FitnessSource1.com: Your #1 Source for Fitness and Bodybuilding

When I was a teenager growing up in the 1960’s, myself and a few buddies of mine were part of a slowly growing subculture, although we didn’t know it at the time. As a matter of fact we probably didn’t even know what the word subculture meant. All we knew was that we liked to lift weights and this usually took place in our basements or backyards. Sherman had a great set of abs, Mark had good arms and shoulders. Richard was strong as an ox and trained at this time mainly for high school football although he would later take to the weights like a man possessed just for the sake of lifting. I had pretty good lats and chest with the side chest pose being one of my favorites because I had the weird ability to really push out my rib cage. I think that if we took Sherman’s abs, Mark’s arms and shoulders, my chest and lats, Richard’s strength and put them on one body we might have one half-way decent/half-ass body builder to be proud of!

Anyway, it must be pointed out that at this period in time bodybuilding and even fitness were not mainstream activities by anybody’s account. Pumping Iron, the great documentary movie that brought bodybuilding to the attention of the general public, was many years off in the future. There was little if any mainstream media coverage and bodybuilding gyms were few and far between. Occasionally on television you might see a well muscled professional wrestler but that was about it. The only way to keep up with the muscle world was through the muscle magazines which were sometimes not all that easy to get. The most popular magazines were Joe Weider’s “Muscle Builder” and “Mr. America” and Bob Hoffman’s “Strength and Health” and “Muscular Development”. “Ironman” magazine was also around but I don’t remember it as being so popular. My buddy Sherman and I would have an ongoing heated debate...no actually an ongoing heated argument...over who had the better muscle magazines - Joe Weider or Bob Hoffman. At this time Weider and Hoffman were engaged in an unholy “muscle war” with each one putting the other down in their respective magazines. Sherman felt that Hoffman’s magazines had more substance plus “Muscular Development” had the great John Grimek as editor. Grimek was Sherman’s main man and in his mind Grimek could do no wrong. I on the other hand was a Joe Weider fan. I felt that the Weider magazines were more “with it” and appealed to a younger crowd. Joe had cool things like the Weider Research Clinic and Crash Weight #7 plus hip surfer dudes like Dave Draper and Larry Scott frolicking on the beach with gorgeous bikini clad babes in the warm California sun. Every month I eagerly awaited the latest edition of “Muscle Builder” magazine to find out what was happening in the exciting underground world of muscles. Whether all this stuff was real or not didn’t make any difference because it gave me and my buddies the motivation to keep training even though the rest of the world was telling us to stop wasting our time with this nonsense.

The reality was that aside from the articles on building big muscles and the latest gossip these magazines had helpful information on fitness, nutrition, and personality development. We could have been reading a lot, lot worse stuff when we were teenagers!

All of the above preamble brings me to a great book entitled, “West Coast Bodybuilding Scene: The Golden Era” and written by a great writer by the name of Dick Tyler. You see, when Joe Weider was still based at his Union City, New Jersey east coast location, his right hand man covering the west coast bodybuilding scene was writer and journalist Dick Tyler. Dick was the guy who wrote feature articles and the gossip columns for Weider’s “Muscle Builder” and “Mr. America” magazines from the mid sixties to the early seventies, the time frame that has become affectionately known as The Golden Era of Bodybuilding. This was a time before drugs and big money entered the sport and when most of the top guys had a regular day job to support themselves. There was an innocence and camaraderie that is not seen today. These were the guys who were on the ground floor of something bigger to come and this book captures that era and feeling.

For a guy like me who has been following this little world since I was a kid, reading this book was pure joy. All of my early heros were there and remembered again having fun and getting into mischief while chasing “the pump” in a less complicated world. Muscle legends are here like Sergio Olivia, Freddy Ortiz, Dave Draper, Larry Scott, Bill Pearl, LeRoy Colbert, Frank Zane, Harold Poole, Rick Wayne, Mike Katz, Franco Columbu, Chuck Sipes, Jack Lalanne, Eddie Giuliani, Zabo Koszewski, Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Eiferman, Joe Weider, Joe Gold, Vince Gironda and many, many others. This is a fun, happy book that will keep a smile on your face from beginning to end and is loose in the sense that you can turn to any of its 400 pages and commence to read. The recollections presented here originally appeared as gossip columns and features in Joe Weider’s “Muscle Builder” and “Mr. America” magazines from the years 1965-1971 and were written by a guy who really and truly seemed to enjoy his job. Dick Tyler was a non-competitive bodybuilder who started lifting weights at the age of 14 during the 1940’s. His knowledge and love for the sport combined with his catchy sense of humor is evident in this writing and recording of bodybuilding history.

Two things kept coming to mind as I read this book. The first was that Dick probably had the best job in the world at this time because he was getting paid to write about a subject he loved while being a well-respected journalist and on-the-scene participant interviewing all of the greats of this era. The second thing that dawned on me was that Dick’s enthusiastic and happy writing style made the crazy world of muscles fun and was definitely one of the reasons why as a kid I liked the Weider magazines so much. Shucks! If I knew then what I know now I could have given my buddy Sherman much better arguments! Bob Hoffman might have had the great John Grimek but Joe Weider had the penmanship of Dick Tyler. Weider also had the good sense to surround himself with some of the best physique photographers in the world. “West Coast Bodybuilding Scene” has 160 black and white photos that augment the text perfectly and many of these photos were shot by these creative lensmen who visually recorded bodybuilding history. I’m talking about guys like Artie Zeller, Jimmy Caruso, Russ Warner, and Gene Mozee to name a few. There are also some very cool casual shots done by Dick Tyler himself actually photographing the photographers while they are hard at work and play with the bodybuilders!

There are some things in life that just naturally go together like ham and eggs or peanut butter and jelly. In the popular music world there was Jan and Dean, Sam and Dave, or Lennon and McCartney. In the muscle historian world you had Dick Tyler and Artie Zeller. Double dynamite! Dick’s journalistic penmanship and Artie’s perfection of the candid shot created the perfect synergy or mix of writer and lensman. You can see it in the photos and feel it in the writing as these two guys were definitely on the same wave length. Lucky for us!

As an extra added bonus, the foreward of this book and the captions for all 160 photos were written by none other than the Blond Bomber himself, Dave Draper. Dave was there in a big way when this era was at its peak and is the subject of many of Dick’s essays. Dave’s wit and memory bring the photos to life as no one else could quite do. In fact, in an article about Dave in the November 2004 “Muscle & Fitness” magazine, writer Jeff O’Connell says, “Dave Draper has become bodybuilding’s prose-poet laureate, wielding the pen as mightily as he once did the barbell”. And while speaking of Dave, I learned something new from reading this book. I always thought that it was Joe Weider who thought up the title of “The Blond Bomber” for Dave Draper, but it turns out it was our buddy Dick Tyler! Dick was also the first to nickname the current California governator “The Austrian Oak” long ago back in the day when the Gov’s biggest concern was building big muscles. I’ll let you read the book yourself to get all the details.

In summation, I heartily recommend “West Coast Bodybuilding Scene: The Golden Era” to both the old school and new breed muscle fan. The old timers like me will smile and reminisce about our early heros and the current fans will be inspired to learn in a fun way who the original cast of characters were and how the crazy world of muscles and the bodybuilding lifestyle evolved. Come to think of it, this book would make a great gift to give for the up and coming holidays. Wow! What a great idea! I’ll buy a copy and give it to Sherman for Christmas. Finally, after almost 40 years I think I have won our big argument!