Iron History

[Previous entry: "Iron History Mar 8-16, 2002"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Iron History Mar 22-28, 2002"]

03/14/2002 Entry: "Iron History Mar 15-21, 2002"

A word of thanks to those who send in corrections and/or additional details. Hopefully, by working together, we can offer more details and accuracy than is possible by me working alone. I never resist being corrected; truth is what we are after here, not some pet version of truth that I have to offer. So thank you for sharing and helping toward that goal!

Mar 15, 1866 Prof. Anthony Barker born in Bohemia; died 1973- yes at age 106! VIM magazine advertised his course for building strong arms in March 1940 and the cost was a quarter to be sent to 1235 6th Avenue Studio 3, NYC. His gym in that city was on the third floor of that building near 50th street (I think). Before the gym closed circa 1961 such a luminary as Al Treloar had trained there. The gym had opened in 1896, then moved to the address given above in 1920 (now Avenues of the Americas). David Chapman profiled Barker in Ironman January 2001, the same mag that presented Treloar's story on Barker in Nov 1955. Some of Barker's weights are now located in the York Barbell Hall of Fame.

Mar 15, 1921 Reuben Martin born; famous in British bodybuilding circles. He competed in the NABBA Mr. Universe once as an amateur: 1950, and ten times as a pro.

Mar 15, 1936 John Grimek gave a lifting demonstration in Chicago. At a bodyweight of 188 pounds he pressed 242, snatched 225.5 and cleaned and jerked 302.5. It was around this time that John injured his shoulder during an impromptu lifting challenge at a gym in Urbana, Illinois on the University of Illinois campus. Gym is still there. In John's day it was known as Men's Old Gym, but is now called Kenney Gym and is located at the corner of Springfield Avenue and Wright Street. When John was injured he was lifting on an elevated perimeter overlooking the main floor. Lifting with one hand he was about to lose the 270 bent press down onto the main floor, so with all-out effort he wrenched the weight (and his shoulder) backwards. John told me that he had been challenged in the usual way about muscle-bound etc., so he retorted that he could put more weight overhead with one hand than could his detractor with two. That's when the mishap took place.

John modeled for art classes here at the U of I, and I wrote to the University to confirm this, and received confirmation, but officials would not reveal how much John was paid without me getting clearance from him. So I asked him, and he said as he recalled it was about a dollar per hour- not bad money in the mid 1930s.

Mar 15, 1947 Gene Dubuque became Mr. New York City. Here are the previous winners: Jan 27, 1940 Lud Shusterich; Feb 25, 1941 & Feb 14, 1942, Frank Leight; May 13, 1945 Armon Ozon; Feb 9, 1946 Vic Nicoletti.

Mar 16, 1856 Duncan C. Ross, the famous wrestler, born in Scotland.

Mar 16, 1935 Roger Eells signed a photo for Joe Hise

Mar 16, 1977 Al & Vera Christensen were divorced. They had married on Aug 28, 1948. Vera was the lady who wrote the TO THE LADIES column for Strength & Health magazine from May 1956 onward. Her last offering for S&H was May 1986. A guess on my part is that this was the longest running column-written by the same woman- in muscle magazine history. Health & Strength had begun a 'Ladies Department' in its November 1901 issue. Mary Nugent wrote it. Does anyone know of a 'woman's section' or column offered before this?

Mar 16, 2001 Don Peters died; born Aug 5, 1936 in Minden, LA. Some years ago I was in contact with Don Peters regarding the date of a bodybuilding contest, and Don expressed regret that no one had told his full story of involvement in bodybuilding history, so I told him that would interest me, but before we started, to let me check with Flex to see if they would be interested. They were. But all my subsequent attempts to reach Don again were unsuccessful. Before long an article appeared in Ironman mag.

Don grew up in Garland, Texas, and began weight training in 1954 at age 16. He claimed to have been among the greeting party that day in 1968 in Miami the first time Arnold Schwarzenegger stepped foot in America, and the next night Arnold lost the Mr. Universe to Frank Zane.

Don met his future wife Dee at a party in 1962 and they were married on June 15, 1963 in Santa Barbara, CA. Their only child, Steve, born Sep 12, 1964 in Los Angeles, was named after Steve Reeves, and now lives in the Midwest.

Don worked as a film tech at MGM and in 1967 took a job as production assistant for Academy Films of Hollywood. Later he began making exercise equipment, and built a home gym for actor Robert Blake. In the fall of 2000 Don began having strange symptoms, his leg would become numb, and sometimes fail in its step, sometimes going numb as many as five times per day. A trip to the doctor with reported seizures led to worsening conditions and finally the central nervous system cancer took over his body. Finally on Friday, March 16, 2001, Don passed away. A memorial was held the following Wednesday, and another memorial was planned. Dee and Don had divorced eight years before he died but she looked after him in his final phase.

Don competed many times, but here are some of his victories: 1958 Mr. Dallas 1966 Mr. Los Angeles, Mr. International 1967 Mr. So. California, Mr. So. California Y, Mr. Los Angeles, Mr. Physique USA 1968 tall division IFBB Mr. America 1982 NPC Orange Coast Masters 1983 NPC Orange Coast Masters

Mar 17, 1882 Hermann Saxon born; died Dec 12, 1961. Hermann was the middle brother between older Arthur and younger Kurt. After a successful strongman career that took the brothers to several countries, Hermann lived to see his brother Arthur die on August 6, 1921, and his brother Kurt die on Sep 8, 1952.

By 1949 the once 198 lb strongman was down to 122 lbs and had been working as a naturopath and masseur in Leipzig; also did occasional artwork. Muscle Power magazine issued an appeal for readers to help him as he was in grave need of food, and aid could be sent to Leipzig N 21 (106) Schladitzer St. 9 111, Russian Zone, Germany. Readers, for whatever reasons, did not respond with much help. (this was true in other cases- wherein noted strongmen fell upon hard times and were in desperate situations and appeals made in the physical culture mags fell on turned away ears. In one case a very famous writer sent food in installments in exchange for the rare books and papers of a needy man. A friend of mine owns the sad correspondence to prove this unscrupulous behavior.)

When Hermann passed, he was cremated and his ashes were placed with his mother's grave, and a year-long appeal for funds to help with a proper grave marker netted $26.

Hermann lifted a 280 lb sack of flour every Friday night and no challenger ever succeeded in lifting that sack. The Saxons had another 'emergency sack' which contained a 56 lb blockweight to throw off the balance, and it was covered in French, or slippery, chalk.

His training on the bent press had begun at age 10. By 1915 he and Kurt were drafted into the German army- Arthur was refused because of his blind right eye. After the war Arthur and Hermann performed as a duo, while Kurt performed as a solo act.

Strength & Health Mar 1962 p 21 says Hermann died Dec 2; Gaudreau in Anvils, Horseshoes, and Cannons, says in Vol 2 page 9 that the date was Dec 12.

Mar 17, 1900 David P. Willoughby born; died Jan 17, 1983 If the works of DPW were to be removed from the database of bodybuilding and weightlifting, we would be in the dark ages for tracing many of the events we are now able to track because of his wonderful research and data-gathering. His contributions cannot be over-esteemed. His analysis of lifts and measurements and relationships are bewildering in their reach and gratifying in their presentation. Every time I encounter an article by David, I make a photocopy and put it in chronological order in a binder. It is the best 'book' in my library, and this is the reason lists of his articles will be appearing occasionally in Iron History. His body of work in the iron sports is invaluable. He was unimpressed with reputations or claims and always sought proof. He was a 'fan' in the intelligent sense, not the manic sense, so his first love was fact not fabrication or false claim, and it is very interesting to notice in his writings about whom he did NOT write�

His book The Super Athletes, published in 1970, should be in the library of anyone seeking information about the history of lifting. This book, combined with his many magazine articles, literally compose a resource that is un-matchable.

DPW, as he was fondly known contributed to virtually every main magazine in the field of physical culture contemporary to him. His works were intense, not shallow fluff, but numbers, details, dates, biographical information, comparative charts etc., that make a person interested in tracing history absolutely gleefully giddy!

There should be a bust of DPW in the Hall of Fame in York, in my prejudiced, biased, and unchangeable, opinion. Our field is much poorer with his absence, which sadly was caused by pneumonia.

Mar 17, 1950 Mary Roberts born; won IFBB Pro World in Toronto on April 21, 1985, a few months after placing third in the Ms. Olympia. In 1983 she had won the National Bodybuilding Fair competition.

Mar 17, 1970 Larry Jackson won Mr. California

Mar 17, 1994 Melvin Wells died; born Feb 2, 1919

Mar 18, 1949 George Paine won Mr. Metropolitan

Mar 18, 1950 John Farbotnik won Mr. California, which, I think, was his third victory, having won the 1946 Mr. Chicago and the 1949 Mr. Illinois.

Mar 18, 1965 Anna Saxon died. Elder sister to the Saxon brothers, and she lived the longest.

Mar 19, 1898 Prof. Szalay's Club in London presented a show entitled "A Scene with Sampson"

Mar 19, 1924 Claimed day for Stout Jackson's 6,472 lbs backlift. This lift exceeds the publicized claim of Paul Anderson which was 6,270, though I have a letter in my files in which Paul asserts that actually his lift was a couple hundreds pounds more than that, so 6,470- which is very close, of course, to Jackson's claim. Nothing is left of Jackson's backlift set-up (huge bales of hay) so we cannot weigh any of his ingredients. Paul's safe, as has been mentioned, weighed 1,200 lbs less than was counted in calculating his total, so that total by common sense and solid math must be reduced by that much.

Mar 19, 1949 The Edward C. Kinsey report from the judges this day awarded him Mr. Arkansas.

Mar 19, 1984 Principal photography began on the movie, THE TERMINATOR, the ninth movie appearance of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnold recently began work on the third Terminaotr movie.

Mar 19, 1999 Joe DiPietro died in Fair Lawn, NJ, at age 84. Born Jun 8, 1914 Readers of Strength & Health first glanced Joe in the Nov 1939 issue on page 34, and then read his letter to the editor seven pages later, where his name is spelled Di Pietro:

"Dear Bob, Enclosed you will find a picture of myself and I'll appreciate any criticism or comment you will care to make about it. I first started to lift with homemade weights and now I have a York 210 pound set. In a few months my lifts have increased rapidly. My best lifts at present are: press 160, snatch 133, clean and jerk 170, height 4-10, weight 112, chest 38, waist 27-7/8, forearm 10-3.4, biceps 13-3/8, thigh 20, calf 13-1/2, neck 15." Ironman magazine would report in Oct 1946 that Joe had a wrist girth of 7"- (which was large for a person with his other dimensions).

Six months later Joe placed 3rd at the Sr. National WL championships in the new 123.5 class, where because of his very short arm length his snatch of 160 was not allowed because the judges thought he had rested the bar on his head! So far as I know, Joe's last lifting competition was the 1953 New Jersey championships where he won the 123 class. Joe won the 1943 Sr. Nats, and the 1947 Sr. Nats, and the 1947 Worlds championships- all in the 123 class. He also won the 1948 and 1949 Sr. Nats, and the 1949 Worlds, and the 1951 Pan American, and the Sr. Nats that year.

He, of course, had very short fingers and this made a regulation diameter barbell a 'thick' bar to him. Pudgy Stockton has a specially made 1" diameter 6' long Olympic bar, and Joe delighted in handling it.

Mar 20, 1881 Amy Banta born. Later became the mother of Joe Hise

Mar 20, 1918 Warren Lincoln Travis teeth lift of 311 lbs. If Travis had false teeth, would this have been a false lift? (sorry�)

Mar 20, 1942 Ken Waller born. Famous for his tee-shirt stealing scene in the movie Pumping Iron, Waller won Mr. Kentucky in 1965, Mr. Midwest in 1968, the amateur Mr. World in 1970. His loss of standing as an amateur because of an ad for 'Slim Gym' which appeared in Life magazine in the Oct 9, 1970 issue did not stop his contest success. He switched to the IFBB and won the 1975 Mr. Universe.

Waller made an appearance on TV in 'People's Court' because one of his gym members was trying to get a refund. Health & Strength magazine informed us that as of late 1982, Ken was managing Gold's Gym for his 'friend, physique model, Dakota' who was also, apparently known as Ken Sprague. Ten years later during the brief glory day(s) of the WBF [World Bodybuilding Federation, an offshoot of the WWF] Ken sat as a judge at their June13, 1992 event.

Mar 20, 1995 John William Minton aka Big John Studd, died. Born Feb 19, 1948

Mar 21, 1873 Louis Haider born in Pforzheim, Germany. At only 5' tall his calf measured 16", which Willoughby estimated was close to the 'theoretical muscular limit for a man of Haider's height'.

Mar 21, 1879 Joseph Steinbach born. The rumored proposed match between Joseph/Josef and Arthur Saxon never materialized but they did lift together in Austria, were friends, and the Saxons occasionally dined at Steinbach's restaurant.

Mar 21, 1918 Ottley Coulter was an integral part of John Fair's excellent piece in Iron Game History May 1993: "George Jowett, Ottley Coulter, David P. Willoughby, and the Organization of American Weightlifting 1911-1924". Ottley's materials and papers later became part of the Todd-McLean Collection at the U of Texas in Austin. On this date he lifted a total of 7,306 pounds while participating in the Police Gazette Tournament in Brooklyn, New York. He weighed 145 lbs.

Mar 21, 1918 Santo Leono was born. He guest posed a couple of times at Sig Klein's Strength Shows (May 29, 1943 and Nov 14, 1947) and won Mr. New York State on Jan 15, 1948. He was coverman for Ironman 5:1, Your Physique May 1941, and in 1943 for the March and July issues. Also Strength & Health March 1943. He once placed 4th in a contest but had five men ahead of him (ties for second and third, plus the winner).

Mar 21, 1953 Paul Anderson's second weightlifting competition. He won the Dixie Championships in Atlanta via 300-250-325 (press, snatch, clean & jerk)

Mar 21, 1966 Steve & Ann Klisanin's daughter Robin Elaine, born.

Mar 21, 1974 Sergio Oliva on the TOMORROW TV show

Mar 21, 1974 Bob Jones died; born Feb 20, 1904. This is the famous handbalancer, not the Bob Jones with one arm written about in H&S 1947, and S&H 1949. This Jones wrote for S&H beginning in Oct 1935, and contined writing sporadicially until his final piece in the Oct 1956 issue. Mostly he wrote about balancing. A photo of his 'thumbs stand' on Indian clubs appears in The Super Athletes on page 239.

Mar 21, 1988 Iva Hise, Joe Hise's sister �in-law died; born Aug 7, 1906

Mar 21, 1988 Harold Ansorge died; born Aug 18, 1916

Mar 21, 1991 Oscar Heidenstam died; born Feb 27, 1911. An annual award dinner is held in England in his honor on the third Saturday of March.

INCH 101: Part 6

The March 15, 1941 issue of Health & Strength magazine mentions that Thomas Inch had taken his lifting demonstration/competition to a factory in Guildford on March 6th. Though more details are covered in the next week's issue of H&S we will treat the matter this week. "�and after his usual lecture and demonstration arranged a weight-lifting competition. Although one or two workers were exceptionally able performers, Inch, after 45 years active participation in the Iron Game showed them- in defeating them- that 'Strong men don't die young'. The consolation prize was won by Lgr. T. Wright."

Though no more details are given this was probably a version of his dumbbell competition with the 140 lb bell, because another reference H&S Aug 2, 1941 relates how he "�attends large factories�" and "�after 40 years weight lifting, still issues his challenge with valuable prizes to anyone who can lift his challenge dumb-bell". The text then reveals that as of that time no one had yet succeeded. Though this is called the challenge bell (172) it no doubt was the competition bell (140) or even the 130 as Inch was age 59 at this time, and had been unable to lift the 172 for quite a while.

Perhaps Inch could have used a dose of the humility that Edward Aston exhibited when he toured a factory and watched the workmen. Muscle Power Sep 1947 recounts the incident which has to do with what we now call 'specificity' of training. page 40, where Wilfred Diamond remembers: "Aston himself, after I had taken him through the Barrow Hematite Steel Works, and he had seen men pushing wheelbarrows full of iron ore up a steep incline to be dumped into the furnaces, decided that he had no right to the title - [World's Strongest Man] he could not do what he saw these laborers do." Certainly the laborers could not have matched Aston's lifts in the bent press or other specialized movements, but Aston had the humility to know that not everyone can be best at everything. So who wins depends on which movements are included in the contest.

Mar 17, 1934 On this date another of Inch's challenge competitions with the 140 lb bell was staged, though it had originally been scheduled for Mar 17th. Coming into this competition "So far, three men have lifted the competition bell off the ground, and their names are Mssrs: Fairbrother, Spacey, and Chowles." Apparently getting the 140 to the knee with one hand was still a starwalt accomplishment because Inch was promising "a Really splendid trophy for merely raising the dumb-bell to the knees single handed".

So after the regionals had been staged, the finals of the competition were held on March 17 and the competitors were the above named men plus W. Newman. The Chowles was a C. Chowles, which I suspect was a typo for G. Chowles. Newman had managed to single hand jerk the bell seven reps from the shoulder coming into this competition, but on this night, apparently, Fairbrother won with six reps. I lack some of the magazines which covered this event so cannot offer more information. Inch was stellar in his announcement that the bell was the 140, not his challenge bell. And, of course, two hands were allowed to bring the bell to the shoulder, before the single handed jerk attempt.

George Chowles was Ron Walker's up and coming competition as outlined in The Superman magazine June 1933. Chowles I think was born in 1912, and at the time of the competition weighed 210 lbs or so "�and his frame is modeled on such massive lines (he has an eight inch wrist) that it will probably take another stone [14 pounds] without overloading." Perhaps there was a C. Chowles, though, about whom I am ignorant.

Roark Reference #2: David Willoughby's "A History of American Weightlifting" series for Your Physique magazine, March 1949 thru March 1950 in 13 parts.

Mar 1949 p 10 #1 George Barker Win[d]ship, William Buckingham Curtis, Richard Pennell, Robert Jeffries Roberts, David L. Dowd.

Apr 1949 p 8 #2 The first open WL competition in America; Richard K. Fox's 1030 lb cast weight; James Walter Kennedy, Charles G. Jefferson, Eugen Sandow, Oscar Matthes.

May 1949 p 18 #3 Louis Cyr and other superheavyweights; Horace Barre, Warren Lincoln Travis, Sebastian Miller, Henry Holtgrewe.

Jun 1949 p 24 #4 George Rolandow, John Y. Smith, Paul von Boeckman

Jul 1949 p 14 #5 Warren Lincoln Travis

Aug 1949 p 8 #6 Alan Calvert; 1915 WL event in San Francisco with Noah Young, Owen Carr, Alexander Karasick, and Alfred Martin

Sep 1949 p 8 #7 Some early Milo Barbell stars: Robert Synder, Al Tauscher, Charles McMahon, Ottley Coulter, Melvin Tampke, Clevio Massimo, Joe Nordquest, Adolph Nordquest.

Oct 1949 p 8 #8 The Los Angeles Athletic Club

Nov 1949 p 8 #9 American WL during the 1920s.

Dec 1949 p 16 #10 American WL and leading American lifters 1930-1932.

Jan 1950 p 22 #11 Progress from 1933 to 1938.

Feb 1950 p 20 #12 Leading lifters 1938 to 1941.

Mar 1950 p 20 #13 Leading lifters 1946 to 1949.