better thing to do.

[funk51]

Good story about Harry Pearl but the fact is he killed a woman after performing a botched abortion.

People v. Pearl
211 Cal. App. 2d 783

 [Crim. No. 3332. Third Dist. Jan. 14, 1963.]
THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. HAROLD PEARL et al., Defendants and Appellants.

COUNSEL

Rudolf Binsch and Richard A. Case, under appointment by the District Court of Appeal, for Defendants and Appellants.

Stanley Mosk, Attorney General, Raymond M. Momboisse and Richard Lee, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

OPINION

SCHOTTKY, J.

Defendants, Harold Pearl and Robert Kennedy, appeal from judgments of conviction entered after a jury found them guilty of the crimes of abortion and murder of the second degree.
Full story here :

http://law.justia.com/cases/california/calapp2d/211/783.html

that's the story.

[funk51]

Thank you Big Al and for all the time you spent of getting this information.......very interesting stuff. Must have been some plea bargaining going on (usually is) for Harry to be such a short timer. San Quentin is one serious place, probably more so in the 60's, so a year seems a pretty short time. Any way, thanks again.

Funny that Mr MB mentioned prison exercises. The gentleman, who first told me his version of the Pearl story, said that Harry showed him a couple of movements while in the joint also. Said Harry favored the Around The World DB exercise, for all around strength and development movement  (lay on a bench, with two DB's resting on the legs. ..than just bring the DB's out to the side and end up touching them together at a full stretch behind the head..than back to the original position again). And that 400lbs benches were fairly common at San Quentin, at that time.

Stunt:  Have a couple stories about John Trisham, back in the day. Choosing not to tell them might be a better thing to do.

this is getbig if the stories are factual tell them. on ironage one of the members said dr c f smith was one of the strangest characters he ever encountered in the gym. yet upon pressing always failed to elaborate.

[ikke]

best thread ever, tx stunt.

[njflex]

awesome,builds,stories,,,

[Mr. MB]

JMP....yes Harry Pearl's 'around the worlds'. My arthritic shoulders still ache from doing these.

Prison Curls for a pack of cigs. Grab a fixed 45# bar. Goal is to do one or more reps than the other man. He then must pass you or fail. Endless ways of doing this. Gradual, mixed or all out. For kicks and giggles let me do 10 reps. You do 11. I do 20. You do 25. I do 40. You try to bury me and knock out 60 eye bulging reps. I win. Here is why. I barely grind out 61. Now moments ago you hardly got your 60....now 62? No way.

Breathing Squats a la Harry. 225 in the rack and a 60# dumbell on the floor. 10 deep reps with the 225. Quickly on to the floor while trainingg partner slides under the bar. Do knees up on your back DEEP breathing lat pullovers until the other guy does his 10 reps. Switch no rest. On and on until failure.

Then there was The Transition which I will write about another time. I did that one for show prep before taking 2nd in Mr. Cal.

[jpm101]

These men, from a past era, have that powerful look, but also a manly grace to them. Excellent pictures. They look like they can actually do something with their muscular development. Most Pro's today, have a hard time walking across a stage without getting out of breath. And they would be lost without any machines to work with. Maybe BB'ing will return to the more classic look of the early years...hope so.

Mr. MB

Yeah, this cell mate of Harry's also stress the pullover (either bent or straight arm) as a prime exercise. And as you mentioned, the "Pass The Trash" BB curls...one version was to face each other, do one rep than pass the bar to the other guy, than back again, etc, etc, etc..

And as old time prison vet's know, the breathing squat & pullover can be the ultimate mass builder...when doing joint time. Only had so much time to workout , so made the most of it.

[stuntmovie]

UKKE, Thanks, but it's a group effort, so it you don't mind .... I'll thank them all on your behalf!!

C.F. Smith!!!!! I need some help with my memory banks here because it's been one hell of a long time since I heard that name, but C.F. was one of the two Pearl's Pasadena members who sat down with Bill in his office and discussed the 'practicality' of joining Golds in Santa Monica for a couple of months because Gold's Gym would be promoting the Mr America (or was it the NPC National Championships?) in two months hence.

They were both long time members of Bill's Gym so they wanted to explain why they would be training at Gold's and were curtious enough to discuss it with Bill.

My confusion enters the picture when it comes to recalling C.F.'s training partner who was also planning to enter the same contest.

But it was either CF or his training partner whose name I have forgotten (HELP!, MR MB!!!).

And it was either CF or his training partner who was getting a lot of publicity in the national magazines due to his exceptional vascularity.  

In fact most people in the game considered him as the man to beat that year.

So does anyone recall who C.F.'s training partner was back then?

A year or so later one National competitor came on stage for the individual posing round during the prejudging and stood there and yelled at the judging officials .... but don't ask me what derogatory remarks he made because I was attending to business in the lobby, but you could hear the rukus even back there.

I think that was the same year when Tony Pierson won the overall title and RON TEUFEL caused some commotion back-stage, but that has been a long while back and I have forgotten the details.

Any help on the above would be appreciated and may be of interest to most GetBiggers who like this sort of provocative stuff.

[stuntmovie]

JPM.... I think you might have UN-KNOW-ING-LY  made an interesting comment when you offered the following

"They look like they can actually do something with their muscular development. Most Pro's today, have a hard time walking across a stage without getting out of breath. And they would be lost without any machines to work with.

Back in those days we often referred to two type of workouts ..

1. Functional Muscle Workouts.

and

2. Go for the Show Workouts.

The overwhelming and vast majority of the military guys trained for 'functional muscle' while the civilians who wanted to eventually compete or just look super-human trained as per #2 (Go for the Show!).
.

Some of the functional muscle guys would often refer to the competitive bodybuilders as "BULKY BLUNDERS" because the whole concept of what they believed to be "unfunctional muscle" was somewhat strange to them .

Gradually some respect between both groups developed simply due to the fact that one group began to understand the rational of the other and  vise-vera.

Some simblence of this 'animosity' among various training methods (or for no physical training at all type of indiviuals) still exists today as evident in the postings on this GetBg Board.

But that animosity is even more "animostic" due to the fact that we are all unable to punch someone in the while on the  internet which allows each of us to  be as brave as we want to be  ...... but really 'ain't'.

(Sorry for the sermon!)

ANd then you said ....
"
Maybe BB'ing will return to the more classic look of the early years...hope so".

I think that statement is entirely correct an what is starting to happen.

And I think that it is entirely possible that that is why the NPC initiated the Men's Physique Division. (It is being done in a manner which would be least 'offensive' to today's bodybuilding competitors. And a gradual change is always the least offensive for all concerned.)

That may not be too damn evident right now but change is always gradual and often unseen during the changing process.

Thanks for listening to my rants and raves - whatever the hell that means!

[Mr. MB]

the 212 class reigns today. Here sanity prevails. V taper is the norm. My friend Troy Alves understands and has joined these ranks. In the open he gets crushed by gorilla belly men 50 pounds bigger.

[funk51]

UKKE, Thanks, but it's a group effort, so it you don't mind .... I'll thank them all on your behalf!!

C.F. Smith!!!!! I need some help with my memory banks here because it's been one hell of a long time since I heard that name, but C.F. was one of the two Pearl's Pasadena members who sat down with Bill in his office and discussed the 'practicality' of joining Golds in Santa Monica for a couple of months because Gold's Gym would be promoting the Mr America (or was it the NPC National Championships?) in two months hence.

They were both long time members of Bill's Gym so they wanted to explain why they would be training at Gold's and were curtious enough to discuss it with Bill.

My confusion enters the picture when it comes to recalling C.F.'s training partner who was also planning to enter the same contest.

But it was either CF or his training partner whose name I have forgotten (HELP!, MR MB!!!).

And it was either CF or his training partner who was getting a lot of publicity in the national magazines due to his exceptional vascularity.  

In fact most people in the game considered him as the man to beat that year.

So does anyone recall who C.F.'s training partner was back then?

A year or so later one National competitor came on stage for the individual posing round during the prejudging and stood there and yelled at the judging officials .... but don't ask me what derogatory remarks he made because I was attending to business in the lobby, but you could hear the rukus even back there.

I think that was the same year when Tony Pierson won the overall title and RON TEUFEL caused some commotion back-stage, but that has been a long while back and I have forgotten the details.

Any help on the above would be appreciated and may be of interest to most GetBiggers who like this sort of provocative stuff.

not sure maybe this guy

[funk51]

not sure maybe this guy

;)ron teufel a pa guy actually met him at a contest in allentown . he died young.

[funk51]

 

[stuntmovie]

FUNK!!! DAMN, DUDE!!! YOU is SMART!

Clinton is the very individual whom I had long forgotten!

How do you know this stuff!!? Are you clairvoyant?

YEP! It was Clinton and CF who trained together at Bill's and entered the contest while Gold's members that year! One of the other of them went on to receive a pilot's license and possibly still flies above the clouds today.

Can you find the results of that year's contest and tell me how each of them placed??  That's a tough one.

[funk51]

 

[funk51]

FUNK!!! DAMN, DUE!!! YOU is SMART!

Clinton is the very individual whom I had long forgotten!

How do you know this stuff!!? Are you clairvoyant?

YEP! It was Clinton and CFF who trained together at Bill's and entered the contest while Gold's members that year! One of the other of them went on to receive a pilot's license and possibly still flies above the clouds today.

Can you find the results of that year's contest and tell me how each of them placed??  That's a tough one.

just a student of all iron sports[ plus football baseball, wrestling and to a lesser degree basketball and boxing]. 1977 dave johns rip won aau mr a. both clint b and cf smith were second in there classes. 78 tony pearson won clint b second in the talls again to manuel perry. cf smith dropped t0 10 th in the meds. too many trips to macdonalds i would suspect.

[stuntmovie]

UGHHH! You guys are keeping me busy trying to remember and then to respond but I'm gonna do my best  as time allows.....

Gotta remember to sneak in here and talk about Troy Alves, and Ronnie Teufel, and Dave Johns, and the 212'ers which is relatively new to me since it wasn't 'old day stuff'.

And I gotta tell you some of the old time after-contest-stories that we told in smokie-filled rooms when the smell of Maui Wow-ie filled the air and almost prevented you from seeing who the story was coming from ....  and you could never tell the difference between
truth and fiction, and honesty and the American way ....

Or was it  simply just plain old bullshit!!!! The kind of bullshit that everyone claimed was the honest truth!

I'll leave that up for you to  decide.

BTW... Can someone tell one off the GET BIG MODERATORS  or possibly RON that Joe ROURK cannot sign in  and it says sometihing like "you signed in 30 seconds ago!" or something like that.

[Joe Roark]

test

[Joe Roark]

Hopefully the glitch is gone- thanks, to whoever fixed it.

[stuntmovie]

That was fast, Joe!

FUNK, I believe that there is more to the story why CF was placed as low at 10th.

It wasn't Ronald's fault.

I think that 10th place included all contenders who placed 10th through 20th or however low those placings extended.

I think it was CF who made some adverse remarks directed at the judging officials while on stage during the prejudging process  and was placed 10th because 10th cculd actually been last place anyway.

Could be wrong though

[funk51]

clint also had a brother who was a decent olympic lifter in the 198 lb class , he was noyed for his great legs. name was eldon b......e.

[The Scott]

I believe that Clint is now married to the very beautiful, former Cathy Gelfo (also a former girlfriend of the late Mike Mentzer).

Dale Adrian won the '75 Mr. America (AAU) and was touted as another "Larry Scott".  Clint won the Tall Division and Dale the Medium Height class.  I cannot recall who won the Short Division...No.... Wait!  It was Pat Neve!  Ron Tuefel, Manny Perry and Dave Johns are all long gone now.  Robby Robinson placed somewhere down the line as did (I believe Mike Mentzer).  They later on jumped the AAU ship and signed up with Weider, Inc.

As to the 212 division, it is still loaded with short men that are too big for their height.  As a friend used to say, their  stomachs are so big they should call them "waste lines".  There is zero class and all ass (i.e., striated glutes - YUCK!) in today's bodybuilding.  As previously stated, the dais is void of talent.   The majority of the people that populate this forum get all butt hurted when you tell the truth and the truth is anyone can be big and strong on drugs.  Anyone, including them.

Reeves used to say that if you didn't have enough testosterone to be a bodybuilder then perhaps you should take up something more appropriate, like tiddly winks.  I blame the size queen judges.  A bunch of sick Boo Boo Bearcubs in heat.  I also tend to think that the film "Pumping Iron" is somewhat responsible as the world saw the difference between Mr. Olympia or Mr. Universe calibre competitors and the ones in the Mr. Boiled Peanut carnival contest shown in the film (the one where Katz was guest posing).

I do not see this changing anytime soon unless as mentioned elsewhere in the forum, Arnold steps in and declares enough is enough and that gross, huge legged, fat gutted, belly dancing fruits of the loon are not what they are looking for.   And enforces it through sound judging and proper placement of competitors.  The size queens will squeal like the piglets they are.

Here's to the days when men were men, muscle was functional and the titles of  Mr. America, Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympia actually meant something to not only the lifters but their families and friends as well.

[oldtimer1]

The physiques were fantastic back then. Now it's a science experiment. The muscles just look like bloated water retention. Bodybuilding was really gaining in popularity in the late 70's and early 80's. Now it is really going from a sub culture to a side show. Contests were every where back then and now just a few minor and major ones remain. Judging from the magazine sales that have always been the back bone of bodybuilding it's on life support. If there is any positive it's that fitness is bigger than ever with guys who work out. Men's Health out sells all the bodybuilding magazines combined. I guess it's not a bad thing. It use to be Strength and Health. Now bodybuilding is bloat, oil and drugs.